I would agree that as long as it is child-led and enjoyable for the child, "teach" as much as she wants. Given that you're worrying about hot housing, you won't be pushing her too much. It's the parents who are unaware they are pressuring their children who are in danger of hot housing. In any case, I believe it is generally the role of parents to teach their children to develop the skills necessary for independent adulthood. smile

I did teach mine, to varying degrees, and mainly by request. One has dyslexic qualities, and needed a bit more explicit instruction. Others learned mainly in the process of shared read-alouds, or from older siblings, with embedded phonics instruction and scaffolded reading by the child. Very little reading was taught in isolation (except for the child who received more OG-style instruction). One knew all the letter (primary) sounds for over a year before suddenly blending them into words, at which point it was a few short months to fluent independent reading. Others progressed on a smoother trajectory.


...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...