Brian,

Would this book in your opinion be helpful for the under-five beginner (with parental assistance)? Or if not, are there any approaches or texts you would recommend?

I have no intention of being a pushy parent, but my son has started showing interest in reading and writing of his own accord, and I see no harm and a lot of benefit in encouraging him (in a non-pushy manner)

thanks
Alan

Alan

Yes I probably shouldn’t have said “pushy parent”.  I meant it in a good way, but I suppose most people see it as pushing a child where it doesn’t want to go.

I think the Butterfly Book is very good, although I don’t rate myself as any kind of expert on such things.

It is strong on exercises that improve reading and writing skill, but not, to start with, so strong on enjoyable stories.  If your son would like to get started reading and is eager to try doing what that takes, relatively painlessly, then I’d say give it a go.

At the training course, Irina Tyk, the author, was the main speaker, and was most impressive.  Summarising what she said brutally, her message was, get the book and do what it says.  It works.  I believe her.

I entirely agree about encouraging children to read and write as soon as they are showing interest.  Children vary a lot, according to every parent I know (without exception) who has had more than one.  But, the sooner they can start reading and writing without grief, the better.  I should imagine that just by sharing a house with you, your son is completely sold on the value of doing this.

By the way, something else I learned about the Butterfly Book today was that almost all the recent rush of orders for it, following the Daily Mail plug, have come from parents and grandparents, and almost none from schools.

"Pushy parent” is indeed a tricky term. The worst interpretation, I gues, would be parents who drive their kids to Achieve, Achieve, Achieve whether they want to or not, and make the poor little sods stressed and neurotic. A bad teacher might well use it to mean a parent who puts pressure on a school to remedy deficiencies in the way a child is being taught.

Others could take it to mean simply parents - like me - who believe in taking an active role in encouraging their child’s development, but without pushing the child to do more than it is ready for, whilst at the same time always trying to make it clear that Daddy’s attention and approval aren’t dependent on whether he can read the word or ride the bike. It’s a tricky balancing act.

My attempt to be non-pushy but cunning yesterday was to stop Jack’s writing session while he still wanted to do more, (a) so that he doesn’t run out of ability to concentrate and (b) in the hope that he’ll then be more motivated to do more the next day.

I checked amazon.de in the hope they might have the Butterfly book in stock - sometmes they do still have things that are out of stock in the UK, but not this time. So I have it on back order.

I agree with Alan. Each child is different and the parent should not be too pushy.