[robto]

I taught my kids how to read pretty early (4, not 2) using the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons book, which was astoundingly easy.

Both kids are now in school and reading significantly above grade level and I have different concern - their ability far outstrips their experience. So even though they can read large unfamiliar words, the subject matter of the stories that are challenging enough to be interesting to them deal with themes and experiences that are pretty foreign. Books that deal more with their experiences and interests are written at a much more basic reading level and are not interesting to them.

They seem to really enjoy reading but sometimes I wonder if early reading is really beneficial in the long run. On the other hand, I certainly read some books too young, but I don't really regret that, so maybe I'm just making up problems to worry about.

[namanyayg]

> On the other hand, I certainly read some books too young, but I don't really regret that, so maybe I'm just making up problems to worry about.

Don't have kids but I agree, this sounds part of growing up. I believe adult books as a precursor help understand real experiences better.

Being a fan of BFG and Matilda, I accidentally ended up picked up Roald Dahl's "Skin" (his adult short stories collection) when I spotted it as a preteen in my school library.

I didn't understand half of it but I still devoured it in a day.

I only started understanding when I was much older and actually experienced similar things in life.

[mtlynch]

Link for the curious:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_(short_story)

Collection:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Someone_Like_You_(short_stor...

[namanyayg]

This is the one that I stumbled upon: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_and_Other_Stories

[philips]

I started with that book but moved to https://reading.com - it is the same pedagogy and essentially the same curriculum but with more engaging stories, larger fonts, and interactive sliders my kids enjoyed.

To be super clear this isn’t an app you hand your kids. You still sit side by side and teach the lessons.

[robto]

That looks pretty nice - my youngest lost interest once the stories started, and I think that was partly because the stories weren't particularly engaging. But overall I was extremely impressed with the pedagogy, it was so easy it felt like cheating!

Now I need to figure out a fun way to do spelling, since both of the kids like to write but English is really tricky to spell.

[philips]

My kids are motivated by writing letters to friends and family which we either mail or send a photo of via Signal. All the writing motivates spelling.

[gnicholas]

We used the same book with our kids, and are encountering the same issue. The books that are at the proper reading level are often not appropriate from a content perspective.

I work in literacy and am aware of a number of companies that are working to develop solutions that allow teachers/parents to level up/down reading materials to address this mismatch.

[ghostpepper]

Can you share some search terms / company names? I'm very interested in this as a parent

[gnicholas]

Check out Diffit, which takes URLs or text and re-levels the text and gives comprehension questions. [1]

Also check out Quill, which is a nonprofit mostly focused on writing but moving into the reading comprehension area as well. [2]

There are others as well, but it's not clear which will emerge as winners.

1: https://app.diffit.me/

2: https://www.quill.org/

[woleium]

sounds like something genai would be good at

[coryrc]

I tried using that book with a kid with adhd and it wasn't working, but I have tried to use its lessons while reading other books. If anybody reads this that has success despite adhd, please let me know if you have any advice.

4 is still pretty young so I'm not stressing about it.

[robto]

For what it's worth, the oldest got all the way through on his own power, asking to do it each day. The next kid petered out around day 45 and we didn't try to force it, but she's even more advanced than the first one was at her age now. Not stressing about it seems to be a good approach : )

[sinuhe69]

My young son also has ADHD (diagnosed but no need for medical intervention). When Covid came and we stayed at home, he got bored, so I decided to teach him to read. We are non-native speakers, so it's natural for us to look for a phonics method. Luckily, I stumbled upon the right one: Reading Egg. It's a reading app based on a scientific phonics-based approach with very engaging activities and a library to choose from.

In the beginning, I worked with my son, but after about a week he was able to continue on his own. We started very light with 2 lessons per weak + maths lessons (oh, they have maths too. But the reading app is much better, IMO). Later it was probably 3 lessons per weak, IIRC. I still do the reading with him in the first month, but in the later months he could read (the task) on his own.

After 3 months my son could read independently and he ventured out to read books outside the app. Today he is an avid reader with a wide range of interests (business and marketing is the currentbhot topic :D ). He scores in the top 3% in reading (measured twice a year by the MAPS tests) and in the top 0.001% in maths. Considering his developmental problems, I think it's remarkable progress. And not least thanks to the Reading Eggs app.

I always find the discussion about how to teach reading in the US superfluous because there is a proven better way and it is so cheap. So maybe give it a try.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Reading Eggs. Just a happy customer.

[coryrc]

Thanks, I'm going to give it a shot.

[elboru]

> I'm just making up problems to worry about.

Isn’t that what parenthood is all about?

[soulofmischief]

I had a collegiate reading level at age 5 and still struggled to read many kinds of fiction books which were rooted in familiarity with the human experience. I could get through the books, but I didn't really comprehend them well until I'd read and watched enough media to piece together a more robust model of the world.

[bombela]

I read every books in the house as soon as I could read adult books (by age 5). Some books even multiple times. I was offered a lots of fiction books growing up.

Age 7, I would read the dictionary at night, one word definition at a time, out of sheer curiosity.

By age 14 I stopped reading books. I could never relate to any of the human emotions. I did learn that money, fame, and sex was a big deal perhaps. But you don't need books to learn that if you have a social life instead of reading books all day.

All this made me appear smart for my age, but that doesn't mean I was. I merely appeared smart.

Hitting the plateau was rough.

[soulofmischief]

Can definitely relate to the dictionary thing. I enjoyed that exercise.

Age 14 is when I transitioned from primarily fiction books to almost exclusively non-fiction material, including history, news, biographies, STEM etc.

Fiction really stopped clicking for me, I appreciate the genre but it just no longer captivated my interest. Games and some visual media entirely consumed that need for fantasy. There's just so much more to nerd about with those formats.

Lots of little details that come from such massive collaborative efforts, whereas with fiction books I started to feel like I was encountering the same tropes over and over again.

> All this made me appear smart for my age, but that doesn't mean I was. I merely appeared smart.

I feel like I'm having the opposite effect. I'm looking backward at how intelligent I was during school and wondering where it all went. I think becoming jaded and traumatized from sheer stress and emotional pain really blunted my mind. I still consume lots of reading material but something just feels different.

[cpursley]

This is odd. One of the ways kids learn to read early is by starting off being expiated to fairytales and other fiction then later learning to read those same stories. That useless sets them up to enjoy fiction.

[soulofmischief]

Fairytales didn't do anything for me. I was more interested in books by authors such as Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, etc. as the focus was more on the manipulation of language itself. The substance mattered very little at the time, it was the form which entranced me. Which is funny, because with visual art I prefer substance over form.

[danielbln]

Feels like something an LLM could help with, turn the sinoler texts with appropriate subject matter into slightly more advanced writing while retaining the appropriate subject matter?