Learning to read

[iguana_tonante]

I was a big fan of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck comics, and I got bored of waiting for someone to have the time to read their stories to me.

You started reading on Topolino? Me too!

My mom was reading the stories for me before I could read, but I kept buying the magazine religiously through all elementary and middle school. To this day, there is a special place in my heart for Don Rosa's stories. Obviously, my favourite character was Donald Duck. Or should we say Paolino Paperino?

 

[Sakrysta]

I have very few distinct memories from that early in my life. I honestly don't know how old I was when I learned to read, or who taught me or how I learned. I didn't start reading avidly for fun until upper elementary school. Nancy Drew got me started. I think it was as much about collecting the books as it was about reading the stories. Even today, I have hundreds of books that I've never read, but I have them because I collect books and I know I will probably like them if/when I ever get around to reading them.

 

[Niorah]

iguana, my favourite was Zio Paperone (Uncle Scrooge), and yes, I did like the stories of the Famiglia dei Paperi more than the detective stories with Mickey Mouse.

By the time I stopped buying Topolino I must have had hundreds of them. Best comic book ever, they just don't make them like that anymore.

 

[auntiehill]

I vaguely remember learning to read a little before kindergarten (Mom read to us practically from the moment we were born!), but still only being able to grasp the small words and not being able to write because I didn't have the manual control.

When I was 5 or 6, there was a terrible car accident right outside our house and a neighbor boy about my age was killed. I remember looking at the newspaper article, but only being able to understand about half of it, and being frustrated that I couldn't read it as easily or quickly as my older sisters could. But, by the time I was 8 or 9, I was a complete bookworm and would read everything I could get my hands on. By the time I was in 6th grade, I was reading some of the same books my parents were.

Reading and language were always second-nature to me; it's math or even anything LIKE math that stopped me in my tracks. I think on my SATs, I was in the top 2% for reading and language and the bottom 28% for math.

 

[iguana_tonante]

By the time I stopped buying Topolino I must have had hundreds of them. Best comic book ever, they just don't make them like that anymore.

Yeah, I had tons of them too. We had to thrown them in the garbage when we moved in another town. You can imagine my horror.

I agree, they just don't make it like that anymore. There was a small Disney renaissance some time ago with PKNA (Paperinik New Adventures) and Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine, with a darker tone and slightly more adult themes: I enjoyed them, but unfortunately they didn't last long.

Edit: and now, completely unrequited, some artworks form those comic books, just because I love them.

 

[captcalhoun]

i know i was reading by the time i went to primary school aged 5. possibly by the time i was nursey, which was about 3.

my sisters read, and i was encouraged to as well. still do.

 

[Cheapjack]

I asked my mom to teach me to read, when I was about two or three. She said she couldn't, cos they only did that at school. If my kids asked me, I'd go on the internet and teach them.

 

[propita]

My sister taught me when I was 4yo; she was 7yo. I loved to read and by 6yo, was reading the books my first grade teacher was reading to the class.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ A few strategically placed commas would make that post so full of win...

"My sister taught me when I was 4, yo; she was 7, yo."

 

[John Clark]

I can't remember the exact age I started to read, but I was taught by my parents and Gran and it was definitely pre-school. It isn't a surprise though as most of the family are very heavy readers.

 

[WillsBabe]

I can remember a few things about learning to read. I remember learning sounds at home with my mum. I also have a memory of writing my name for the first time without help. I also remember reading out loud to the teacher. I can't really remember reading the introductory books, or words. I do recall that the kids in the books were called John and Jill and the cat and dog were called Nip and Fluff. There might have been characters called Dick and Dora, too.

 

[May 20]

I don't remember being taught to read. I know that I watched Sesame Street almost every day until I started school. (This was in the early 1970s when it ws a truly educational show.) Plus, my parents read to us, and I read to my little sisters, too. By Kindergarten, I was reading rather well.

 

[Mary Ann]

I don't remember not knowing how to read Dutch and English. I'm the youngest of 4 children and grew up in a house with thousands of books, and several dozen of those were my brothers' old children's books. My mother also tooks us to the library regularly when I was a preschooler, where I'd always go for the Kleine Beer (Little Bear) books, apparently. I'm not sure what method I used to learn to read; my guess is that I'd memorised the stories and learned to recognise the words, though I've always been good at phonics as well.

I always read to my children when they were younger, though my youngest child was never that interested and had difficulty learning to read (he's on the autistic spectrum). He's now 10 and devours children's factual books like the Horrible Histories series (and memorises them after one reading and follows me around the house reciting them, but we won't go there!). My oldest and middle children have always been strong readers. My husband is also a bookworm and once again I live in a house crammed full of books.

 

[SPCTRE]

By the time I stopped buying Topolino I must have had hundreds of them. Best comic book ever, they just don't make them like that anymore.

Yeah, I had tons of them too. We had to thrown them in the garbage when we moved in another town. You can imagine my horror.

I agree, they just don't make it like that anymore. There was a small Disney renaissance some time ago with PKNA (Paperinik New Adventures) and Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine, with a darker tone and slightly more adult themes: I enjoyed them, but unfortunately they didn't last long.

Edit: and now, completely unrequited, some artworks form those comic books, just because I love them.

Oooooh, that takes me way back! I was a big fan of Duck Avenger/Paperinik (for some reason he was called Phantomias in Germany)

 

[An Officer]

It was the norm where I was raised for children to be enrolled in school at about the age of six (if at all), so that is when I was enrolled and probably learned to read, although I don't remember. It is possible I learned to read when we moved shortly afterwards to another city and a new school. It may even have been as late as seven.

I do know I only became an avid reader when we moved to the UK when I was around the age of eight (I had to learn the language fast to keep up with my peers). Access to a library was a wonderful thing to me, I loved it and took full advantage. The library was my spiritual home well into my teens. If only I had been there reading something of use, but it was mainly science fiction and romance novels. I did have a brief interest in the classics long before we studied those titles in school though.

I had the unfortunate luck of being sent to the local high school which was one of the worst performing inner city schools in the country, it is a miracle I was still literate by the time they were done with me. I put my survival of that school down to my love of reading. I might have otherwise easily graduated as an expert in assault, burglary, car theft, etc, etc.

My entire life-history was against my becoming reasonable literate at all, so I'm simply thankful I'm able to get by at this stage. And I won't quibble about how young or old I was when I first began reading.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

I have no memory of when i learned how to read but i remember watching and loving Reading Rainbow. That show taught me, and countless others, the joy of reading. Not how to read, but why we should. I still Reading Rainbow.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

My parents read to me when I was little, but I didn't start learning to read until first grade, at which point we were being taught to read and write. I'm pretty sure I was taught the phonic method. I remember having a very difficult time picking it up. My parents bought an encyclopedia set around the same time. I was very interested in anatomy and I was confused by all these references to something called "blood," which I pronounced as "blue-d" because I'd not yet been taught that "oo" could also make an "uh" sound. Everything made a lot more sense once I learned that.

I also had a hard time wrapping my head around "gh" as used in words like "laugh."

The weirdest thing was that I couldn't say "Fay." There was this story we had to read aloud in class and one of the characters was named "Fay." I knew what sounds those letters were supposed to make, and I could say it in my head, but for some reason I could not make the word come out of my mouth. I eventually got over it but to this day I don't know why I had a "block" on that particular word. I've never encountered another word I had such difficulty with, either.

I hated learning to read, really. It was such an arduous and frustrating experience.

 

[Holdfast]

... it is a miracle I was still literate by the time they were done with me...

Have to say, I lol'ed at this.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

I apparently learned to read around age 4 or so. An aunt tells the story of how my mom was talking about how well I could read. My aunt didn't believe her so she handed me The Godfather and told me to open it. I did and started reading.

My earliest memory regarding reading comes from kindergarten (age 5) where I was taken to the 1st grade class for reading tests. I remember being very upset about it because my class was going to have free play time and I wanted to play with the big cardboard blocks that looked like bricks.

In the first grade, I told the nun who was the teacher that I already knew how to read and was going home until she had something new she could teach me.

 

[Nociod]

Oooooh, that takes me way back! I was a big fan of Duck Avenger/Paperinik (for some reason he was called Phantomias in Germany)

He's called Fantonald in Norwegian

As for the original thread... I didn't learn how to read until I started in the first grade... I was seven... They have since changed the system so that you start first grade when you're six, so I'm sure that Norwegians now learn how to read when they're six.

But on the other hand, even though I didn't know how to read, I could speak two languages (Not that impressive considering the majority of you learned how to read at two//three/four years old, but better than nothing )