Learning to read. When? How?

[snickersnack]

dd was 3 just before Christmas. She's chatty and articulate and loves books. My dad keeps telling me she should be learning to read by now, and that I was reading fluently before I went to school (which she won't be doing until Sept 09 so loads of time there). We had a phase a couple of months ago where she was fascinated by letters - enjoyed reading alphabet books and so on, but that seems to have passed. She knows about 15 letters, and their sounds, but seems to struggle with the idea of "what word starts with [letter]" and just makes random guesses and can in no way put sounds together to make words.

So, when do they/should they learn to read? And how do they learn? My strong instinct says to leave it until she's ready, that she's so tiny and has loads of time and that the most important thing is that she carries on enjoying stories with us. She is, however, by temperament, quite lazy - gives up easily, doesn't like failing, so I'm not sure if she'll decide to apply herself to it without some prompting. Typing this I can sort of see I should just stop worrying about it, but I'd quite like some handy responses for my dad beyond "go away, she'll get the hang of it eventually".

I think it depends what you mean by teaching her to read. She is still really little.

"what word starts with [letter]" and just makes random guesses and can in no way put sounds together to make words. "

I think that is expecting to much of her. At this age its best to follow her lead. Its not the end of the world if she does not learn to read at three. Most children are not ready to learn to read at three years old, its far easier to teach an interested four year old than a resistant three year old. When a child is ready they can learn to read simple words within weeks using synthetic phonics.

If you want to teach her to read (which I am not sure you do?) I suggest you get the Jolly phonics finger phonics books, jolly phonics DVD and the Jolly phonics jingles which are songs. I would teach her the letter sounds but not bother with the letter names until she can read fluently. Knowing letter names do not actually help you read.

If you daugher is not interested, then I suggest you wait and find out all you can about teaching reading. Then whether she is ready at five years old or three years old you will know what to do.

Marvick's website is a great place to start.

She is allowed to be lazy at 3. It's known as "having better things to do".

In Scandinavia no formal teaching is given until the age of 6 or 7. Children then learn to read in a matter of months. If children want to teach themselves to read before that age fine and good, but nobody would fuss about it in the least.

The only response to your father is to smile politely.

children learn to read in a matter of months in many countries because their languages are far simpler. It takes an english child nearer 18 months.

However 3 is very young and if she isn't interested then why push her.

Once a child can talk in comprehensible sentences they can be taught how to read IF that's what a parent wishes to do -It's not unkind or dangerous to do so. It will depend to a certain extent on the temperament of the child. As Reallytired said, use the Jolly Phonics materials. They are very suitable for children 3-7 yrs.

cory wrote:
'In Scandinavia no formal teaching is given until the age of 6 or 7. Children then learn to read in a matter of months.'

This is red herring. It's NOT a result of the late start to formal schooling, but due to the transparent alphabet code plus synthetic phonic teaching methods. Norway starts formal schooling at age 7 but has a complex alphabet code - children take at least 2 years to become literate in Norway.

Finland has a very transparent alphabet code and formal school starts at age 7 -most children arrive at school already reading as parents teach their children to read pre-school as it's so easy to do.