How old was your child when.............

[jesszac610]

DS 3, DD first grade.... It amazes me the different learning styles each of my kids have!

 

[LindaR]

I don't know if this made any difference.....but I'd like to think it did. Books/reading has always been VERY important to me. I started reading to my daughter as soon as I brought her home from the hospital. She learned to read in K4 (at age 4) and then she began reading her books to ME! She is now 18 and still loves to read. I hope that she does the same one day for her kids. Books - yes, TV - no.

 

[Beca]

My dd started reading on her own when she was two (really surprising since she didn't start speaking until she was two....freaky kid!!). She is now in preschool (she turned five 3 months ago), and just finished reading her second chapter book.

 

[ZachnElli]

My oldest DS didn't start reading the basics until 1st grade, so age 6-7. He really struggled. Ended up with and IEP at the end of 1st grade. In 3rd grade, he got a great teacher who said he didn't need it and inspired him to do better and he did! He's a really good student now in 6th grade, I never have to remind him to do his homework or read! DD was 4 1/2 and I got a book, something like Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Leasons. She took right to it and is a great reader now in 2nd grade. Since we did summer school, tutors, etc. with our oldest, I was very proactive with her.

 

[Bunchkin]

DD was reading prior to kindergarten.
We always read a lot to her and she picked it up rather easily.

She is in 3rd grade now and is reading at a 6th grade level.


DS is in preschool and is just beginnning to be interested in words and sounding them out.

 

[RunDanceSkate]

DS13 was reading well before he started JK at 4.5 yrs old, Magic Treehouse type books. Curious George was his fav. By 1st grade his fav book was my old grade 13 physics book. Does anyone need to know exactly how a refridgerator works, just ask him. Sharing time was very interesting that year, his whole class learned alot. He reads phonetically, which can be quite funny sometimes when he says a word that he has read many times but not heard often. He was talking at cadets about a new technique in treating a wound (open cut) but he kept calling it a wound (like I wound up the ball of yarn). He is a great speller.

DD10 could read when she entered JK at 3yr 9months. She loves to read but prefers Archie's digest, Lizzie , and Zoey 101. It doesn't matter to her if they are in English, French, Dutch or Spanish, although she only speaks French and Englich fluently. She reads by memorization and is a poor speller.

Both kids never leave the house without a book. A familiar phrase as we head out the door, "It's 10min from here to the rink, you only need ONE book".

Cindy

I never read to either child because I stutter badly. They learned to read on their own from sing-along videos and other kid shows.

 

[ckay87]

You're not going to catch me bragging on how early my kids read. But having a 14 year old who is an amazing reader...really amazing...I can look back and tell you that it simply didn't matter at all when he started. He learned probably in first grade - no sooner really. But it was effortless - he just took off with it.

They changed the requirements when younger DS came to school. It became kindergarten when they needed to know so many words by a certain time. It was SHOVED down their throats and you know what? He despised reading. To this day, although he is a fine reader in 4th grade, he could really do without it. Perhaps it would have been that way no matter what, but the schools making it such a h*llish chore certainly didn't help.

Oh and background - we're a reading family since day one. Always read at bedtime, library trips, etc. I have a degree in English. So I'm not just pulling my opinion out of nowhere.

In the span of a lifetime, IMO, just doesn't matter what whether a kid learns to read at 4, 5, or 6, it's that he learns to like to read. The schools do an amazingly crappy job of that.

EDITED to add...sorry for the rant. I know you didn't ask for all of that. I just feel kind of strongly about it. Sory

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

Well, let's see:

DD11 started reading at 4.

DS9 started reading at 3 and was reading adult books at age 4. They tested him at the beginning of K and he got 95% at the sixth grade level. They gave up testing him.

DD3 started at 2 years, 4 months, but we haven't been making a big deal out of it.

DS1 isn't reading yet.

Beca, you may be interested in reading "Late Talking Children" by Thomas Sowell. DS9 walked and talked very late--we were told he was ******** and would have difficulty learning to read. Shows what "they" know. His speech therapist recommended Sowell's books because they were so spot on.

The biggest problem we have in this house, aside from books everywhere, is that some books the kids can read aren't appropriate for their age.

 

[Beca]

Beca, you may be interested in reading "Late Talking Children" by Thomas Sowell. DS9 walked and talked very late--we were told he was ******** and would have difficulty learning to read. Shows what "they" know. His speech therapist recommended Sowell's books because they were so spot on.

Thank you!! I will actually look up that book. We put my poor dd through SOOO many tests before she turned two...3 hearing tests (didn't know they had such difficulty "testing" little ones), and 6 months of speech therapy (which absolutely didn't work). Her dr. was going to test her for autism, but she just didn't appear autistic to any of us. She suffered a head injury at 4 months, so we were watching her pretty closely. I think she is just "normal" for her.....kids are all different in pretty amazing ways.

Thanks for the tip. I'm going to look it up at Amazon right now.

Beca

 

[mommasita]

We are an english speaking family, in a french province. Having said that, my kids go to school in 100% french until grade 3, then half/half.

DS11, was probably 6 before he caught on at all.

DD8 read at 4 in both languages, and is now reading at a grade 7 level. I am so happy for this, don't push it, but she is like her Mom in something at least.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

ckay87, I think you make a good point. Where we are, kgarten isn't as much about "fun" anymore, as much as it is about beginning prep for standardized testing even then.

My DD was reading in preschool, when she got to kgarten she was placed in an advanced reading group.

Her twin brother, OTOH, had very little interest in reading; he wanted to be out running around having fun. On the advice of a friend who's a reading specialist, we didn't push him. I continued to read to him often, and he saw that the rest of us were enjoying reading, but still, it just wasn't his thing.

By second grade, he'd fallen behind, and he began working with the reading specialist at his school. He did NOT like being pulled out of the classroom at all, he was embarrassed. He also had to attend a summer reading camp last summer and he missed his beloved baseball camp with all of his friends because of it. I think that motivated him to begin trying harder. He also was required in 2nd grade to read at least 30 mins/night and we had to sign off that he did so.

I went out and bought dozens of books that would interest him and were at his reading level. We are a reading family, and set a good example in the household, having quiet reading time a lot. Books everywhere - every room in the house, the car, beach bags, etc. By 3rd grade, he was reading at grade level and no longer had to work with the reading specialist. I've heard that many kids with reading difficulties "get it together" by 3rd grade, especially boys, and for us this seemed to be true.

Our school is huge on reading. Big push on reading for all the kids. I think in part it's because of testing, but also just because reading is such a great foundation for all schoolwork, and life, actually.

The kids are now in 3rd grade. They just had a "reading challenge" in prep for their first standardized tests (MCAS.) It was really great, a nice little celebration at the end with gold medals and pizza. Somehow all this reading has finally created a love of reading in DS, thankfully. He's reading everything, including the sports page of the newspaper, and anything else he can get his hands on. Granted, he's still running around outside most of the time, but all these years of hard work with him have finally paid off, I'm so happy for him.

Good luck with whatever challenge you're facing, Beca.

 

[Makdyn]

dd 6 was reading in pre-school age 4. Right now she is in 1st grade and I just got her report card and she is on a 2nd grade reading level. Her teacher say by the end of the year she will be on a 3rd grade level.

dd 3 is getting interested in learning to read.

 

[Beca]

BuzznBelle's Mom....THANK YOU!!! I just ordered a copy of his book!!

mamasita....you are so lucky to have your children get a bi-lingual education. I can imagine learning two primary languages could get confusing when learning language structure and writing. But, the benefits are SOO wonderful. We are in Texas where no such schools exist. We are looking at sending our dd to a private school that teaches all subjects in English, but has "non-essential" conversations only in French. It's the best we can do down here.

 

[disneygals]

I also read to my 3 girls constantly.

oldest...end of K, beginning of 1st- now 9th grade doesn't seem to care about grades anymore, but reads constantly.

middle...well into 1st grade..doesn't enjoy reading much...7th straight A student

youngest... 1st grade..enjoys reading sometimes...5th straight A student

Giving detail in case anyone is worried about their child reading later. It seems like it doesn't matter much when they get it.

 

[Nette]

My DD is 4 and is starting to read sentences. She's been able to recognize her name for ages, and has been doing sight words for a while too.

My Grandmother used to teach primary school, and said she loved to teach the 1st graders because something would just click in the middle of the year and the kids would start reading. She always got credit for it, but she says really, it's just a time when the child's brain turns a light on.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Sometime between 3 and 4. He's 6 now and reading around a 2nd or 3rd grade level.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

Beca--I can SOO relate to what you've been through! DS9 didn't walk until 18mo, didn't talk until age 2--we were told he was ********, autistic, epileptic (he also passes out easily--fun stuff on top of the delays), and deaf. Thankfully, he's none of the above, but we cried so many tears for him when he was little! I have Sowell's second book on the subject, "The Einstein Syndrome", and I swear, DS9 could be on the cover.

BTW, we ended up doing outside language tutoring for our older two. We chose German, since MIL speaks it fluently. We were in the position of, what do you do with a child who is way above the curve? We didn't feel it desirable to just push them to read harder books. As I mentioned, the content, while fine for teens or adults, isn't always approrpiate for a much younger child. So we felt language tutoring would develop them in a slightly different direction. We stopped only because both kids have now tested into our gifted pull-out 1 day/week, so we figure they're getting enrichment that way. But you may want to consider this if you can't find a school that offers what you're looking for.

 

[Beca]

Beca--I can SOO relate to what you've been through! DS9 didn't walk until 18mo, didn't talk until age 2--we were told he was ********, autistic, epileptic (he also passes out easily--fun stuff on top of the delays), and deaf. Thankfully, he's none of the above, but we cried so many tears for him when he was little! I have Sowell's second book on the subject, "The Einstein Syndrome", and I swear, DS9 could be on the cover.

BTW, we ended up doing outside language tutoring for our older two. We chose German, since MIL speaks it fluently. We were in the position of, what do you do with a child who is way above the curve? We didn't feel it desirable to just push them to read harder books. As I mentioned, the content, while fine for teens or adults, isn't always approrpiate for a much younger child. So we felt language tutoring would develop them in a slightly different direction. We stopped only because both kids have now tested into our gifted pull-out 1 day/week, so we figure they're getting enrichment that way. But you may want to consider this if you can't find a school that offers what you're looking for.

Thank you for all your help....I REALLY appreciate it!!!