If your child started school able to read, what have your experiences been?

[mrsgboring]

Disclaimer: Honestly honestly not meant to be a competitive or pushy thread in any way, just since we are in this situation, what will it be like for us in September?

DS1 has attended two different nursery settings last year, and both of them identified him as ready to learn to read. He was sent home with a variety of different reading books and sight words to have a go at with us. As he was interested, and the stuff was coming home (albeit in a bit of an ad hoc manner) I took control of it, and he's learnt to read fairly well. He has a good phonic understanding (but still needs work to be a complete understanding).

So I'm fully prepared that I must never ever mention reading to other parents or let his reading book be seen by others, so as not to seem showy offy or pushy. I'm hoping the school will be relatively accepting of the fact he can read, since it was the school's own nursery class that started him down that path initially.

I'm wondering though what I can expect as he starts reception. Will I be able to take a step back, or will I have to continue working with him at his level? What have other people's experiences been? How have your DCs found it being a reader already in reception? Anything I should be aware of but haven't thought of?

[mrz]

As my children started school some time ago and I experienced very different attitudes for different teachers I will base my response on experience as a reception teacher instead.

Children starting in reception able to read are a bonus and often encourage other children to become readers.

Expect him to be taught phonics systematically learning sounds and how to blend and segment words rather than learn lots by sight. There will be repetition to develop understanding and reinforce previous knowledge so don't worry.

I am a bit concerned at the nursery settings sending home books and sight words really not good and even more concerned that it is the nursery attached to his school... hopefully the reception teacher won't be so ad hoc in her/his approach.

[lovecheese]

Reminds me of a mum of a child who made QUITE sure that everybody saw her DCs reading books (asked for by mum, not initiated by school) as they were waved around for all to see at the pick-up; You are right, do not mention it to any other mums and keep them hidden!!

[MathsMadMummy]

ugh, lovecheese, dreading that when my DCs go to school. very MC area so I'm sure the competitiveness will be rife :(

will be interested to see the responses to this thread, as I've heard/read about parents being fobbed off when they say their child is reading, or being told off if they've used a different scheme etc my friend is a reception NQT and was told it's preferable for them not to have started reading because of the confusion.

I was reading fluently when I started reception (19 years ago) and on my first day I read a book to the class. my mum never had any negative feedback about it, quite the opposite in fact. when the rest of the class did reading I'd sit at the back with a book - my teacher brought in her own DD's books for me as there was nothing in the school that was suitable. I actually have no idea if they were doing phonics or look and say, I was totally oblivious to all of it! so a very positive experience for me, but I have certainly heard of lots of negative ones more recently.

[muddleduck]

My experiences have been very different to what MN would suggest would happen...

I am friends with several parents from DS1's class but have never felt the needs to hide the fact that he can read. Their kids can do plenty of other things that DS1 cannot and none of this has ever been an issue.

His teacher has been lovely, helpful and supportive. We had a couple of incidents where ds1 was getting confused by the fact that he was being asked to do really easy stuff, but his teacher dealt with it all really well.

[tokengirl]

As a parent in a similar situation, yes you do hide the reading books. And rehearse your response for when he outs himself, or a parent helper does it for him (I heard from a neighbour from toddler group gossip that my son could read....).

School were great though, evaluated reading thoroughly, pointed out specific bad habits, and helped iron them out. They let him select his own books, and didn't impose too many 'scheme' books. He'd typically come home with a mixture of fiction, non-fiction and something with nice pictures and 3 words a page.

His phonics has improved a fair bit this year - the problem for him is he doesn't hit many words he doesn't know so doesn't practice much.

Reception for my son was more about social development though - he's a summer baby who needed this year to learn about chilling out with other children (teacher's words).

So yes, Reception's been positive, bit unsure how next year will go.

[civil]

muddleduck, you make a good point

my dds are academic children and read easily but there are plenty of things that they can't do and school has helped them with these.

So, for example, my oldest can't ride a bike and was struggling with scootering. But, after a biking week when everyone was encouraged to come in on wheels, she took up scootering with much more enthusiasm. (Still can't ride a bike!)

She is also a quiet soul, but school has given her confidence in making friends.


If they had started school able to read it wouldn't have been a problem. They would have just raced through the reading books and still enjoyed all the jolly phonics songs. After all, if you are only 4, you will still enjoy singing a silly song even if you can read.

[elphiethropp]

I have had a positive experience with ds. He had very little confidence in most other areas but could read when he started reception. He began to blend sounds just after his 3rd birthday (from listening in on his older sister's Jolly Phonics practice).

Nursery sent him and 2 other children to do some reading with the reception class staff so the school were aware of what he could do. It wasn't unusual as children in nursery were routinly sent in small groups into reception for storytme and activities the term before starting to help prepare them.

They told me in reception he is the best boy reader for several years but as others have said there are plenty of other things he needed help with - writing for example - and answering questions.

[NickOfTime]

i mentioned it in passing to the the yr r teachers of both ds1 and dd2, who sort of went 'yeah, ok.'

but it was fine. tbh they all get assessed as to where they are within a few weeks of starting anyway, so once they had done their reading assessments they just placed them wherever they felt they should be on the reading programme (it was ort in that particular setting). so when it was time to change reading books they just toddled off to wherever that particular bookshelf was kept in school. within 3 months they had assessed dd2 as a free reader anyway, so she used the yr 2 free reading shelf. they'll just want to make sure that comprehension matches up with actual reading.

it was all fine. they still did the group reading/ comprehension stuff alongside their peers whatever reading level. i didn't mention reading to any playground mums, but one day i got accosted by another mum who demanded to know what level dd2 was reading at, as her clearly gifted son had told her that she was reading at a higher level than he was. no idea what she did about it - probably went in and demanded he got moved up...

they all pick it up at different points anyway - dd1 didn't start school reading (which seems bizarre, as she knew all her letters and sounds by 18 mos ) but again was a free reader by the middle of yr 1.

all i will say is - it makes no difference really, but keep an eye out in a year or two for slightly less desirable 'free reading' pickings... at 7 dd1 was coming home with some of the 'older' jacqueline wilson books from the free readers shelf, so i asked for it to be monitored for a year or so. by 8 i had given up and she read everything... well, not quite true - she self-monitored quite well, and chose not to read the last harry potter until she was 9, as she felt it was a bit grown up!

re the scheme stuff - it's all a bit daft really. dd1 started school in scotland but we moved down south before yr 1 - i spoke to the new school as i knew they used a different reading scheme and they told me i should buy a couple of the 'new' books so that she was used to them before school started as she would be 'behind' the others. complete waste of time.

anyway, it will all be fine. don't worry

[mrsgboring]

Thank you all; very helpful to know. Mrz I was very wary about the sight words which is why I took matters into my own hands and got him reading (using Jelly and Bean provided by his other nursery and then later Ladybird and Usbornes as I don't have the cash to buy reading books, and those were what I could get from library and charity shops).

I know he will do Jolly Phonics in Reception, (he did the single letter sounds from JP with his private nursery last year) and am hoping the approach to blending and segmenting will be systematic, but his nursery teacher is going up with them to Reception, so not sure how much of that will happen.

DS1 loved the sight words, incidentally, and learnt them instantly whenever he got a batch. It's left him with a bit of a bad guessing habit, which I'm trying to jump on without squashing his enjoyment of reading.

Glad I haven't heard any real horror stories. It's great to have the reassurance.

[runoutofnameideas]

Pretty similar to most of the replies on here.
Ds was reading simple sentences at 3. When he started reception, he did all the JP stuff really happily as he enjoyed learning the songs even if he knew the actual phonic sounds and lots of 'tricky words'.

He didn't get any 'tailored' learning in class - i.e. the guided reading wasn't at his level, but he did get different reading books to bring home. Sometimes these were a bit too easy but I didn't worry too much as long as it wasn't ridiculously so as we looked at comprehension and punctuation and his expression (occasionally the TA got really mixed up and sent him home with totally the wrong level which I did find annoying).

A fair few times I've had a wobble about it all through the year and wondered whether he'd have been better somewhere they could differentiate for him better e.g. in a private school with smaller classes, or maybe a two or three form entry state school where the top reading group might be his level but in fact by the end of the year, I doubt he could have made any more progress than he did even in the most tailored of environments.

Keep an eye on things but you might well find that he just progresses anyway regardless of what they do in class.

All I can say is ds has had an incredibly happy year and still progressed. He has come on leaps and bounds with the things he wasn't so good at too.

[asdx2]

Mine were pre phonics teaching but tbh I never thought to mention it. I hadn't really taught them they had taught themselves anyway. The nursery teacher approached me and asked did I know ds could read? Apparently he read the instructions to a game they were playing.He enjoyed school and was happy and never seemed bored so I was happy too. Funnily enough he did literacy with his class but moved up classes for numeracy which was where his strengths were.