Michele wrote:

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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.

 

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this is how R has been too. she figured it out really early - at around 2.5 she was doing words like cat, and then moving her magnets around to spell mat or can from the original cat, etc.
it's just progressed from there, and she's totally reading anything she wants now. she was reading C "where the sidewalk ends" last night.  i didnt have to teach it. i used to show her the letter factory movies and i think that's what got the ball rolling.
and like lauren, her spelling isnt as strong as the reading at this point.

i think reading is just one of those things that happens at its own rate.  it is nice that it happened naturally for R, bc we really were able to bypass any possible frustration.  i come from a long line of early readers (myself included) so this wasnt a huge shock. cara's starting to do some rhyming and noticing when words "look the same" and knows what letters words start with and end with, so i have a feeling she'll be reading on her own too.