Hello, Bethan from welshreading.com here!

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Hi, my name is Bethan, I am a mam of two primary school children, and I’ve created some language resources for parents/ carers with young children who are learning to read Welsh. If you are a Welsh learner (or don’t speak Welsh) and have decided to send your child to Welsh school, our website might be perfect for you.

It all came about as I watched friends and family struggle to engage with their children’s Welsh reading books and school materials during the Covid pandemic restrictions. Two things struck me during lockdown: that for many children, exposure to hearing the key words they needed for reading was halted during a very important developmental phase of language learning, and that those really special moments of sitting down and helping your child read their first words were so much harder for my non- Welsh speaking husband without a knowledge of Welsh pronunciation.

So, after quickly mocking up a couple of videos and audio books that proved popular with parents from my children’s schools, my husband and I built and developed the website Welsh Reading for Parents (welshreading.com). Its main aim is to enable parents/ carers of 3- 7 year-olds be just that one step ahead of their child’s reading by using videos, recordings and translations. Everything is designed to help you engage with the very books and materials your child may be reading at school.

As parents ourselves, we understand the importance of being actively involved in our children’s education especially at the very early stages. Our hope is that our website will give you the confidence and knowledge to assist your child with the early stages of Welsh reading, making the learning experience an enjoyable and rewarding one for you both.

If you’d like to find out more, or have any questions or comments, feel free to go to www.welshreading.com

We’d love to hear from you! :grinning:

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#2

Croeso i’r fforwm Bethan!

It’s great to have Bethan here on the forum - as mentioned above she has created invaluable resources for non-Welsh speaking/Welsh learner parents and guardians who have young children in Welsh language education.

Bethan is really hoping to hear from you if you fall into this category. So please share with her your experiences - the things you find challenging, resources which have helped you in the past, resources you wish were available and so on.

Bethan is also going to be contributing to our social media posts on Facebook very soon. :grinning:

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#3

Helo! Bethan from Welsh Reading here, again…

When my child started school, I wish someone had just quickly outlined a rough guide to the different reading schemes and methods used at school, so here’s a very quick summary of what I’ve picked up over the past seven years. (As you know, children really do develop different skills at different ages, and different teachers/ schools like to use their own variety of resources, so below is a very rough guide, but I always find it helpful as a starting point).

Nursery and Reception: Pori Drwy Stori (Brows through a story)

Aimed at Nursery (Meithrin) and Reception (Derbyn) aged children, it incorporates nursery rhymes, traditional songs as well as stories. The website contains downloadable sheets for use at home as well as videos and audios of stories being read aloud. At this stage, it’s all about exposing the child to the Welsh sounds and words through listening to songs and stories.

Year 1: Tric a Chlic (Tric and Click)

This is the ever-popular ‘phonics’ scheme used by Welsh and English medium schools as children take their first steps in learning to read. Typically used from Year 1 (Blwyddyn 1) upwards.

Year 2 and 3 (and upwards)

Following the schemes above, there are a variety of reading programmes that are used to help your child progress in their reading skills. These include (but not limited to) Coeden Ddarllen Rhydychen (Oxford Reading Tree), Prosiect X (Project X), Pobl Pentre Bach (People of the Little Village), Pitrwm Patrwm (‘Pitrwm’ Pattern), Cyfres Darllen Stori (The Story Reading Scheme) and many more.

On Welshreading.com, all our resources are based on the materials above or on the vocabulary used in schools. We don’t bother with any original materials as the sole purpose of the website is to assist you with your child’s learning at school.

Here’s an example of the kind of materials we produce to help parents engage with these school resources. This page supports the Oxford Reading Tree book ‘Mae Cwn Yn Hoffi’ that your child may at some point bring home…