Reply #44: I absolutely agree with this [View All]

We've had nightly story time with our kids from birth, and it continued even after they could read on their own. My first child read at age 5 (after requesting that we teach him how), my second taught himself at age 4 with no help whatsoever because that's the kind of kid he is. Reading has just now started to "click" for my youngest, who's 5 and a half - he saw reading as something that was what the "big people" do and couldn't wait until he was big enough himself to do it.

I don't think it's a coincidence that my oldest two kids were all reading books way above their grade level from an early age - both read Harry Potter in first grade, in fact. Of course I'm proud, but I don't think it's exceptional...I think it's something that happens naturally (assuming no learning disabilities) when you give a child a love of reading from an early age.

Unfortunately if the parents have never developed a love of reading on their own, and particularly if they're working schedules where they can't be home to read to the child, it's going to be a lot more challenging to create that.