Phonics

Systematic phonics, taught in the order the child's school teaches it so that home and school pull the same way. Most Lagos schools run Jolly Phonics; if yours does, tell me at the first lesson and I will follow the same sequence and the same actions.

Sessions are short and fast: sound review, blending, a decodable text, a little writing. Twenty-five minutes of real work is worth more than an hour of drifting, and most four to six year olds cannot do more than that anyway.

One thing worth saying plainly. A child who is copying words neatly into a book is not necessarily reading them. Ask your child to read something they have never seen before. That is the test that matters.