to wonder why school discourages pre-school reading

[katiestar]

I started teaching my 3 eldest DCs to read as soon as they were at a stage to be able to do it.
Recently I went to a literacy evenoing at the school where a literacy expert spoke and she told us not to teach children to read but to leave it to the experts and just to 'enjoy the fruits of the school's labours' by enjoying listening to our DCs read to us.(I found this immensely annoying because I believe it is all the tedious practising of Biff and Chip crap which is actually what taeches them -not what they do at school )
The infants teacher achoed this and said don't try and teach them at home before they start school.
Well actually I believe that the sooner a child can read the better- reading expands the mind , gives huge amounts of pleasure and is a life skill and am hearing my DC4 aged 4 to raed every day (which she is happy to do).
Why are the school saying this ?Also libraries don't provide any books for real beginner readers either .Why is this ?

I could read fluently when i started school, never did me any harm!

I think it is more important to "teach" a love of books rather that how to read.

I could also read before school, perfect.

The only harm it did was that I refused to read any of the books in the school reading scheme as they were too boring (well, they were!).

I must have been a precocious horror. Still going to try and encourage mine to read early though .

I would say that as long as you have "coping strategies" then surely all is well..
Whether you read from sight, phonetically, using letterland or by getting a general feel of the text.

The same with maths, when I am mentally calculating my shopping bill, it matters not how I do it, so long as I know how to do it iyswim.
Btw there are so many folk who do not seem to have ANY coping strategies for mental maths it really is frightening.
Also don't get caught up in the reading race, I really don't care if another child is on a higher reading level than my child. At the end of the day I want my child to enjoy reading and understand what they have read otherwise it is a waste of time imho.