Learning to read: our first big challenge

Although Laila has many advantages being tri-lingual (English, French and Breton), we're just coming up against the first real disadvantage challenge. She's 4.5yrs old, and more than ready to learn how to read. She loves books, always has done and now really really wants to read them by herself. If we were in England, she would already have started phonics at pre-school and this September she would be starting school and learning to read.
In France, school starts earlier, but reading starts later.
As Laila is schooled in Breton (see here), she will first be taught how to read in Breton. The preparation is now in maternelle, with phonics and other preparation of learning to recognise letters and sounds, then in CP (6-7yrs) she will finally be taught how to read. Because Breton is the first language in their school, French is taught later. Obviously the children can all speak French, as that's their maternel language and what they speak at home and in the playground. They will be taught how to read in French in CE1.
So where do we fit the English in? I know some paedatricians here recommend English parents wait until the French is established and others have recommended doing it before they learn to read in French. Each case is probably different, based on the parents languages, the childs exposure, and of course the childs ability.

So I haven't sought any professional advice as I can't see how paedatricians can know what's best, they don't exactly have a million cases of bi- or tri-lingual children to base their theories on. I asked my friend here who is in exactly the same situation as me. English mum, French dad, they have a girl who's now 8 and a boy who's 6, both at the same school as Laila. So basically they are us, but 4 years in the future!!

She based her decision on her childrens invididual needs and desires. So I think she taught one earlier than the other, because they were interested earlier. Sounds very sensible to me, definitely no point forcing a child to learn something if they're not ready. A concern she currently has though is finding the time to practice reading in English with them. They have lots of homework in French and Breton between them as well as out of school activities, so how much can you do? Something to consider in the future...

Back to us. I bought Laila lots of materials for when she was ready and they've become very useful now.
I'm going to write another post on how we're using them, but here's the list:

Usborne Phonics Flashcards



Usborne Phonics Readers Books

Everyday words flashcards (Usborne)



Oxford Reading Tree - Read at Home Book collection


We got these as a great bargain from The Book People a couple of years ago, they seem to have been updated since we bought them, see here.