Both of my girls started reading at around three and a half in Montessori (which is not as extraordinary in Montessori as out as the Montessori method accesses a different neural path that seems to be ready earlier - it's no big thing) and both started reading short easy-reader type books at around four and a half, a little before for the Lone Star Girl who was only dealing in one language, and a little after for the Lone Star Baby with two. After that, though, both girls got a little stuck in a phase where they were not that excited about reading because the stories they could read themselves were so simplistic and boring compared to the sort of books they could understand when we read to them.
When the Lone Star Girl was in the first grade, her teacher gave her a Magic Treehouse book as a present at Christmas time. She didn't really try to read it unil the school year was almost over, but once she did, she was hooked. Right away, she became a real reader, reading many, many Magic Treehouse books as well as those Secret of Droon books when we found them, which she liked even more. By second grade, she could read anything. By fourth grade, she was reading at "12th grade +" level, the highest they tested at, and occasionally liked to read a little string theory. It all started with Magic Treehouse, books she wouldn't have been able to pay me to read to her, but that she enjoyed immensely.
My niece is going into second grade in the fall and has been reading Magic Treehouse books this past school year. I have suggested them to the Lone Star Baby a few times, but she resisted until she saw her cousin reading them this week. We picked up a new one for the Lone Star Niece and the first one for the Lone Star Baby day before yesterday. Last night, the story hooked her and she read until she fell asleep somewhere around Chapter Seven. This morning, she read in bed until she finished. Yes! She's hooked! The dance of being a true reader begins!
4 comments:
Sweet, sweet, bittersweet, is having your baby read chapter books alone.
Exciting!! Selfishly, I'm hoping the two littlest are slower to read than their brother (they are), so that I can keep reading to them a little longer (and have the big one sneak in to listen too!!)
This is great! I am in the same boat-- wouldn't want to read them to my daughter, but would be perfectly fine with her reading them to herself.
I will still read to her for years as well, I am sure, Andrea. I expected to read to the LSG forever, but she pretty much cut me off at around 10 to my dismay, but that was still years after she was reading to herself.
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