For Gen Alpha, learning to read is a privilege, not a right

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neighbors's child is an incredibly strong reader and every time I ask the mom about it, she just shrugs and says "we got lucky." The rest of us in the neighborhood are all struggling to get our elementary age kids to read at all. Meanwhile, this kid reads way above grade level and even did the gospel reading--nearly flawlessly--in church a few weeks ago. Gotta be more than just luck.

Probably not your neighbor, but we say this only to be polite. Our DD reads several grades above grade level and reads chapter books for fun.

We put DD in a Montessori where they were taught letters very explicitly from age 2. By Fall of 3 yr old year, all kids were learning Phonics via explicit instruction. During that year, we taught our DD at home to read using Bob Books (learned about them from DCUM), but honestly her Montessori had all the kids reading well during the 4 yr old year. They all started K as readers with a solid Phonics foundation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My neighbors's child is an incredibly strong reader and every time I ask the mom about it, she just shrugs and says "we got lucky." The rest of us in the neighborhood are all struggling to get our elementary age kids to read at all. Meanwhile, this kid reads way above grade level and even did the gospel reading--nearly flawlessly--in church a few weeks ago. Gotta be more than just luck.

Probably not your neighbor, but we say this only to be polite. Our DD reads several grades above grade level and reads chapter books for fun.

We put DD in a Montessori where they were taught letters very explicitly from age 2. By Fall of 3 yr old year, all kids were learning Phonics via explicit instruction. During that year, we taught our DD at home to read using Bob Books (learned about them from DCUM), but honestly her Montessori had all the kids reading well during the 4 yr old year. They all started K as readers with a solid Phonics foundation.

Hahah yep, pp. That what I came here to say. We sent our kids to schools that taught phonics and worked at home to supplement and support from age zero basically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My neighbors's child is an incredibly strong reader and every time I ask the mom about it, she just shrugs and says "we got lucky." The rest of us in the neighborhood are all struggling to get our elementary age kids to read at all. Meanwhile, this kid reads way above grade level and even did the gospel reading--nearly flawlessly--in church a few weeks ago. Gotta be more than just luck.

Probably not your neighbor, but we say this only to be polite. Our DD reads several grades above grade level and reads chapter books for fun.

We put DD in a Montessori where they were taught letters very explicitly from age 2. By Fall of 3 yr old year, all kids were learning Phonics via explicit instruction. During that year, we taught our DD at home to read using Bob Books (learned about them from DCUM), but honestly her Montessori had all the kids reading well during the 4 yr old year. They all started K as readers with a solid Phonics foundation.

DP. Come back to us when your DC is in 6th grade then 9th grade. The reading stamina won't be there, even if they remain one of the few teens who read for pleasure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a 3rd grade teacher. I am also a parent of 4. All of my children are strong readers and writers. All of my children do not enjoy reading and will not read for fun. All of my children get unlimited amount of screen time. I honestly do not know what I contribute it to. I did not read to them every night. We have never gone to the library. They (2 of my kids) spend k and 1st grade through virtual learning. I could not assist as I was teaching my own class. The science of reading was not popular at that time in the curriculum. Again, what did I or the teachers do that others did not do to make strong readers? Are kids just born this way?

I think to some extent.

If you never read to them or encourage reading most kids are unlikely to pick it up on their own.

But even if you do read to them, take them to the library, etc. some kids will still never love reading. I have a kid who does love reading and a kid who doesn’t.

I loved to read as a kid and begged my parents to take me to the library. They didn't exactly encourage or discourage reading and I have no memories of them reading to me. It was innate.

[Anonymous]

Our kindergarten teacher has been teaching for decades. When she started she said kids were happy with popcorn and movie as a holiday or end of year celebration. Now kids aren’t into it and it’s not special. What kids do find special is actual humans in front of them reading books.

My oldest’s K teacher just had her smart board “read” (it’s a video of someone reading) to the kids. I found it really sad.

[Anonymous]

I’m a lawyer who reads nonstop all day every day for work. Our interns can no longer get through the work that interns used to easily get through a few decades ago. They just don’t read fast enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a 3rd grade teacher. I am also a parent of 4. All of my children are strong readers and writers. All of my children do not enjoy reading and will not read for fun. All of my children get unlimited amount of screen time. I honestly do not know what I contribute it to. I did not read to them every night. We have never gone to the library. They (2 of my kids) spend k and 1st grade through virtual learning. I could not assist as I was teaching my own class. The science of reading was not popular at that time in the curriculum. Again, what did I or the teachers do that others did not do to make strong readers? Are kids just born this way?

Wait- you’re a teacher who doesn’t read to your kids and they’d never been to the library??? This blows my mind. You’d think a main requirement of being a teacher would be a love of education and reading, especially in elementary grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My neighbors's child is an incredibly strong reader and every time I ask the mom about it, she just shrugs and says "we got lucky." The rest of us in the neighborhood are all struggling to get our elementary age kids to read at all. Meanwhile, this kid reads way above grade level and even did the gospel reading--nearly flawlessly--in church a few weeks ago. Gotta be more than just luck.

Probably not your neighbor, but we say this only to be polite. Our DD reads several grades above grade level and reads chapter books for fun.

We put DD in a Montessori where they were taught letters very explicitly from age 2. By Fall of 3 yr old year, all kids were learning Phonics via explicit instruction. During that year, we taught our DD at home to read using Bob Books (learned about them from DCUM), but honestly her Montessori had all the kids reading well during the 4 yr old year. They all started K as readers with a solid Phonics foundation.

PP you quoted. Here's the thing, in our little neighborhood, most of us send our kids to a public Montessori school! Some of our kids are "fine" readers, but none of us would say they're strong (and some parents lament how poorly their kids read). A couple families go to a public dual immersion, same thing, fine but not strong. And yet this one kid, the only one who goes to a regular public school, is so far beyond everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never have I been so glad to be the "weird" parent that allows almost zero screen time. My second grader loves to read, begs to go to the library, and reads increasingly complex books. I hear the other parents in my neighborhood fret over their kids' lack of reading skills.

We do the same. Almost zero screens. Very strong reader who reads for fun.

The irony is that the inventor of these devilish machines - Steve Jobs - never let his kids near them! (Saw internal reports about addictive nature, apparently)

[Anonymous]

My teen is a fast reader who read a lot for fun up until classes got difficult in high school. Now, they read in the sense that they do their homework, consume all type of media (required, not required) and can get through work efficiently wih clarity. They are very smart...largely intelligent, but also just sharp.

I break this down to 50% genetics (my husband is very very smart, I'm regular smart with very high EQ), and 50% early learning. We were able to keep him out of day care until age 3 with some exposure to activity classes, but we talked/engaged/explained/conversed/exposed constantly. All day. It wasn't terribly exhausting or structured but I talked to my child in the grocery store in a way that was normal for us and that I don't often see. We had early learning materials at home. He had regular toys, but also learning toys, and he loved them all. When we did put him in preschool we lucked out with a great experience with pull-outs and a few aides that spent one on one time with him helping him read and do math because they noticed he wanted to.

Nature and nurture matter. But phone/tech distractions plus just the growing haves/have nots divide that steals time from our families all have a huge negative impact. As society continues to polarize with respect to resources, parenting will get harder for many, and teachers will find it harder to be effective and resourced. This is an America Problem.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's screens that are slowing the kids down. I am a parent a kindergartener and this is the problem:

1. Kindergarten language arts curriculum is totally developmentally inappropriate. They expect the kids to be writing sentences and "journaling" three months into the school year. They don't learn to sound out letters, they learn "popcorn words" and "guessing the word from the picture".

Kindergarten academic expectations are on par with 2nd grade, without the teachers providing any of the preliteracy/scaffolding exercises to build up to reading such as phonics awareness or learning to write letters.

There is absolutely zero direct instruction in letter formation past like, the first two weeks of school. Remember as kids how we traced letters for weeks? My kid has no tracing exercises, just a blank square to write letters.

Without the muscle memory of letter formation, of course the kids are struggling to write! They need to know how to form the letters before they can even write a single word. Writing and reading are so linked, so if you can't do one well the other won't work, either.

Of course the school uses the Columbia University Sold a Story method to teach writing and reading. The school's test scores are abysmal and I get it, they are not teaching the kids to read, they are actually confusing them and hindering their progress towards literacy.

And all this at the age of 5, when many kids are not intellectually prepared to do reading and writing work. They aren't doing any fun experiential learning like "collect leaves" "observe a caterpillar become a butterfly" "grow seeds". Just endless disconnected worksheets and sitting still and turnign school into a grind of disjointed "learning." It's all so sad and disheartening as a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a 3rd grade teacher. I am also a parent of 4. All of my children are strong readers and writers. All of my children do not enjoy reading and will not read for fun. All of my children get unlimited amount of screen time. I honestly do not know what I contribute it to. I did not read to them every night. We have never gone to the library. They (2 of my kids) spend k and 1st grade through virtual learning. I could not assist as I was teaching my own class. The science of reading was not popular at that time in the curriculum. Again, what did I or the teachers do that others did not do to make strong readers? Are kids just born this way?

I was a born reader. My parents read to me a decent amount, took me to the library and gave me a set of books on tape that I could follow along with. I taught myself to read that way right before kindergarten. I read to my own son, though less than my parents did because he didn't want to sit still as much. Now as a teen he reads more than I do, around an hour a day. He also reads much more complex texts than I ever did at his age.

[Anonymous]

When you are reading to the babies. Use your pointer finger to follow the text - very important. Emphasize the phoenetical sound of the start of each word while pointing. I’ve found this very helpful to get my young readers going strong

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it's screens that are slowing the kids down. I am a parent a kindergartener and this is the problem:

1. Kindergarten language arts curriculum is totally developmentally inappropriate. They expect the kids to be writing sentences and "journaling" three months into the school year. They don't learn to sound out letters, they learn "popcorn words" and "guessing the word from the picture".

Kindergarten academic expectations are on par with 2nd grade, without the teachers providing any of the preliteracy/ scaffolding exercises to build up to reading such as phonics awareness or learning to write letters.

There is absolutely zero direct instruction in letter formation past like, the first two weeks of school. Remember as kids how we traced letters for weeks? My kid has no tracing exercises, just a blank square to write letters.

Without the muscle memory of letter formation, of course the kids are struggling to write! They need to know how to form the letters before they can even write a single word. Writing and reading are so linked, so if you can't do one well the other won't work, either.

Of course the school uses the Columbia University Sold a Story method to teach writing and reading. The school's test scores are abysmal and I get it, they are not teaching the kids to read, they are actually confusing them and hindering their progress towards literacy.

And all this at the age of 5, when many kids are not intellectually prepared to do reading and writing work. They aren't doing any fun experiential learning like "collect leaves" "observe a caterpillar become a butterfly" "grow seeds". Just endless disconnected worksheets and sitting still and turnign school into a grind of disjointed "learning." It's all so sad and disheartening as a parent.

Which school system is this ?

Many K reading and Phonics curricula ARE developmentally appropriate for the age. Montessori is over 100 years old and (properly done, which above curriculum is not) reliably works well, as an example.

That said, the K curriculum you describe is almost totally different from the one at our small Montessori school.

In particular, even Columbia U now admits their (Lucy Calkins driven) reading and writing curricula did not work and should not be used. (Anyone who has not yet listened to the "Sold a Story" podcast should do so pronto.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never have I been so glad to be the "weird" parent that allows almost zero screen time. My second grader loves to read, begs to go to the library, and reads increasingly complex books. I hear the other parents in my neighborhood fret over their kids' lack of reading skills.

We do the same. Almost zero screens. Very strong reader who reads for fun.

The irony is that the inventor of these devilish machines - Steve Jobs - never let his kids near them! (Saw internal reports about addictive nature, apparently)

I used to live in Silicon Valley. Very Strict "no screens" child rearing is quite mainstream parenting there.