Ex-MOE Teacher Says Don’t Have Kids If You Can’t Teach Them How To Read

A former MOE teacher, Lenny Rehman, has hit out at parents who don’t teach their kids to read. In a Facebook post she expressed her disappointment at the fact that, “In this day and age that there are kids in p1 who DO NOT KNOW HOW TO READ.” Clarifying that she wasn’t referring to special needs kids, Lenny reveals that, “They cannot even recognize simple sight words such as "he", "she", "it", "the", "is".” She asks why parents can't spend a few minutes every day to teach their children how to read. Reading is one of the most essential skills they can teach their children, she says. “You CANNOT spare 30 mins every day to read to/with your child?! Wouldn't or rather SHOULDN'T you as parents want your kids to have a better life than you did?!?” And she has a strong word of advice for parents who are too busy working and don’t have the time to spend - “Don’t have kids.” “Busy working but you CANNOT spend time with your kid? Then why have kids in the first place?!” “BTW, reading IS a basic necessity besides food, clothes, shelter. Depriving your child of basic education, is depriving your child of a better future”, she says. This is her Lenny’s full post on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lenny.syafawatie/posts/2232810843416771 Parents, here are some simple tips to teach your child to read: -Set aside some time every day to read to your kids. This will help increase their vocabulary and expose them to new words. -Make your reading sessions interactive. Talk to your kids a lot and ask them questions. The best way to learn a language, is to hear it a lot. -Teach phonics or letter sounds. Kids are usually ready to learn phonics when they are 4-5 years old. Once they can grasp the concept of joining these sounds to form a word, reading becomes fun and easy! -Teach them sight words. Sight words are those which don’t follow the laws of phonics, and which the child is required to memorise by sight, so they can recognise them immediately. They include words like “who”, “the”, “he”, “does”, “their”, “me”, “be” etc Mums and dads, do share how you taught your children to read!