How did your kids learn to read? Was it easy? Hard? Frustrating?

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Ok, the 20% balder line was pure greatness!

I would rather birth a child than attempt to teach them anything important, ever again. It is awful - and drugs can't help you through the experience, as they did with the birth of my daughter! The potty training - hell. The reading - pure hell both times. When it comes time to teach them to drive I think I'd rather be shot.

Ye gods that sounds like my house as well. It's the perception of laziness that drives me insane. "I don't wanna. My eyes hurt."

Good god child, it's the word "Red", it is the second time in a row it has appeared (the line was "Red, red rose") how is this suddenly a reason for a tantrum?

I do a lot of deep breathing because their dad is even less patient than I am. I could leave it up to the school but that doesn't feel right either. Someone once described to me that parents should be more like reading coaches than teachers (ie- leave the teaching to the teachers), but I can't make heads or tails of that comment.

My children are still pre-verbal but I just wanted to say, Neal, that it must have been tear-jerkingly sweet to hear the words "I love reading."

Sophie has been plugging away for some time and can read rudimentary texts on her own. However, I was like you. By the time I was six, I was reading at a much higher level. It frustrates me sometimes that Sophie doesn't read better, because I, too, want to pass along that love of books. For the time being, I read the more complex books to her, and we work on vocabulary. She is always surprising me with words she's absorbed, usually weeks after we first discussed them. And she also writes notes. The first one was tied to the tail of one of our cats. I had sent her to her room for being impertinent, and I then forgot about her. An hour later, the cat, Noah, came down the stairs with a note tied to his tail: "May I pleas come out now?" It was amazing to see that in her handwriting. I was proud of her writing and her initiative. As for reading, I figure the worst thing to do would be to force too much too soon. She's working at her own pace, and she does seem to love books. Or at least having me spend time reading them to her.

Reading is a funny thing.

My daughter was an averagely interested reader, who had the ability from an early age, who occaisionally reads for enjoyment but doesnt have a book "going" most of the time.

Oldest son really never reads anything ever. I dont think I have ever seen him read for enjoyment.

Youngest son is a voracious reader, who is seldom without a book. he will read and re-read his favorites again and again.

All three of them are excellent students who get great grades, but each in their own ways.

JTC, you've just articulated something for me... by the time I was 6 I was reading at a grade 5 level, so I think the part that really worries me about my daughter reading at a normal grade level is that this makes me worry she's not smart. That she's average.

And all I had going for me in my early life was the SMRT, so what will my kid do if she's average?

The other part is the (perception of) laziness. If you're willing to work hard at something, you can do pretty much anything. If you're lazy and give up at the slightest hint of effort, you're pretty much f*cked, doomed to be your own self-fulfilling prophecy. Surely at 6 the attention-span is simply not as long as I'm thinking, but again... when is it a cognitive limit (attention span) and when is it flat out laziness? How do you tell the difference? How do you push without being pushy?

I dont think you can push anyone into reading, you have to pull them into reading by finding something they want to read.

I think it's partly a transitional thing. If kids say YES, I LOVE IT! they're worried about giving up something else, such as being read to, even if that's clearly not the case. Or they're just suddenly older-and-bigger than they're used to being, and it's scary. Ace is moving along at a good pace, reading-wise, but often makes sure I'll still be reading to her, too. This sort of thing gets reported by a lot of parents I know--their kids can read, but are sometimes overwhelmed by the responsibility. I think largely it isn't related to laziness or lack-of-smart.

And undoubtedly it has a lot to do with a particular kid's style. Deuce is like E, with the hanging back and watching, and then suddenly doing things perfectly like riding a bike or drawing a bird.

I learned to read at a pretty early age as well - in fact I do not remember a time when I couldn't read. I'm one of those people who always has a book going - usually more than one. I had hoped to pass this love to my firstborn, and I'm wondering when the Little Miss might start showing more interest.

So far, Little B is not following in my footsteps. He will be seven in a couple of months and has just mastered the plotless wonders. He will pick out some words or at least make a guess on random words he sees. The kid is starting to do multiplication, division and fractions, but somehow, the reading section of his brain is just not moving as quickly. He is trying, though. I've got to give him points for that.

Egads, I have to teach him to read, too? As if sleeping through the night, eating solids and pooping in the toilet weren't enough. When will it ever end???

I was also an early reader. I love to read, I love books, and I usually have at least one going, generally more than one.

N is a very good reader, but he doesn't love it like I do. He won't read stories at all, no matter how much I beg or bribe, but he loves non-fiction. He'll spend all day reading about dinosaurs, fossils, planets, animals, or other things interesting to the six year old set. And the kid is so smart that it's scary, but usually when I try to get him to read something, he asks if he can do math instead.

But he's also one of those perfectionist types and gets very frustrated if he doesn't get something on the very first try. So while he inherited his dad's brain, he got that tendency from me.

Lovely comments, folks. Thanks!

I enjoyed reading as a kid and spent many a weekend reading in bed all day if it was a really good book that I just couldn't put it down till I finished. My son who is 9 yrs. old and autistic is finally becoming literate. I left it up to the school to teach him to read in the beginning and with his autism, we weren't even sure if reading would happen since it took forever for him to get his letters and sounds down. He has always loved books, looking at them and having them read to him, even memorizing the ones that we had read to him several times. In the last year I decided that if I waited around for his teacher to teach him to read, it might never happen. He had finally gotten his letters and sounds down and so it was time to work on reading with him. I took the initiative to help him learn to read and it hasn't been easy, but compared to last year this time he is actually able to read level 2 reading books without having to sound out every word. I signed him up for a reading class through UC Irvine and it has been incredibly helpful, both for me and him. I attend the class with him and they have workbooks and booklists for the different reading levels, it is two hours a week for 5 weeks in the summer. Not being a teacher myself and not knowing the best way to teach a kid how to read, it helped me so much to see the progression of how they introduced the different rules and concept on how to identify the vowel and consonant pairings and so forth. Now I feel confident when it comes time to teach my daughter how to read. One thing I have learned is that teachers can introduce your kids to the different things that they need to learn, but as a parent you really are the one who is going to have to teach them through homework and reinforcement at home with one on one tutoring. With so many kids in a class, they don't get the one on one instruction that they really need. But it still can be frustrating, because kids act differently when they are at home than when they are at school.

I was a very precocious reader, too, so I was kind of expecting GirlWho to be as well. Nope, she's above average, but not by much. She also did not want to learn about reading from me. She didn't even like to be read stories or books. I really *had* to let the school teach her. Fortunately, her school had an accelerated readers program in the pre-K and Kindergarten classes. Now that she has strong basic reading skills, she enjoys reading with us at home.

I started reading before I was six because I specifically remember reading my birthday cards at my party.

Sailor is crazy smart and reads anything and everything. His mother told me that by the third grade he was given permission to go to the high school's library because he had read everything in the elementary school's. It was a very very small town so I don't doubt it.

Mo (5) is getting interested. He's reading in school and bringing home little books that he reads. We read a chapter out of Little House on the Prairie every night.

He's a little resistant to doing it on his own but I'll think he'll get there soon. He tends to pace himself in these things and we're just along for the ride.

Max (and I'm guessing since he's only 2) will be my crazy smart super reader. He's already incredibly articulate like Sailor.

It's hard to remember that we're not in the cloning business and each kid is different.

When a kid knows something, he is unable to determine whether this idea originated in his thought, or was simply 'out there'. So, once he knows something, he's "always known it".

That was frustrating for me to reason with - I'd ask #1 "how did you know that?" and he'd reply "I know it's right because it's in my head"

How did my kid learn to read? Seeing the same words over again, both reading aloud and being read to.

I....never...thought....this....kind....
of....thing....would...happen...to....me

Lalena, your comment is awesome. I feel the same.