I know there are a few MNers out there whose children are in Welsh-medium schools - and I have a quandary, and want to pick your brains.
DS is 4, and in the meithrin on the local WM school - and very happy ... we are a bilingual family (dh = welsh-speaking, I'm learning) and have always read both Engish and Welsh books with dh.
Now, the thing is that ds is showing signs of being ready to learn to read - he knows all his letters, can write his name etc, but he won't be starting to learn to read Welsh until next year when he's in dosbarth derbyn, and he won't learn to read English until he's in KS2. I don't want to confuse him, but, by the same token, I don't want to hold him back - he asks questions about words, and we've started to spell out the simpler words he asks.
As I see it, I've got 3 options here:
- I leave the teaching of reading up to school, and just carry on reading English with him at home, but not actually teach him to read.
- I go full out and teach him to read in English.
- I carry on as I am at the moment.
3 isn't really an option, as ds is getting frustrated - what did you do?
Did any of you teach your child to read English before they did it at school? Did it confuse their learning of reading in Welsh?
If you id teach them to read in English, how did you do it? Did you use a readng scheme?
Sorry for all the questions - I have spoken to his teacher about him learning to read - but she just stressed that they just do reading readiness in the meithrin - as most of the children don't have any Welsh spoken at home, so need to learn to speak Welsh first before they jump right into reading and writing.
Sorry too if this is very confused - probably just shows how confused I am about the whole thing!