The different momma fora, all the topics and issues and concerns, are making my head spin.
So of course I have to ask Dopers.
Is it really true that nowadays the public schools expect kindergarteners to learn to read? I wasn’t taught to read until first grade, but of course this was many years ago. I keep running across articles stating that their little brains aren’t ready for symbolic knowledge until age 6 or 7.
What’s the scoop?
Hmm. Strictly my opinion and experience - I’d say yes. I knew how to read before kindergarten, as did my children. I volunteered as a librarian at the (private) elementary school my children attended, most of the kindergarteners could read simple words. Almost all of the first graders could handle a ‘Dick and Jane’ or Dr. Seuss type book.
At the very least I think most children should know the alphabet and letter sounds, in preparation for forming and reading words.
This question rang a bell and, indeed, there was a kindergarten skills thread not too long ago. The discussion includes more than language skills, but there were some very strong opinions in all directions on any number of skill types and levels.
My personal experience answer: my nephew is in first grade and is just now learning to read. He’s known letters and numbers for quite a while and is just now getting to the point where he can start to read short sentences comfortably. He’s a slightly above average kid in one of Ohio’s best public school systems. He read Go, Dog. Go! aloud the other night for the first time. He leans more to math and science than English, but from what I can tell, his reading skills aren’t much different from most of his classmates.
GT
I say yes as well. I could read simple words before kindergarten and I recall having my reading ability tested when I got there.
I didn’t know how to read when I got to kindergarten, but they taught us pretty early on. I thought this was standard. Three of my cousins (in three different districts) started school this year, and they have been learning to read too.
I knew how to read when I started kindergarten, and my kindergarten teacher was angry at my mother for this. The teacher’s reasoning was that I wasn’t supposed to read until first grade and so I wouldn’t fit into her teaching plans properly. :rolleyes: This was in 1972; I hope times have changed.
Plenty of my fellow schoolchildren learned to read “on schedule” in first grade and I don’t think it hurt them later. But if I ever have children, the sooner they read the better.
My classmates and I learned how to read in kindergarten in 1989. My sister, who is two years younger than me, went to a different school (because we moved) and didn’t learn to read until first grade.
I’d say yes. My son is 29 and he was doing simple reading in kindergarten. War and Peace? Nah…but a basic understanding and the ability to read, say, 10 words or so…I think it’s expected and certainly not asking too much of a kid.
I think it is now pretty much standard to expect kindergarten children to learn to read a bit. It’s still not that intense, but they do try to teach it. Kindergarten can be tricky though, because you start off with a bunch of kids with wildly differing abilities–some are writing words, and others have never been given crayons.
I could read when I started school, my mom told the school this, and later saw my file, which said, “Mother says she can read.” Hee hee! Because of course there are so many parents desperate to show that their kids are above average, it’s hard to tell when they’re telling the truth.
I do know that easy readers are graded, and they go up to about 2nd grade, so it’s mostly the simple ones for K. “Magic tree house” books are for about 3rd grade.
You could check something like “What your kindergartener needs to know” or find your state standards to check.
Many, many kids can read at kindergarten age. But many cannot, and if he waits till first grade, I dont think it’ll scar the kid for life.
It’s a bit like toilet training–different kids are “ready” at different times (plus or minus 6 months.)
You sound a bit concerned. My advice- don’t let it worry you. Teach your child at his own pace. You’ll both enjoy it more. Whether it’s individual letters, or whole words, or simple sentences–he’ll get there step by step.
There’s still plenty of time before he applies to Harvard.
I couldn’t read at all until I started first grade (1979) and nobody expected us too. Standardized tests suggest that I didn’t miss much. My 3 year old daughter on the other hand is in a day care that is basically a preschool that pushes the kids to their abilities but just a little. She knows her letters and numbers already and will surely be able to read some by the time she is in kindergarten. I don’t really know when this change occured. I am of the thought that this is Ok as long as it the child finds it enjoyable and isn’t pushed so hard that it causes them stress.
My five year old daughter (she’ll be six just after Christmas) is in kindergarten, and at the little orientation at the beginning of the year, the teacher said they’d be reading by the end of the year. They’re certainly headed in the right direction, not only learning the letters and what sounds they make, but also learning such things as punctuation, words on the page go from left to right, each word occupies it’s own space, and so on. She seems to be catching on pretty good, too. Her father and I are both avid readers.
Heh. When I was in kindergarten in 1983, my teacher called in my mother for a little chat. She was concerned about my habit of lying - see, I’d been telling her and my classmates I could read, and obviously since I was only starting kindergarten, that couldn’t possibly be true. No, I’d just memorized all the books I had at home from having them read to me, I couldn’t actually read them myself. :rolleyes:
My mother’s solution? Get the teacher to go to the school library and pick out a book I’d never seen before, then have me read it to her. I succeeded, and the teacher shut up.
From what I can remember of the early years of school, they really only got concerned if kids still couldn’t read anything at the end of grade one. Otherwise, as pretty much everyone else has been saying, if they learn to read in kindergarten (or earlier) great, if not, there’s not point in getting worried too soon.
Oh ditto. I was still speaking the “wrong” language, and my kindergarten teacher (the best ever, thanks Mrs. Cook) used to take extra time to teach me English.
I could read before I started kindergarten and had actually been going to the local public library’s children’s room to take out books for several months beforehand.
Thanks for the interesting replies!
I’m not actually concerned about my twins - they’re not even 2! Although they do watch “Jepa-depa-depa-depa-deeeee” with us and clap for the Daily Doubles. And dance to the Final Jeopardy song.
I had a paranoid moment recently b/c their development catches me off guard and I don’t want to hold them back or deny opportunities; I’d rather play with PlayDoh than bother with flashcards, but that’s just me (I’ve always despised rote learning).
Some friends recommended the LeapFrog Refrigerator Phonics system. Gaaah! My kids threw the music box around the kitchen for a while, and I accidentally kicked some of the letter magnets under the fridge. Zoe tripped on one and went down flat. So, no, we’re not ready for reading quite yet.
But my fear led me to Einstein Never Used Flashcards, along with a book on “your child’s developing mind” or somesuch by Jane Healy. And between the two of them the argument was that most kids are more successful readers if it’s introduced at 6 or 7, not 5.
So I’ve been surprised at the number of parents who say their kindergarteners are reading. I agree w/ chappachula, no doubt it’s a bell curve of readiness, like everything else.
FWIW, I remember wanting to read when I was a preschooler and in kindergarten, and my Mom wouldn’t teach me. She refused. I won’t go that far; if mine are interested, I say go for it.
But I doubt it matters anyway. At the end of first grade we moved and at the new school I was significantly behind & went to the Principal’s office for tutoring. Yet by the end of 3rd grade I was reading at the 6th grade level (mostly thanks to Nancy Drew); and in 6th grade I maxed out the tests.
Which doesn’t matter anyway - I’m still broke, fat, and have a perpetually dirty kitchen.
But my kids are cute. “Jepa-depa-depa-depa-depa-deeeeeeeee”
I could read before kindergarten…but I was in a tiny minority of the class who could. Most of my classmates couldn’t yet, and the beginning of the year was devoted to learning the alphabet with those letter people. I know that five-year-olds are expected to know their ABCs and recognize their names already now, but I think most k-1 kids aren’t expected to be reading yet. By the middle or end of first grade, perhaps, but not starting K.
I’m Grumpy Mom and don’t believe in battery-powered learning. No LeapFrogs in this house!
I agree that kids should not be pushed academically too young–I really dislike academic preschools, and wish they didn’t push so much so young, because I do think it handicaps kids to be made to learn things too young before they have the right development.
OTOH, my daughter learned to read by osmosis this summer right after her 5th birthday, so what do I know.
In my district, the mandatory mastery standard by year end of Kindergarten is a Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) Level 3. This is basically the “I see”, “He can”, “I like” stage. They are also required to know 50 high frequency and sight words (red, green, blue, I, me, he, she, it, am, like, we, etc.)
For more info on the DRA go here
heh. My parents thought the same thing about me, when I was still two…one night when they came home, my babysitter told my parents that I could read. They laughed and said, “Nah, he’s just memorized all the things we read to him.” The babysitter said, “No, really…he was reading to me from National Geographic.”
I don’t remember that, of course, and I’m sure it wasn’t anything too complex, but I can remember being able to read and understand things before I was three. It didn’t seem to be a problem in kindergarten that I can recall, although I do remember jumping ahead for some things, like reading the nursery rhymes before the teacher read them out to us. Still, no big deal. I say, the earlier a kid can read, the better.