I absolutely agree, pushing is not helpful.

Giving it a whirl was what I was thinking.

I'm interested to read here that its compulsory in the UK, the documentary I saw (last week) stated the opposite.

I've been reading books of stories and poems every night with my daughter since the day she was born.

I can see she has reached a point where she is keen to break the reading code and doesn't have the patience to analyse the spelling of a word in a story when it detracts and distracts from the story itself.

I like the emotional closeness and comprehension skill development that come with reading together. She asks a million analytical questions and fine hones her perceptions and we enhance our relationship and communication.

I can see the value of having seperate time set aside to learn reading skills, which she could test out if she so wished when we read a book together at the end of the day without any pressure from me to prove anything.

I like the sound of George Papavgeris fathers approach.

George, perhaps if you don't mind and you are able to remember, you could provide examples of such games and what you used to have to do?

I could then develop my own version to suit my little one.