I know the Bauers promote teaching reading as early as age 3, and that children should be reading fluently by age 6. However, I've been reading books such as "Endangered Minds" and "Your Brain on Childhood" that highlight studies that show the ideal age to learn reading is age 6, and to start at 4 or 5 can actually create poorer readers in the long-term, although they may be faster out of the gate at the get-go. Personally, I learned to read in grade 1 when I was 6 years old and I went on to achieve a MA in English Language. I always planned to teach my children to read at that age. I had never even heard of children learning to read in kindergarten until I read the WTM. It's the only book on the classical method I've read, so my questions are - is pushing early reading a classical thing, or just a WTM? And did you wait to teach reading, push it early, or just follow your child's lead? I started to teach my child reading at age 3, and she has done really well, but we have just paused at the CVC level (she's now 4) and I'm wondering if I should just back off completely, now that I've read more theories about children and reading. I can definitely tell that reading is "work" for her at this stage - she is capable, but it takes a lot of concentration and well, she woudl rather just play lego or colour. I don't want to create any negative associations with it. She is smart and I know she can pick it up easily at age 6 if we wait.