Do you remember how you learned to read? and when?

[Anonymous]

I'm in my forties, can't remember. Never thought about it before until now helping my child. My parents are deceased so I couldn't ask.

[Anonymous]

I don't remember. But I know from my parents that both my twin sister and I were reading when we started kindergarten. My older sister wasn't reading until first grade.

[Anonymous]

I'm 45 and learned how to read in montessori - according to my mom, that is. I was there from 3-6.

They focused on alphabet sounds, not on the names of letters. That's all I can remember. But Mom said there were areas around the room to practice phonics, to read on our own (if you could - for practice) and to learn sight words (those annoying, yet common words like the, that make no sense in how they're spelled).

For my daughter, who's a very good reader, she responded well to phonics, sight words, and being read to on a daily basis.

[Anonymous]

School was teaching, but real learning was done at home. Over and over and over again with paren going slowly and together with me..
I was 6. Then you went to school and had to read and be graded. Kids who did not have a parent or sibling to teach them at home
and practice would get bad grades and relying only to learn at school they would not read fluently untill the end of first or sometimes
second grade, then everybody would read. Understanding the text is entirely different issue but just the reading leveled relatively fast.
That was Europe, 25 years ago.

[Anonymous]

I started reading on my own, somewhere between age 3 and 4 (my parents didn't notice for a while because I would "read" books I had memorized to myself at first). In kindergarten and first grade I also went to a Montessori-style school (the Lab School at U of C) and can remember the phonics stations that others have described. I remember reading them for fun and finding the phonetic phrases interesting, and I could also sound out just about anything in the paper by age 5 (although I don't really know how much I understood in terms of vocabulary).

I am definitely not a typical case, though; I was an early talker, using full sentences with a large vocabulary by age 2, and went on to be ahead in reading and writing throughout school. Which I say not to brag about my prowess as a preschooler, but to say that this is an unusual trajectory for a child. In contrast, my brother was still learning to read when he went to school, and has suffered from the sight memorization approach that had become popular in the early 80s (look at the word and guess it from the consonants and the context, basically). I would strongly recommend the phonics system if you are looking for an approach for a child who is interested in learning and being taught before kindergarten. Once they're in school, I would personally also bring that in to complement what they're learning if they're not getting phonics in school.

[Anonymous]

I am in my early 40's. I learned in the first grade in a Catholic school. We had a phonics workbook and also used the Dick and Jane books. I remember learning to sound out words and about vowels sounds etc.

[Anonymous]

I am 50. Attended PG county schools, and FCPS, but would have learned while in PG.
I have no recollection of either parent reading to me or helping me. I do remember in 1st grade having to read aloud, taking turns. I had no problems, but I always felt uncomfortable listening to the kids that struggled. I can't imagine they would do anything so humiliating to kids anymore. These poor kids needed extra attention, and I wonder if they got it. Did they even know anything about dyslexia at the time?

[Anonymous]

I am 39. I remember learning to read in K and 1st grade. Reading groups scared me. I had no education at home to learn to read and my parents never read to me. This did not affect the outcome of the rest of my schooling. I've taught my kids to read in K, but I don't push if they don't get it. It will come naturally as they progress in school.

[Anonymous]

My mom taught me when I was four. I remember she had a little flip book with consonants and short vowels, and you flipped one page and it changed either the beginning middle, or ending letter.

So you read cat then fat then fit then bit...etc.

[Anonymous]

My grandmother was a reading specialist and had a lot to do with teaching me. I can't remember the techniques she might have used but she had tons of educational materials around all the time. I'm pretty sure I could read by the time I started kindergarten but I definitely remember improving my reading skills in the first grade. What I noticed with DS is that despite the use of phonemic awareness, phonics etc., reading had to click for him. It clicked last year early in the first grade. He could read to some degree in kindergarten, but it didn't come naturally. Now that it has clicked, he's seems to be a pretty confident and strong reader. When he encounters words he doesn't know, he's often able to sound them out. His experience versus my experience just showed me how people pick these things up at different times, in different ways.

[Anonymous]

I am 40 remember reading mid to late first grade. Lots of hours just reading to another kid and my mom. I don't remember any phonics but do remember when I realized I had it down.

[Anonymous]

I learned to read in 1965 at age 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My grandmother was a reading specialist and had a lot to do with teaching me. I can't remember the techniques she might have used but she had tons of educational materials around all the time. I'm pretty sure I could read by the time I started kindergarten but I definitely remember improving my reading skills in the first grade. What I noticed with DS is that despite the use of phonemic awareness, phonics etc., reading had to click for him. It clicked last year early in the first grade. He could read to some degree in kindergarten, but it didn't come naturally. Now that it has clicked, he's seems to be a pretty confident and strong reader. When he encounters words he doesn't know, he's often able to sound them out. His experience versus my experience just showed me how people pick these things up at different times, in different ways.

Just FYI, this "clicking" you refer to is, I believe, the ability to blend and segment phonemes.

It is an ability that develops over time. Some children develop it earlier and others, later. Most develop it by age 6-7, although some develop it as early as age 3 and 4! And others, (the severely disabled) not until ages 10 or later.

[Anonymous]

I'm 51. I could sound out words when I was four. I don't remember when I could read books, but my parents weren't the type to read to us, so the first books I remember were in first grade.

[Anonymous]

I was 2. According to my mother, I figured it out myself. (My Dad never contradicted her on that point and since he worked days and went to college at night and Mom was a PT college student with 2 kids (I was the oldest), I'm guessing neither would have had much time to teach me)).

I don't ever remember not knowing how to read (and that's been true since I was a child). I do remember teaching one of my brothers to read.