I was reading at 2 1/2, not because I was pushed, (and I’m NOT saying you pushed Little Miss… she was obviously ready and interested). I was reading at that age because I wanted to, and I asked my mom to teach me, so she did. My first son was HIGHLY advanced verbally, and devoured books, so I had visions of him following in my footsteps. At 4 1/2, he occasionally mentions that he wants to learn to read, but when I try to sit down with our early readers, he gets bored and frustrated quickly. At this point, he’d really rather just be read to, so that’s what I do. My concern is that if I push him too hard, I’ll take the joy out of it for him, which is the biggest killer of childhood reading, in my opinion. Of course, I continue to talk about the phonics of letters and words in the real world, and sneak in a few readers here and there, but right now, I’m just doing what he wants most, which is reading to him often. I also have much lower expectations for my younger son, whose language skills are much more normal (they were actually slightly delayed, due to his preemie/IUGR status, and hearing/fluid issues for awhile, but he’s caught up now). But he’s also better at figuring a lot of stuff out than Wyatt was, and has more persistance, so maybe he’ll surprise me and be reading at 3 :)

Anyways, I’ve rambled, but my point is, the best thing parents can do is to feed and encourage any interest in reading (and other things), but not to place expectations on them and make it a “chore”.

This week is her first week in kindergarten and she enjoyed being able to read the same name tags the teacher was using to learn student names.

And yes, each child is different. I expect my son will learn to read at a much older age. If you know of research that indicates what I’m doing is harmful, I’ll gladly read it.

As for other countries, there are so many variables involved between different cultures that I don’t weigh that factor much. Can kids begin reading at age 7 and be academically fine? Sure. Does that make reading at 3 or 4 bad? I don’t think so.

In California, the content standards for kindergarten state, “Students know about letters, words and sounds. They apply this knowledge to read simple sentences.” So, that’s what they’re being taught at age 5. Her English teacher (she’s in an English/Spanish immersion school) has books in her classroom up to a third grade reading level. Granted, we saw a perk of language immersion as providing an extra challenge for her because being above average on reading could make her bored in class.