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?

I did, using Teach your Monster. DD was reading by 3, and reading in her second language soon after (sorry, I know how that sounds!). We kept finding other people open-mouthed when she'd read out "Please use other door" and then say, Mum, why do we need to use the other door? etc. I felt that she had an aptitude for language and I wanted to build on that, and I wanted her to be confident in the classroom. It was also a nice thing to do together while I was huge and pregnant with her siblings. She is now very confident - she's now 5 and reading Tom Gates etc, will read to her friends in class when they want to hear a book.

I think the downsides are likelihood of being bored in class (she is sometimes, the phonics lessons cover things she knows), and finding things that match her reading level AND emotional development (which is a five year old's) but imo it means we can focus on the things that do need more attention.

Teaching reading has very much changed. You are more than likely going to confuse your child by using methods different to school.

This is the latest guidance that schools follow.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-reading-framework-teaching-the-foundations-of-literacy

I did but not with a toddler. My daughter had just turned 4 and we were schooling at home during covid. We were following the RWI scheme under the guidance of her teacher and she was ready to take the next step and was happily blending words.

I think 2 is too young to learn to read formally, if you want to do anything just read to/with them so they get a love of books and talk about the story's you read together. perhaps phonic songs on youtube (I didn't push DC to listen to them but he actually really loved listening to them)

The British education system will try to get you very worried if the child cannot read properly by age 7 which is the age when they only start teaching reading in Scandinavia.

YY to this, and even in other English speaking countries, there isn't the race to decipher that you see in England. American Kindergartners do phonics at age 5-6 and then get stuck into reading in First Grade, age 6-7.

Yet in ptehr countries, Children read much younger than 5
Comparing to other countries you don't live in doesn't really make much sense, and comparatively British children aren't particularly smart

I live in the US. I've seen kids starting to read fluently in First Grade after a year of phonics in kindergarten and no phonics at all before then (up to age 5).

Not all children are ready to read at 4-5. But the majority of children are ready to read at 6-7.

A friend is heavily into one of those alternative education systems - maybe Steiner. She tried to tell me I should never have allowed my DS to read until he was 7. Seeing as he taught himself age 3-4 without us realising, the only way we could have achieved that is by hiding all the books in our house!

To answer the OP, I wouldn’t actively try to teach a young child to read, however I would support them in following their interests. DS used to want to read EVERYTHING- back of the cake mix packet, inserts in the DVD case, instruction manual for the washing machine, etc.

Depends on the child. I find reading to them actually teaches sounds, letter recognition etc.
At that age they are more memorising the book rather than reading it.
Still a good thing to do though.

I think it's pointless really. I agree with teaching practical skills, and playing, being creative and instilling a joy of reading.

Apparently I could read before I went to school and then went backwards a bit when I got there. Made no difference either way.

England actually ranks fourth in the world
for reading ability and the highest in Western Europe…

All learning with toddlers should be play based and fun! Just like learning to count, recognise numbers, etc

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-65610397.amp

Honestly don’t. Pointless. Let them play. There is evidence suggesting that pushing phonics too early can actually slow development later on. Playing independently and outside, taking risks and enjoying being a child is more important. This play will also strengthen their core, which helps develop pen grip. This is helpful for writing. My now six year old was at an outdoor nursery where they talk about this all the time. She could read about a month after joining reception and writes beautifully. She couldn’t read or write before then and I’m glad
she had that chance to play and spend time outside. I’m doing the same thing with my younger dd. Older dc (8) was at a normal nursery where they pushed phonics early and she didn’t learn to read as fast. She’s doing great and did enjoy her nursery cos they were great in other ways, but the phonics stuff didn’t help her and if anything, hindered.

Check out 'Miss Phonics' on YouTube we have been watching her videos as well as other things mentioned above! 😊

It’s your child. If you feel they enjoy it then go for it ☺️

Leave it otherwise they will be bored out of their minds in phonics lessons. No-one also prepares you for the fact that if you have an advanced reader they may bring home mature books from the box which are beyond their age… highlights for my 5yo in y1 included the burning of Pompeii complete with a descriptive paragraph about the screams of the people as they burnt and one that prompted questions about suicide.

With my eldest (child above) I was all about the flash cards before she started and did it wrong. With my youngest, I will absolutely push reading but only once she’s got a grip of her early phonics.

This thread is a real eye opener. I'm shocked at how many posters are saying no.

Yes, teach your child to read before they start school. It's not like they're going to run out of books to read.

They are going to run out of books aimed at their stage of social and emotional development.

It is hard to find books that are suitable for a child of normal emotional development who is four or five but with a reading age of eight.

I went to school as a reader and spent the first few years being bored out of my mind whilst believing myself to be some sort of genius. Spend your time doing other stuff- school will dominate their lives for years.

My friend had a boy who was a very gifted reader in her foundation class. She worked collaboratively with the year 1 teacher and made sure he had work that stretched and interested him.
She’s a very good teacher.

Do you mean at school? Maybe. We never ran out of suitable books from school but I guess it could happen.

Plenty down the library though. We got through most of beast quest thanks to them ordering them in.

Why were you so bored though? Had you already learnt to write, draw, paint and make pictures with pasta shapes already too?

At 2 I would not bother.

I started doing phonics at about 3.5 (we are in a non-English-speaking country so this was my job), but I made sure I did my research and used only materials from proper synthetic phonics programs as per the English national curriculum - Jolly Phonics, followed by Read Write Inc from 4-ish (with ORT books for reading practice).

First, do no harm; you can actively confuse a child by well-meaningly “trying to teach them to read” if you don’t know what you are doing.

I am actually part of an English literacy Saturday school, and have seen the setbacks and confusion which can be caused when parents start doing things like getting kids to chant letter names, adding random “uh” sounds to phonemes when trying to teach sounding-out, teaching kids to write IN ALL CAPS and stuff like that.

I never deliberately taught them I just read to them and they'd hold the books abd have books around them

I also bought a brilliant Osbourne book which was wipe off that my DS loved to use to copy letters, words, pictures

I think that kept him very occupied and he learnt a lot from that book

DD was not as enamoured with it though

Usbourne books

usborne.com/gb/usbornesearch/result/?q=Wipe+clean+

I'm a teacher, and actually what we want when children start (mainstream) school is:

Being able to behave reasonably in a group setting
Toilet trained
Can get themselves dressed and undressed
Can take off and put on a coat
Can listen to instructions (at a 4 year old level, of course!)
Can use cutlery if having a school lunch (they'll get help cutting food up)
Have been read to (this is way more important than being able to read)

My DD (an able reader) started reception knowing a few sounds she'd been taught in nursery. She's now in Y1 and able to read the majority of words in phase 5 books. I'm not saying don't teach them to read, but make sure they can do the above, and that you read to them regularly.