What a good question. I do remember knowing how to read a bit before I went to Kindergarten .. so it must have been from my parents reading to me. We didn't have Sesame Street or educational shows back then .. unless I learned something from Romper Room. It's all a blur at this point.
My mother. When I started kindergarten, I had already been reading for about a year. Early knowledge of reading laid the foundation for success in learning overall. When I became a parent, I passed the same tradition on by teaching my children at home well before they ever saw the inside of a classroom. ~
I don't know or I don't remember but I'm thankful to all the people who ever contributed my education in every sense!
This post was edited by Ritesh at January 28, 2019 7:48 AM MST
My mom. Mom read books to us from the day we were born (Dr. Seuss, Dick and Jane, Joe Boy, along with works of her own). Mom also used flashcards to teach us harder words and to spell - well before we were old enough to go to school.
Well, it was a concerted effort. In first grade I felt like a failure because I was part of the red bird readers when the blue bird readers were the better readers. It didn't make sense to me. And, I was so shy that when the teacher called on me to read aloud, I could not make a sound come from my mouth. I remember this like yesterday. Fast forward to second grade in a new school and I never again felt inferior in my reading ability. What I do not remember is once, not even one time, being read to by my mother other than our daily family devotional. I read to my kids and they were both reading before kindergarten. I borrowed a set of McGuffey primer and readers (yes, from the 1800s) and they were magical in helping learn how to make sounds into words and words into sentences. I was going to try to re-borrow them for my grandkids but my daughter had both of them reading at three/four years old. Today I love to read and had a huge library in my old home that I left behind for my daughter and grandchildren. I started anew and have amassed quite a collection....some are dups of what I left behind.
One cannot deny the benefits of learning to LOVE to read as a youngster. It carries over throughout life.
My mother, starting about age 3. By age 4 I was doing the experiments in my brother's chemistry set. My only problem was I couldn't figure out how to pronounce phenolphthalein. By the time I got into first grade I was reading at sixth grade level.