My two year old can read, now what?

[MooPointCowsOpinion]

She can read lots of 3 letter words made up of any of the short sounds, cat, dog, hen, fox, jug, zip... etc. She's known all the letter sounds for a year ish now so we took her into the primary school for a coffee morning a few months ago and asked what could she look at next, they said the only thing to do now was blending and forming words.

She loves letters, writing them reading them, so she drives the interest in this.

But I am a teacher, secondary maths, and I know how annoying it is to have your teaching derailed by an over enthusiastic parent or tutor.

I'm asking, hopefully in a non humble brag kind of way, would we do better to steer her inquisitive mind in a different way and not focus too much on this in case we do more harm than good for when she starts school? What can she do for the next two years to keep her mind active and engaged? She's prone to distraction and chaos without direction, so 'just leave her to be a toddler' would likely be a mistake unless we are all happy with the inevitable destruction of the world that would ensue from her being let loose.

"She's known all the letter sounds for a year ish now"
"She's prone to distraction and chaos without direction, so 'just leave her to be a toddler' would likely be a mistake"
"She had colours and numbers down so long ago I can't even remember. If she's wanting to learn something, could we perhaps steer her towards learning animal types or countries, something that's not going to affect school? She really lights up playing memory games."
"For her birthday we take her somewhere new like a sea life centre, the zoo, and she's fascinated!"

Ridiculous!
Is this a joke?
If you really are a secondary teacher, it's really worrying...

My Dd was reading fluently by two without us teaching her deliberately. She is now four and we just follow her interests really. She has ASD and has a 1:1 at school who differentiates her work. So for example when the class is learning sight words she practices spelling and writing the same words. She has just developed an interest in the periodic table so we’ve borrowed simple books from the library and sing the periodic table song. We read lots of books and we read to her as much as she reads to us. She has also started to write her own stories. (although they are very derivative - think ‘the very hungry elephant’ and the ‘bat in the hat’ and rarely have more than 3 sentences.). She is not the only one reading in her class but she is the only one who no longer follows any reading scheme.

fluffy another giggle... I'll throw her in some mud tomorrow to make up for listening to her read some words to me today.

Get her violin lessons with someone like me who loves teaching tiny kids who want to learn stuff. It makes their brains grow to do music!

She has a fascination with learning new things all toddlers do to be fair.
Let her be creative and explore the world around her. She will be bored rigid at school if she's learnt all the basics of reading and writing at home.
I think it's important to be aware of the fine line between building up a child's confidence and filling their head that they're the eighth wonder of the world.

I am pleased that at the moment she finds the academic stuff easy as it means we can focus on the social side of life. She really is like a mini Sheldon Cooper. I had to intervene at a play date today when she was mean to a friend when they didn’t know something she did.

At home she was fine but at playscool and nursery very shy and quiet. Some of it was due to being bored as she already knew loads and didn't want to play the baby ish, as she saw it, games.

She plays violin and piano, is teaching herself Russian and Italian but she's a normal kid with lots of ambitions and interests. As are her brothers who didn't read at two.

Noteven she does like to beat up have a go on her sister's piano or our guitars, that's a good option!

DS1 was a very early reader (was assessed when he started school and reading age was 14+)

We never sat down and ‘made’ him read but he just loved books. We always read him he’s time stories and he just seemed to pick it up and be able to read without any input from us! We didn’t even really do phonics or blending with him, not in a conscious way anyway, we probably did answer his questions when he wanted to know what certain words said eg on a sign or something I suppose.

He LOVED the Richard scary books, they had lots of fun stuff to look at in the pictures but lots of words too.
In fact we got the dictionary one out this week for DS2 who is 6 and a very reluctant reader and he’s really into it, wanting to read it and find the words on the page etc

Circle thank you! Languages are so fascinating, that's a great choice.
Brie thank you, that's helpful

Reading a bit at two, in my limited experience, isn't that hard to achieve in my opinion. It does sound that your dd is ahead of the game there.

Turn taking and sharing on the other hand.....how is she at that?

And, most importantly, if you take her to a soft play will she cling onto you or run off to find friends? If it's the former you need to get working on independent play as you will get no time for mning otherwise.

I disagree with others as i dont think they will be bored in reception if they know phonics and blending. Dd did and wasnt bored, as they spend only a small amount of time a day doing it plus they learnt actions and songs. And it's a lot of free play.
Sheis also part tazmanian devil and at just 4 wasnt read to sit and listen in a school environment so would otherwise have possibly got behind.
I do agree with PP that saying she enjoys all trips to zoo etc on birthdays is rather too much at 2 as it's so few.
However, not all schools will move them up the reading levels quickly (some may make them read every book anyway)

If you do a search, this topic comes up quite regularly. FWIW, my advice would be not to get too excited about this, or go out of your way to do any sort of "steering" or hothousing.

You'll see from other threads that reading at 2 is not that uncommon. DS2 was reading cereal packets, books and, if nothing more interesting was to hand, The Times, quite accurately (but with questionable understanding!) a few months before his 3rd birthday. It really isn't a sign of certain genius, just that your child has developed those skills a bit early.

Just make sure she has access to plenty of diverse reading material and let her get on with it.

2 of my DCs have been quite similar (reading independently from a very early age without me doing anything apart from the standard bedtime story), 2 followed the much more “normal” rate of development.

The 2 like your DD are now 8 and 18. I would say don’t do a lot different - I would let her read what she wants to, but don’t deliberately get out things to help her learn more. I would say continue to encourage the imaginary play and playing with friends. Mine had (still have!) tonnes of playmobil and loved that our next door neighbours had tonnes of Sylvannians and across the road had LEGO so they had a whole selection. Essentially, I wouldn’t think too deeply about it - so I’d just continue let her get on with being 2. Continue the range of things you’re offering so far - picture books, drawing, imaginary play, outdoor play. When my oldest DD was about 3 she used to love doing the washing up (I only trusted her with plastic crockery obviously). Kids can find a game in pretty much anything!

It feels like she is always seeking out something new, like she needs the mental stimulation of new things.

Like every other toddler in the world then?

This thread is hilarious. I know we all like to believe our child is special but come on

Science stuff.

Great for investigative skills and self direction and interest.

e.g.
what floats, what sinks.
why does a tube with a weight at one end stay upright easily when the weight is at the bottom, but not when upside down
making rainbows
natural history
properties of objects

It's really not clever. My 4 year old Grandson has learning problems and a severe language disorder. He recognised simple words at 2 and could read at 3. He's always loved books, shapes, colours etc from a young age. It's really nothing to do with being clever

If she wants to read, let her read.

I was and still am a prolific reader. I have a police statement (long story) from when I was six years old and it's my exact words and I was clearly a precocious little girl! I was reading Black Beauty and the Secret Garden at 6 years old. I still have the books and cherish them.

A love of reading is a wonderful thing. Embrace it, encourage it.

Just follow her lead. It's great to be able to read early.

My DD was the same. She obviously loved reading, so we encouraged and supported her, and just made sure she had access to lots of books.

She wasn’t bored when she started school, as someone above has warned about. In fact starting so far ahead gave her a big confidence boost, and the school were very supportive in making sure she wasn’t bored.

Teacher her to read music; I was reading fairly fluently at 3 so my mum starting teaching me piano and, therefore, to read music. It’s always been second nature and I do t ever remember ‘not’ being able to do it, as it was introduced so early.

Grr- teach her, I mean!!

Agree with Dixie. If she is great decoder/pattern spotter, reading music comes easy for her. I did really regret not introducing my ds to music early(he wasn't interested back then, so couldn't be helped), but it seems to come naturally to those children.

And also agree with Mycat. They don't get bored at school, they just find the way to explore further with given tasks. Only time my ds has complained being bored was when he was told to practice times table online(which he already knew by heart), while others were taught in yr1. I will be wary if they were instructed to do online repetition work everyday. (But maybe not the online work was something like nrich/problem solving)

My 2 year old is the same; recognises familiar words (fire, police!) and can sound out three letter words. He also knew all the letter sounds before he was 1 (which I was rather shocked by but turns out not to be so unusual).

Interestingly I'm also a teacher (primary). Went back to work when he was 6 months and Daddy stayed at home. I was worried I wasn't giving him enough attention -too much marking/planning etc!

He also loves splashing in puddles, emptying out anything (plays "making a big mess") and climbing and jumping (climbing frame, sofa, daddy...)

The two are not exclusive!

As for what to do next follow her lead. What is she into? I have become an expert of makes and models of cars ("blue" was not sufficient!). Also with letters and words: sh, ch, oo, ee etc

How are her social skills? My son isn't very sociable (shy) so that's something we work on building also sharing and turn taking through simple games.

I notice you don't mention numbers? If she recognises letters I presume she can separate these from numbers.