The problem with teaching is that there can be collateral consequences on motivation. But as long as those aren't negative, I don't see a problem with teaching reading. I think most kids would become good readers more quickly with instruction, even if they are beginning to read on their own.

I don't see it as any different from teaching a kid to speak. They're both intelligence enabling skills that have to be learned, and if it's helpful I will grease the wheels a bit. As a result I expect my kids to have a richer set of knowledge early on, to take advantage of the early years better.

The only way I would not consider teaching verbal and written language skills is 1) if my child already was advancing so fast, on their own, that I could not figure out a way to help the process along, or 2) the teaching was having an adverse effect, which would simply mean that I was doing it wrong.

We teach our kids to speak. Why not to read and write? I think it is natural for a parent, when she hears her kid trying out a new word, to weave into the conversation a couple of different uses of the word, etc. I notice good parents doing such things often. Reading is different because it doesn't come up in everyday life so constantly. Unless one wants to teach one's child to read merely in the context of signs etc. as they come up, some level of structure is implied, in my opinion.

Striving to increase my rate of flow, and fight forum gloopiness. sick