How well could your child read and/or write before they started school...

[Vacancy]

How well could your child read or write before thay started school? My 11-year-old boy could only read the basics before he started (you know, cat, dog, ball, etc.), but my 6-year-old girl was much more into reading when she was young and could read and write pretty well before she began.

I mentioned this to a friend recently and she was amazed! It's normal for your kids to be able to read at least a little before they start school, isn't it? What do you think?

Thanks.

 

[fallon]

My daughter was reading and writting before Kindergarten and actually regressed because the class wasn't teaching at her level. I was pretty upset by this. She's now on the same level as most of her classmates which would be alright if we hadn't spent so much time working on these skills.

 

[NinJaBob]

We worked on it a lot but my some doesn't seem to get it. He just started Kindergarten and he's doing ok in there but for some reason we failed to teach him what he needed to know for kindergarten. He performed really poorly on his kindergarten screening. Not sure why. It's not for lack of trying. My wife and I both have learning disabilities and I'm not sure if that rubbed off on him or what's going on. Maybe we're just not good teachers.

 

[Trina]

As a mom and former teacher I'll tell you that all kids are different. My son was academically inclined early on, but DD is more along the normal range. Developmental maturity also has a lot to do with it. Also, keep in mind that learning disabilities can be hereditary.

 

[eleventy1!!]

My daughter is going to be four this winter and she is in pre-school. She doesn't write very well and she can only sight-read a little. She has a friend just a few months older than she is who has been writing for over a year and can actually sound out simple words. Initially, I was concerned that my daughter wasn't anywhere near her friend's level of literacy but now that she is in pre-school, I have come to realize that she is average and her little friend is quite advanced.

 

[NinJaBob]

It's hard to not compare our kids to others. I try not to but I do it a lot.

 

[Nikita]

My son just turned 3 in sept. He knows his own name and he seems to realize that there is something there that he should be able to recognize, but he's not quite reading yet. He's so close though. When he gets his bedtime story, he will "read" the book first, by pointing to the words and then describe the picture. I will then read the page while pointing to the words. I expect him to put two and two together real soon.

 

[AmyBelle]

Bek is newly 4 and can read basic words and write her name. She starts kinder in February.

 

[Cthru]

Michael just turned 4. He can sight read a little bit and is learning to write letters in preschool.

 

[Teresa]

All three of mine could read before they started to kindergarten, because we worked at it. They could all write their names, and most of the rest of the alphabet, with a few letters backwards, before kindergarten....and their numbers to ten.

 

[Xero]

Well Eli's not there yet haha. But I know that my mom taught me to read and write early. I could read anything you put in front of me (pretty much) when I was about four. I couldn't tell you all I could write, but I know I was doing it before school. It wasn't a normal thing though, I know I was kind of advanced. You know how they have those "special" classes for "gifted/advanced" kids in grade school and sometimes middle school and that? I was in those in grade school. I lost motivation in high school though lol I barely scraped by.

 

[mumofsonofthor]

How well could your child read or write before thay started school? .

Not at all. For a start I didn't want the "English alphabet" to interfere with the "Italian alphabet", so I left the English well aone and was not up to the Italian one. My husband point blank refused to teach it (he is Italian, he knows the damn thing) saying that there was time enough at school.

I baulked at this, I am English and we go to school reading and writing(ish) at five. So I went to look for "proof" to show DH that I was right (I always am, LOL)..and to my surprise I discovered that in fact the opposite evidence was presenting itself. That a commonality between nations that perform less well and those that perform far far better was the age of the introduction of reading. Delaying, to the age of seven in the case of some countries, was overall producing a better perfromance nationwide than than those countries which pushed for early intoduction and where there were cultural expectations on the parents to anticpate formal schooling in terms of literacy.

So I backed off.

He learned to read (in Italian) in 1st year (six to seven yo) and to my amazment, all by himself, transfered the skill to English by the middle of the second year.

We encourage reading, he gets reading time at bedtime, first in English with me and then in Italian by himself and I am very happy with the way things have gone. Not least cos I saved over 100 euros on not having to buy Jolly Phonics (was planning on it) which instead has been used to expand the Mr Men shelf to the point of groaning.