Thread: Read before school?

Absolutely!!!
Teaching shouldn't be about age, it should be about when they are ready.

If she enjoys being read to and likes reading herself - encourage it. We have shelves of childrens books, and all our children love reading.
They could all read before going to school.

Go for it

A head start is never a bad thing. Maybe talk to a grade 1 teacher about what methods they use so as not to contradict anything she will learn later. Before you know it she will want her own AULRO username. Maybe we need a matchbox car section

If she wants to read before starting school - I can see no reason why not to teach her. I am told I taught myself to read before starting school (my twin too), undoubtedly helped by the fact that both parents were avid readers and there were books all over the house.
Reading ability is the key to almost all subsequent learning, so I would say go for it.

Ditto to all of the above, my 2 older children now 8 & 10, learnt at home and also at child care/ kindy so when they hit school they were a lot more prepared than say children who were mainly at home children. Also youngest almost 4 is much the same. It is also a sign of independance. Even with swimming, having a pool he can jump into the middle of the pool and swim to the sides, we started him early on that as well so if he did ever fall in he can get himself to the side of the pool and "monkeybar" his way around until he gets to the steps.

Regards

Stevo

Wholeheartidly agree with all above, we spent time with both our boys - and yes it's fun - for both of you.

Extra, earlier learning can never be a bad thing.

Go for it.

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

Ok, I know this is a whacky question to ask on a LR forum... but why not.

My daughter is 3 years, 3 months old. We read books to her all the time, and she is now showing frustration at not being able to read the words herself. We have already done lots of letter/word association etc.

My question is, should I teach her? I'm pretty confident we could have fun learning, but I'm not sure what effect this would have on early schooling for her.

Any thoughts? Any teacher opinions out there?

Not a teacher, but have two kids in early grades, with experience across three schools and 4 different methods of teaching early reading. In short - there are too many opinions, you won't get agreement between teachers and you won't know who will be teaching when the time comes.

Most programs start with "phonics" - it's more about sounds than letters to begin with. And the early stages you don't worry about whether they are reading or guessing.

This might help:

http://www.syntheticphonics.com/scroll.pdf

Yes, teach them all you can. My significant other is a Teacher (year 2 this year) and often expresses frustration about parents who don't seem to care about their kids education. School is obviously where a lot of learning is done, but the home environment is enormously important.

Originally Posted by BigJon

......... but the home environment is enormously important.

I don't think you can emphasise that enough - probably more important than the quality of the schooling, although the really bright kid will overcome both poor schooling and poor home environment. (Both my parents were teachers, raised two boys, involved with grandchildren's education)

John