I feel like I've failed my child already and he's only in Reception!

[SleepFreeZone]

I had no idea my child was meant to be reading to me, instead I was reading to him!! It's been going on for months.

The wordless books where you went meant to discuss what was going on suddenly turned into books with words and then books with lots of words! I had no idea that the expectation was that he was meant to be reading these books to me. It seemed far too early for that! I'm such a dumbass 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

So I've been merrily reading the books to him talking about what was on the pages and getting him to name seasons, weather etc etc. All the time he knew full well he was meant to be reading to me but kept quiet. So now he is a few months behind his friends and I feel so crap.

I'm on massive catch up now and trying to educate myself with phonics so I can help him as much as possible. Argh.

There is far more to reading education than just knowing what the letters are. A child who's only contact with books is for study, for work, to meet a target, won't love reading and seek out books of their own! Simply sitting reading with a child is teaching them books can be fun, time spent reading is enjoyable, and it's a pass-time in it's own right apart from school.

I really think your approach with your son was more than likely just what he needed as you were modelling how to read and teaching him a valuable lesson,I wouldn't worry about it at all.
The current vogue in reading currently is very much phonics based which suits some children but by no means all, I would carry on encouraging him to read, sometimes reading with him,always making it a positive experience and reading lots of books to him too. There are some great apps to help support phonic awareness.