To think kids learn to read at home

[homhumherewego]

A friend with kids was saying in her daughters class there are quite a few kids learning to read.

WTH?

Isnt teaching reading a parent's job?

No, unless you're a qualified teacher. I didn't do phonics in school, so I'll leave it to the experts.

I also believe learning through play is now important before school.

Hard to say OP, if there are no "wife workers" around. Bit bored today?

*more important.

* You are kidding aren't you?! I could read fluently at 4.5 and I wasn't a child prodigy.*

Could you read Shakespeare fluently at 4.5? Maybe you could read ‘my name is...’ at 4.5 but reading is a learning process that goes on for many years.

*their name

My mum taught my brother and I to read before we started school. According to her we were the only ones that could read.

In all honesty I don’t think it’s made that much of a difference 25 years later!

I think it’s a good thing to do if you can.

Books should be fun. Learning to read should be fun. It doesnt have to be one or the other - school versus parents, its both. Pressurising children into learning to read successfully before they even satart school is complete nonsense and a sure fire way of not making it fun. Fair enough if some children pick it up like that, all children are different.

hohum in the right environment children will learn to read at home eventually. However children in the UK are taught to read at school earlier than it would happen naturally on average even in ideal conditions.

There is no need what so ever to teach a 3 or 4 year old to read at home and some evidence that pushing the issue too early lowers their self esteem and makes it less likely they will read for pleasure later.

In identical, nurturing, book filled home environments a few children from a class of 30 will have started to read a bit and one or two will be reading fluently before starting reception, but most won't.

If school started at age 8 then yes, parents should teach their kids the basics at home if they haven't initiated learning themselves. At 3 a few will be interested and may even pick reading up almost by themselves or may ask to learn, but most kids aren't ready, and pushing them so you can award yourself parent of the year in your head is as likely to do harm as to be beneficial.

^It usually takes a few years to be able to read fluently.
You are kidding aren't you?! I could read fluently at 4.5 and I wasn't a child prodigy.^

No, WideOpenSpace is correct. Learning to read is a process that takes time; children don't go from can't read to can read in an instant. It is not like riding a bike! Are you able to provide some corroborative evidence that you could read fluently at 4.5?

I've so far been unable to find a statistic for how many learn to read at home, but the following seems to indicate that children generally don't read before school age.

Children usually don't start reading before the age of 5 or 6, and for good reason. Researchers believe that until that age, most children have not yet formed certain neural connections that allow them to decode printed letters and then mentally combine them to make words. A few children are able to read earlier, but most of them just pick it up; they don't learn through direct instruction.

I doubt there are many families where a parent who's worked an 8-hour day sits down with a 5-year-old who's already spend 6 hours in school, and starts teaching them to read.

Parents can/should instill in children a love of reading and an appreciation for words which starts the process of learning to read (and also teach them their letters IMO) but it's an ongoing process which will largely be handled by their teachers once they are 4+.

We used Dr. Seuess' ABC for learning letters - my love for that book knows no bounds....

My sister could read before school, my brother could do sums, I couldn’t do either. I could ride a two wheeler bike though! Depends on the child. My daughter is going to be the youngest when she starts school next year and I doubt she’ll be able to read when she starts school.

Neither of mine could read before starting school and I'm in Scotland so they were 5...

They were read to and knew their names, random letters apart from that that they'd remembered, recognised by sight some common words and things like shop names, rofl, number signs up to 20 (not the words) but could count further than that and understand that the numbers represented both the spoken word and the actual physical concept.

But no, I didn't teach them to read, I didn't see any point in pushing them beyond what they were naturally interested in at that point.

kaytee I could read books - children's books. Proper books. Not Shakespeare. The sort of thing that primary school children read. Ones with characters and basic plots.
I accept that some children aren't ready at that stage, but a lot would be if their parents took the time to read with them & help them. It's not about pressuring them, it's about making it fun. I'm guessing that posters who are mocking me are ones who can't be bothered to spend time doing basic things like that with their kids.

It is definitely a gradual learning process from reading your baby their first books, to playing with toy letters as a toddler and sounding out their name for them to going to school and having more formal teaching.

I can’t believe anyone would be so ignorant as to think that a child just suddenly starts reading fluently after being taught at home at age 3 😂

I don't understand phoincs so can't teach them to read

Nike - how old are your children then?

A complete waste of time for parents to teach children to read, that is what they will be doing at school, teaching them before wastes the time that could be spent on more useful things that aren't taught as much in school.

It actually doesn't take nearly as long to learn to read if you start later.

Children who start at 4 generally take a few years.

Children who start at 6 or 7 take about 6 months to get to the same standard.

By 9 there is no difference.

One of my older kids learnt at 3, one at 7, no difference by 9 and the 7 year old learnt fast and effortlessly.

Nike nope they are the ones who know more than you about child development.

nike your use of fluently is a bit off if you could read normal primary school age books at primary school age. I can’t believe that you don’t accept learning to read is a gradual process.... you clearly don’t know as much as you think you do.
I could also read children’s books before I started school and could write several words. My 15mo enjoys me spelling out his name and now points to the letters, has books read to him several times a day so I definitely do plenty of ‘basic’ things with my child thank you.
I don’t expect all children to be doing the same things at the same ages and it is very much a gradual learning process, like anything.

YABU. I see it as my job to read with my dc regularly, take them to the library, have lots of books around the home and to talk about the stories, not to teach them how to read. My ds is almost 4 so I know lots of parents of dc this age and several are teaching their dc how to read. Some are in fact teaching theeir dc the alphabet song, others aren't teaching them phonics, some are giving their 3 year olds bloody work books to trace the outlines of letters when they've been in nursery all day and are knackered because they feel some sort of pressure to teach their dc to read. My ds has recently started to ask 'what does this sign say? and of course I tell him but I'm not going too make him spell out the words etc.

Nike, get a grip over yourself. Read your post again.

My kids were experts at making mud pies and looking for tadpoles. We spent lots of quality time with them for for many families, actually playing together, the way that children play, outdoors, climbing, having fun is much more important than leaning to read at 4. I have two DSs and they are both very good readers, now at 10 and 11 years old they read independently, for pleasure, quite substantial books.

It depends on the child. My DC1 was reading fluently when he started school. DC2 wasn’t but picked it up quickly when she started. I didn’t teach either child to read, just read to them a lot and DC1 sort of picked it up by himself.

It doesn’t matter really. A few years down the line there’s no difference.

Nike seriously, a parent could give the child all the tools in the world to help them start reading. They won't read until they are developmentally ready.