DD is really interested in learning to read, and has been doing really well, do I tell her preschool?

[DedalusDigglesPocketWatch]

DD has just turned 4yrs, is due to start reception next september.

She has been asking for a long time for us to teach her to read, but having been told by many people that there is no point before they start school, we have just been quite relaxed about it, for example if she asked what a word said we would tell her but that would be about it.

She then got chicken pox in september and a friend lent us some books to help pass the time we were housebound. Some were the Oxford Reading Tree Floppy's Phonics books, DD got very into them, and started recognising sounds and words from the books. So we bought her the set.

Now, several times a day she is asking if she can read to us. I really enjoy sharing books with her, but I am more than happy to read to her.

She is generally quite independant and wants to know how to do stuff "All by my own" :o

She can now pretty reliably read the first 8-10 books from Floppy's Phonics and ORT's First Stories, and I don't mean she has memorised the books, more she recognises the same words that come up, can sound out about half of the others successfully and it is making her keen to read even more which is fantastic.

My concern is whether I should tell the Preschool, and if I do, will they just think I am being a bit PFB, or will they then try to sit her down to read when she wants to be playing with her friends?

Any advice is very welcome!

I wouldn't worry about it. DS1 is 3.4 and also very keen to learn to read - he starts school in September and will be one of the youngest in the year.

We have always read with him a lot at home, and now he is learning his letters and sounds and can read some words.

Preschool are doing letters with them anyway in the Rising 5's group, so I'm sure yours will be too and they will see that she knows them.

She is doing fantastic but try not to do 'too much' with her before school. They will start from the beginning for those children who are not so advanced. My DD was much further forward with reading than my DS before she started school and is finding going back through the phonic sounds 'a bit boring'!!

I wouldn't tell preschool unless they have a little group they're working with who can read and she would enjoy being part of.
All mine could read fluently at preschool and I never told them. they'd occasionally say to me "oh dc read mummy was here" (or occasionally, particularly dd2 read a note they'd left out she shouldn't have ) but it wouldn't have made any difference to what they did with them. Only thing was when they told me with great excitement that they'd read something, they usually seemed to think it was great and I'd have to fake pleasure as I already knew that they could.

Thanks all.

I want to tell the preschool as it would go in her learning journal and apparently the reception teacher will read this, so I want them to be aware iyswim?

But, I don't want them treating her any differently. The preschool is lovely, but DD is one of the older ones there now and there are a lot of real babies (i don't mean this in a derogatory way, just that a number of them still have dummies and comfort blankets all the time, not toilet trained etc) and there are quite a few who have English as a second language.

I really don't want to come across as a pushy parent, especially when it is my DD who is the pushy one :o

We have been home from school less than an hour and three times I have had to tell her to put the books away til after lunch.

I probably would be pushy if I wasn't so lazy :o

If she's keen, don't stop - then she'll just get frustrated! Get some more phonics books from the library and carry on, but let her dictate the pace. Pre-school will probably pick up, but as you say, it's hard to tell when it's memory or reading.

I was desperate to learn to read before and as soon as I started school but for some reason the school didn't start at once (this was the early 70s). I got so upset that my parents moved me to a different school after 2 terms and got on with teaching me at home too.

DS can read but I haven't told his school. He learned on a different system to the one that they teach at school. They don't believe he can read because he refuses to do it their way. I couldn't care less tbh as it will all come out in the wash.

Tell the school, they should support you in this and provide suitable books. Well done you for making her have fun with it, hopefully she will continue to enjoy books and it will certainly give her a great head start.

I really appreciate all of your replies.

There is a boy at the school who comes out with one of the ort books occasionally, so I wonder whether his mother had asked for them as he is reading? Or whether that is what the preschool does for children who are reading? In which case we have the books and read them anyway.

I really like the preschool as it is very much 'child' led, they spend mist of the session outside getting dirty and once a week they do French songs. DD is very happy there :)