Is 3 too young to start learning to read?

[annesophie]

Hi, my little girl is almost 3 and very keen to learn to read...she loves alphablocks on cbeebies and I am trying to emulate this without being too pushy..my only problem is that I am French and speak French with her but need to use the english phonics system to avoid confusing her as she has started learning letters at nursery...Can you recommend any good system, CD, etc? Thanks

If shes interested then go with it, dd1 started reading at 3 and now her sister is picking it up too (she's 3.2). We had these for dd1 as they were the same books as the school would be using.

It's not too young as long as she wants to do it. However I would personally be loathe to go down the formal teaching route at this age. If she is ready she will pick up the basics just by being read to and looking at picture books together. She will start to recognise words, and from that she will start to work out other words. All three of mine started to read that way when they were around 3.

You say that she is just starting to learn her letters at nursery? If she doesn't know her letters yet it would probably be worth waiting until she does before starting to teach her to read as she will need to know them first. that doesn't stop you enjoying lots of books together and starting the process while she learns her letters though.

I would just make sure someone is reading lots and lots to her in English. Maybe playing letter sound games? I spy with my little eye something beginning with "c" (sound not letter name). If we put the sounds "c...a...t..." together what word can you hear?
(If you want to know the English Phonics, I would recommend the Jolly Phonics books as a start.)
If she is really keen she will start to teach herself. At this age she really needs to be learning to use her ears, so listen to language, and nursery rhymes etc.

thanks - yes the phonics is really what I need as they are different to the French ones I was taught...I'll have a look at the jolly phonics then

Jolly phonics is what the schools here use. find out what yours use. does she liek the alphabet. does she want to start to learnt o write her letters aswell ?
this is all very advanced. more for school starters to be honest. but if she is interested, it doesn't do her any harm for you to find out what the school does, so you can guide her, in a fun way, using the right techniques, as it were.

Jolly Phonics do work books for about £1.50 each in WH Smith. DS loves to do a page a night. They also do CDs

great, thanks for the tips

yes she has been trying to 'write' for about one year now and gets very offended if anybody suggests that she is drawing...she can write a few letters already and can recognise her name and a few words...and always asks about letters, points out to words etc...she has loads of English and French books and speaks both languages in a very grown up manner (and a bit of Spanish she picked up from friends at the nursery) so has a good ear for linguistics...sorry, don't mean to boast just very proud of her

ds used this :
book
fabarooney. waiting for ds2 to start using it.

There's a French version of Jolly Phonics too-
www.jollylearning.co.uk Le manuel phonique. For teaching French reading, writing and spelling. In the same format as The Phonics Handbook, Le manuel phonique introduces the main 36 letter sounds in French, with 'actions' for each one, and activity sheets

HTH

The one thing which really helped my dd click with reading was the way you describe the sounds of the letters for example "c" is not "see" or "cuh" it is just "ck". So CAT is not Cuh aa Tuh it is ck aa tt - so when they are blended together it actually sounds like "cat" - not sure if that makes any sense at all - someone else may be able to explain better...

If you are not sure how to pronounce the letter sounds, take a look here

I am getting phonics books from www.readingchest.co.uk for my DD. They have loads of different reading schemes you can borrow books from - some phonics & some others such as Oxford Reading Tree.

Where are you planning to send her to school? England/France?

I have found that english schools arent overly keen on advanced readers (generalisation i admit)

Could you concentrate on reading french for now? We have taught dd (4 next week) her english alphabet and basic blends and sight words, so she could read:

'The cat that sat on the mat and had jam'
'Ben is a bad dog, but he is my dog'

But then not really gone much further as she wont be in reception until next Jan. We are instead encouraging her to read arabic (perhaps easier as totally different alphabet so less room for confusion) and she now recognizes the whole arabic alphabet and knows the phonic sounds, blending will be a way off as arabic has no capitals but the letter shape changes dependant on its place in the word ifyswim.

We figured she will have loads of time and encouragement/resources for english at school but the second language will be neglected a bit then so to push it now.

My little girl picked up phonics aged 2 using her older brothers Jolly Phonics CD and books. The CD would be great for you and help with the sounds.

She is due to be 3 this summer and I am sure that over the next year she will start putting the letter together and reading at a very basic level. I've not/will no push her to do this but she is keen to do the letters.

TP

why don't you teach her the stuff in French, she will learn English at school [thirdname goes away thinking how to get dh to teach dc his language]

DS is 3.5 and can read. I am a little worried that he might actually be at a disadvantage when he starts school.

Have a couple of friends who teach primary and like littleducks mentioned, they said children should learn to read at school so that none of the basics are missed. Also have had a recent meeting with school about DS's transition to reception - they too seemed a bit miffed about his reading.

DS has always had a keen interest in letters and loves having lots of bedtime stories - his reading developed from there. He now tries to read things in everyday life which are outside of his capability - my main concern is when he is at school he won't pay attention or he'll be seen to know more than he actually does.

I would stick to teaching her french!

I'd suggest you maybe have a word with the school that she is likely to be going to, if you know.

My DS is 2.9 and has been learning to read for a couple of months now. He can reliably read a new sentence like 'the cat sat on the mat', and with a bit of help he can read quite difficult words like 'truck' or 'sunny' or 'green'. All the impetus has come from him, though of course we have helped him along and responded to his enthusiasm. We teach both the letter names and the phonics sounds, and he's always been absolutely fine with using both.

Anyway, the reason I suggest talking to the school is that we went to a couple of open days last year (when it was clear that there was no way DS wasn't going to want to start reading before reception) and found it very useful. There were two possible schools he could have gone to - in one, the Reception teacher said very firmly that she liked children to arrive being able to hold a pen correctly but nothing more; in the other, the teacher said they would work with whatever skills DS already had, and were perfectly used to employing differential teaching methods to distinguish between kids at different levels. No prizes for guessing which school we're going to choose .

Oh, also, it might make a difference when your DD was born. DS is a September baby, so won't be going to school until he's basically five - which is why we knew there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that he wouldn't be reading before he started. You say your DD is 'nearly 3' - so maybe she will conversely be one of the younger ones in her year??

Reception teachers are used to such a wide range of abilities and ages that it hardly matters what you child learns before they start school; teachers are expected to differentiate the work anyway.

However, steer clear of the schools that make children read every reading book in the reading scheme. If you have a good reader or more than one child this will be deadly!

At home, do what you like; the teachers can teach the 'basics'. But, remember that even though jolly phonics is how reading is now taught, many children read by word recognition (we never really got very far with phonics with our dd) but the phonics is useful for spelling.

I think that teachers can be a bit overly earnest when they say 'the basics may be missed if you learn to read at home'. It's the preschool years at home where all the learning is done; school just builds on the language skills that a child picks up naturally. Equally, parents can be a bit earnest thinking that reading needs to be formally taught.