Learning to Read Without Being Taught pt 2

I read my children one page a night (definitely manage at least half the nights most weeks…) out of this philosophy book for kids because why not, right?

Anyway, so last night I was reading them the page shown in the feature image there (note: if you read your posts via email it doesn’t show it), and F, who will be six in a few months, interrupted me to say, “all those barns say ‘fake’.” At first I was just like mhm great now let me finish, but then suddenly what had happened clicked in. I turned to him and exclaimed, “great reading, bud!” He got all giggly and proclaimed, “I just read that! I just knew what it said!” We exchanged a high five and I finished the page.

And that, friends, is how kids learn to read without being taught. It’s not the one true way of how it happens—there’s as much variety in age and milestones as there is with learning to walk or anything else we allow to come naturally—but it’s a lovely example of it. F is well on his way to being my fourth child in a row to become fully literate before the age of seven.

How do we do it? Simple: they have access to books. They see their parents and siblings reading; we read to them (I personally am inconsistent with it—don’t even have some kind of Pro Parenting Daily Reading Routine to offer); they have access to video games and cereal boxes and road signs. It’s a part of their world, so they’re interested, and they just…pick it up.

It’s pretty cool to watch.