So confused about teaching reluctant 4 year old to read!

[Sidhdbej]

My DD is 4 (nearly 5) and in reception. I am really struggling with engaging her in books or getting her to even try to read.

She goes to a Welsh medium school so all her school reading books she brings home are Welsh and I don't speak welsh so its hard for me to know if she is reading them right or not or to help her when she's stuck (I am desperately trying to learn but Welsh is hard and I was never very good at languages)

If I try and read English books with she just point blank refuses to try. I try to do things like I will read it and pick one word in a sentence that I know she knows the letters for and help her sound it out but she will just be like "h o t ermmm banana" and then laugh or she will just get upset and not even try. When she gets upset I stop trying to engage her in trying as I don't want her to see it as a chore.

She doesn't even start to do English until ks2 in her school and I just feel like she needs some basics in English before then!

There isn't an English medium school that I could get her to everyday and besides I think it's good for her to go to the local school and have local friends etc. But I just really worry about her reading.

I don't even feel like she reads the Welsh books to be honest I think she memorises them cause she won't even look at the letters when she's reading.

Am I just being impatient? Will it just click one day or am I doing it wrong?

I think learning to read in 1 language for a 4yr old is quite a big ask (a lot of countries don't start formal education until 6), let alone 2. I'd leave her to grasp Welsh if that's what they teach at school. Did she speak Welsh before she went?

What support is the school providing for parents that don’t speak Welsh? Perhaps start there

I am thinking of the various phonics workshops our primary run (English) but there are lots of parents who never learn using phonics or learnt English as a second language - all of these are helpful to set expectations

For English you could probably just start with watching Alphablocks,
practising phonic letter sounds and my DD in reception also enjoys doing the Duolingo app for kids that helps with reading as something else

Not really no , she spoke a little bit from preschool but not enough to converse our anything just the odd word. She has come on amazingly since September though with it.

You are probably right that 2 languages is too much I just worry about her being behind.

I remember my DS being very resistant at that age but he has turned into a great reader.

We bought all the biff chip and kipper books as a set.

One thing that seemed to help is I spell out words when I am saying them as I go about daily life e.g. "m-o-n-d-a-y" monday etc etc. Or "s-n-a-c-k" for when she wants a snack. Or would you like a "s-n-a-c-k". Seemed to really help!

The school doesn't provide any support, they are a nice school and I am happy with them and everything to parents is sent out bilingual but the assumption is just that there will be someone at home who can help the child with their school work.

Read to her. Don’t worry about getting her to read back to you at this point. Just make sure to read to her every day. I had two very reluctant readers who I could not persuade to try at that age. I just kept reading stories to them, which is what the teacher advised, and they got there in the end.

Obviously you can’t read in Welsh to them, but just keep reading English. Maybe when you are out shopping or something you can make use of bilingual signs to get a bit of reading in?

I'd definitely ease off on the reading in English then if she's starting Welsh from scratch! She's probably also tired after a day at school in a new language.

Easy tip- Put on the subtitles when she's watching tv.

Do you read at bedtime or just for schoolwork?

I must admit at 4 I would just read to her and help her to enjoy stories. Try not to worry about what the others are doing , she has loads of time.

I would stop with the English reading to be honest, you reading Welsh to her isn't going to work. I think you need to approach the school and explain the situation and ask for some support either from a volunteer a TA or another person in school with her reading. She is still v young and especially if its phonics based then in another language you don't get much of a chance. It will all come just not all at once. As others have said, if you want to read her bedtime in English thats fine, no need for her to be reading them, paying attention and listening and enjoying is more important. As others say use everday reading and letter recognition - play I spy, get her to teach you welsh words and pronunciation the same way - so maybe have one day welsh and one day english.

Push yourself a it with the welsh - find a speaking group to practice with, use duo lingo, listen to the welsh channels on radio and tv.

I did Welsh from 7 to 15 when we moved to North Wales, and my brothers and sisters were even younger. None in Welsh Medium Schools, but its a good emersive way to learn a language. Once you know a bit more and have more confidence maybe you could volunteer in school a bit too (not sure what your work situation is). Always good to speak Welsh in Wales from the work point of view

There’s an ipad game called teach your monster to read which is absolutely brilliant at teaching reading in English.

Another helpful thing is read stories to her as much as possible and run your finger under the words as you read them.

Making kids read aloud just makes kids hate reading, its so dumb that schools fo this.

Hi OP, as a PP said above, duolingo is good for getting to grips with Welsh vocab and grammar. There is a Facebook page for Welsh duolingo learners.

Also, I'd recommend SaySomethingInWelsh, which complements Duo quite well, I think, but focuses on spoken rather than written Welsh. It's £10 a month for the subscription and they also have a timetable of Zoom classes every week for learners at different stages of the course. As you're in Wales, there may well be a SSIW meetup near to you for extra practice. I'm in England and it's much trickier trying to find opportunities to speak Welsh!!

Re your DDs reading, as others have said, 4 is still very young and I'm sure if you keep reading stories to her in either language, the reading will come. But do speak to the school and ask them for more support - they should really be offering that to non Welsh speaking parents.

Do the school know no-one at home speaks Welsh? I would mention it if they don't because they may be able to give her more support in school (e.g. being listened to more often). I used to volunteer to listen to children reading in my children's primary school and I was usually given children who didn't get heard very often at home.

How simple are the books? If very short still, can you download Google translate onto a phone or tablet, and photograph the book? Get Google to a)translate into English, so you can talk about the story with her in a language you both understand and b) get Google to read the Welsh back to you?

Thank you everyone for replying.

I think you are all right and I will try and lay off getting her to read and just focus and getting her to enjoy books and listening again. I actually start Welsh classes for 2 hours a week this week funded by my job so hopefully it will start to get easier for both of us.

She has a tablet as well so I will look at some of the recommended reading apps and see what she thinks of them

I’d reach out to the other non-Welsh speaking parents. There will be lots! Is there a school Facebook page you could post on? Just ask for ideas and you’ll probably get others saying the same.

Magnetic letters on the fridge can help. Put some rude words up to give her an incentive.

My friends with children in Gaelic medium didn’t do any English reading with them at all till they were about 7 then it was super quick for them to pick it up.
Can you read very basic Welsh even if you can’t speak it? If so let her read to you but if not then I would just leave it to school for now and speak to the teachers about what they find works best with non Welsh speaking parents. They’ll have lots of expertise. If your home language is English she’ll be fine in English when the time comes.

So the reason her school don’t teach English and Welsh reading at the same time is because the correspondences between the sounds of each language and the letters used to write each language aren’t the same ( or not exactly the same). Basically trying to teach phonics in two languages at the same time is confusing for the kids.
Keep reading books to her at home in English, but I’d leave trying to teach her to read until she either starts to show an interest or she starts learning to read English at school.

@allpenguinsarepingus now you have you said that it seems obvious. Thank you I hadn't thought about it like that.
I think some of it is my own guilt that I can't do as much with her as I feel I should, I just need to chill out and give her some time.