Early Reading: Should Kids Start Reading in Preschool?

What’s Inside: A look at early reading and whether you should teach your preschooler to read. Spoiler: The right Preschool Read Aloud books give your young learner so much, but often homeschool moms & dads feel that it’s not enough to “just” read to them—that they should be actively teaching their preschoolers to read. The pressure to have their kid be a super-genius is enormous. At what age should you teach your kids to read?

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When should I teach my pre-schooler to read?

A friend asked me this. Here’s my answer:

First, why the rush? I’ve found that my kids learned to read on their timeline, not mine – my dyslexic son didn’t read until 6th grade!!! You can bet I was CRAZY and had tried all kinds of methods so I know a bit about the subject.

They say two keys to being a great reader later is phonemic awareness and vocabulary. And you get both of these with TONS of reading aloud to your kids.

Read good quality books (a.k.a. Living Books) and lots of them! Read as much as possible. The rhyming kind of books help with phonological awareness in general and rhyming is a good step towards reading.

You can encourage it, but you don’t want to force it. Like in math – the steps to learn math concepts can be broken into tiny bits too, just like English concepts. In Math, kids have to count first; then they need the ability to understand 1-to-1 correspondence.

I remember when my kids would count crazy-funny like this, “1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 7…” But don’t worry! My same kid who counted like that at age 2 or 4 taught himself calculus in 3 weeks when he was 16. Kids are amazing learners full of curiosity and wonder.

Read aloud Resources

Here’s the best resource on reading aloud – he’s got book lists by ages as well as why it’s so important. Jim Trelease’s Read Aloud Handbook (that’s an affiliate link – you should just request it at your library and see if you like it first.)

Answer to when should I teach reading to my preschooler? Don’t teach. Simply read many books aloud together with your child. Try to get living books.

And don’t worry about formal reading lessons. Or formal lessons of any kind before age 6.

But what about the parental peer pressure?

Under Pressure

It begins before they are born – “what preschool are you going to send them to?”

The pressure mounts each year as you choose to stay home with your kids and *gasp* teach them yourself.

Even as young as age 3, other parents are glibly bragging about the state-of-the-art preschool learning program at their ultra-exclusive early learning child development center. “My little Hortense knows her letters and read her first book today after composing a sonnet and building a working rocket!”

You feel like Steve Martin in that Parenthood movie scene where his kid is banging his head on the wall while the other kids are playing violin concertos.

But do you really need to compare?

First, take a deep breath.

Next, remember that all children are born persons.

Then, let’s sit back and think about this for a moment.

What do we mean by “Early reading”?

There is actually a specific name for kids who read extraordinarily early – hyperlexia. We’re talking about kids who can decode letters and are fascinated by that as early as age 2 or 3. And people get all worried about it because there is correlation (and some people say causation) to Autism. So there is some association with hyperlexia and lack of social skills.

This is NOT what I’m talking about.

Generally, the loose term “early reading” means age 5 or 6. Before age 7.

When Do Kids Learn to Read?

Yes, some kids read naturally at age 3. And yes, most don’t.

Of my sons, I mentioned my son who didn’t read fluently until age 12 (dyslexic, and yes, I was extremely panicked!).

My mom, who is 93 this year, apparently read when she was 3. She read the crime columns in the newspaper. (Not recommended for 3 year-olds!)

I don’t remember when I learned to read or how. But I was reading higher than grade level in first grade, when everyone else was learning. I read all the classroom books and we had to get more from the library. This was when schools were introducing that rather ineffective whole language method and trying to phase out phonics. Fortunately, they’ve reversed on that idea!

And my other 2 sons learned to read fluently in 2^nd grade about 6 months apart. From what I’ve seen, average age is somewhere between 1^st and 3^rd grade.

But is that when kids SHOULD learn to read?

Some countries like Finland don’t start teaching reading until age 7. By then, the child has matured to the point of a richer vocabulary and is ready to learn in certain ways. This is probably similar to the idea that Charlotte Mason promoted – that formal lessons shouldn’t start until age 6. By the way, the Finnish kids at age 7 will learn to read remarkably faster and easier than if you teach them earlier.

Yet, today’s educational influencers in the US are still urging kids to read earlier and earlier. Ever since the “No Child Left Behind” government program, the emphasis has been on teaching earlier and earlier. You’ll see all kinds of curriculum for kindergarten reading and writing.

When I went to public kindergarten, the point was to get the kids used to going to a school and being with other kids. Lots of play time, recess, snack time, nap time, and being read stories. We never had worksheets in Kindergarten. But I do remember coming home with some nice “pea and stick work” like macaroni glued to construction paper.

But is reading early a good idea?

Let’s take another step back.

Writing, of some kind, has been around for a very long time, and then, so has reading. But the average person (across all of history) never learned to read or write. Only a small segment of society like scholars or merchants or historians. The printing press changed that, naturally, and reading became more accessible.

Will technology change reading again? My dyslexic son prefers audio learning as well as video learning. He doesn’t like to read a book. He does listen to a large number of “books on tape” (currently called “audio books” since no one knows what a tape cassette player is anymore.)

Again, technology is affecting how we learn.

But is reading and writing old-fashioned and on its way to becoming extinct?

Key Points to Consider

Reading at age 3 is an exception. In general most kids are not ready. And forcing it can actually damage the kids because they while they are spending time “learning” reading, they are NOT spending time learning something else that is more age appropriate.
Remember to treat every kid individually because children are born persons.
They may be able to read, but before age 6 you should have no formal lessons.
- Use lots of games. And “games” has a pretty wide range of applications. They can be as simple as playing rhyming games.
- You should keep reading voraciously to them.
- Be teaching them habits like attention and observation through games and nature study.
- If they “read” by themselves, fine. But don’t start forcing them to read more books.
- If they don’t read, it’s also fine. When you start formal lessons at age 6 around, then all those games you’ve played and books you’ve read will be the jumping off point.
- Forcing reading lessons early can actually make the child dislike reading later on according to some studies.
Caveat: Children will naturally mimic older siblings. If an older kid sits down to do lessons, sometimes the younger wants to participate. Remember, they are playing a game, like “House” only in this case it’s “I’m pretending to be like big sister.” Give them a bucket of crayons and some paper if they want to sit at the table with you. It is fine and normal for them to participate, but should not be required.