To teach my child to read before school?

[MagnaDoodle]

Mixed feedback on this one from various friends and family so thought I’d ask!
My DD1 is 3.5 and is winter born so we have the option of school next year or the following year (we are in Scotland). So far we are thinking we will send her next year at 4.5 (and her nursery is absolutely supporting this decision) but it’s early days and my mind is still open.

She loves her books. We read three books a night. Just Julia Donaldson and similar. She seems to have a good understanding of them and what’s going on etc. There are certain, favourite books that she knows pretty much by heart.

I think she wants to read. She is interested in letters and will ask me to read signs etc to her when we are out and about. She’s learning the alphabet at nursery and we have a couple of little games that we play at home to help her to get to know the letters. She’s very enthusiastic about this.

She’s also really keen to write her name which we have practised a few times but with limited success. She gets fed up with trying quite quickly and I don’t push her. She does however recognise her name and can spell it out with fridge magnets correctly.

Nursery have said that in the year before school they focus more on the social aspect of getting her ready for it. Which is absolutely the way it should be. They do the alphabet and some number work but not much. It’s not their priority.

My mum, teacher friends etc all tell me not to teach her to read before school. She will be bored for a year etc etc. This makes sense to me. But at the same time I feel like I should encourage her interest.

Any words of advice? Please don’t mistake me for a weird, pushy helicopter parent. I’m not. I love that she loves books but it doesn’t put me up not down whether she learns to read before school. It’s just that she’s keen.

3/4 of my children could read before school. I didn’t teach them, they picked it up by themselves. I am a voracious reader though and reading to them was my default activity when they were small. I could easily read them 20 plus books a day.

@JustlikeDevon exactly! I don't teach early years any more but I still know a fair bit about teaching reading. Phonics is extremely overrated! It is something that's fairly easy to teach at home though, so I think if you want to OP, you could go for it. Just be aware that there is much more to literacy than 'c-a-t' and that your child will still learn new things at school. In my opinion, developing social skills and vocabulary is just as important. I find the suggestion that children who can already read will find reception boring a little insulting. Us teachers know what we're doing! If I can see a child can already sound out words, then I give them something else to do. We have dealt with these things before!
OP, I think it's great that you are interested, researching your options, and no a helicopter. I think your child will do very well. Good luck x

Go for it.
My son started his school Nursery when he was 3 and 5 months. He was already reading. Within a month, the teacher was sending him home with reading books. He’s now reading very comprehensively in two languages. He’s just started reception.
My son did it by himself we taught him the letters and he was fascinated. He started memorising words(before he was 3) and would just point them out. It’s just developed now and his reading is exceptional.

I don’t think all words are decodable;

Hyperbole. Is it hyper-bowl or high per bow lee
Calzone. Cal-zone or Cal-zo-ne
Foal - looks fuck all like Fowel
February - no one says Feb RU ary
I remember reading a book as a child and thinking the character was called A-my with a short A because of regional differences in other words... it’s not a fail safe method because English is composed of both old German and old French words.

There are loads more examples.

I would say if she is interested teach her, to be honest I would focus more on the handwriting side of things as a nursery teacher and mother of three this is what I find children find the hardest and takes
More practise and time if that makes sense and then benefits them the most as they can write down their thoughts. My middle son struggles with handwriting and gets very frustrated as he can't write down what his ideas are. His reading is above his junior school brothers level - when he started school he could write his name and knew most of his alphabet so for him he's picked up the reading and most children I know have picked it up quite quickly.

Every year we have children starting school who can read to varying degrees, including some who are already in small age appropriate chapter books. They don't get bored at school because learning to read is only one element of the school curriculum. We still have ours join in with the whole class phonics as it's only a small part of the day, and good ingrained phonics is good practise regardless, and will help embed phonetic knowledge for both reading and spelling for later.

It's worth doing some research into reading methods if you're not used to it, and begin with good phonics knowledge. There are many schemes out there for teaching phonics. If you know the way your child's prospective school does it, it can help.

Avoid teaching them to sight read. Go for a decent phonics method.

Us teachers know what we're doing!
Some do, some don't, some try to make all the kids learn the same thing at the same pace, some are under severe resource constraints or poor school systems. Refer you to my fluent preschool reader being made to read level 4 biff and chip in year 1.
Even the best teachers can't create a peer group where there isn't one. DD's ideal in reception would have been reading Winnie the Pooh or something with a group of like minded 4 yr olds. There weren't any like minded 4 yr olds. However good the teacher was at differentiating DD was in an environment set up beautifully to immerse kids in basic phonics and counting at every turn. Made me sad for her as she'd have loved that environment so much 2 years earlier. She'd have loved playing menus in the play cafe mind you, but as no-one else could write one or read the one she wrote that was a non starter. Child led learning works really badly for a sociable child with no academic peers. So i don't agree it's a non issue. But it's still an issue for a more than ready child who takes off as soon as they are allowed access to reading, so I don't see the benefit in waiting.

My DS will just turn 5 when he starts school so will be the oldest in his class and we are doing the alphabet with him now so he recognises letters on paper and in sound - best foundation you can give him for starting to read! 😊

My ds learned to read from watching TV with subtitles since he was a baby.(I am non native English speaker)
Hearing a word and seeing the word on the screen at the same time made it a easy connection for him. I don't know if it works for everyone, but it certainly did for my ds. I didn't teach my ds to read actively. He figured it out himself. By 2 years old, he was reading simple words on the wall, street, books, etc.By 4 years old, he was able to read any words in front of him. Though it didn't equate with good comprehension.

If she loves reading why not let her start to work it out for herself?

I was reading at 4, and at 4 and a half could write sentences. I started school at that point, because I was bored at home. But I suspect schools aren't so used to advanced children as in my day.

Why would you be concerned at the "right" way to teach your child to read? You know your child best - if she can independently sound out words and connect them with meanings, then she's on the road to reading. Good for you and her!

Mine both learned to read long before they went to school. They could read music too. Their teacher was brilliant and sussed out their reading level on day one. By the time she turned 6, older DD had completed the infant reading scheme and had a free choice in the school library. She's still an avid reader as an undergraduate.

We used to watch Countdown together and realised at 18m she knew lots of the letters. We would look for things that began with that sound and went from there. We used a combination of resources and a colleague who also taught reading recovery pointed me in the direction of Jolly Phonics which they then did at nursery.

Hyperbole. Is it hyper-bowl or high per bow lee
Calzone. Cal-zone or Cal-zo-ne
Foal - looks fuck all like Fowel
February - no one says Feb RU ary
I remember reading a book as a child and thinking the character was called A-my with a short A because of regional differences in other words... it’s not a fail safe method because English is composed of both old German and old French words.

The point you seem to be making there is that any decoding method needs explicit teaching of pronunciation alongside - but that's necessary whatever way you teach decoding. English is indeed complex, for the reasons you've pointed out.

My daughter taught herself at 2-3 but we chose to home ed. At 11 she still inhales books at a remarkable speed. I say don’t force sit down learning work but if you carry on as you are she will pick it up anyway :). By 4 my daughter was reading Roald Dahl etc with no real ‘teaching’ input from anyone.

The point I am making is that there is no universal code. Even adults look at some words and think oh wow, how is that pronounced because they don’t know the rule or the rule doesn’t apply and there is no teacher around when you are 35 to say - magic E on this one!

So phonics cannot be the wonder drug people say it is.

Jolly phonics are a good start. You can watch the videos on you tube and this will help her learn the alphabet phonetically. That is the biggest help you can give her before school.

Hiya,

I'm an EYFS teacher (the first school year in England).
I wouldn't necessarily teach her to fully read yet, as she will be bored. If she's the only one in the class who can read when she starts the teacher can't do a lot for her so she will get bored.

However you could start to teach her phonics.
Look up the schools website and find out what Phonics program they use.
Jolly Phonics is the most common one (and the one I teach) you can google it and find loads of info on it. I would teach her maybe the first set - SATPIN phonics.

You could go further than this but I doubt any other children will have so she will start 'too far ahead' than anybody else...

I would do the first SATPIN set, and encourage her in reading. Get her to tell you a story from a book, looking at the pictures and making up a story to them this will help in comprehension etc.
What happens a lot is parents want them to read but forget all about the comprehension side of things which is a lot slower to develop than the reading :)

Hope this helps :)

PM me if you want any more info :)

I taught dd the letters and sounds before school, but not how to put them together. They're taught phonics now and I didn't want to confuse her. You could try watching some jolly phonics songs with her, as this is what they did at DD's nursery.

Not all schools do the same schemes. We do Floppy Phonics.

Here is a useful guide to the phonetic code: Phonics code

and you can listen to the sounds here: here the sounds or Listen here

Zebedee
Are you serious that a child who can already read will be bored in Reception? Does your school not expect differentiation within your planning of literacy work?

Zebedee - I'm also fascinated as to how you teach a child to not 'fully read'? Do you only allow them to see words of two or three letters or what?
In my experience once a child starts reading there's no stopping them.

Thank goodness my child isn't taught by Zebedee. If a teacher can't cope with educating a child that can already read then that doesn't say much for their training and common sense.

Teach her to read by all means if she's interested but please please don't put uh on each letter! We spend ages trying to reteach s-uh, d-uh etc.

@catkind I'm sorry your dd had such a bad experience. I didn't mean to minimise it and I would be furious as a parent if my child wasn't challenged. Differentiation is part of the teacher's job and I certainly spend a good chunk of my planning time working on it. I've taught in schools in very deprived areas and I don't think it's a resource issue. It might be a teacher training issue though. You are right that we can't create peer groups when there isn't one, but I have arranged exchanges before when pupils can read with a buddy on their level from a different class, so there are some things the teacher can do.
I agree with what others have said to zebedee - sorry to be harsh but it's your job to teach different learners and there is lots you can do. This only becomes more important as they go up the school - I have pupils in my year 5 class who are reading at year one level, and some reading at year 7 level!

My best advise is to keep it fun, encourage her to look at books. Point to the words as you are reading. Dont teach exactly but keep the love of reading. They will start to match letters with words they know like their name. It will come naturally. Phonics begin shortly after they start reception. If they have a good foundation they will pick it up quickly.