At what age and/or grade did your child learn to read?

Question

And what exactly did you do to help him or her learn?

My son is entering kindergarten in the fall, and I was just curious.

Answer 1

i don't have a kid.  personally i think im too young but from what i remeber i learned to read around kindergarden, first grade and second grade.

Answer 2

My oldest was a very early reader and was reading simple things at 3 and easy chapter books (like Magic Treehouse) just before 4.  In kindergarten she was tested as reading at a 5th grade level.  My second was also pretty early ... started reading at 4 and was reading chapter books right before he started kindergarten.  He's now reading at a 4th grade level in first grade.  My third is right now 4 and is reading the very simplest easy readers.  My toddler just likes to lift the flaps on his lift-the-flap books.  :-)

Honestly I wouldn't know how to go about teaching someone to read; what worked for my kids was just reading to them ... a lot.  We have a half hour read aloud and half hour of "reading to yourself" (or looking at books if you're too little for that) every night, plus I read things at odd times during the day.  We play rhyming games or think of words that start with "S" or things like that when we're in the car or waiting for a table at a restaurant or something.  For my kids, that was enough to make it all click.

Plenty of kids starting kindergarten don't know how to read yet, though, so if you're worried about that -- don't be.  Studies show that early readers usually lose their advantage by about 2nd grade, and if your child hasn't been working on reading yet, they're probably working on other important skills and getting pre-reading skills.  It's certainly not a race.  As with early and late talkers, if you look at them ten years later you're really not going to be able to tell which was which.  But reading aloud is a great thing regardless of when your child learns to read, since it builds vocabulary and background knowledge as well as inspiring a love of books.  I've always been more interested in teaching my kids to love learning than teaching them how to learn.

Answer 3

Kinder is when they start. The key is to read to them at a very young age. Reading out loud will help. Find books that interest them. My son loved fishing...I found books that pertain to fishing. When they start to read well, Always still read with them instead of you doing all the reading, take turns reading a page and show excitement when reading.

Answer 4

Schools start in kindergarden these days.  

One awesome tool I found was to buy the full set of d**k and Jane books and make flash cards for each set.  The books start by using three or four words throughout and then add a word or two for every book after.  It worked really well with my nephew and I intend on using it with my daughter this fall though she will only be entering pre k.

Answer 5

My 3 1/2 - year - old son can read (not memorize) beginner's books.  They are pretty basic and phonetically correct; he's not reading Crime And Punishment just yet.  My perfectly healthy and bright nephew, on the other hand, started reading at the end of kindergarten/beginning of first grade.  I remember his teacher calling his parents with concerns over the fact that he was still reading slowly.  He was barely 6, for goodness sakes!  He was right where he should have been.  However, kindergarten is the new first grade; standards have really changed.

I think your son is right where he should be.  He will most likely learn to read by the end of kindergarten.  If he isn't reading when he goes in, don't worry about it.

Answer 6

My kid began reading at 3. He was an early learner though. Usually they start learning at preschool or kindergarten.

And kids usually learn to read faster if you spend time reading to them and pointing to all the words. Knowing the alphabet early helps, too.

Answer 7

My 11 year old at 3, my 10 year old at 4, and my 9 year old by 5.

Answer 8

Our son was unusual, he read before he was four. Mind you, so did my husband and I, so our son came about this honestly!

Most children learn to read in Grade One.

As you read with your child, point out letters and their sounds, and rhyming families (fat, cat, sat) - there are lovely books like that.

Don't push, let things come naturally.

Answer 9

My daughter was about three, and she learned by recognising whole words. She didn't "get" phonics at all though I tried as soon as she reliably knew the sounds of all the letters sometime after she was two - until she was seven or eight she just continued learning more whole words. She knew many hundreds by that point - enough to be the best reader in her class by far.

Since phonics obviously "didn't work" I never bothered trying them with my son, once he knew his letter sounds (kids don't learn letter names in the UK until much later) I went straight on to word recognition, which he showed no particular interest in. When he was two and a half I caught him sat on the kitchen floor with the magnetic letters from the fridge making words and sounding them out. He'd taught himself phonics.

Really, though, it doesn't matter what you do. The only things that matter at the start are that your son understands what reading is (because you've read to him, he's seen you reading to yourself, he's seen you using recipe books etc.) and that he thinks it's something that's fun to do.

Answer 10

i dont know if its just me but i could read when i was only 2 and it helped me alot in my school years.

it would be best for u to start teaching him to read now so that he can find things alot easier when he goes to school. just teach him by reading to him with a short story book and let him read along and just do this over and over till he can read it on his own.

Answer 11

my daughter is in 5th grade now, and she learned to read at 13 months. She's on a college reading level now. I'm very proud of her.

Answer 12

My oldest was reading chapter books in kindergarten. My 2 younger ones learned in 1st grade. I read to them and stuff but didn't really push it - I knew they'd learn in their own time.

Answer 13

my sons all would pick up there kiddie books and try to read at 3 and 4 but they read there own stories lol nothing that the book said...

All my boys learn in school to read. They started in Kindergarten and move on up from there. I have a 10 yr son who once was struggling with reading and now can read at a 8th grade level...

So don't worry too much he will be fine and will come home surprising you one day with his reading skills

Answer 14

I learned to read when I was 2 I know that's young but I think it's best when a kid knows how to read at least a little bit prior to entering kindergarten.

Answer 15

Mine started to learn in K.  They started by having him memorize some words & worked on knowing the alphabet & the sounds the letters make.  There's not much I had to do, they mostly worked on it in class, & he just picked it up.