When did you teach your child to read?

[lazylion]

My oldest is coming up to school age and I'm thinking about doing some sort of formal learning stuff with him. I don't want to put him off by starting things too early, he's 4 and a half - is this too soon to expect him to start learning to read?
If you taught your own children to read when did they start to read themselves and how did you do it?

Strangely enough I used to sit DS on my lap from being a tiny baby... just reading to myself obviously. As he got older I'd make sure there were lots of bright colours to keep his attention.
It wasn't a case of formal teaching (not even close) but he's 14 now and a complete bookworm.

DD1 was reading at 2
DD2 at about 3

We're not teaching. I read to DD. She asks about sounds and words sometimes and I answer. She's 4, with an April birthday.

She's recently started to sound things out verbally - just words she says but slowly and broken down. Its always words that sound nice, she'll say them in conversation and then stop and sound it out.

She suprises me sometimes by recognising a written word so I guess she's on the way to being able to read.

dd2 left schoo, aged 9 completely unable to read or spell even her own name. Had been diagnosed as severely dyslexic as well as dyspraxic and dysgraphic.

Eventually worked out that atonomous HE was the way to go for us.

She learnt to read at 13. her education had run ahead until then whist waiting for her reading and spelling to catch up.

By 15 she had started to do and she achieved all of tehh outcomes and passed the course.

You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference now between her and other children who learned earlier.

She'll start an Natiuonal BTEC in sept at FE college.

DS is very good at recognising letters and is always asking what words say. He's 4 in November and we were wondering if we should get flashcards or something

Am teaching DS1 at the moment (4 1/2yo). School does not start until six here and he wanted to learn.

Using "Teach your child to read in 100 lessons". 15 minutes a day is perfect for him and the progress is remarkable. So proud!!!

Learning to read is not a competition guys! That said, my 4 yo can read and write to about the standard that his sister could at the end of the foundation year. It might not be helpful getting him to read early if he's going to school as they will start him on books with no words to start with anyway. if you want to try reading try www.starfall.com its excellent! Some children aren't ready to read until later though so don't worry if he's not got it yet!

My ds taught himself to read at about 7-8 and can now read fluently at 9.

DS taught himself. Seriously. I always encouraged him, but I never actually sat down and taught him. If he asked a question, I answered it (and we played endless bloody boring games of 'I Spy'. plus we read a lot of stories to him. that's it, really, though. He is 4 and has a reading age of 7/8 yrs old. I'm not sure it's actually going to help him when he goes into reception, to be honest. But on the brgith side, he loves books and already has a big, geeky old passion in life

I'll teach mine when and if they ask me to

agree 100% that learning to read is NOT a competition

also it is vvvvvvvv common for autonomously HE'd kids not to learn to read til about 7, or later, then overtake their schooled friends (HE'd kids have, on average, a higher reading age than schooled kids acc to most studies, iirc)

abroadandmisunderstood - think you're in germany too? we're doing the exact same at the mo with ds1 (4.9)! he loves that book - we're on about lesson 40 or so and he is getting better every day! stories are so bizzare though!

Aren't they so random? Also I have to explain the Americanisms, like 'mom' and 'cops'. DS1 is on lesson 55 and it does suddenly seem to tax him more after lesson 50. Amazing to watch him read though!

Absolutely agree onefunkymama - what I was trying to say is that IME, just reading out loud regularly rather than actual lessons IYSWIM worked fabulously well with DS.