My child can read enough to get through life.....

[howtocalmachild]

This is going to sound really silly but I was standing in the coffee shop with my DD and it suddenly dawned on me that she can read enough to get through life. She was just looking around and reading all the offerings. Now I'm not saying that because she can read "orange chocolate muffin" that she's going to be ok but let's face it life with a cake and coffee works for a few of us!!! The bit that I suddenly realised was that she was just scanning around reading effortlessly as if it was natural. I know some kids start looking at signs and read really young. DD has read books from school but I'd say there is definitely something that has just clicked this past few weeks where she is just reading without thinking more and more :) She is year 3. Perhaps this is what people were talking about when they say it just clicks. Given she was on track with her reading I didn't think we'd see any difference etc......

I know what you mean ,you suddenly realise they can read effortlessly

I don't think that being able to read notices and signs effortlessly equates to "reading enough to get through life". What about reading complex instructions for household equipment?

When she can read (and pay!) the bills, then she can get through life!

Do people actually read instruction manuals?

We always got DS to do it when he was younger, as he would just glance at them and know what to do. We even used to hire him out to our friends! I could never make head nor tail of instruction manuals and felt they probably lost something in the translation from Japanese.

My son loved instruction manuals if I'm being honest He collected those Haynes practical car books

Oh Haynes - totally unfathomable. I am always amazed when people who have had very little education, can barely read at all, can follow the things to fix a car.

My ds who is only just learning to read is obsessed with following the 'constructions' as he calls them. I'm amazed that out of all of us he is always the first to know how to put whatever it is together without being able to read the words!

I realised this for dd1 who is in year 4. She has been a "free reader" since year 2. She reads everything, and gets upset if we ask to hear her read school books as she hated school books

in the summer hols dd told us what was on a sign. When I asked her if she had read it, she said that she hadn't...she said she just knew what it said. She was very insistent!

It took me a while to realise that, to her, reading is when you painfully have to sounds out every part of a word and often get it wrong ..and not when you get so good at doing that, that you forget you are actually doing it.

That was when I first began to think we might be getting somewhere. She's now in year 2 and beginning to enjoy working out what signs and phrases are on everyday things.

Do people actually read instruction manuals?

I read them, msz.

Then I scare myself silly with all the safety warnings (proud owner of a chainsaw I daren't use on my own )

I'm a switch on and try it type person maizie

Oh he didn't have a car CecilyP. He was only three!

dh keeps all the instruction manuals in a Large Box File. He doesn't read them, you understand, but you Never Know when you might need them

OP, I totally understand what you meant - its an impressive moment when the teeny baby you once had can read instructions to you, or find her way with signs, or whatever. A huge milestone. Sort of and a teeny bit in a nostalgia sort of way, but mostly - impressive!

Oh he didn't have a car CecilyP. He was only three!

It was just a general observation mrz; I realised your DS was still a child, but didn't realise he was that young when he liked the Haynes.

I liked the Haynes manual for a baby we got as a joke present when dd was born...but dh said it was the only baby guide that made any logical sense to him!!

haynes baby manual

It was one of his early obsessions [rolls eyes]

I think I have a good grasp of the English language but it doesn't seem to help me make sense of most instruction manuals!

I know what you mean about being able to read enough to get through in life. I think my dd is there and I don't worry about her at all now. I know that she can read and she'll get where she wants because of this. Considering that at the moment her life ambition is to marry a rich man and eat cake I think she'll get there!!!

lol to the posts.

I'm a read the instructions type of person. I was always left to programme the new video recorder etc etc. Trust me it's not a good skill to have as I am now left to explain everything to the elderly in-laws and my dear mum. God bless iPads rather than computers for the older generation..

My year 3 dd is like this.

She learned to read quite quickly and for over a year has been choosing library books and not reading books. However, over the summer she became like me!...constantly reading, curled on up stairs, bed etc. with a book.

At this stage, the thing that improves your reading is your vocab - reading itself doesn't need practising.