Like so many others I knew how to read when starting school but not sure how. I think being home with my mom and having a lot of books read to me was how it happened. I feel so lucky in hindsight to have been home and not in daycare in my early years.

PP here -- Dr Seuss, of course

Somewhere between 2-3.

I'm the youngest of 3 kids, my brother had trouble with spelling, so my parents bought him Hooked on Phonics records -- now you can guess how old I am, no home computers or CD at that time . He hated them, I loved them and listened to them all the time. Also, my grandmother kept me while my mom and dad worked. She was very religious and I sat on her lap for hours while she read from her large print Bible; she used my finger to follow the words, both to help her and to keep my attention.

Between the two, I learned to read. My mom said I used to pretend to read all the time, and then one day while she was cleaning, I was "reading" a Dr Seusee book to her (I thought it was helpful to entertain her while she cleaned ) and she suddenly realized I really was reading.

I meant to say "when we WEREN'T in our group, we were doing phonics worksheets..."

I am shocked at the number of people who remember that they could read at 4! This just seems way, way unusual to me.

Back in the day, when I went to kindergarten, I knew how to say the alphabet orally, but that's all. When I got to kinderg., I learned to visually identify the letters and to write my name. No one read in kindergarten. We had 2.5 hrs. which included recess, snack and rest time. We played and had stories and met the "letter people" (which were blow-up letters that had a story for each letter -- i.e. Mr. T -- tall teeth.). When I went to first grade, we learned to read with Dick and Jane (really!). And my parents never sat with me to read at home. Everything we learned was in school (for reading; spelling was practiced at home in later grades). We did small groups of 8-10 kids and we did choral reading and individual reading. When we were having our group, we did phonics worksheets.

I was always in the top group. I don't remember all of my standardized test scores, but I know when I was in 6th grade, my Iowa Test of Basic Skills reading level was 12th grade.

I wish they would get rid of stations/centers in first grade (kindergarten is o.k.) and put more effort into reading with the teacher in small groups. I suspect my child would have gotten a lot more out of doing phonics worksheets than doing stations/centers. And it sure would have been nice if he met with a small group and the teacher more than once a week. The modern way does not seem better to me. When I was in first grade, I probably met with the teacher at least three times a week in my 8-10 person reading group.

Seems like first graders today are expected to teach themselves to read during "reading" class (not going to happen) or their parents have to teach them to read at night.

Eek. Sorry for all those typos!

Can't remember (and can I say I'm really impressed by all the folks who do?)

I do remember realizing that I *couldn't* read, when all of a sudden one day I opened a Dr. Seuss (?) book I had earlier memorized and realized I didn't know it. Some story about a whole serious of animals being chased one after another after a fox - really wish I could remember the Title, but can clearly see the illustrations in my mind. I'm guessing that was my motivation to start actually reading.

But pretty sure I was a late reader. I know my older brother watched a ton of Sesame Street and new all his letters early, and that my Mom was worried about the fact that I didn't read until much later. She laughs about it now, because the delay in starting meant absolutely nothing - by 4th grade my 'reading group' involved being sent off with a few other kids to read on our own.

At 4-5.

Anonymous wrote:This is a little off topic, but I appreciate the references to Sesame Street. I thought it was a great show back in the early '70s. I also liked The Electric Company and those other little educational, musical "commercials" like "Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?" Those were the days. The Sesame Street of today did not resonate at all with DS.

I too like these old school shows better than modern Sesame Street. And can I just vent that I especially hate Elmo and that really high squeaky third person voice?! Did you know you can buy the Old Sesame Street and Electric Company and Schoolhouse Rock stuff on DVD at Amazon and other places? Plus there is a new Electric Company show and it is really great! I wish there was some way to buy Sesame Street in other languages like French or Russian, etc......

This is a little off topic, but I appreciate the references to Sesame Street. I thought it was a great show back in the early '70s. I also liked The Electric Company and those other little educational, musical "commercials" like "Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?" Those were the days. The Sesame Street of today did not resonate at all with DS.

My mother used to read to me every day and I loved Sesame Street which I watched once a day. Yes, really, back in the 70s. By the time I started school at 2 1/2 I was already reading. I started by "memorizing" the books and learning sight words and then sounding them out but by the time I was in my Montessori classroom I was faced with books I had never seen before and was reading them. I've loved reading ever since. I did the same thing with both of our kids.

In my memory (and I am now in my mid-40s), I woke up one morning and could read. Or more specifically, I had been read a chapter of "Charlotte's Web" the night before, and woke up in the morning and wanted the story to keep going and so picked up the book, went out to the hallway where there was a light on, and started reading. This would have been in kindergarten.

Of course, it wouldn't have happened exactly that way. But I did learn to read in kindergarten, and our elementary school did not teach reading until 1st grade, so it must have been a combination of Sesame Street (which my mother always credited), being read to at home (a lot, including chapter books), and probably plenty of pre-reading activities in kindergarten and elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote: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.

2 for me too. I started off memorizing the books that were read to me but loved comic books, Batman et al, which my nanny was reluctant to read so I figured it out. Yup, I learned to read b/c of comic books. Still love them and I'm in my 40ties. I remember learning to read at 2 probably b/c I had the vocabulary to remember.

I'm 39. I was reading by the time I went to preschool, according to my parents. I had most of my books memorized by the time I had learned to talk, at about 1.5. (My daughter is the same way.) By 5th grade, I was reading at a 12th grade reading level. I love to read, and my 35-month-old daughter and I read every single night. She reads her board books to me and I read longer books to her.

I learned in school -- I think it started clicking toward the end of 1st grade. I don't remember my parents ever listening to me read or reading with me. I also did speech all of 1st grade for issues with "r"s and "w"s -- and kids in speech were made fun of. My elementary school tracked reading into 6 groups starting at the very beginning of 2nd grade. If 1 was the highest group, I started the year in group 4, and by 2 months later had moved up to group 2. In 5th grade, I was moved to group 1. Just want to give parents of the later readers hope, esp. in D.C.