Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of parents are lazy (myself included) and therefore should be screaming from the rooftops to get screens out of school. 7 hrs a day of reading / writing and creating brain pathways would go a long way to offset the too many screen hours at home. Remember where there were screen limits? What happened to that?!?!?!? lazy teachers and parents offloading time bc kids are annoying. Edtech is edu-entertainment and minimal actual learning. Teachers are PAID to teach and should not be off-loading kid attn to screens. Lazy parents, should be screaming the loudest since they understand the human nature behind ignoring kids.

I don’t understand screens in elementary schools. We are basically zero screens at home because he plays video games and watches movies at school. And this is a top rated public where the commonly repeated advice to house hunters and transplants is “you can’t go wrong” with any of the school districts within 10-15 miles of here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You could be talking about my kid. Reads several grade levels ahead, loves reading, loves writing, huge vocabulary, etc. Here are my secrets:

- Read to her every night starting from infancy. Every night. At least 20 minutes. When she was little we traded off nights. Then around age 5 we started doing it as a family. We'd read chapter books, 1-2 chapters a night. DH and I would both read. We did it together because then we'd all be able to connect over the book. Classics, contemporary books, whatever. We read our childhood favorites, things friends recommended. We'd go to the library or bookstore and ask for suggestions.

- Unlimited books. Library once or twice a week. Regular bookstore trips. Books for gifts. No such thing as a shortage of books. If she didn't have something to read, we'd rearrange our schedule to make sure we could pick something up. She got an e-reader when she was 7 and that helped a lot.

- If she asked us to read to her, we'd almost always say yes. Even if it was some book I hated (I learned to read some of those middle reader series books on autopilot while thinking about other things). I wouldn't read the whole thing. I'd be like "okay I'll read a chapter but then it's your turn." This really helped her build endurance because if I read a bit, she'd get into the story and want to read some on her own even if she was tired. Sometimes us reading a chapter or two would give her enough of a rest that she could then go finish the book.

- We strongly encouraged writing. Bought her journals, books about writing stories, wrote each other letters, etc. When she'd write stuff we'd make a big deal about it ("this is so great, I love the words you chose, you're expressing interesting ideas here"). Tons of encouragement. We'd talk about the relationship between reading and writing, how writing more makes reading easier and how reading more makes your writing better.

It was WORK. But it really mattered to us and we prioritized it above other things. There are things my kid is not good at or that you'd look at and think "what, your kid doesn't do XYZ!?" No one can do it all. We prioritized reading and writing and the result is a kid who is an excellent reader, great writer, and loves doing both.

I know how much some parents lament their kids lack of interest in reading, plus I know some kids have learning disorders that make reading harder. So yes I'd tell another parent "we got lucky" if they asked. And regarding LD's we did -- obviously our kid doesn't have dyslexia and if she did, this would be a different story. But also we made reading and writing a central priority in our parenting. It was not an accident.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really does have to do with whether a child was taught phonics systematically or not. I have 4 children and all but one were given phonics instruction. The other, poor child, was not and still struggles to decode text and spell properly

The Reading Wars have been going on for decades, swinging back and forth between phonics and whole language (or similar) approaches. This is probably because the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Phonics is a piece of the puzzle, but systematic phonics instruction alone might get you 90% of the way to decoding (because English isn't phonetically regular), but decoding is only a part of reading. Give it a few years, and you'll hear people complaining about how their phonics-instructed kids have no fluency or comprehension, and the pendulum will start swinging back again.

Girl what the hell can they comprehend if they cannot decode? How does one "fluently" guess the meaning of a word?

Context. Which you can’t get if you’re so busy sounding out each letter that you lose the meaning of what you’re reading.

Fluency tends to require at least some amount of memorizing sight words (what a previous poster described as “popcorn words”) because so many of the most commonly used words in English are phonetically irregular. Also, it’s next to impossible to get any fluency or comprehension when focusing on small bits of text, which phonics instruction tends to do (mainly because it’s hard to write anything meaningful while focusing on a single phonics rule.)

I don’t know why we tend to go all or nothing on reading strategies, but the best bet is likely a mix of strategies that includes sone phonics-based instruction.

Anonymous wrote:The majority of parents are lazy (myself included) and therefore should be screaming from the rooftops to get screens out of school. 7 hrs a day of reading / writing and creating brain pathways would go a long way to offset the too many screen hours at home. Remember where there were screen limits? What happened to that?!?!?!? lazy teachers and parents offloading time bc kids are annoying. Edtech is edu-entertainment and minimal actual learning. Teachers are PAID to teach and should not be off-loading kid attn to screens. Lazy parents, should be screaming the loudest since they understand the human nature behind ignoring kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do the teachers DO all day with the kids? They are there 6-7 hours and can't read?

Loudoun elementary teacher, here. During that time, I’m expected to teach math, social studies, science, and reading + language arts which includes grammar, phonics, writing, reading, vocabulary.

And I’m expected to remediate in reading/math for low-scoring kids. Also: teach SEL and deal with social/behavioral issues.

Factor in lunch, recess, assemblies, and so on. Sounds like you should come sub to learn all about a typical day!

Anonymous wrote:What do the teachers DO all day with the kids? They are there 6-7 hours and can't read?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Good luck to your kid socially. If he is a social kid in middle school and high school he will be playing video games.


If more parents said no to video games and social media so their kids wouldn't "feel left out" then maybe our teens would be happier nowadays.

DS had no electronics or video games, only got a phone after 8th grade.
He has a great social life now in high school. And heading off to a great college next year.

Anonymous wrote:Of course some kids just aren’t into reading, but any kid has more of a chance of liking reading and developing a lifetime habit of reading if their parents make it a family habit. When families don’t read at all, kids are much, much less likely to come to a love of reading at any point in their childhood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a mess. That "Sold a Story" podcast was super interesting. However, it didn't address phones and the reluctance of Gen Z/young millennial parents to DO much with their kids.

What do the teachers DO all day with the kids? They are there 6-7 hours and can't read? Come on. If I'm supposed to do all the teaching then give up on the idea of public schools.

Just say you’re a lazy parent. It will save you some typing.

(and I’m a parent, not a teacher — just in case you were thinking of being predictable and calling me a “lazy teacher.” Thanks in advance).

Nice try. But I certainly don’t send my kids to public schools to learn nothing and be babysat all day. This is on those schools and teachers.

Anonymous wrote:

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 wrote:


Good luck to your kid socially. If he is a social kid in middle school and high school he will be playing video games.


If more parents said no to video games and social media so their kids wouldn't "feel left out" then maybe our teens would be happier nowadays.