The thing parents most often ask us to do
Why we do not teach reading to four-year-olds
This is the request we receive most often and the one we decline most consistently. Here is the whole argument, including the part where we say what we would do instead.
We do not teach reading to four-year-olds. We do not teach reading, worksheets or timed drills to children under five, and we will not start because a family asks. The year before kindergarten is best spent on stamina, independence, language and getting on with other children — managing a coat, a lunch, a queue and a toilet, and asking an adult for help. A four-year-old who can do those things and cannot yet read is ready for school. A four-year-old who can read and cannot do those things is not, and no nursery selling you the first list will tell you that.
A parent asking whether we teach reading is not being pushy. They are being responsible: they have been told, by advertising and often by other parents, that a child who starts kindergarten already reading has an advantage, and they do not want their child to be the one who is behind.
We think the premise is wrong, we think it is sold hard, and we think the version of early education it produces is worse for children in ways that are not visible until later. So the answer is no, and this page is the reason rather than a policy line.
What we actually do instead
Talk, constantly, and about things that are in front of the child. Vocabulary and the back-and-forth of conversation are the strongest thing an early-years setting contributes to later reading, and they are built in the ordinary business of a day rather than in a session.
Read aloud, in small groups, at least twice a day, and let children handle books. Sing, rhyme, clap syllables and play with the sounds in words, which is the part of pre-reading that has genuine support behind it and looks nothing like a worksheet.
And play. Long, uninterrupted, mostly child-led, with materials that do more than one thing. That is where the negotiating, the planning, the frustration and the persistence happen, and those are the capacities a five-year-old actually needs.
What kindergarten readiness consists of
Managing a coat, a lunch, a bag and a toilet without an adult. Waiting. Queueing. Sitting for a short while in a group and getting up again without a scene. Asking an adult for help, which is harder than it sounds and is the single most useful thing a child arrives able to do.
Stamina, which is genuinely underrated. Six hours away from home is a long day for a five-year-old and a child who is exhausted by eleven cannot access anything else on the list.
Separating from you at a door and recovering quickly. Handling not getting what they wanted. Repairing things with another child after a fight. Diego, who sees these children come back at half past three still in the uniform, is unambiguous that this list is what makes September go well or badly.
The trouble with the alternative
Drilling letters at four produces children who can perform letters at four. Whether that persists as an advantage is much less clear than the marketing implies, and it is not free — the time comes out of the play that was doing the other work.
It also teaches something about what learning is. A child who has spent a year being corrected on worksheets has learned that this is a thing done to you, that there is a right answer somebody else holds, and that being wrong is uncomfortable. That is a difficult disposition to unteach and it shows up years later.
And it sorts children early. The four-year-old who is slower with letters, often for reasons of development rather than capacity, learns that they are the one who finds this hard. There is no version of a worksheet-based room where that does not happen.
Why we will not do it if you ask
Because a nursery that adjusts its educational approach per family does not have an educational approach, and because doing it for one child in a room means doing it in front of the others.
And because we would be doing it to relieve an anxiety rather than to help a child, which is the definition of selling something. It would be easy, families would be pleased, and it would be the least defensible thing in the building.
What we will always do is sit down and go through what your child can actually do, with the observations in front of us. Almost every time, the honest answer to a worried parent is that their child is entirely typical and the thing to do is nothing.
Where we would be wrong
If your child is showing genuine interest in letters and words — asking what a sign says, wanting to write their name — we follow that, and enthusiastically. Refusing a child who is reaching for something would be as ideological as drilling one who is not.
The distinction is who is initiating. A child pulling towards print gets everything we have. A curriculum pushing print at a room full of four-year-olds regardless of where any of them are is the thing we are declining.
And if you have a specific concern about your child's language or development, that is a different conversation entirely, it is not about academics, and we would rather have it early. Our observation and referral page explains where that goes.
In order
How this works in practice
Ask what a nursery does instead of academics
A setting declining worksheets should be able to describe what fills that time in detail. Vagueness here is a bad sign in the opposite direction.
Ask about talk
How much adults talk with children, in what group sizes, and whether home languages are used. This is the strongest lever an early-years setting has on later reading.
Judge readiness by the practical list
Coat, lunch, toilet, queue, asking for help, lasting the day. If those are in place, letters will come.
Follow your child rather than the year
A child reaching for print should get everything. A room drilling print at everyone is a different thing.
Separate worry about letters from worry about language
They feel similar and they are not. The second is worth raising with us early and has its own route.
Questions we are actually asked
Why we do not teach reading to four-year-olds — frequently asked
Will my child be behind in kindergarten?
Almost certainly not because of this. The children who struggle in September are overwhelmingly the ones who cannot yet manage a day away from home, ask an adult for help or recover from a setback — not the ones who arrived without letters. Diego sees them come back at half past three and this is consistently what he reports.
Do you teach the alphabet at all?
Letters are around, in books, in names and in the ordinary business of a room, and children who are interested get everything we have. What we do not do is teach them as a scheduled subject to a room full of four-year-olds regardless of whether any of them are reaching for it.
What about children who are already reading?
Then they read, and we make sure there is something worth reading. Following a child who is ahead is the same principle as following one who is not, and neither is a reason to run the room differently for everybody.
Isn't play just play?
No, and the distinction matters. Long, uninterrupted, mostly child-led play with materials that do more than one thing is where planning, negotiation, persistence and frustration tolerance get built. It looks like nothing much is happening, which is exactly why it photographs badly and gets cut first.
Would you change this if enough parents asked?
No. A nursery that adjusts its educational approach per family does not have one, and doing it in a room means doing it in front of the children it is not right for. We will always go through what your child can actually do, with the observations in front of us.
Read next
Related reading
Tuesday and Thursday mornings, while the children are here
Come and see the room
A tour here happens during a session, in the room your child would actually be in, at the time of day they would be in it. You meet the person who leads that room rather than only the director, and you see the noise and the mess that are genuinely there. It takes an hour. If your child is three or four we will ask whether you have applied for free 3-K or Pre-K for All before we quote you a rate, because a good many families should not be paying us at all.