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    Joined: Feb 2014
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    I think how it all comes together really depends on your child.

    My DD knew the names of all the letters by age 2, but I'm embarrassed to say that it never occurred to me to tear her the letter sounds. She entered a Montessori preschool at about 2.75, where they DID teach her that letters had sounds, and by age 3 she could sound out most simple words (shocking her teacher, who hadn't actually gotten past "letters have sounds"). By age 6, her comprehension level was around 8th or 9th grade.

    DS (currently 6.5) knew all the letters around age 2 and the letter sounds shortly after, and around age 3 surprised me by deciphering small words "in the wild"--common words like "in" and "out" on doors. Around age 3.5 he asked to learn to read, but he didn't enjoy the work of actually sounding out words so it was kind of touch and go for a long time. His school taught no phonics until he entered a Montessori at age 4.5, at which point he was reading decently well and thus had no interest whatsoever in learning phonics. This has been a real struggle, actually, because he's learned a great many words but as sight words. He skipped Kindergarten and was placed in the highest reading group in his 1st grade class, but meanwhile I have sent him to tutoring because he couldn't spell to save his life and it was making him very frustrated. It's possible there may be something 2E going on with him.

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    Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
    She went from BOB books to Harry Potter in about six months. Not sure-- it was less than that, probably, because I only found out about the Harry Potter because it disappeared from the shelf and I found her with it late one night in her bed.

    DS8 is another one in this camp. He was not reading, and then seemingly a few days later he was reading at an uncapped level. For him, it was a desire to independently play Magic the Gathering (which requires reading cards with some pretty complicated vocab and comprehension requirements). It was funny because we were in the midst of sorting out dyslexia remediation options and then BAM he was reading.

    DS is not an "achiever" in school. He does the minimum necessary and is none to pleased about it. So, it is not unusual for me to engage in impostor syndrome thinking on his behalf. But then I remind myself of this and I recall that when that kid decides to learn something, it's already almost done. I think that might be a hallmark of PG kids (absent 2e hurdles - and sometimes even in spite of them).

    Fun times for you and your little one. Wait until the first night you wake up and find the flashlight under the covers at 3:00am!

    Sue

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    By 18 months if not earlier, DD was obsessed with books and reading. One of her first spoken words was "readabook." A favorite was a large format DK word book with tons of pictures. We parents did start providing assistance as this was a huge interest for her. By her 2nd birthday she made the transition from sight words to decoding, and she has been a voracious reader ever since (now 16 yo).

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    DD did not start reading until 5 and then really took off. She is 8 now and tests at a high school level, but we keep her at 5th grade for content.

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    My daughter knew her alphabet and a large number of phonetic sounds by the time she was 18 months. We would talk alphabet with her a little but it was never concentrated effort. I believe she learned a lot of it from Super Why. Not that she was watching hours of it, but she just has a memory that's outstanding. She absorbs everything. She was recognizing words by two something and I officially called her 'reading' by the time she was three. I didn't even believe it at first, I thought she had them memorized, but we'd give her a completely new book and she could read it.. She's five now and can read pretty much anything at all you give her. Content is the harder part. She reads a lot of 3rd grade level books (Ramona, etc) and they're honestly fairly easy for her. She can polish one off in 1-2 hours, but that's about the top of the content level for her. She's a reading maniac and it's been a non-stop ascent. Hard to keep up.

    My son is completely different, of course! lol smile

    I'd say.. just keep reading to him and if he starts to pick it up on his own, great.. if not, no worries. We just read so much to my daughter, from pretty much the time she was born. Even at a month old she would stare in rapt attention at a book. Sounds insane but she's just always loved books. So, just keep on reading and enjoying and he'll do his thing. smile


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    It's interesting that you say your daughter was drawn to books very early on. DS2 loved books and learned to crawl just to get to his books.

    What really freaks me out is I also have baby DS (7 weeks!) and while I remember DS2 being alert and looking at books our baby DS has what we call book lust. If I take the book away he cries! We have already had several book reading sessions last over 30 minutes. My thoughts are: Oh no! Another one!

    My two kids are already as different as night and day but I do hope they both love books.

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    My two kids were very different. My older DD started to decode individual works in K but didn't really read till late 2nd grade. While my DS17 took off reading/decoding works when he was a young 3. And stunning people when he'd read all the aquarium or zoo signs out load when he was 4. (I'm glad there was a 4.5 year old age difference between them at that point.) Although I'm sure it didn't hurt that we had all those early readers lying around because of my daughter.

    To be honest I'm not at all sure how he learned to read that young. He just figured it out on his own. Other parents in K used to quiz me about what i'd done and I'd just say except reading to my child & having lots of books in the house I didn't do anything particularly special.

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    Both my kids learned mostly by watching the Leapfrog Letter Factory and Word Factory DVDs. They really liked these and learned all the letter sounds from those and the idea that you put the letter sounds together to form a word. Then they started trying on their own to sound out words, guess how to spell words, etc.... We never really actively tried to teach them. We have a few reading-related games around too, and those might have helped too. I was reading somewhere that the age at which kids learn to read is based primarily on their interest in it.

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    I am beginning to think the reason DD5 learned to read has a lot to do with her fiercely independent spirit.

    I was shopping with another 5 year old girl who is very bright and precocious but she isn't a reader yet and it hit me how dependent she is on those who can read.

    Well, DD can be very controlling and it's something we're working. Not that I think it's bad for children to be assertive or strong-willed but we certainly have our moments.

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    DD4 is a beginning reader. She was drawn to books from probably 2-3 months old, knew upper/lowercase letters by 18 months, and started sight reading words at 2. But her development isn't progressing at some exponential rate, and obviously we're okay with that. We hadn't done much to teach her, until a few weeks ago when she really started showing interest in reading. So now I have her on BOB books and the "Ready to Read"-level books you mentioned. Like your child, she kinda memorizes; there's on Ready to Read book that she can read straight through, but it's a combo of reading and memorization. You give her another book at the same level and she struggles.

    We just had her parent-teacher conference for preK (I LOVE that school and that teacher; they are so supportive), and DD had a good number of words on the "instant" sight list but nowhere near all of them. The teacher said if she worked at it, she'd probably be able to read all the words but the point of the test is instant recognition. She lobbied the district to let her use the district's iRead program with her preKs that can read (DD plus another little boy who seems to be a legit fluent reader), and they denied her, so she's frustrated. I told her not to worry on our account; there's no reason DD needs to do the program in PreK. They start IRead in Kindergarten and it's self-paced, so if she wants to progress then, she can.

    I told the teacher that I'm more interested in her being able to be in a project-based/play setting like she is, because at home she's pretty obsessed with workbooks/traditional schoolwork. She needs the variety. I can't describe the look of relief on the teacher's face! I think she's used to pushy parents who want their kids to be accelerated all the time (I understand that the parents of gifted kids here might seem 'pushy' but really aren't and are advocating for their kids who need to be challenged; I'm not talking about y'all).

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