QotW #5: Learning to Read

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Do you remember learning to read? How old were you? What was it like for you?

[Random]

I started to learn how to read somewhere around 4 or 5 years old. I can remember being able to read all of the little books we had in my kindergarten class without difficulty, not that stuff like Dick and Jane was very difficult. :)

I have vivid memories at the age of 3 wanting to read so incredibly badly. I hated having to beg people to read stories to me. And if they did, it was always something really short and then they would stop. It was never enough.

[Nyssa]

I do not remember learning to read.

According to my mother, I was reading by age 3 due to attending a Montessori early education program. It didn't hurt that both of my parents were English teachers at one point (before they met and married).

[Lindsey]

I remember being 3 and suddenly realizing that the little black squiggles on the pages were how my mom knew the words to say and desperately wanting to do that myself so I didn't have to wait on an adult to read to me. I was reading independently by 4 but don't really remember the process in between. Both of my kids learned to read independently by 5 as well.

[Shel, Moderator]

I don't remember learning, but I think I was around 4. I do remember that I was one of only two kids in my kindergarten class who already knew how to read, and the teacher's aide would pull the two of us out in the hall to practice while the other kids had their phonics lessons.

My son was a bit of a late reader - it didn't really click for him until 2nd grade - but he's caught up with his peers now (about to start 6th grade) and loves to read. My daughter finished first grade in June with an end-of-second-grade reading level, so no worries there! :)

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I don’t actually remember learning to read. I remember that it came easily to me and it was hard for me to understand that reading was difficult or confusing for some children. I don’t remember being read to as a child, although I’m sure I was, and I don’t remember reading in kindergarten, either, just the Dick, Jane and Sally books in first grade. I know I loved the library, both in school and the public library, and I read voraciously.