Child learning to read & write

Buttonmoons

Your friend sounds a bit odd, maybe even jealous? It seems like strange behaviour from an adult, when you are just encouraging your child to learn!

I can't even recall being taught to read, but at school I was reading the borrowers, bubble and squeak and the likes when everyone else was on the school reading books. I hope DD has a passion for reading and not computer games like her dad :rotfl:

Mme.Hibou

Hi Vi,

There was a similar thread last week, I think there are a couple of teachers on there who explained why it's not always a great idea (like your friend has said) http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2117087

mums_got_no_pennies

skintbutsolvent wrote: »

My parents said I never learnt to read, I just read! I just sort of did it from cereal boxes, takeaway leaflets, and we had lots of books around. I was reading Enid Blyton while my schoolmates were on Peter and Jane, and had read almost every novel my parents owned before I left junior school. I still remember my joy in reception class when I realised that numbers go on forever and don't stop at 100, and now I love andything that makes me think.

If you child is ready to read and write then encourage her!

My son sounds a bit like you,i never really had to teach him anything,he seemed to have taught himself,he knew the alphabet when starting nursery at just over 2,not phonics though and could count well.At junior school they advised me to buy books for him to take to school because they were too easy for him.he did get slightly bored in school,but found teachers often looked for more challenging things for him to do.hes now in 2nd year at senior school and is getting on really well.all teachers have always been very supportive and its nice to know that they have the time to work with bright kids as well as thoose who struggle sometimes.My 2 year old daughter however is a totally different storey.lol

consultant31

skintbutsolvent wrote: »

As far as I remembr the only 'problem' was my parents wanted the teachers to correct my spellings and it wasn't the 'done thing'. I still find spelling difficult which tends to restrict my written vocabulary as I opt for words I can spell rather than those I am unsure of.

Hmm, we had this at my daughter's school many years ago. I asked why her spellings weren't corrected and was told "it upsets the creative flow".........never heard such a load of rubbish in my life. It partly explains why so many young people struggle to spell properly (along with 'txt spk' of course)!

Another thing when my DD was young was the way they taught the times tables. She struggled then (and still struggles today when she now runs her own business) but I was told teaching 'by rote' didn't work . I was taught by rote and know my tables well as do all my peers.

It makes my blood boil when you think how often the teaching process changes, and to what end? The only ones who lose out are the children being taught. There was a period way back (around 40 years ago) when they started teaching a different method of reading and writing. I can't remember what it was called but it didn't last long and no doubt thousands of kids were screwed up for ages.

What's wrong with the old-fashioned ways of learning? They worked and I'm sure there are more people of my age that can read and write well than there are these days.

Sorry about the rant, but I feel a little better now

mummy_Jay

I wonder if your DD is coming across as being more capable than your friends son? and maybe she's feeling threaten that your child is more intelligent than hers so feels the need to sabotage. As for the concern about which primary school maybe it more a case of she doesn't want a direct comparison where her son is or that if you chose the school where her son is you may be able to help her with childcare, who knows.

As for starting to learn to read and write, if she wants to do it encourage it all the way, it wont hold her back it will give her a head start.

tiamai_d

Nothing to add, but thank you OP for posting, you have had wonderful replies (extra thanks to mrcow). I'm trying to teach DS2 to read, he will be deferred for a year anyway but we want to try and get him started so he has another way to communicate (he cant speak very well).

I don't think the teacher will hate you at all....

Oldernotwiser

consultant31 wrote: »

There was a period way back (around 40 years ago) when they started teaching a different method of reading and writing. I can't remember what it was called but it didn't last long and no doubt thousands of kids were screwed up for ages.

ITA - Initial Teaching Alphabet

What a disaster!

mrcow

When I taught my children to read, I used a variety of different ways to do it. They learned their phonics which worked well for my son, but although my daughter learned them all quite easily and could sound and write them she just couldn't make the connection into words (for well over a year). What did help her was just learning words from sight. It was a starting point (we just used simple flash cards and I build it up from about six words to well over one hundred).

It was just the way her brain preferred to do it. She's four years old now and able to sound out words better now, but I wouldn't say she's a worse reader than my son was. In fact I've always thought she has a more natural intelligence than him - I feel a little defensive over her sometimes as no one else ever comments on it though as she's always been in his shadow a little bit (people often tell my son how clever he is in front of her - he's always been very literate, so his language can be a little flowery which always seems to impress other adults - not that she cares that much as she's quite thick skinned).

Another way they learn to read is by looking at the pictures and trying to second guess what the words they can't recognise or work out are. This is a really powerful method as it encourages them to think about the story and what the next word could possibly be.

Once they become fluent readers it continues to be a powerful way of expanding vocabulary - putting a word in the context of the sentence that it's written helps to understand its meaning.

Another good method is to read a page of a favourite story and then show them eg. the word "the" and get them to pick out all the other "the"s on the page. Or even how many words in a book rhyme with a particular word (eg. "cat" in The Cat in the Hat).

There aren't any right or wrong ways. We all have different ways of working, thinking and developing. Some children can read words at aged 2 and are more than ready for it. Some can ride a bike with two wheels at that age. Some are dry at 18 months old. Others just aren't. The main thing as someone said earlier is to just do what the child wants. If they are showing no interest whatsoever, then you're probably flogging a dead horse and would be better to wait and come back to it or perhaps try something different.

Taking an encouraging and open view on it is the best way to go. Remember as well that as with any development, it goes in fits and starts. One month a child may not be ready for something, then try it again six weeks later and everything seems to be clicking.

Something my daughter liked when she was learning to write her name (I used to bring reams of scrap paper home from the photocopier at work and she used to write on the back of it with felt pens) was to write the word in say yellow felt pen, and then let her trace over the line in her favourite colour (which always seemed to be pink in my house). Once she's got a few pages to copy, she was off and away.

She's one those children who like to know if they've got something right or wrong too. Don't be frightened to tell a child that they've eg. got a letter backwards or missed one out. If they can correct it, then it helps them get it right next time.

ab7167

I was a bit worried about this as well, as I have no idea what direction to encourage my DD in. She is a bit younger, having just turned 2, but can already recognise her own name, Mum, Dad, Granny and a couple of other favourite words when I write them down. She can also count to 10 (in 2 languages!) and name about half the letters of the alphabet (again in 2 languages), but can't put them in order yet.

I don't know where to go next - should I be trying to teach her the alphabet in order, or just read to her - she would love to be read to all day long if I could stand to read "Mog's Christmas" more than 5 times a day!

margaretclare

I can only state my own experience - I started school at the time the Battle of Britain was still raging.

I don't remember a time when I couldn't read. Certainly I could read well before I went to school. How did I learn? Well, there were very few books at home but the simple ones for a child were read to me, over and over again, until I could recognise the words.

A bright child at that age is like a little sponge, wants to learn and learning is so easy. It would be a crime to try to hold her back.

Anyone who came to our house soon learned to bring me some paper and pencils, and they were my friend for life. We were so poor, but loving devotion went a long way. When I had children of my own we would go to the library often and they were members from age 3.

I wish I'd learned about numbers, though. Many of my long-standing problems with maths (now conquered, GCSE Maths in my 70s!) stemmed from an incident when I was 6 and I didn't know that a sum had to be written down in figures and not in words.