did you teach your child to read / write before reception?

[mamatilly]

just listening to Womans hour and they are discussing whether we should be teaching our children to read and write before beginning Reception class... My four year old has one more year of nursery and knows alphabet/can write some letters in his name, but just wondering whether it is the norm for rising 5s to already know phonics etc...

should i be creating a reading/writing program over this coming year to give my boy a head start or should he simply be enjoying the simplicity of play?!!! my preschool is definitely NOT proactie and it seems more mother and toddler than preschool really...

anyway,what did you do?

x

Both mine could, their nursery was run by an elderly lady who took them individually to read- they did Oxford Reading Tree with her.Mine loved books, doing Letterland stuff- but friends' children didn't. Definitely up to the individual- but I'm so glad we had Mrs R to inspire them!

DD couldn't read or write before starting but DS did phonics at nursery and a little of the Peter and Jane books. He could write his name and some simple words, this was at nursery. I did do a little bit of phonics with him as he wanted to but used different books to the ones I knew he would be using at school so it would still be new to him at school.

The reading part of this was fine however with the writing it was a bit of a pain as his school teach them cursive with the loops to join up the letters from the beginning and he had to re-learn his letter formation in reception.

My advice is if you do teach him anything to make sure it will complement the methods that his school will use.

my mum taught my ds1 to read - she said he was ready at about Easter (4.5y) and started to teach him (she was a recently retired reception teacher). He caught on very quickly and was about ORT level 5 when he started school at nearly 5y.

She didn't teach him to write, and regrets this as 2 years on his handwriting is not on a par with the rest of his abilities, and as he is also left-handed he has an added difficulty.

BUT he is a very bright child, and obviously was ready to learn to read - he knew the vast majority of sounds, recognised lots of words and picked up readinv very quickly.
I wouldn't force a child to try and learn.

I asked both of mine if they'd like to learn to read when they were about 3.5, as they were both keen on letter and numbers etc. They both said yes, but DS1 lost interest when he realised it entailed some 'work', and DS2 continued keen.

So DS2 started school at 4y0m reading at about ORT Stage 5 and became completely fluent by the end of Reception. I don't think it makes much difference in the end - DS2, at just 8, is still one of the best readers in his class but others are as good as him; once you can read, you can read, and then it's just about comprehension which you can't 'teach' in the same way. He loved his reading, though, and it was practically very useful for him and for us; from the age of 4 he could entertain himself with books and comics on journeys etc.

Thegrammerpolice - DH and I were just recalling how DS2 did exactly the same division thing with chips when he was just 4 and a bit, and we were surprised that he could work out that if he had 12 chips (which he didn't) he and his brother would each get 6.

and totally agree with those who say the majority get there at some point and once you can read you can read, whether you mastered it at 4y or 8y.

The main advantage is that early readers can read to themselves, and so both amuse themselves in otherwise boring situations (long journeys etc) and save you having to do it (although ds1 - nearly 7y - still loves his bedtime story being read to him, even though he finishes it off after I stop).

We are starting with the basis with DD (2.5) ie she can draw circles and straight (ish) lines, she can draw over letters/simple pictures that I have drawn for her, but not very accuratly (ie if my drawing wasn't there you probably wouldn't know what she had drawn)and we have introduced the idea of words starting with different sounds and look out for the first letter in her name when we are out and about.

If she can read before school, great, because me and DP are very "bookish" and would obviously like her to enjoy reading as soon as possible. However, if she can't, that's fine too. As long as she is used to books and suchlike, I think it is more important that she learns how to communicate and do things such as toiletting, dressing herself, playing with other children and so on.

I do think that education can't just be left to schools though. They just don't have the time to teach everything that is needed. To this aim, we are already introducing DD to things like history and politics (obviously very basically) as she finds it fun and interesting to talk about things like roman soldiers and sharing. She is also learning about food, ie we will talk about what she is eating and what animal/plant it used to be and so on. Reading will come in it's own time, but general knowledge is sadly lacking in most of the population (myself included) and I feel it is mostly down to parents leaving learning to school.

I find it more alarming that my mother showed a Rainbows group of 5-7 year olds a potato and none of them could tell her that crisps and chips were made from it. If they can't quite read at 5, that is fine, but they should at least know what they are eating!

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I decided I would teach dd to read if she wanted me too but she hasn't gone that extra step. She's just turned 4 and starts school this afternoon!

She writes her name and a few words. She taught herself to write and yes it is virtually impossible for me to correct her own style - I just hope the teacher doesn't think I actually taught her to write like that and I expect she will take instruction from her much more than from me. But despite being super-keen on writing and letters since she was 2, she's never seemed quite ready to go that extra step to proper reading so I haven't tried to teach her.

Totally agree about choice of reading. We read a lot of the older children's chapter books with proper vocabulary (also have to read loads of those wretched rainbow fairy books....ahhhhhhh).

She's also like a pp very numerate and did just the same thing the other day - said if we had 2 biscuits and halved them we could each have 2 pieces! I was quite taken aback.

So basically, I have taken the attitude of actively encorouging where she is eager but not otherwise.

No! Let them play, they will have 12 long years to learn what they need to. I have a large family and they have learned with a few months of starting school and they are all bright enough. A freind was doing flash cards at about 18 months with her dd and she and my dd are exactly the same.

Letsgo - this is a tired old argument which ignores the fact that to some children learning to read IS play.

My DD is only 5 mo so no experience of this with my own child. However, I grew up in a house full of books, was read to a lot, loved to look at books, turn pages, learn stories by heart, etc. My mum encouraged me to read, but I was insistent that reading and writing were what you did a proper school, not nursery or at home. She didn't force the issue and I was reading quite fluently within a fortnight of starting school. My dad, who can't pass any kind a printed word without stopping to read it, and is never without three books on the go, couldn't read till he was 7. But then he didn't speak until he was three, when he could talk in complete sentences . I am definitely of the view that inculcating a love of books is the most important thing, and the rest will follow.

No, I didn't.

He knew letters, could write his name, I think, but all that happened by osmosis, not a structured learning programme.

Unless a child actively seeks to learn to read / write, I shudder at children being formally taught before reception age, at 3 or 4.

And I am very bookish, too.

As is DS, now 8.

No, I didn't. More from business/lethargy than a belief they shouldn't learn young, it just seemed easier to leave it to nursery/preschool/school than bother to teach them something they'd be spending so much time learning at school anyway.

My experience is that 'teaching' is minimal if a child wants to learn to read - and if they want to learn at 3, rather than at 4 or 5 or 6, then the learning will happen painlessly and with pleasure. If they don't, it won't.

AMumInScotland asked what is the point in training teachers to teach children to read using all the best methods, and then having parents do it themselves at home?

Given that all schools send books home to "read" before most children can actually read, it would seem that schools don't agree with you on this one. I didn't teach DS to read before he started school, but am pretty certain it was me that taught him while he was in reception. I'm not complaining about this, I think the majority of children just pick it up when they are ready, given plenty of exposure and a bit of gentle encouragement.

The(teachers) just need to monitor their progress, and concentrate their expertise nad efforts on the ones that are struggling.

It's not tinhhe spelling, honest, it's the typing.

DD starts reception in January. She is 4.5 now and has been at a pretty academic nursery for the past four years. She has completed their reading scheme and so we have the Oxford Reading Tree books out of the library. I don't really "teach" her, I just encourage her. She gets lots of practice writing (she is obsessed with writing "notes" to people) and we practice reading every night (mainly to get her used to it beore she starts school).
She really likes those Gold Star work books and has been introduced to phonics that way. Her current obsession is asking me to spell out every word and then going to write it down! I was a little worried about her being bored at school, but the combination of the fact that she in a January starter and that about 65% of the children who started reception yesterday can read (the pre-school system here is pretty academic) has made me go with her flow.

But - this has all happened over the summer holidays. Before that she was not really bothered about her reading so we did it about once a week.
Be led by them - if they have a passion for something (whether it be reading/dinosaurs/football) just give them lots of opportunity to pursue it - that is the most important thing about education