Kids and learning to read
 

Question for parents with kidlets, mainly those in Ontario.

When do kids in the school system here learn to read?

I had the thought as my niece and nephew were just here visiting from the UK. The boy is 6.5 and is reading the Harry Potter books, though his teachers say he is well above average in terms of his reading skill. The girl is 4.5 and has started to learn to read, sounding out words using phonetics (cat being said out loud as cuh-aaah-tuh, excuse my awful attempt at writing out phonetic sounds).

I asked my SIL if she did any reading with the kids at home before they started school and she said no because she didn't want to risk interfering at all, or teach it a different way and confuse them. So they are legitimately learning to read at age 4-5 in school.

What age to kids here start to read? I tried googling it (I'm in Ontario) but couldn't find anything conclusive. Any thoughts from you guys who have kids in school? Do they do the same phonetic approach that the UK does? Did you do anything additional at home?

Baby Schnooks is not even two yet, so we have awhile before I really have to worry about it, but I was just curious after having the family visiting.

Thanks in advance! :)

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

It's an on going process but they teach language arts-reading as soon as they go to school, whether that's pre-k, k or 1st grade and they never stop learning to read through grade 12 and HE. All children develop differently, reading comprehension is not a smooth linear process, one often sees it in spurts. And apart from the odd outlier, there is not much evidence that early reading comprehension correlates to later academic development.

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

Not being two yet is no excuse. Do you mean to say that BabySchnooks is not reading out the good bits from the morning paper while you have your breakfast? Shame on you, I say!

Seriously, though, the JK and SK program deals adequately with teaching kids to read. Ours (because we are a book-heavy family) all had the rudiments of letter-decoding and phonics before they started JK, but I actually found the school reading program pretty good, and - in our bit of Oakville at least - was very well supported with volunteer assistants who would hear the kids read out loud during class time and feed back progress reports to the teacher.

The system used in the HDSB is more or less the same blend of Embedded and Synthetic Phonics that is followed across the UK. I have read some criticism of the lack of consistency in teaching methods for reading across Canada, particularly that synthetic phonics was largely disparaged, but that has not been our experience locally. In addition, word-walls, heavy emphasis on common high-frequency words and the patterns that they make within other words, repetitive learning through circle time spoken-word and songs, all seemed to be used effectively on the few occasions I visited a kindergarten class.

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

I don't have any experience regarding the way of teaching reading in Ontario schools but would like to put my 2 cents in (hope you don't mind).

I still remember when my son was 2.5 - 3 he cried because he couldn't read. As an early reader myself - and a book-a-holic - (I was reading 'proper books' at the age of 4), I wanted to teach him but the local school head discouraged it saying it would interfere with how they would teach him in school. Even though his father was a teacher, she told us that it would be a very bad idea.

Sadly I listened to her (and his father) and although he could read basic words already I stopped teaching him and waited until he went to school. This is my biggest regret! He lost that love of books and has very little interest in reading books to this day, though he will consume articles and research items.

I strongly suggest if she shows an interest in reading that you encourage it.

:)

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

I remember sitting down with my daughter very early on, with books, reading to her and her pointing out words, I dunno 2-3 years old. I also got work books for learning to write for her as well as colouring books. Dunno about here though, it all seems to kick off a little slower.

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

I don't often agree with Oink but I completely agree with the fact that just because a child learns to read early, this doesn't correlate to sure academic success later on.

Some education systems (such as Steiner education for example) have kids reading much later because of the philosophy (tends to be 8-9 years I think). But the kids are straight into quite complex reading books e.g. Harry Potter.

As well, although English is an alphabetic writing system, there is not an exact one to one correspondence between sounds/symbols so e.g. Italian / Spanish speaking children tend learn to read more quickly than English speaking children do (those languages have a greater one to one correspondence).

PS: And here's a study for you that I just found:

http://web.uvic.ca/~gtreloar/Article...%20earlier.pdf

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

Just my two penny's worth but both my girls were classed as 'advanced' readers when in Primary in the UK, I'm a book a holic and so it was automatic to me to get them sounding out words as early as possible. It didn't confuse them when the school started teaching them, just cemented some stuff. As for being academically advanced later on, well that didn't happen! :lol: They're both smart enough but no more or less than any kids who didn't read at all until Primary school.

If a child shows any sort of interest in what words look like, encourage the hell out of them. Never too early to read.

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

My two children went throuh primary school in Ontario and they both started formally learning to read in kindergarten (there was no JK then). However my daughter loves books and was reading by about 4. My sonwas on the autism spectrum and unfortunately never had the love of reading my daughter has. I read to them both from the day they were born.

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

Lulz. :)

This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks. :) I couldn't find anything clear online on the approaches taken to learning to read, so this is really useful. BabySchnooks will be obviously in school in Oakville (HDSB/HCDSB is TBC).

[and the other replies along these lines]

BabySchnooks loves to read. Mr Schnooks read to her while I was pregnant, and she gets books every night before bed. She definitely has favourite books as well, and she's starting to "read" along with some of them. (She knows some lines coming up, she points to the things on the page that we are reading about, etc.) She often just plays with books in her room, we have tons of books all throughout the house accessible to her. I enjoy reading but admittedly am a lazy reader. Once I get into a book I absolutely cannot put it down, I'm basically like an addict, but once it's finished I take AGES to get into a new book. But I really want BabySchnooks to have a love of reading, and she certainly seems to at this point.

The question was just whether or not I try to work on actually teaching her to read at home once she's a bit bigger. :)

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

Yes. Encourage her to read and write and love books. My daughter at age nearly 23 still has every single book she's ever owned. Right from her Little Golden Books she got as a toddler to the grown up ones I buy her now as gifts. When we decided to emigrate she insisted that her books had to come with her.

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

My eldest learned to read in Reception while we were still in the UK. His twin brothers learned in Grade 1 (which is the 3rd year of school) in Ontario. They weren't taught phonics but were expected to memorize sight words. We taught them phonics at home.

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

My 2 kids moved to Ontario in grades 1 and 2. They had been in the IB program in Europe for 3 years and had started reading using the Biff and Chip books. We had always read to them every night at home so they were very early and happy readers.

When we arrived both kids were reading "chapter books". I used to go into the school and read with the kids in both grades (as I had time) as a volunteer. There were kids who were just sounding out words to kids who could read chapter books. A large variance in grade 1. But by grade 2 all the kids were reading very well and there were no correlations between early reading and "brightness". The parents were the biggest PITAs as they would end notes requesting harder books to be sent home when their kids clearly weren't ready for them.......I have sympathies with the teachers!!

My advice would be that if they want to read, go with it and help. They all end up as the same place within a short space of time.

My son stopped reading for a while in the teenage years but has come back to it big time thankfully!

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

Despite all evidence that early proficiency in reading and writing doesn't result in improved academic performance later in life, I recommend encouraging it, if only because I see so much poor writing. It isn't a new problem, but it isn't getting better. Wtf, lol.

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

My question wasn't really about trying to get her ahead in terms of academic performance or anything like that. It was more just curiosity -- she's into books, and I've heard some people who did some reading at home, and others who left the schools to do it. I was incredibly impressed with my niece and nephew, 4.5 and 6.5 respectively, when they were visiting from England. Niece is in Reception and Nephew is in Year 1. Niece is sounding out words and learning to read, and Nephew has read the first 3 Harry Potter books and generally is a very good reader. So that got me thinking about when they learn it in school here... I couldn't find anything clear from a quick Google. Oak's post seems to have covered the question at least in the area where we are as we are also in Oakville... I'll start doing some learning to read with her at home, phonetics and whatnot, and I'm otherwise glad that they'll start it in JK and SK. :)

She's not even two yet, so I'm not in a huge rush, just some thoughts I had! :)

Re: Kids and learning to read
 

I'm definitely not pushy and I never expected the school to do everything (not until high school anyway). Parents should support the school and visa versa. You're supporting the school by having your child prepared for school by being happy and interested in learning ;)