My older daughter loved letters and number from a very young age. By two and a half she knew all the shapes and sounds of the letters and could match up the capital letters to the lower case. She learned to read just before she was five and it seemed like she learned it by osmosis. I was amazed.

Her sister, on the other hand, had no interest in letters and number at all when she was two or three and most of four. (I still knew how incredible smart she was though. -grin-) She asked to learn to read just before she was five so she could read the letters from her pen pals and write back (before that I read them to her and helped her write back by pointing at a letter on a mat she could copy- it was a long process but she loved her pen pals (one was my pre-teen niece and the other was her friend) and it was important to her to write to them. Although the process took a little longer because we had to start with the basic letter sounds, she also basically could read in a couple weeks (maybe second grade level). It was no less amazing.

My whole point to this story is that my second daughter could actually read and she still couldn't recite the alphabet. She was never interested in it.

Sesame Street's beautiful Fairy Alphabet

After that initial help with reading, her reading continued to improve over time without her ever sitting down to read a book or having me show her anything in any way that ever looked schoolish. She did begin using email about a year ago or two ago and she's played lots of board games etc. She just recently began reading books for pleasure and is halfway through King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry, and loving it. (She'll be nine next week)

My older dd who seemed to learn to read very well and very quickly by osmosis, still isn't interested in reading fiction. I am not sure if she is still holding the week I made her read to me for 10 minutes a day when she was five years old against me or if she just hasn't found the need yet. But I'll never push her again. She is very sensitive to any pressure and I learned that when she was quite young. She made me the unschooler than I am.

Angela
game-enthusiast @ adelphia.net