Three year olds MUST be able to read?!

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Newbie_hk

Registered User
My daughter is in K2 so the pressure of getting into primary school is starting to creep in among my fellow mums. As I?m only one of two expat mums in the school, I am surprised that my daughter?s classmates are taught to write and read even at home. We just play! When I asked the teachers how my daughter was in school(and I meant in the social sense, not academically), she said that compared to her peers, she cannot identify words as much as her peers.

My husband and I have read to our daughter since birth, not because we want her to be smart, but because we would like to instill the love of books. She devours them. When she sees a bookstore she goes straight in and could stay there for hours! She may not be able to read yet but I?d rather instill the habit of making her enjoy books rather than kill the joy of reading by forcing her.

Am I mad letting her go ?free range? (and I use this term loosely) in this pressure cooker culture where kids must excel? How do you strike a balance in this academically focused culture when you don't want your kid to be behind?
 
I don't know how to answer this. In HK, it seems that there is a general lack of understanding and appreciation for giving children age-appropriate tasks. If you want your child to be able to "compete" for certain schools it's probably true that she will need to be able to read by the time she start interviewing for P1--at least simple high frequency words (a, an, the, he, she, we, I, cat, dog) etc. I have a feeling that parents aren't really teaching their children reading skills at home as I've found many HK people don't really have reading strategies for English. Instead, they're teaching their children to memorize word sets so it appears that they "know how to read." But, this is going to come back to bite them later because true reading skills are so much different. The things you really want your child to be aware of at this age if you ant them to grow to be a strong reader are 1) phonological awareness (the understanding that letters have meaning and letters have sound, i.e. when they see "Aa" they know the sound is "Aaaaa" or "Aaah" or "Ayyyy" etc.) 2) sense of directionality (know that we read from left to right and that if a paper with print is held upside down they know to turn it around) 3) Different letters have different sound combinations (but this is still a bit advanced for this age). I recommend this PBS show: Word World. My son is going to turn 4-years-old in November but he started watching this show about two years ago and quickly learned his alphabet and sounds and is learning some simple words.

So, it really is a balance. As for us, my son isn't competing for a top space in an international school so I don't feel the pressure of him having the "appearance" of being able to read in order to get into P1. I would much rather actually teach him the love and skill of reading at an age-appropriate rate than force him to memorize word lists which will only serve him in the short run. Instead I am starting to do things like spell the word with my son. He will pick a word he thinks is interesting on the page and say, "Let's spell this word, Mama" and then we'll spell it which gives me the opportunity to reinforce the letter sounds. I try to model good reading strategies while I'm reading to him (i.e. following the text with my finger, looking at the picture to try to predict what is going to happen, asking him to think about what will happen next in the story, reading with inflection). Later on I can start working on other strategies such as "chunking words" (splitting them in half to sound them out), "recycling" (finding word sounds that one already knows inside of a word one doesn't know) and looking for syllables etc. It's too advanced for him now at 3-years-old, I think.

I think you're on the right track. It just depends one how hard you want to "compete" with the local parents here. For us, we've just chosen to opt out of that rat race and focus on foundational things. Best of luck!
 
i second WORD WORLD, it's a fantastic programme and my kids have learned a lot from watching it.

although i have been teaching very young children for years here, i never went "whole hog" with my own kids. I let my kids choose what they wanted to do/play with etc. we have ALWAYS read to them and they see me reading all of the time. so, it kind of came naturally for us.

but, like thanka, we are making use of the local school system here and have not gone for the "elite" schools just for their status. instead, we went for one that wasn't as much into force-feeding information into young minds....my son has just started P1, so i'll let you know how it goes...
 
? don't know about top local schools or the more Chinese international schools which may be different but in my limited experience at International Schools (from my child or close friends) 3 or 4 year olds are not expected to read. At least at Canadian, HKIS, French, ESF, Kellett, AISHK; ESF assess for language & social skills, AISHK similar (don't assess everyone) Kellett no assessment, FIS, HKIS and CDNIS assess but no expectation of proper reading at that age although there may be letter recognition and they have to be able to write their name. GSIS I think may be a bit tougher for P1, not sure but not for 3 to 4 year olds.
 
My children started/starting to read from 4 1/2 years old or so, and just because of school. Nothing I've done extra. They're all in ESF. My oldest could read a little (knew sight words, sounds, etc.) prior to Y1, the others a few sight words, but not much more (they're young for their Y1 class), and that's perfectly normal. I know kids in their class (Chinese decent) reading books already, but first of all they're very strict on comprehension, ability to retell the story, smoothness, etc. plus ... I read the other day ... Just because you start earlier, doesn't mean you finish earlier ...
 
Thanks for your replies. I certainly have no intention of joining this academic rat race so much so that if my kid doesn't get into a school where the academic pressure is not the norm, we are prepared to pack up & head back to Australia. But the question is: which schools are they? Do ESF schools have a more relaxed learning culture? Is AISHK relaxed as well? (that's for you TNT - good to hear from you again)
 
Newbie_hk said:
Thanks for your replies. I certainly have no intention of joining this academic rat race so much so that if my kid doesn't get into a school where the academic pressure is not the norm, we are prepared to pack up & head back to Australia. But the question is: which schools are they? Do ESF schools have a more relaxed learning culture? Is AISHK relaxed as well? (that's for you TNT - good to hear from you again)
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I find ESF pretty relaxed although they do start at age 4/5, which is earlier than most (continental) European and Americans would start reading (Grade 1 = Year 2). Homework is building up nicely but nothing crazy, the IB tailors for a variety of children, ability, etc.
 
If you want to do some fun starter reading with your daughter you can look at www.readingeggs.com (.com.au when in Oz, or .co.uk in the UK). You have to pay for this, but we have found it well worth it. You can do a free 2 week trial. My daughter is now 4 1/2 and started this 9 months ago when a friend in Australia recommended it (her kids do it in school). There is also www.starfall.com which is free up to a certain point. More American. The thing I love about these are that kids think they are fun. I am totally in agreement that the pressure here is incredible, and I don't think we should be pushing our kids into reading or whatever before they are ready. We just do this when my daughter wants to, and for however long she wants to. I have been amazed by how much she has taken in and also how well her computer skills have improved (she had none before!). But really, I think the most important thing is reading level appropriate books with them, and letting them see that their parents enjoy reading.
 
AISHK follows the NSW Curriculum so I guess it is pretty similar to Australia academically and culturally (well NSW!). There are lots of Chinese kids there but many are Australian Chinese so more from the Australian culture. I only know people with older kids there and they are really happy with the school having transferred from Oz. A good friends daughter is starting in P1 in Feb so will have a better idea next year about the early years.

My oldest has just started Reception at FIS (international section) and loves it! I was a bit worried because it is known as being very academic and I really do not believe all this early focus on hard core learning is beneficial (and the researh backs this up) but so far (only her 3rd week) she seems really interested and stimulated by everything and certainly not overwhelmed. All the other mum's I have spoken to have said the same- they mostly have girls, there is a high proportion of girls (which I think may be to do with the assessments as generally speaking girls handle these better). She loves her teachers who seem very nuturing and is very happy there despite the long days. They are certainly learning through play at this stage - they follow the British Early Years curriculum which is pretty similar to Australia (although they do start school a bit earlier in UK, not much but a bit). Hope this helps and good luck, know this school thing is a minefield! So much easier when they just go to the local school down the road.....
 
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