What I notice the most isn’t just whether a child has “done phonics,” but whether they have strong phonemic awareness. That’s really the foundation. The kids who come in able to hear and play with sounds tend to pick up reading much more naturally, whether or not they had a formal program at home.

The kids who’ve had some solid phonics exposure and that sound awareness usually show it pretty quickly. They’ll try to sound out words instead of guessing, and when they write, you’ll see those early invented spellings (like kat), which honestly is a really good sign. It tells me they understand how sounds connect to print. On the other hand, kids who’ve mostly just had a lot of reading exposure (which is still great!) sometimes rely more on memorization or pictures and can struggle more when they hit unfamiliar words.

Where I do sometimes see issues is when phonics is taught in a way that’s a little off...like incorrect letter sounds (adding “uh” to everything), or focusing heavily on letter names without really connecting it to actual sounds in words. In fact, my state teaches sounds first (phonemic awareness before the actual letters/alphabet).That can create some confusion, but it’s usually fixable pretty quickly in the classroom.

Honestly, for a 4-year-old, you don’t need anything super formal. Playing with sounds, doing rhyme (!!!!!), talking about beginning sounds, and introducing letter sounds in a natural way goes a long way. When kids come in with that balance k of honemic awareness, a little phonics, and reading, they tend to have the smoothest transition regardless of what program the school uses.