I still take it for granted that all children would be able to read at least simple books like Green Eggs and Ham when they ENTER kindergarden. Apparently this is NOT the norm. But I also don't get it.
My DD was a (relatively) late bloomer, and didn't enter kindergarten reading. Everyone thought she would. Her preschool teacher flagged her as a "likely to read by the end of the year" kid. DD picked a couple of "how to read better" classes for summer camp (and the next summer, the camp clarified that 5yos needed to have finished K before enrolling...). She asked me to teach her how to read, and we got more than halfway through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons before the fact that she'd done everything the book told her to and still couldn't sound out a 2 or 3 letter word became too frustrating.
A couple weeks into K, the switch flipped, and she could read. But before that, she couldn't, and it wasn't for lack of either intelligence or effort.
