I had a two year old who wanted to learn to read. She was my first. She already knew the alphabet and such, so I started to teach her to read. I didn’t have materials (and we were overseas), so I started making up materials to teach her. She learned some. Then she got stuck. We tried something else. Then we got stuck. When she was three, we started using the method I use on this site and it worked.
Here’s the problem. Their ability to read races ahead of their ability to comprehend. There are cognitive milestones that have to be reached one by one. There are life experiences that aid our understanding that a three year old just doesn’t have. If they start to read now, they won’t be able to keep on level and keep moving up. You are going to have to break at some point and let the rest of them catch up to their reading ability.
It’s not just cognitive development. Another area is the small motor skills necessary for cutting and writing. My daughter had excellent small motor skills, holding a pencil correctly at age 1 and using college lined paper at 5, but she turned out to be an artist. My sons, however, never could have done writing at at 3, which is what will be necessary if you start at two and continue on.
Does your 4 year old really need to be in first grade learning about biotic and abiotic? This curriculum already had kids finishing kindergarten at age 5 and reading at a third grade level. It’s already advanced. You don’t need to push it any further.
Please, let your little kids play on starfall.com if they want to learn to read. Give them a head start. When they are four, you can skip over the alphabet portion if they know it well and just go to the book at the end (Day 172). Don’t let them get discouraged because it becomes too hard.