Teaching your child to read before school

[prufrockrocks]

Is anyone trying to teach their toddler to read before he/she starts school? I know a bit or two about phonics and am trying to teach DS some sounds and letter shapes, but I'm not sure how much is going in, or if I really should even be trying (he's just turned 2). Is it worth it? Should I just leave it to the school and help out later if need be? Does anyone have any products/websites etc they would recommend for teaching young children phonics?

There isn't anything wrong with teaching phonics, counting, number recognition, colours, shapes etc if your child is interested though as others have said, reading books and learning comprehension and vocabulary is far more valuable as is just talking, doing puzzles, singing and exploring the world.

Don't bother working on reading until your child can do the following:

1. identify rhyming words
2. alliteration - recognising that two words start with the same sound

These are key pre-reading skills so read lots of books with rhymes and identify rhymes and words that start with the same sound.

Once your child is ready, Teach Your Monster to Read is a fun synthetic phonics game aligned with the national curriculum you can play together. Also, Alphabocks on BBC is also good educational programme that teaches phonics based on the national curriculum.

What would be the point of it? The teacher won't think any more of you and your child will still have to do what the rest of their class do anyway.

There's always one! 🙄

Does your ds have a good solid understanding of environmental sounds and is he able to talk enthusiastically about this knowledge?
If not you're literally flogging a dead horse!

Lots of books which offer engagement in the form of counting and funding things without a word in sight.

Vocabulary is more important at this point than reading.

Let them be 2...
Also read to them all the time, help them develop a love of books, go to the library. Find out if there is rhyme or story time at the library.
Let them play and develop their imagination, this is all much more important than reading and phonics at this stage.

In many European countries children don’t start school until they’re 6 or 7 years (yr2). Reading and writing formally isn’t taught before school. My DD started school in the UK yr2 without being able to read or write as we’d just moved here. She was reading and writing at the expected level for her age by the end of yr2 and went on to get 120 in yr6 SATS for reading and SPAG. I think it really helped her starting later. She was ready for school and mature enough to pick it up very quickly.

My DS started in reception at the same time and found reading hard. He wasn’t ready and had no interest in it. He just wanted to play. I think he would have benefited from starting later. Having seen both systems I don’t know why we insist on 4/5 year olds starting school here.

I would advise against any formal teaching of reading and writing as they will be bored if they’re too far ahead of the rest of the class. Also it won’t make any difference long term.

The most important now is speaking and playing with your toddler so they learn a variety of vocabulary. Read lots of books, take them outside to play and get exercise/fresh air. Let them discover the world. They have plenty of time during their school life to learn phonics. No advantage to learn so early on. In other countries dc do not learn to read until 6/7 and they all catch up to the rest of the world eventually. What is the rush?

My kids learnt to read before starting school. We used jolly phonics. I don't see why you wouldn't if they're happy to learn.

Both of ours were reading when they started reception. Both were reading chapter books such as Spiderwick and Harry Potter at age 6.

They weren't specifically taught. They grew up in a house full of books with parents and grandparents who read.

They learnt their colours quickly, they learnt their numbers quickly, they played picture card snap, matched animal noises to the right animals, looked at flowers and leaves and bugs and shells. They spoke very early and very clearly, possibly because their dad and I talk quite a lot and talked to them about everything around us. They loved books and talking about them - especially things like Richard Scarry and The Cat in the Hat. They memorised little story books.

I think it's called learning and loving learning and being interested in the world.

They also liked Pokemon, football, sweets, naughty words, laughing, cuddles, dinosaurs and making a mess.

You could do, but what's the point?

My youngest was a September birthday and had picked up a bit before school (cat on the mat type stuff) and knew all the phonics sounds, but she still had to do phonics lessons every day in Reception with all the other children - some just 4 who didn't know any letters yet.
There's no advantage to starting school reading and there's a risk they will be bored while starting again from the beginning.

Yes, I use "teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons". It's a scripted book. You'll need to go through it and correct american pronunciation. It's really worked although it's nowhere near 100 lessons - more like 500 by time we'll be finished with it. Started when DS was 3, he's now 4.5 and we're on lesson 80. However, it works. He is reading.

When my youngest started school, I popped my head round the door at the end of her 1st week to see how she'd settled in ."She's a lovely little girl," said her teacher, "but you didn't tell me she could read. " I didn't know she could," was my reply. On the way home I asked her how she had learnt. She shared a bed room with her slightly older sister, who had taught her when they woke up in the morning.

Our child was read to from birth, then had some of those touch books "that's not my..." then just lots of picture books so was just around books a lot

No we did not 'teach' to read

I had one who started school having done no phonics at all, but with a huge knowledge & love of stories & games & a younger one who watched her sister doing phonics & spelling tests & wanted to join in so who was reading the Julia Donaldson songbirds books before starting school coz if she was going to do it decodable books were better

By year 3 where youngest is now they are both at same stage/level & I still read with dd1 even though she's an eye-rolling sassy tween since starting secondary.

The advice given to my mother was to specifically not teach them to read as then they’ll be bored in class. But to teach them to speak and pronounce their words properly, teach them sounds and meanings etc. I was always top of my class with reading.

My kids weren't bored at school because they learnt to read early. Honestly this place is a race to the bottom sometimes.

When DD was 18 months old, we had a tiny kitchen which was kind of dangerous for her to be hanging about in while I cooked (it felt like she was going to trip me up all the time with a pan of hot water in my hand or something). We had our fridge in the cupboard under the stairs. So I bought a bunch of letter magnets and stuck them on and told her which was which letter and what sounds they made. I used to send her off to bring me a J for jam or a T for tea or a M for mummy while I was cooking. As she was quite small, it took her a while to find each letter and it kept her out from under my feet very successfully.

So a but of early literacy can potentially be quite useful.

My parents had to go back to work pretty soon after I was born, so my grandmother who lived next door looked after me for a lot of the time.

She was a voracious reader. I was reading fairly fluently by the age of 3 and able to spell out words ( freaked out a man in M&S by pointing to a sign and reading 'shoplifters will be prosecuted')

She taught me to read, add up, count to ten in French Spanish and German ( because that's all she knew...). By the time I went to school at 5 I was so ridiculously far ahead of my peers that I immediately got put up three years on account of my reading ability. Which was fine, but at that point my ability outstripped the 8 year olds. But they couldn't reasonably put a 5 year old in with 10 year olds, which is where my level apparently was. I spent the entirety of my primary school years in classes ahead of my peers, effectively waiting for them to 'catch up'.

Socially it was an absolute nightmare. I was a horrid little prig who thought I was above my classmates. It didn't really settle down until I was at Secondary school and everything had levelled out.

I wouldn't say DON'T teach your child to read. But I'd advise caution. The bonus of my experience is that I have a fantastic vocabulary and can read books at a rate of knots. I'm good at languages, poetry and I have a natural interest in etymology. I also have no idea if those things would have developed organically anyway.

Let any natural inclination towards language stand alongside everyday play, reading etc. if the child shows interest then great. If not, don't force it.

Just no

Surely it depends on your child's interest. if they love books then what's the harm in encouraging it. My daughter has never been naturally physical so we encourage her with ballet and football classes (which she loves) but she loves reading, writing and counting more than most things. It's a game to her.

She knew the alphabet fluently (not just the song) before she was 2 - I can't even remember how I taught her. we did have some flashcards with puzzle pieces of the letters and numbers that she loved and I guess just reading lots of books with her. She turned 3 in April and has mastered most of the Read/Write phonics flashcards and can now read level 1 Biff and Chip books by herself (I cover the pictures until the end of the page). she likes rules and has an amazing memory so she'll say things to me like C and H make ch because they're friends, and when ck are together you only pronounce one c sound. she enjoys reading parts of signs when we're out and about - from about 2 she'd tell me the number of the aisle we were on in the supermarket.

Just make sure she doesn't feel pressured to learn but if she enjoys it then no harm in making games

Op i could read before school, i loved words and spelling and listened to so many audiobooks.

not sure how hard it was, my parents mostly read to me daily. honestly my teachers at school spent more time not believing me more than any thing.

and accusing me of lying about reading homework. do with that what you will.

Yes but it was child led. Children's work is to play.

I taught one of mine at 3, BUT that was because it was lockdown #1 and we were all sat at the table muddling through the horror of homeschooling. DD1 wouldn't do her school work if DD2 was playing, so I would get both to the table and set the 3yo 'work' like colouring by numbers (1 to 5 or 10 Twinkl sheets, not the super-fancy grown up versions!) or scissor skills sheets. She would listen in to her sister's videoed phonics lessons and wanted to learn too, so I copied the format using the basic single letter sounds (DD1 was onto the last phases of the scheme by that point). Their school use RWI, so it was very easy to copy with a set of the RWI flash cards for home use (we already had these) plus some homemade common exception words cards courtesy, again, of Twinkl. It helped that DD2's language was already advanced and she has an almost photographic memory for exception words, so as soon as she 'got' blending, she was flying. She started school on RWI purple band and had finished the RWI scheme by Spring term of yr1. She'll be 7yo next month, and now has 1 level between her and 'free reader' status.

However, I really wouldn't have bothered if we hadn't had all that time to kill and needed to make it 'fair' that they both had to do school work. I would have been out visiting parks, farms, and the zoo etc. We would still have read together a lot, as I enjoy sharing books with DCs, but I wouldn't have been teaching reading. If they are able, they catch up very quickly, even if they start 'behind' IME. DD1 started school 'behind' in the lowest phonics set because she just wasn't interested in learning the letter sounds in preschool with her peers, but flew through it in reception and was also among the first in her class to complete RWI. I would prioritise a love of stories, gross and fine motor skills, and learning life skills such as dressing over phonics at preschool age.

Just turned two? Christ, let him be a toddler, these years go in a blink of an eye..

Can’t think of any advantage unless they are really pushing for it.
each school near us uses a different system plus all children sit through the daily phonics together.

I wouldn’t be remotely tempted.
i’d nurture a love of books, learning, imagination, comprehension etc. and then I’d much rather try and bring in a second language.