# Are Kindergarteners Expected to be Reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 22, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437 "2005-10-22T17:16:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/21 "2005-10-22T23:49:14Z")
I honestly thought that learning to read was one of the reasons they INVENTED kindergarten. I’m amazed children without a learning disability could get all the way to first grade and not know how to read. I certainly would not expect all children to know how to read when they start kindergarten, or be able to read beyond “See Spot eat food!” in first grade, but yeah, they should be reading basic stuff going into 1st. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/22 "2005-10-22T23:50:49Z")
The above post should not be construed to mean that I think a kid must be stupid if he isn’t reading at that point, and I do NOT support hard-core nutball early-learning stuff like showing flash cards to three-week-old children. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/23 "2005-10-22T23:56:12Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > 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. I totally agree w/you, **dangermom**! Emotional intelligence is just as important. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/24 "2005-10-23T00:01:05Z")
> [@Max Torque](#): > > 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_.” Similar story here. My pediatrician didn’t believe my mother when she said her almost-3-year-old daughter was reading sentences from the newspaper. He pulled a medical book from the shelf to test me, and apparently I read out “medulla oblongata” by running my little finger along the word and sounding out the syllables. My pronunciation was a little off, I suppose, but it was enough to shut him up. 🙂 I was reading and writing by kindergarten, but most of my classmates weren’t. That was in 1986 or so, and I remember the teacher going over the sounds and shapes of the letters in the alphabet, so I think it was absolutely expected that kids would be _taught_ to read in kindergarten. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/25 "2005-10-23T00:59:50Z")
I taught myself to read sometime just before I turned four: I apparently surprised the crap out of my parents and grandparents by reading all of my grandfather’s birthday cards outloud to him that year. When I started kindergarten (1991), I was the only kid in the class who could read, and was therefore literally ignored by my teacher\*. When first grade rolled around, my teacher saw I was way beyond the ‘advanced’ reading group, and her solution was to send me to the library for an hour every day. In second grade, the teacher refused to believe I could read, because I _was_ in reading group, but didn’t pay attention. My parents finally had the school test me, and I was reading at something like an eighth-grade level. My personal, uninformed advice, tinted by public school bitterness? Teach them how to read as early as they’ll let you. The earlier a kid starts, the more experience they’ll have, so the better they’ll eventually be, and their SAT scores will thank you years from now. \*This was not entirely the teacher’s fault: Five out of the thirty kids in the class spoke no English whatsoever, so she had her hands full. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/26 "2005-10-23T02:33:46Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > 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. I was at OfficeMax the other day and a harried housewife was in ther buying poster board, markers, glue, etc. She said her first grade daughter was expected to put together a 5 minute presentation…with visual aids! :eek: I thought that was a little over the top. Any other parents out there experiencing this kind of thing? I asked…it was plain ol’ public school. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/27 "2005-10-23T05:06:55Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > I was at OfficeMax the other day and a harried housewife was in ther buying poster board, markers, glue, etc. She said her first grade daughter was expected to put together a 5 minute presentation…with visual aids! :eek: I thought that was a little over the top. Any other parents out there experiencing this kind of thing? > > I asked…it was plain ol’ public school. Sounds like your normal run-of-the-mill show and tell. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/28 "2005-10-23T05:38:03Z")
My mother told me she started reading to me the day she brought me home from the hospital (Dec. 1960). I was reading by myself by the time I was four. She never used flashcards, and “hooked on phonics” was yet a dream. To this day I am an avid reader and while I have my preferences I will read _anything_ rather than watch television. I always have a book in the Jeep, just in case I have to wait somewhere. I have been laughed at by the security guards at hockey games when they check my purse for bombs, because there is a book in there. Read to your children, and let them see you read. It is one of the greatest gifts you can give them. A person who can read can learn anything, but a person who dislikes reading is going to be hampered in many areas as far as education is concerned. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/29 "2005-10-23T07:17:15Z")
Showing my age, but I can remember reading Dick And Jane books in first grade, but I don’t believe Kindergarten was anything more than structured play time for us back then. However, my niece’s daughter was able to read before she got to Kindergarten, they moved her up to first grade after about a week…it wasn’t a big deal as she was only two months shy of being in that class anyway. She has excelled in school since and gets great grades. I do have to credit my niece…she started reading books to her daughter at about age one and never stopped. Eventually, the words started to make sense to her daughter and at four she was able to read some of the simpler books. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/30 "2005-10-23T08:49:36Z")
I learned to read around the age of 2 but nobody else in my Chinese kindergarten could. I moved to Australia when I was 4 and was not taught reading in kindergarten (this was in… 1993, I think). Then again, I wasn’t taught much of anything, and the teachers took care of the fact that I didn’t speak English by never talking to me, ever. So maybe I just had really crap teachers. I _did_ learn to read English in first grade, and was reading several years above grade level by fourth grade. It probably helped that I was hopelessly hyperlexic and NEEDED to read everything (it took me about half an hour to look up a word in the dictionary because I’d end up reading all the other entries too). But there were kids in my class who couldn’t read up until maybe third grade. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/31 "2005-10-23T09:17:05Z")
> [@csharpmajor](#): > > I learned to read around the age of 2 but nobody else in my Chinese kindergarten could. Great. I took six months of Chinese lessons from a woman when I was in college and learned a grand total of three words and could read two. Nice to know a two year old whooped my ass. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/32 "2005-10-23T10:22:42Z")
> [@Go You Big Red Fire Engine](#): > > Sounds like your normal run-of-the-mill show and tell. I dunno…when I was a kid, show-n-tell was more like, you bring in a cheap replica of Mt. Rushmore and tell the class you got it on your trip to Mt. Rushmore. You didn’t have to create charts or anything. Maybe it’s different now. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/33 "2005-10-23T10:25:27Z")
I was reading by the time I entered kindergarten in '88, but I was reading Tom Clancy by about '91, so I think that just means I’m a freak. ---
**Author:** ![MizGrand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@MizGrand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizGrand)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/34 "2005-10-23T13:13:51Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > 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. Okay, so what exactly is a “wrong” language? ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/35 "2005-10-23T13:30:10Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > My personal, uninformed advice, tinted by public school bitterness? Teach them how to read as early as they’ll let you. The earlier a kid starts, the more experience they’ll have, so the better they’ll eventually be, and their SAT scores will thank you years from now. Well my personal, somewhat informed advice (I’m going for a master’s in an educational field) is slightly different. **Snakescatlady** nailed it: > [@](#): > > Read to your children, and let them see you read. It is one of the greatest gifts you can give them. A person who can read can learn anything, but a person who dislikes reading is going to be hampered in many areas as far as education is concerned. If your child can read at 3, good for her, but there is no correlation between age of learning to read and school achievement. I would suggest teaching your children letter names and sounds before kindergarten, which can be accomplished by reading to them and occassionally stopping and asking questions like “What’s this letter? What sound does it make?” If your kids are anything like most children (nosy and curious) they’ll want to learn basic words if just to follow along with you. Don’t sweat it too much, **fessie**. Kids are damn resilant and its’ pretty hard to mess them up _too_ much. 😉 > [@RSSchen](#): > > Okay, so what exactly is a “wrong” language? I’d assume for **Mika** , Hindi. Nothing wrong with knowing and speaking multiple languages, but if one doesn’t know the language of the majority one’s gonna have a rough time. If I lived in France I would want the future Wolf cubs to speak French along with English. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/36 "2005-10-23T13:34:43Z")
I started reading when I had just turned 4, a year before kindergarten. I do distinctly remember when our Kindergarten teacher was teaching the other kids to read, though…and I was so bored because I’d learned it already that I got in all sorts of trouble. 🙂 Anyway, I don’t know if a child would be expected to read at the start, but I’d say that a good basis in letters wouldn’t hurt, and would make sure that they’re reading by the end of kindergarten, which I think is a good thing. FWIW, I’m going to speak to my children in both English and German when they’re young, just so their brains incorporate non-English sounds in the language center…when they learn a foreign language, it should be easier then. 🙂 Of course, since my wife doesn’t speak hardly any German, and I’m not fluent (I’m competent, but it’s not second nature), they’ll mostly get English. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/37 "2005-10-23T15:09:44Z")
Yeah, **Wolfian** , I agree! One of my greatest joys is watching my 'uns “reading” their books. I’ve had to put the good ones away, though, they’re too rough on them (Shel Silverstein needs to put out some board books). In some ways it was easier before they learned to roll over, I used to lay on the floor between them & hold the book up in the air so we could all see it together. What I find really compelling is, I don’t think there’s any correlation between being a really good reader, and being really happy in life. Or even successful, necessarily; I worked for quite a few professionals who couldn’t write, spell or punctuate. It was pretty astonishing, given how much pressure I’d been under. That’s not to say I don’t hope to instill a love of books in my children - what a treasure, a comfort; how impoverished my life would be without them. We’ve also been playing with instruments (some “kiddie”, some “real”) since they were born, and they love music too. I think that’s the other greatest joy in life. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/38 "2005-10-23T15:46:57Z")
Jman writes: \> FWIW, I’m going to speak to my children in both English and German when \> they’re young, just so their brains incorporate non-English sounds in the \> language center…when they learn a foreign language, it should be easier \> then. Of course, since my wife doesn’t speak hardly any German, and I’m not \> fluent (I’m competent, but it’s not second nature), they’ll mostly get English. In all probability, this will simply not work. It won’t harm your kids, but they won’t learn to speak German this way. It’s actually fairly easy (and quite common around the world) for children to grow up speaking two or three languages with native fluency. It requires, though, that someone speak to the child a significant amount of time during his childhood in each of the languages. And it would help if the speakers of the languages don’t significantly overlap. For instance, if a child’s parents speak to him only if language A and a nanny speaks to him only in language B and the neighboring children speak to him only in language C, the chances that he will grow up fluent in each of these three languages is pretty good. If you (and only you) speak to the children occasionally in German (and less than fluent German), your children will grow up speaking English and thinking that Daddy occasionally speaks in some weird gibberish. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/39 "2005-10-23T16:46:07Z")
My mom says that I was naming letters at age 2, and I can’t remember not being able to read. The first time my mom remembers me reading was when I’d just turned four. We were on vacation, and my dad was driving down a street, when I say, “Dad, you can’t go that way! It’s a one-way street.” And, whatddya know? It _was_ a one-way street. I demonstrated two valuable skills that day; reading, and smarting off to my parents. I’m happy to say that I remain proficient in both. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437/40 "2005-10-23T17:05:43Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > It’s actually fairly easy (and quite common around the world) for children to grow up speaking two or three languages with native fluency. It requires, though, that someone speak to the child a significant amount of time during his childhood in each of the languages. And it would help if the speakers of the languages don’t significantly overlap. For instance, if a child’s parents speak to him only if language A and a nanny speaks to him only in language B and the neighboring children speak to him only in language C, the chances that he will grow up fluent in each of these three languages is pretty good. My niece is barely two, and currently managing _four_ languages. She doesn’t talk a lot yet, but says words in all four and understands them. My brother speaks English to her, my SIL Russian, the babysitter Polish, and the common household language is German. Luckily my SIL speaks Polish and English, and my brother knows some Russian. It makes my head spin. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-kindergarteners-expected-to-be-reading/327437.md?page=3)