Reading or Not?

Joyce · Senior Member

Reading or Not?

Sonya · Guru

Charlie is not reading.

I've not pushed it at all. He can sound things out and knows lots of sight words.

I figure he'll learn it in school and will do it when he is ready.

supergrover · Guru

Not. I am a big fan of letting them take the lead. Tristen knows a ton of sight words, much more than Koda- but he is interested. Koda loves to listen to stories right now. He'll get there at his pace.

I was just learning my letters in K back in the day (anyone remember the blow up letter people?), so I'm honestly not worried at all.

Cuppycake · Guru

Hannah is reading. For about 6 months we questioned a lot about whether she was reading, recognizing sight words, or remembering the stories. Now I am 100% confident that she's reading - and really, really well.

I give a lot of credit to tv, lol. It's horrible but it's true. Between the Meet the Letters series and us constantly having the closed captioning on the tv, I swear that's where she got most of her recognition. It took a while for the dime to really drop, where she put letter sounds together, but once she did, she took off like a lightening bolt.

But, I know I'm really lucky. We didn't push it with her and I think it's just Joe's dna. He's a natural learner and she takes after him. (Thank goodness she doesn't take after me where learning is concerned!) Out of the 19 kids in Hannah's class, 4 are reading, so I definately wouldn't be concerned if she wasn't... They aren't even talking about reading yet in Hannah's class. They are still reviewing colors, lol.

Supafly · Guru

Anna isn't reading. She knows site words and can sound out some short words, but that is it. I have never pushed it-and I don't think kids should be reading by K. (not that they shouldn't be if they can, just that it shouldn't be a given-ITA with Jenn-I was just learning letters-I think we as a society push too much now) We read a lot to them, and I think that is all that is needed to do to lay the foundation in the early years.

That is the thing she is most excited about-learning how to read in K. She got this stack of books she wanted to take the first day, like she was going to learn to read them THAT day. It was cute.

The teachers at her school were clear that the vast majority of them will not be reading when they start, but they all will by the end of the year.

Sunshine · Guru

Holly is reading short books (some Dr. Seuss books and Frog and Toad, stuff like that), but they're still practicing letter by letter in kindergarten.

I credit her Phonics class last year for helping her with pronunciation and articulation, although she already had the *desire* to read, kwim? She probably started around 4 1/2 (I started at 2 1/2 and my parents didn't know wtf to do with me).

We didn't really push it here at home though, and I have a slight suspicion it'll be later than that for Lance; he doesn't have the same drive she does. I just followed along with her interests.

The only thing I remember doing specifically that might've possibly helped, aside from just answering her questions and reading books all the time, is that I started pointing to the words/lines of text as I read them out loud. (It slowed us down and sometimes it bugged me a little, but she loved it because I think she started being able to match the sounds to what was printed on the page and could start anticipating what I would say.)

Juni · Guru

Not at all and I'm not the least bit concerned. He knows his letters really well and writes them really well. Knows a few sight words but not very many. If reading is just like everything else for him (talking, coloring, drawing, potty training, sleeping through the night, writing, etc.) he will wait until he is good and ready and then be doing it very well in no time at all. It's his personality and he has been like this with almost everything.

So, I figure he will pick it up a little bit but then blossom overnight. Either way, no concerns. :)

Robin · Guru

Nope, Mark's not reading at all. He can't even identify all the letters. He mixes up E and F, U and V, that kind of thing. And he's having trouble with the lowercase p,g,q,b,d. That's one of the goals of the first nine weeks of K--to have him be able to identify all the letters and shapes quickly from flash cards.

We're working on it.

Erin · Guru

Cuppycake wrote:

Hannah is reading. For about 6 months we questioned a lot about whether she was reading, recognizing sight words, or remembering the stories. Now I am 100% confident that she's reading - and really, really well.

I give a lot of credit to tv, lol. It's horrible but it's true. Between the Meet the Letters series and us constantly having the closed captioning on the tv, I swear that's where she got most of her recognition. It took a while for the dime to really drop, where she put letter sounds together, but once she did, she took off like a lightening bolt.

But, I know I'm really lucky. We didn't push it with her and I think it's just Joe's dna. He's a natural learner and she takes after him. (Thank goodness she doesn't take after me where learning is concerned!) Out of the 19 kids in Hannah's class, 4 are reading, so I definately wouldn't be concerned if she wasn't... They aren't even talking about reading yet in Hannah's class. They are still reviewing colors, lol.

Ditto
Kiera was ready for months (knew sounds,letters, short sight words) and when the switch turned a few months ago it was crazy. She can read words like absolutely and laughing, which seem very hard? I now just encourage her to read because its fun, and to not be lazy. (When she is tired, she just looks at the first letter, and guesses the word. Then I know its time to take over.) We sometimes take turns reading every other page for nighttime book reading.

Alison · Guru

Sonya wrote:

Charlie is not reading.

I've not pushed it at all. He can sound things out and knows lots of sight words.

I figure he'll learn it in school and will do it when he is ready.

This is us.

Mason gets frustrated SO easily that he'll just shut down if he's not in the mood to try. Great quality, I know. *eyeroll*

But I'm super excited because his kindergarten teacher has been a reading helper with the older kids in the elementary school for over 10 years, and has a master's degree in, um, teaching reading or something, LOL.

It's a developmental kindergarten class, so most of the kids aren't reading yet. Mason already adores his teacher, so I'm really looking forward to watching how much he progresses this year with more enthusiasm than he has with me!

I mean, he didn't walk until 2 or potty train until 4, so him being a late bloomer on something like reading shouldn't surprise me. ;)

3s_a_crowd · Guru

kaylen can sound out some words. BUt she mostly guesses. If she woudl try to sound it out she probably could read most of the words. Im guessing shell start reading well in the next month or so with kindergarten starting and now Im reading with her every night which I wasnt before.

-- Edited by 3s_a_crowd on Thursday 2nd of September 2010 03:08:06 PM

Lucy · Senior Member

Joe is lazy about it. At the beginning of summer he was pretty good at sounding things out but since this summer was crazy and I didn't work with him on it he has lost a lot. He has a reading journal for school now so we have a deal that he has to read every word that is 3 letters or less, I'l up it to 4 letters in the next couple of weeks.

Robin · Guru

Okay, I take it back. Mark came home from school today with a little paper booklet story and read, "I am a dog. I am a cat. I am a cow. I am a goat. I am a sheep. I am a pig. I am a farmer."

(Except he forgot what the picture of the goat was and asked, "Wait, what's that?" before he could read that page.)

Alison · Guru

Robin wrote:

Okay, I take it back. Mark came home from school today with a little paper booklet story and read, "I am a dog. I am a cat. I am a cow. I am a goat. I am a sheep. I am a pig. I am a farmer."

(Except he forgot what the picture of the goat was and asked, "Wait, what's that?" before he could read that page.)

LOL, way to go Mark!!

Michele · Senior Member

Lauren has been reading since she was late 2. I am not exaggerating or making that up. It is just something that came naturally to her so I have no idea how to explain how it happened and I really can take no credit for her but she loved the computer program Starfall and used that a lot at the time. Right now she is reading at nearly a 3rd grade level so they are trying to figure out how to work this in how K class this year. Her spelling though is not nearly at this level.

Dddiii · Guru

Sonya wrote:

Charlie is not reading.

I've not pushed it at all. He can sound things out and knows lots of sight words.

I figure he'll learn it in school and will do it when he is ready.

Ditto this too.

Meghan never really showed an interest until recently. She really shys away from things that I get to enthusiastic about (SP?) so I've tried to slip little things in here and there. "Can you find the word "go" on this page?" "How do you think you spell sink?" Those kinds of things. She's starting to get annoyed when she can't read titles and things in her video games (which she is *amazing* at because of how often she plays them :BAG:) so I'm hoping that will be a big motivating factor.

TBH, I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how to go about teaching her to read and am so thankful there are teachers in our schools who do. LOL

LDSMOM · Senior Member

Brittany started reading last school year. I'm pushing it much harder this year and she's doing great. She can sound out most rule-following words, although she'd rather me walk her through it, which is annoying since she does well without my help. I'm still working on getting her to memorize letter combinations (like ea, ing, ch, sh, ey, wh, and such). I add a couple more each week. I also have started her on guessing words that don't follow rules after she figures out the by following the rules. Like figuring out "was" by changing the a and s sounds to make the word. By the end of the school year, she should be able to read or sound out most words she comes across, no matter how difficult.

Domimom · Senior Member

Dominic is not reading at all, he can recognize his name and some signs like stop and thank you but that is it. I thought he would have picked up on reading because he picked up his letters, shapes, colors and numbers so good but I am not pushing it, I am ready for him to read because he always asks me "what does that say?" It is cute but after like 200 times a day it is like enough already! I am sure he will pick up on it quick once he is exposed to it. We read books every night and I still loving doing that with him so hopefully even when he reads he will still enjoy that time with me.

Alicia · Senior Member

She is beginning to read(knows her letter sounds, some sight words, some decoding). She started at end of preschool. I'm letting the school do it and I will reinforce at home. Out of 24 kids in her class, 6 are independent readers(like Holly). In K you can have kids not knowing their letter to reading chapter books. It's such a wide range.

Joyce · Senior Member

Robin wrote:

Okay, I take it back. Mark came home from school today with a little paper booklet story and read, "I am a dog. I am a cat. I am a cow. I am a goat. I am a sheep. I am a pig. I am a farmer."

(Except he forgot what the picture of the goat was and asked, "Wait, what's that?" before he could read that page.)

WTG Mark

He is so cute. And I super love your siggy. It is amazing to see them that little!