What a great discussion. My DS, now a sophomore, was asking how he learned to read. Apparently, one of his current HS teachers knew him when he was in pre-K and remembered how DS used to carry a book with him everywhere.
The teacher asked my son who taught him to read so young, to which DS replied, "Nobody -- I just started reading." That's how we always explained it to him. "And then one day you were reading -- straight up reading."
Skimming some of those articles above seems to validate my suspicion that while our reading to him regularly certainly helped, he is the one who put it all together.
One of my absolute favorite video clips is where he's reading the instruction booklet from CandyLand. He was barely three at the time and read straight through without a hiccup -- and without having ever seen or heard it before. Something like, "CandyLand is a game for small children, many of whom are too young to read." He reacted right away to the irony. (And he was also tickled to death by the "whom" for some reason.)
The school staff that go on & on with the "they all level out" nonsense drive me up the wall. If the OP is still here, DON'T let them get away with that!
Dandy
