Embassy Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 When did you start structured learning? At what age did your child start reading CVC words without much difficulty? (If this applies to you) What was your child's approximate reading level in 4th grade? 6th grade? 8th grade? Just wondering about this early reader thing and how most early readers level out around about 4th grade. Has that been true with your children? Did you find that early structured learning positively impacted on reading ability long-term? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I think it depends on the child but both of my children were reading at 4yo and I used 100 EZ Lessons. Now, my 7th grader recently finished Hamlet and my 1st grader can read books even on a 6th grade level. At my school we begin teaching phonics in the preschool (4yo) room and the kindy classes begin straight away with beginning readers. Out of 26 kindy students all but 3 of them are progressing quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 (edited) Hm... With my oldest, we were doing short, daily lessons from the time he turned 3. I would hesitate to call them very "Structured", but we did do some lessons while snuggled on the couch or sprawled on the floor. By 3.5, he was reading simple chapter books on about a 2nd grade level. By the time he turned five, he was reading pretty much anything he could possibly have wanted to (later elementary level)... At 11, he reads quite a lot on his own and for school this year he has read Pride and Prejudice, Ivanhoe, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Ben Franklin's autobiography, lots of historical fiction relating to our time period... My second did not read as early. I didn't do as much by way of daily lessons with her at 3 and 4, though I did some. She just wasn't ready. In a lot of ways, I think it's clear whether or not early lessons are *working* and you just go with that. ... She could read CVC words by 4, certainly, but she just didn't *care*, so didn't progress much beyond that. *But* she was more ready and willing at 5 and by 5.5, she was reading anything and everything. By 6, she was probably a better reader than her brother was at 6. At 8, she reads about 3-6 children's and young adult novels a week -- some contemporary, some classics. I think ds benefitted from early lessons because he *enjoyed* them. They were right for him. And he benefitted from being able to read to himself when he wanted to for those extra years. Is he a *better* reader for having started at 3 rather than at 5 or 6? I doubt it. I suspect he would have been a very advanced reader anyway. But he got pleasure from those extra years of reading, so I don't have any reason to be less than happy that he had them. Certainly by 3rd or 4th grade age, you couldn't look at my kids and know which had been reading longer. They both read well above 3rd or 4th grade level, but they'd been doing that at least since they were 5. Compared to each other, the later-reading one may have been slightly more advanced, though I couldn't say for sure. Both could read and understand anything they had the least interest in reading... If I had another one come along, I'd do low-key, snuggly couch lessons again by age 3-ish. And I suspect I'd know pretty easily whether they were working for that child or not. Edited January 30, 2011 by abbeyej Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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