Why you shouldn't leave teaching reading to your child's kindergarten teacher

Here’s a possibly unpopular opinion — you shouldn’t rely on your child’s preschool teacher to ensure that your child has a good foundation in reading.

There, I’ve said it. To be fair, though, this is not because I think that preschool teachers are incompetent.

But if you assume that ‘the school will take care of it’, there is a real risk that small gaps in your child’s understanding may slip through the cracks. These gaps are often easy to address when spotted early, but can become significant obstacles if left unnoticed.

There are five reasons why I strongly believe YOU (the parent) should take an active, informed role in supporting your child’s reading development — even if they have a wonderful teacher.

“But I’m not a preschool teacher – I don’t know how to help my child with reading and writing.”

If you want to support your child’s literacy but don’t know where to start, my workshop Raising Confident Readers is made for you.

It’s a clear, practical guide to equip parents with the skills and knowledge they need to help their preschooler thrive in reading and writing. You can find more details here.

Now for my five reasons:

1. Teachers are Very Busy People

Preschool teachers have a lot on their plates. 

In the course of a single morning, they might be helping one child learn to share, comforting another who misses their mummy, wiping noses, and somehow still managing to teach letters, numbers, and songs about the days of the week.

Even the most dedicated teacher has limited time and energy, and ensuring phonics mastery must compete with a host of other priorities that are also genuinely important. This is not a criticism; it is simply the reality of classroom life. Literacy instruction is just one item on a very long to-do list.

2. Reading is way more than phonics

Phonics is important, but it is only one piece of the puzzle.

Long before children begin sounding out words, they are developing other key foundational skills: building vocabulary, listening comprehension, attention span, background knowledge, and an understanding of how stories work.

At the same time, phonics is a crucial part of learning to read, and it is important that children build this knowledge systematically and thoroughly.

If there are gaps (perhaps they are shaky on certain letter-sound correspondences, digraphs, or blending), those gaps can make reading far more difficult than it needs to be.

Raising a strong reader requires both: rich language skills and solid phonics knowledge. And it's almost impossible for an exceedingly busy preschool teacher to provide both for her students.

3. Prevention is better than remediation

I think most parents understand that a good foundational understanding is key to excelling in any subject.

Unfortunately, one of the trickiest things about early reading is that gaps are not always obvious.

A child may know the alphabet song, recognise the letters, and appear to be doing well, while still missing some of the underlying knowledge needed to decode confidently.

These gaps can remain hidden for quite some time, and may only become apparent when reading demands increase in the early primary years.

By then, catching up can be much more difficult and frustrating. It is far easier to build strong foundations than to untangle confusion later.

A little informed support in the preschool years can make a remarkable difference. Which unfortunately brings me to my fourth point:

4. Schools must teach the group, not the individual

Our current education system is designed to educate a large population in the most efficient way possible (meaning producing adequate results using the least resources possible). 

This means that in the standard preschool classroom, one English teacher is trying to teach between 12 (at 18-months-old) to 30 (!!!) 6-year-olds. 

People have been bringing up the class-size / teacher-student ratio issue for a while, so I won’t belabour the point here.

Let me simply summarise by saying that to be effective, teachers need to move at a pace that works reasonably well for most of the class. But children do not all learn in the same way or at the same speed.

In a classroom setting, it is simply not possible to tailor the lesson to fit an individual child. Yet individual attention is incredibly powerful. It’s why private tuition can cover in a single hour what schools go through in 5 hours.

But before you start looking up phonics tuition classes, let me share my fifth and most crucial reason why YOU are the best person to take on that role.

5. No one knows your child better than you

Your child’s teacher may be warm, attentive, and highly skilled, but they are not you.

You know whether your child thrives on active movement, needs more flexibility, or tends to internalise worries. You know their strengths, weaknesses, and personality quirks.

You also know the kind of person you are trying to raise.

Perhaps you want to nurture curiosity, independence, or a deep love of truth and beauty. Perhaps your child is naturally highly sensitive and shy, and you want to build their confidence and resilience without making them feel like they are less than anyone else. Perhaps your cultural heritage or spiritual faith matters deeply to you, and you want to raise your child who holds similar values.

Here’s the thing: reading instruction is never just about decoding words on a page. What makes English/reading so essential is that it is the skill on which all other subjects depend. Reading shapes a child’s confidence, values, and relationship with learning itself.

And because of your close relationship with your child, you are uniquely positioned to notice when something isn’t clicking, to tailor support to their personality. Your insight into your child and your love for your child are precisely what make you the best teacher your child could have.

You are also the person best positioned to ensure that their reading journey aligns with the values and character you hope to cultivate. It is a tremendous opportunity to speak into your child’s life.

You DON’T need to become the teacher

As some of you may know, I homeschool my children. But just to be clear, I am 10000% NOT saying you need to homeschool your child. That’s not for everyone, and I totally get it.

I’m also not suggesting that your child’s preschool teacher is failing.

The point is simply that if you leave your child’s reading development entirely in the hands of the school, there is a real possibility that small gaps in their phonics knowledge or language development will go unnoticed. 

Those gaps are often quite manageable when caught early, but they can become much more frustrating if left to compound over time. Sometimes, a few minutes of focused practice and some joint read-aloud sessions can make all the difference.

In other words, you do not need to take over the role of the teacher. You also don’t need a phonics certification to ensure your child has a strong foundation in reading and literacy.

But a little knowledge and some intentional support can make a remarkable difference.

Need more help?

If you’ve been thinking, Sure, this makes sense, but also, I really don’t know enough to help my child?? — consider checking out my workshop: Raising Confident Readers. 

It’s a 1.5h online workshop designed to demystify phonics and equip parents with the knowledge and skills they need to support their child in the early years.

I will be covering the following topics:

• The top mistakes parents make when teaching kids to read (and how to avoid them)
• When to introduce different phonics skills
• How to identify gaps in your child's reading skills
• Simple, practical steps to build strong foundations in literacy

Whether you have a baby in utero or a kindergartener preparing for primary school, this workshop will help you cut through the noise and focus on what matters most, so that you can set the right foundation from the start and support your child with calm, confidence, and clarity.