Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child taught herself to read in the womb. She entered the world at a grade one reading level and now at the age of two has finally finished the last Harry Potter book. I was worried that she would never finish! I might enroll her into Kumon so that she doesn't fall behind.

Hilarious! But sadly not much of an exaggeration.

Well I was curious if my child (5) could comprehend The Longest Day. He read it, and then wrote an essay on it. I turned it into the AP exam people and how he has 3 college credits!

It depends what you mean by reading. I think a child is reading when she can pick up an age appropriate book she has never seen before and read 90% of it without help.

My DD got to this level middle of K.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The range of pre-reading abilities in K is enormous. Some don't know their letters, some can read fluently.

My oldest did not read in K, and then suddenly started reading Harry Potter in first grade. Huge leap.
My 4 year old is deciphering early readers in preschool, but that is not a guarantee she will be reading by K.

Sorry, total BS. No reading at all to Harry Potter novels in less than a year? No way.

You have no idea. Once it clicks, it clicks. For my son that was when he was almost four. He could easily have read Harry Potter books within six months, but his comprehension wasn't as advanced. For a smart first grader it's not a stretch at all to go from nothing to Harry Potter in the space of a year.

Then he could have "decoded" most of Harry Potter, but he could not have read most of Harry Potter. Reading is not a separate entity from comprehension. They are the same things, related.

Exactly! Reading a book correctly means reading the words and understand what they mean. Understanding what may or could happen. Realizing sarcasm, metaphors, foreshadowing, irony etc.. No 7 year old could truly understand the ins and out of the Harry Potter novel at that age. And honestly, I am not sure why people equate smart to having to grow up too fast. Just because your child is reading at a middle school level doesn't mean they should be reading books about middle or high school school kids at age 7.

A smart Sven year old can easily understand the first Harry Potter books, whether he read them himself or they were read to him. My five year old certainly could.

I've been teaching my son to read in my native language since three. He's 4.5 now and can read beginner texts in it, but he unexpectedly used that knowledge to teach himself to read in English. His English reading now is way better than the heritage language, I guess because there's way more English print material around. He reads Beginner Book Series (like The Best Nest etc.) now..I don't have the heart to deny him, although I originally swore I will never read to him in English, but now he has a full shelf of books in English. I tell myself it's OK because he did it himself with no prodding from me.

Anonymous wrote:My child taught herself to read in the womb. She entered the world at a grade one reading level and now at the age of two has finally finished the last Harry Potter book. I was worried that she would never finish! I might enroll her into Kumon so that she doesn't fall behind.

Hilarious! But sadly not much of an exaggeration.

My son knows some words by sight and is able to sound out others, in both English and Spanish. In this way, I guess he is reading.

He definitely built these skills over the last year of kindergarten. Prior to this, he had a few sight words and strong phonetic base, but I would not consider that to be reading at all.

They grow so much over the kindergarten year, I wouldn't worry. It took months for efforts to come to fruition. It's ongoing.

I would recommend Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Days for a good short-cut approach once your child has a firm grasp on letter recognition and sounds. The app, Endless Alphabet, is very helpful in that regard. I just make sure my children place the letters in the order they appear in each word, in order to approximate spelling. That way, they learn the "sound it out" technique with ease.

By the end of K, yes. The beginning, no.