Dd is just 4 (last week) and can read dick all, she starts reception in Sept...

[handlemecarefully]

Will she really be reading a bit by the end of Reception? I find it hard to imagine...

She seems like a bright enough girl (enquiring mind, good memory, intelligent questions about the world around her)

DS2 just finished Reception, can read a bit. They're not reallye xpected to be fluent, it's more the building blocks and Yr1 builds on that. A lot of reception is sitting down, cooperation etc.

DS3 starts nursery class on Sep 13th; he can barely talk, is barely toilet trained and well, you wouldn't bother trying to have a conversation with him like you could with the others. He's an end of July baby and just not ready. If there's an issue I expect them to talk to me, I've been through the SN thing with DS1 and giving it a laid back approach this time.

DS1 starting school nex week. Cant read for toffee. Isnt intersted. Recognises his name, and can sort of sound out words if he is in teh right fram e of mind. I am shocked that kids of just 4 yrs old can read.............

when people say 4 yos can read, do they mean sit and read a book out loud or what?

my DS1 ( just 4) can sit and recite stories that he has made up - but cant read!

dd memorises her fave stories and recites them along with me - but she can't read anything except her name and (sometimes)names of certain family, friends etc.

DS is 4.5, he knows what sounds several letters make but can't read. He recognises his own name and I taught him 'cat' the other day. I am not worried about him at all, I expect him to pick up the high frequency words while in Reception.

my mother startd teaching me to read at 2,5, and I could read by 3. I cant remember not being able to read.
I dont think it did anything really except make me the odd one out at school, similar to electra really.

I just left my children (didnt have much choice as I was out at work all day). They all learned to read at school, aged 6-7.
Expect them to be reading slowly by the end of the first year, fluently by the middle of the second year.

ds is 5. he will be starting year one in september. he can read dick all

dd will be 6 next week, and going into yr1. I wouldn't say she could read, but she can pick her way through a very basic book with a lot of encouragement. She had an incredibly glowing report. I usually think of ds as being the really bright one, as he constantly deluges us with challenging questions. He's going into yr3 and got a fairly poor report, especially on reading and writing. As we have dyslexia quite strongly in my family I have been very reluctant to push them on the reading front, because I don't wish them to get any bad vibes about something that I am fairly fanatic about (I am a terrible bookworm, and have described myself as being addicted to words!). I was an early reader, and I really don't think it brought me many benefits. I spent a large chunk of early school incredibly bored and then read lots of books that emotionally I wasn't ready for. I'm also not sure that spending most of my play times with my nose in a book did anything for my social skills!

DD is 3.5 and can read a few words (by recognition rather than phonics), and write her name. She can type her name on the PC and has known all of her letters since 2. She didn't speak until 2.5 though, and can't dress herself and falls over all the time, so isn't an all singing/dancing wunderkind in case anyone thinks I'm sneaking in some bragging

She's starting to get cross that she can't read though because it stops her finding the right Dora game on the Nick Jr website and she can't read her books after I've said goodnight.

I'm in two minds really whether to encourage her - on the one hand I was a very early reader and got a huge amount of pleasure from books. On the other hand DD's future school uses the spalding method of teaching reading/writing/comprehension, so I don't really want to take her down the jolly phonics route and then have her school have to re-train her, and maybe put her off. I think spalding is a bit hard to teach yourself (am going to create a new thread on this I think as I don't know much about it) too.

Also being able to read early didn't really make any difference in the long run, apart from making me a bit different at infant/junior school.

She seems quite keen though. It seems wrong not to encourage bright-eyed keeness. Ho hum. Better have a wine and mull over this a bit more

I have a 5 year old going into year 1 and he can't read. He'll get there - they will all get there! The important thing - in my opinion - is to keep reading to them. Early reading isn't a sign of intelligence, or a particular academic advantage, it just means that they have jumped through that particular hoop early. Both my children were ridiculously early talkers (we're talking sub 1) but didn't walk til 18 monthsish. DD could colour in beautifully at 4 but couldn't add 2 and 2. At the same ageDS suggested I buy a coloured picture if I wanted a coloured in one, but can work out all sorts of things to do with numbers. (I call them my little stereotypes!)
This is a ramble, sorry, but what I'm trying to say is that children don't fit neatly onto the attainment charts and learn to do different things at different times. There's so much else to learn in Reception - where the loo is, how to deal with your lunchbox, how to manage without a nap, what to do if someone's horrid to you and mummy's not there, how to sit still for 5 minutes - reading can wait. It does everywhere else in the world.....

DD1 started with a baseline of buggerall last year. She's now plunging ahead and reading, ooh, really quite basic things, and I'm frightfully proud of her. Strangely enough, the teachers seem to have done a fairly magnificent job teaching her. Funny that.

My DD started school unable to read, she (now 7) has learned to read and now reads so voraciously I can't keep up!

It will be fine, don't worry.

I thought that's why they go to school? no-one told me I have to teach ds to read before I send him! hmph

I agree with Curlew. I couldn't read when I went to infant school but 'got there in the end' What I DO remember though from childhood is the enormous pleasure I got from my parents reading to me with silly voices from Winnie the Pooh and Alice in Wonderland. I still love books and I put it down to my parents enthusiasm for them and their availability rather than the age I learnt to read.

From what my mum tells me, I taught myself to read by using the TV guide and circled all the programmes I wanted to see!

i am an infant teacher and teach in reception and year one. Children learn to read at school- they don't need to be taught at home and children learn when they're ready! Some child pick it up in reception and for others it doesn't click until the end of year one. BUT they all get there in the end. If your children enjoy listening to stories and reading along with you, concentrate on that. Don't worry about it they will all be fine!!

Ds1 starts school next week, will be 5 in December and soooooooo hasn't got the concept of reading. He can recognise his name, and knows probably half the alphabet letters, but that's about it. He loves having a go at the flash cards we've got, but even if he gets the letters and the sounds they make, like for the word 'egg', he'll sound it all out and then say "I know, it's fish!!") and hasn't got a clue why it's not fish. Bless.

I'm not stressing - am trying to learn from previous uncalled-for stressing over potty training/eating/sleeping etc.etc.....

LOL Betty Spaghetti, I am still a little bit traumatised at 36 by my mum's frustration with me for not being able to read 'the' in the Peter and Jane books when I was learning to read. Its a stupid word anyway.

I went to an early-learning seminar (in NZ) where we were told that the most important thing for school starters are that they be "confident, competent learners". A bit of a buzz phrase but its easy to see that from there other skills such as reading can be happily acquired.

There's a school of thought (Steve Biddolph - "Raising Boys") that boys in particular shouldn't start school until 6 as before that their fine motor skills aren't developed enough for writing and they should be running around rather than sitting still in a structured environment. (I think that's roughly the idea.)

Personally I think the ability to think is way more important than the ability to read (which is basically mechanical). There are plenty of examples of brilliant people who couldn't even talk until they were 4 so I'm sure they weren't reading or writing until significantly later than that.

Saw a fun tv programme last week - The Secret Life of 1st Years (or something like that). They followed a reception class. There was an outstanding teacher and it seemed from the programme that most of the focus was on dressing themselves, sharing and playing nicely with each other.

I'm surprised that a lot of people on here regard reading as a 'mechanical' skill that has no impact other than being an impressive party trick. Reading is surely the basis for all other learning. I agree that if the child doesn't understand what it's reading it's pointless, but you develop the reading with the child. Its a jumping off point for reasoning and understanding the world For instance, my father used to explain the origin of words for us (ie that aquaduct is from the latin aqua, meaning water) or he would use parts of stories to explain bits of history. that way, we could see the interconnectedness of things, and learn to reason things out and ask our own questions.

Its an emotive subject but personally I think its the most important skill you can give a child- you can't teach physics through the medium of dance.

I could also never leave it to a school to teach my child, I just don't trust the state system to do it well enough. I think they do teach mechanically- phonetics are useless (although I understand they are moving away from that now). I also find it bizarre that a lot of parents will fret about what they feed their kids, drive miles to take them to tennis lessons, ensure they go to the dentist twice a year, but will happily leave their education to a third party. maybe I'm just institutionalised by my own experiences, or I'm more neurotic about this particular subject than most, but I just couldn't! Again tho, I have to say that I believe in doing it reasonably and with the child's own enjoyment/development, and in balance with playtime as thats also incredibly valuable. Kids need to be kids.

dd1 (nearly 6, about to go into yr 2) couldn't read when she started school, though she could write her name (only a few letters, quite easy)

she's now on the 2nd to top table for reading ability, and everyone on her table was a june/july/aug baby. dd1 "read" using context (pictures) for ages but now reads fluently and obviously enjoys it. I didn't want to "teach" her before she went to school because the methods they use can vary and tbh preferred her to concentrate on playing until then.

I don't think people are underrepresenting the importance of reading, just being sensible about how early in a child's life it really needs to begin. Trying to teach a child who isn't ready to learn is damaging and demoralising, not to mention virtually impossible.

I don't agree that reading is the basis of all other learning. There is such a huge wealth of learning available to children which has nothing at all to do with reading. They are learning about social relationships, about caring for themselves, about nature and weather and the seasons, about their culture and that of others, about shared humour and music....there is no limit to what they learn. Reading is not the centrepiece of their learning at this early stage. Children learn different things at different paces, if they are allowed to develop at their natural speed, which is the healthiest was for them to learn. Some will be reading and doing sums at 3, others not until 5 or 6. Some will be able to play tennis while others still can't jump with both feet together. They're children, that's the way they are.

And I am on another thread saying I am worried my son will have a hard time at school because he is reading and won't start school until next year. So nothing is black and white

And it's spelt "aqueduct"