Learning to read

[den68]

My daughter is in Kindergarten and they are already being taught to read. She already knows close to one hundred sight words and she's only 5. They even have tests. I don't recall doing much besides playing and coloring in kindergarten. One of my nieces and several of my friends kids are in kindergarten and none of them are doing reading yet. My daughter is doing great and she loves it but are they expecting a lot from kindergarten kids?

anyone remember when they started to read?

[Izret101]

I was reading headlines off the newspaper when i was 4-5 it is good that she is being taught to read at a younger age and even better that she enjoys it.

[Lord Nepenthean]

I know I was starting to read and write before kindergarten.  I guess my parents and grandmother were teaching me.  In kindergarten, there were three kinds who had been held back a year so they did advanced work that was different than everyone else.  They had me doing that stuff with them because the regular work was below my level.  Every month or so, we got a new "journal" which we were supposed to write in every day.  Then we would come in the following day and read it aloud to the class.  That way we got practice doing both.  It drove my teacher nuts because she knew I was capable of much more, but every day, my entry was, "I had Cheerios for breakfast."  I didn't mind the writing, but I FEARED reading it aloud to the class.

[bum-man]

My oldest son (who is now in 2nd grade) started reading in Kindergarten.  I think the computer did give them tests on what they read but they were not counted as part of his grade, I think it just got them used to taking tests and let the computer know what to offer them next.  He has loved reading ever since, I have trouble keeping book around that he hasn't read.  Thank God I frequent thrift stores!!  When I was in kindergarten we didn't do anything like that, it was only half day and yet somehow we fit in a nap!!  I also remember finger painting being a highlight.  I guess things have changed.

[Izret101]

When i was in 5th grade they ran this program where books had point values assigned to them and getting so many points earned you stuff.  It was cool.
I had the second highest in the school at 125ish and the girl ahead of me was 150ish i think.
It got me to read Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows. Both 10 point books.

I think if you got 75 you were invited to a pizza party but i don't remember the number anymore. Stuff like that encouraged everyone to read. Most of my grade was at the party.

[sinning.dragon]

I started reading at about 3 (or so I'm told) and then tought my little sister to read when she was 3 (which made me 5).

Only we didn't read in kindergarten. We made animals out of fruit rollups and raisins and then were taught to count to one hundred in spanish and english. I always forgot 18, though.

[Lord Nepenthean]

18 is easy in Spanish.  It's numbers like 15 and 50 that are a huge pain in the butt to remember.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

I lernded to red when i wus in kintergardn.

Wow that was lame, anyway I think it's good to teach your kid to read as soon as possible. And most importantly not to type like a half literate rapper  on instant messaging.

[TraderJake]

According to the parent's lore, I read my birthday card on my third birthday, some seventeen years ago. As to whether that's really true or not I do not know, I was just a little one back then. I do know that by kindergarten though I was able to read Berenstein Bears and a few larger books as well, and that I skipped a year of preschool, because I could read at such a young age. Apparently, according to my mom, it was because I would very religously watch Scrabble and Sesame Street every day in the morning. As for writing I believe it wasn't until kindgergarten that I learned basic writing skills, and as far as I could remember my handwriting back then was horrid.

[den68]

according to her teacher the plan was for the kids to learn 100 sight words by the end of the school year. they have already exceeded that number. it's all memorizing, the teacher does not want them sounding anything out. they don't do phonics till 1st grade. my wife made up about 50 senrences from the words my daughter has learned so far. she read them all to me. it's pretty amazing, she just turned 5 the end of November and she's reading sentences. it's pretty cool seeing her get all excited about learning. yesterday we were doing flash cards and she said it was more fun than playing with her toys. today she ws doing a color by number and read the directions herself.

[Antimind]

I was able to read when I was about 3. My parents started teaching me at home pretty much as soon as I was learning to talk. Before that even they were teaching me to distinguish between colors and shapes and crap. I was able to read at a college level by the time I was about 7 (no, not joking). My buddy started teaching his daughter early on as well. She's 6 I think and she can read more complex books than most kids a few grades up. I think it has less to do with age and more to do with a person's capacity to learn, will, and how much they're taught early on.

My brother and I were both tested back in grade school and both came out at genius levels though... He's a whiz with math and science stuff and I can't do it above a 3rd-4th grade level. He's not as good with spelling and grammar as I am though. Anything mechanical he's just understood, never needed to learn really. Pretty amazing I think (he is). Honestly the only things that I've ever been really good at is working with people, talking (they -asked- me to read in church as a kid), reading/writing, and I seem to understand people a bit better than most. People that I don't like that generally don't like me have been known to walk up to me and spill when they have some real problems going on, looking for a solution. My brain works kinda weird really. I have a photographic memory and I'm known for carrying on 3 conversations at the same time with one person (just ask Mike).

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

I have 15 year old friend that has never read a real book. He did read a Far Side comics collection but thats it. He owns one real book: The Hobbit. And he never read past the first chapter.
He borrowed the Empire Strikes Back novel from me and read a paragraph, I have proof because he marked his progress with a pencil. I dunno whats wrong with him. Some kinda dislexia or what, but he even has a hard time sitting through movies and even playing video games.
Reason of this post: Uhhhhhh.... don't really know but heres something i just made up. Just don't let your kid be like him, I don't care what it takes, beatings, drugs, radiation therapy whatever just don't let your kids be like that.


P.S. Hey Mike, can Antimind carry on three conversations at one time?

[Lord Nepenthean]

Yes, she can.  And so can I.

[den68]

today was a quiz day and she aced it. woo hoo!

we started working with Allison very early on too. she speaks very well for her age. she has a rather extensive vocabulary and doesn't pronounce her l's and r's like w's like a lot of little kids do. when she first started talking we always helped her with the words she had trouble saying. a lot of parents let kids make up words for things they have trouble saying. I don't see how that helps. I also used to make her say things all the time. stuff like "What a lovely diner you've prepared Mother, tomorrow could we perhaps have rack of lamb?" sure I was mostly doing it to entertain myself but I think it really helped her learn to talk.

She also already knows all the characters from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, can recognize tunes by Black Sabbath, Ramones, Beastie Boys and others, and plays Mahjong.

yeah, I'm a proud poppa.

[Zimbacca]

I don't remember when I learned to read. I just assumed it was kindergarten or first grade.