Subject: do you remember learning to read?
Posted by: Rowena8482
Date: Jan 07 09
I have a very clear memory of standing at a closed piano reading "The Cherry Tree Family" (book one of the school reading scheme) to "Nurse Sandra" in nursery school, so I would have been 3 or 4. I can't ever remember not being able to read, or actually learning to read, just that day actually reading the book and then being thrilled as I could move on to the next one. They had to be read in order, and I can't even remember the names or anything about any of the others that came after the first one.
I remember my room at home being labelled everywhere with the names of things like curtains, door, wardrobe, etc and being able to read those too.
Can you remember a time when you couldn't read? Or remember actually learning?
Posted by: Rowena8482
Date: Jan 07 09
I have a very clear memory of standing at a closed piano reading "The Cherry Tree Family" (book one of the school reading scheme) to "Nurse Sandra" in nursery school, so I would have been 3 or 4. I can't ever remember not being able to read, or actually learning to read, just that day actually reading the book and then being thrilled as I could move on to the next one. They had to be read in order, and I can't even remember the names or anything about any of the others that came after the first one.
I remember my room at home being labelled everywhere with the names of things like curtains, door, wardrobe, etc and being able to read those too.
Can you remember a time when you couldn't read? Or remember actually learning?
56 replies. On page 1 of 3 pages. 1 2 3
LancYorkYank 
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Absolutely. Remember the excitement of learning to read using the Fun with Dick and Jane books. You know, See Spot Run and all! That was way back in the early to mid. 60s. Brian Reply #1. Jan 07 09, 1:57 PM |
guitargoddess
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I don't remember the learning process, but I do remember memorizing stories that my mother read to me and pretending I could read them :) Reply #2. Jan 07 09, 2:56 PM |
Jabberwok
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I remember my daughter learning to read, and as a teacher I found it terrifying. First she learned all her letter phonemes. Then she started to put them together and make words. That was the first two weeks. Then she moved on to blends and digraphs. By the fourth week, she was reading, including irregular sight words like because, and silent letters. In the fifth week, she turned 4 and when she started school 6 months later, she was reading at a 10 year old level. Her spelling and comprehension matched her reading. I had to be very careful about what she read, because she could read beyond her ability to cope, like newspaper articles. Everyone thought I'd hot-housed her...I couldn't stop her. :) Reply #3. Jan 07 09, 3:30 PM |
| honeybee4
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I remember the Dick and Jane book. I even have two of them in my collection. I have Down The Road and also Through The Gate. Reply #4. Jan 07 09, 4:02 PM |
supersal1
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I can remember Dick and Dora, with Nip and Fluff. We also had Janet and John. I can remember taking my tin of words home to learn as well. Reply #5. Jan 07 09, 4:38 PM |
| lesley153
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Like Rowena, I can't remember not being able to read. I'm told that I was three when I sat in my pram reading The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, and asked what soporific meant. A three-year-old monster! And I remember sitting in the corner of the classroom with a book while my classmates progressed through alphabet charts and reading cards. My mother didn't know how I learnt. She thought perhaps my father had taught me while he was reading to me, but that was only a wild guess. I don't know how my son learnt either. When he was 21 months old, we found him pointing to a letter on the keyboard of the BBC Model B we kept on the dining table (didn't everybody then?), and making an O shape with his mouth. We got closer and found that he was pointing to the O key. This must be a fluke. Distract his attention, lead him round the keyboard. If we pointed to a key, he could tell us the name of the letter and the sound it made. If we said a letter, he could point to the key. We had no idea where he learnt this. At two, he could read all the words on the washing machine and tumble drier, and play tapes in the VCR. By the time he started school, he was reading books, teletext and newspapers. We heard that Laura Davies was going to have another transparent operation. He was reading small ads around the time of the General Election, and asked us if we would like a Conservative in the garden. Teachers accused me of teaching him to read. I denied it all. Reply #6. Jan 07 09, 7:20 PM |
Rowena8482
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My youngest (just gone 2) amazed me this morning by pointing to the back of his new mitten and saying "Four" - when I looked there is a 4 on it. I showed him the other and said "is that 4?" and he said "no" - and he was right when I looked lol it's a 7 :-D I read all sorts of "totally unsuitable" stuff as a kid, my parents just let me get on with it - I think they thought I either wouldn't understand or would get bored and give up with most of it, but it backfired once or twice. I remember asking what "pizzen" was (it was poison in dialect) and when they looked I was reading Kyle Onstott and/or Lance Horner (sigh - anyone who remembers the 70s will know why they weren't exactly suitable for a 7/8/9 year old!) Reply #7. Jan 08 09, 7:16 AM |
| lesley153
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Could that be the difference between people who talk to their children, and people who say "s4ut up and get in the car" or "keep still and don't touch anything"? Reply #8. Jan 08 09, 7:50 AM |
| Rowena8482
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Possibly Lesley - I know when I take no3 son to nursery, they each have a balloon magnet with their name on that they find and post in a basket as they go in. There are about 4 in each colour scheme, anyway one little boy was standing looking puzzled, picking up each one in red and green and saying "is this mine?" I said "you need a B for B------, can you see one?" and he had NO IDEA which name started with a B :-S His mam was standing there too, and made absolutely no effort to help him either... shrug... Reply #9. Jan 08 09, 4:26 PM |
Valfuunator
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I remember alot of people were impressed that I could read at such a young age and at such a high level (for my age of course). In Kindergarden I read the "Adventures of Tom Sawyer", and it only went up from there. I do remember the process because it was only about 10-12 years ago as I am only in grade 9. Reply #10. Jan 08 09, 9:23 PM |
agony
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I remember very clearly learning. I didn't learn to read until I went to school - my mother had told me "You'll learn to read when you are 6 and go to school", so I didn't even attempt it beforehand. I also remember clearly my children learning. They were almost textbook examples of the different learning styles. My son sounded out his letters - you could almost hear his brain working, and the book would be all sweaty when he'd done a session. Doggedly plugged along, and was reading pretty fluently by Christmas of grade one. My daughter looked at the first letter and the picture and guessed. Didn't care much if she got it wrong, just flew along making it half up. Also reading pretty fluently by Christmas. Only difference in results I could see is that she was quite a poor speller for several years, I think because she never really looked at the individual letters that made up the words. And, yes, I remember those books - very unsuitable indeed! OF course, the reason I remember them is because I'd sneak read them when no one knew.... Reply #11. Jan 08 09, 10:16 PM |
| lesley153
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Rowena, is it possible that the boy's mother couldn't read either? Reply #12. Jan 08 09, 10:19 PM |
| Rowena8482
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hmmm, maybe Lesley although (and here I go with a sweeping insulting to her generalisation...) she would have had to fill all the DSS forms in at some point (oh I sound catty now, but hope you know what I mean!) She might not read very well though, from her age she will have been at school in the 90s so possibly just never learned properly. Gothson had an awful time of it, as they expected them to learn a whole word rather than by phonetics, and it was a struggle. In the end my mam and I taught him phonetics at home (she was a teacher in the late 60s so we dug out all the 'ancient' teaching books lol) Thankfully they now use phonetics again. Reply #13. Jan 09 09, 4:47 AM |
Cymruambyth
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I started school at age three (in Wales, in those days, they took you when you were ready, not at any given age), and I know that I could sound out the alphabet phonetically and by letter name before that. I really can't remember not being able to read. The standing joke at our house was that if there was nothing else to read, I'd read the labels on jam jars! Every Christmas and birthday brought in a flood of book tokens for me to buy any book I wanted, and I used to drag my mother into the Midland Education store in Brum and stagger out laden with books. (Is the Midland Ed. still there, I wonder. For me it was an Aladdin's cave of pure delight). I was also, when my mother signed me up, the youngest member of the Birmingham Public Library system. To this day, I can happily spend hours in bookstores (I love the fact that my favourite bookstore has comfy armshairs and a coffee bar). The staff is used to me sniffing pages, too. I love the smell of ink on a printed page. I know, I'm a bibliophile of the worst kind, and I married a bibliophile, and both our sons are voracious readers, too, as are two of my three grandsons. Reply #14. Jan 09 09, 4:50 PM |
| Rowena8482
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heh Cymru - I used to work in the library just so that I could read the new books first without having to go on the waiting lists, and so that I got first choice when they were selling off the old books once a year :-D Reply #15. Jan 09 09, 5:14 PM |
martin_cube
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I've never learnt to read or write, so I don't even know what this thread is about. Reply #16. Jan 09 09, 5:55 PM |
| lesley153
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Rowena, perhaps she had help filling the forms in? 'Tis more fun being naughty. Being nice all the time is so exhausting, don't you find? Cym, we all said the same thing. My entire family would have climbed the walls without sauce bottles and matchbox labels. Reply #17. Jan 09 09, 8:21 PM |
Catamount
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I think I remember - I had an older brother and was always interested in his homework (he was 10 years older). I learned to read before I started school. When my daughter was three we were living in Salmon Arm. My mother-in-law came to visit and my daughter took her around the neighbourhood. She pointed out our neighbour's car: "This is our neighbour's car. See, it says so on the back. P-L-Y-M-O-U-T-H: neighbour!" When she was 4 she loved frogs. I was reading her one of the "Frog and Toad" books and all of a sudden she started reading out loud with me. I thought Grandma had read the book to her already and she had memorized it, but she said "No." - "Then how did you know what it says?" She looked at me as if I'm an imbecile: "I read it!" My son also learned to read very young, so we entered them in French Immersion to challenge them; otherwise we were afraid we would have two class clowns on our hands. Reply #18. Jan 09 09, 10:53 PM |
| Christinap
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Like other here I can't remember not being able to read, and I could certainly write simple sentnces before I went to School. We always had books everywhere in the house, both my parents were voracious readers, and they never censored what I read, up until the time they found me reading "The Devil Rides Out" at the age of 10. It was removed and the suggestion was made that I waited until I was a little older to read that sort of thing. That merely sparked my curiosity so I spent the next week reading it under the bedclothes with a torch and giving myself nightmares. Reply #19. Jan 10 09, 4:49 PM |
| Rowena8482
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oo that brought back a memory Cristina - I read 'The Fog' by James Herbert, I must have been about 9 or 10 (dated by the house we lived in then) and I was scared witless! I wasn't bothered while reading, in broad daylight lol, but oh! that night! I didn't dare go to sleep lol I lay there shaking and shivering all night long... Reply #20. Jan 10 09, 5:47 PM |
56 replies. On page 1 of 3 pages. 1 2 3
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