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. Even if you barely interact with your child, how hard is it to park them in front of Sesame St or Dora instead of Spongebob or Rugrats? Or even pop in a Baby Einstein DVD?
My 6 year old son, who is just entering kindergarten, most assuredly cannot read. He's just now getting around to reading "The Foot Book"
I'm pretty sure I was reading chapter books by that age.
We have a list of "sight words" that they are supposed to learn in kindergarten, which are very very basic words. And he's apparently not outside the norm.
My twins who are 5 were given a list of "sight words" for Kindergareten at the start of this school year. They are very basic, but even at that there are a lot of parents only 7 weeks into school in a panic that their kids won't pass Kinder because of the "must pass 70% at end of year" rule here in LA. I keep assuring them that it will be ok, and that they aren't expected to be reading novels by the end of the year. As the other poster pointed out there is a HUGE range of abilities in the K-1st years. DS8 was reading Narnia by 5 but our twins are reading 1-2 lines per page books with fairly simple words that they can sound out, while some of their friends aren't able to read sight words at all, and some are still struggling to read in 2-3rd grade.
I myself was a late reader. I remember very clearly being put in the "slow" reader group in 1st grade because it was with a boy I didn't like. After a few years I was light years ahead of most of my peers in reading/comprehension. Its not about parents and how much they push, expose, don't push, don't expose their children too educationally, some suck it up with a straw and beg for more, some don't, some pretend they know nothing when they are really just digesting it and will spit it back out when they are ready...and that doesn't always happen in Kindergarten (ages vary greatly at entrance to school as well, my twins are very young K'ers turning 5 after school started this year, but they have classmates that run 5-7)
I specifically remember blossoming in 3rd grade with my reading. I took off. (That would be 2nd grade now because I went to a true Kindergarten and not the new K today where it is what used to be 1st grade). I don't consider myself gifted but I was the slow and steady 1st, 2nd grade laboring at learning to read and then when I reached the top of the mountain, it clicked.
My older son went along absorbing PreK instruction in letters and sounds and listening to a lot of literature. Then puttered along in K learning his sight words, learning his blending quietly absorbing all that was being taught to him. And boom one day near Spring Break he woke up and the day before I would have classified him as a non-reader...that day he was reading like a pro, like he had done it all his life...and it increased exponentially each week.
My second son about 4 asked me to teach him to read. He was the only one in the family who couldn't and he decided he didn't like that. I sat down with him and did like 7 full lessons from Teach your Child to read in 100 lessons. He didn't want to stop. I told him 7 was enough in one sitting and we could do 7 more the next day. He said "FINE!" and took the book with him (he didn't do all the small print exercises that the parent does orally, just the big print) and worked through the book by himself for another 2 hours, occasionally asking a question. Next thing I knew he could read. We did a lot of books where I would read one page and he would read the next. And he could read ANYTHING and would ask for explanations about everything he didn't understand.
My point is that everyone (gifted or not) has a different learning path in reading and for some it is quietly absorbing and one day clicking (flat line and then a leap), for some it is laborious slow and steady(a line with a steady slope), for some it is I want to read right now and by golly nothing is going to get in my way (big bang before school age).
And I think that it is so fun to watch someone break the code.
