AIBU to think that children should be reading when they start school?

[horribledinners]

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, I started having kids 20+ years ago, but I, and all my brothers and sisters were taught to read and write by my parents before we started primary school. I taught my two older kids to read and begin to learn to write letters in time for them starting primary education, and would be ashamed if ds3 couldn't recognise letters and be able to read by the time he starts school.

I completely understand that there have been many confusing 'experiments' in education since then, the abandonment of phonics was a tragedy in my opinion; but do parents really think its the schools job to teach kids to read and write and do they not even give an introduction to reading and writing anymore?

I would love to know if this is a generational thing. I know for certain its not a class thing as we were very poor growing up and my Mum would take us out to the bus-stop and make us read out the notices!

In some countries children do not start school until 6/7 as they are deemed too young for the demands of school.

"The abandonment of phonics?"

Are you in the 70s still? It's not all real-books-let-them-teach-themselves any more you know. The teacher is there to teach them and the parents should support the teacher's work by reading and encouraging at home. Children will be bored rigid if they can already read while the rest of the class is being taught letters and sounds. That's also when they are likely to start playing up.

Well, I don't think it's unreasonable to want to try to teach your kids to read. I think it is unreasonable to say it's the teacher's job, end of. It's hardly hothousing a child to tell them how to sound out words and encourage them to read to you instead of vice versa for 15 minutes every now and then. I haven't tried it myself yet, but Mum, aged 20, managed to teach me and my twin, aged 3, how to read because she was living in her MIL's house and bored stiff! Her mother was a primary teacher, so she asked her how to go about it, and off we went. No thought of hot-housing, just a way to pass the time when a full-time mum (especially as she was living in someone else's house and wasn't allowed to take us into the lounge in case we made a mess). When we started school we went straight to the bookshelf on day 1, picked out books and started reading. The teacher was lovely and very experienced, and she thought it was great and during 'reading time' she just let us read to ourselves.

At the risk of being terribly dull, all development happens at different ages. You can't have a blanket right way and time about learning. The end.

Gosh yes, because the age they start reading has such a huge bearing on their future life and earning potential. I always have to put the age I started reading on my CV and each private school applicant I have out in for DS1 and 2.

I learnt to read when I was one, and now I've quite forgotten again. Go figure.

Suffice to say YABU, very!

Reading to my own kids and showing them how to read when they were interested was so wonderful- one of the greatest activities we used to do together, and yes all my kids are great readers, partly because reading was always something fun when they were tiny. Two of them learned very young, the other learned at about 6, because he just wasn't interested when he was really little. I think I mainly taught all of them, including the 6 year old, who was a daydreamer in school. I can't help suspecting that if you let them learn how to read in school there is more danger of them being put off, but that's because I enjoyed reading with them so much that I was sure we would have fun. (The same was not true for teaching them lots of other worthwhile skills.)

I haven't read the whole thread, but Hully, did you get support? I was able to read when I was either three or four months depending on which parent you ask.
DD was a bit slow, she was at least 9 months old before she was able to recognise our street name.
It was in Arabic though to be fair.

I'm sorry rips their, I can't answer being as how I have forgot how to read.

Look, fair play to any children who could read before they started school. Some develop the skills and ability earlier than others, as with anything. But to suggest that anyone should be ashamed if their child can't read at age 4 is absurd.

I think the most important thing you can do for your children's reading is to tell them to bog off while you finish your chapter, personally.

Seriously, if they see adults indulging in reading as one of the most primal, absorbing pleasures that exist*, surely they'll get an idea it's quite fun?

Obviously this is improved if you are eating cake and drinking fizz at the same time.*

**And I can see that if Bill Nighy knocked on the door and absolutely begged me to exploit his body ruthlessly, I might put my book down.

The OP's comments in this thread have made me feel like shit.
Thanks for that.

"Bill Nighy" - Ugh! Now you DefinitelyABU!

Rhino - read the rest of the thread! Most people are saying it depends on the child/help them when they're ready or leave it to the teachers. :)

Or Peter Capaldi. Or David Tennant orboth-
Otherwise, sorry boys, form an orderly queue, I've got a chapter to finish.

I could read before I started school as I wanted to. I would ask my DPs what different words were and learnt that way. I had no problem when I started school as I got in a right huff with my teacher who dared to read to me. She got me to read some things to see what level I was at and then got appropriate books for me to read while sorting the others out. I used to read the newspaper each day before school and even though I didn't understand a lot of the words, would read it out loud to prove that I was reading and not just looking.

I have purposely not taught DS to read or write as he will be 5 1/2 when he goes to school and I don't want him to be bored.

My friends who are primary teachers also say it is better they don't learn as they may pick up bad writing habits

He does know numbers and letters and can write his own name, he also gets read to every night so loves books.

YABU

My daughter and son could hold a pencil in a good pencil hold and had good control and could use a pair of scissors which was the requirement of P1.

What you'll find is most children can read before they go to school, as they recognise tesco/asda/toys r us, sweetie/biscuit wrappers. It's called enviromental reading but it's actually a good stage in their reading.

Many children who can read don't actually comprehend what they are reading which is a big problem. It takes time for a children to understand exactly what they are reading.

Personally as a Nursery Nurse, children learn best up to age 7 through play. Some of the Scandinavian countries don't start school until 7 and they don't learn to read until then, they have very few illiterate people unlike the UK with their early start dates at school and forgetting about the importance of play.

I agree with the OP to a degree, too many parents feel that it is the schools duty to teach their children to read. However, i do believe that if more parents made the effort to teach their own children to read before starting school, it would make a hell of a lot of difference to the child(this obviously does not include those with sn).I am not suggesting that all children will be able to read, but surely helping your child will be beneficial.
My ds (aged yr2 August born) reads well , because i spent the time and effort supporting him , despite being told by his teacher that it would be a struggle teaching him to read and that i should leave it to the school. Just put it this way, if i had left it to the school, my ds would be a non reader.

No one is suggesting a parent shouldn't support a child's reading....just that is no reason to do so before school starts.

YABU. It does not put a child ahead by making them learn to read before school. It does not make your child any brighter and they will level out with the others anyway.

If a child showes an interest then fine, but flashcards and all that bollox is just hot housing.

Also it is the teachers job to teach your child to read. The clue is in the job title. It is a parents job to support that once the teacher is teaching it.