Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

theintrinsicperspective.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 104 posts

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#81

Post by sincerecook »

jxjnskkzxxhx wrote: post #35
toolslive wrote: post #6

But, why? Now the kid will be bored at primary school. You could have diverted him toward skills you aren't going to learn in school (checkers, chess, music,...)

What a stupid thing to say. If he's bored the teacher can advance his grade faster or at least give him personally more challenging material. Should we never teach anyone anything, just to avoid they'll be bored when they see something they already know? Is starting to learn at 6 objectively "better" than at 2? No, that's just how our system currently works. And what you're saying is you want your kid to be mediocre.…

Yes, we should never teach anyone anything because someone raised a mild and relevant objection.

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#82

Post by sincerecook »

Intelligence is only good up to a point. The successful people I know were not the best students and their parents were not the most obsessive parents. Those kids generally ended up having more difficult and troubled lives. Trying to make your kids geniuses is a mistake.

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#83

Post by evanmoran »

I think the main takeaway of this shouldn’t be that all kids will be able to read, but more that parents should not be afraid to try to teach letter sounds/blending/simple reading before kindergarten. So many parents I’ve met feel like this is “way too early” and I found many of those same parents end up tutoring their kids in kindergarten to catch up to grade level.

More recently, I’ve been teaching a 3 year old letter sounds and he loves running around finding signs saying “Dad” I found a “duh”. “Duh duh duh!” (For D). Kids really just want to hang out with you so, it’s ok to just throw in some letter sounds or number counting ideas in here and there. You’ll be surprised what they pick up!

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#84

Post by WillAdams »

wiredfool wrote: post #65
xattt wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can second the OP. Children can be wildly different, and development can be influenced both ways. The age gap between children also matters. Yes, children can piggyback off the achievements of their older sibling in social development and play. However, I found that I am unable to devote as much time with my second child because my attention is split.

First Child: ooh I know nothing. Nothing works. Second Child: Ok, We've got this. Except, No, completely different. Third Child: At least we've got the range. No. No you don't. Big issue we had with the first was that he was reading several years above grade level, and we ran out of interesting things for him to read that were age appropriate. When they can read the Hobbit at 7, but are scared, it's really difficult.…

A great follow-one to _The Hobbit_ is Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ --- my kids also enjoyed H. Beam Piper's _Little Fuzzy_ (and its sequels).

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#85

Post by [deleted] »

sincerecook wrote: post #80
kayodelycaon wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can relate to this. Grade school was hell. Learning cursive when I knew none of the adults in my life used it drove me up a wall. My dad worked for IBM and we had a 286. My mom was doing night classes for her degree and she always typed her papers.

Adults don't go to recess or play marbles either, were you mad about that too?

[deleted]

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#86

Post by rocmcd »

evanmoran wrote: post #83

I think the main takeaway of this shouldn’t be that all kids will be able to read, but more that parents should not be afraid to try to teach letter sounds/blending/simple reading before kindergarten. So many parents I’ve met feel like this is “way too early” and I found many of those same parents end up tutoring their kids in kindergarten to catch up to grade level. More recently, I’ve been teaching a 3 year old let…

> Kids really just want to hang out with you

Adults spell "love" L-O-V-E. Kids spell "love" T-I-M-E.

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#87

Post by wiredfool »

WillAdams wrote: post #84
wiredfool wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First Child: ooh I know nothing. Nothing works. Second Child: Ok, We've got this. Except, No, completely different. Third Child: At least we've got the range. No. No you don't. Big issue we had with the first was that he was reading several years above grade level, and we ran out of interesting things for him to read that were age appropriate. When they can read the Hobbit at 7, but are scared, it's really difficult.…

A great follow-one to _The Hobbit_ is Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ --- my kids also enjoyed H. Beam Piper's _Little Fuzzy_ (and its sequels).

(To be clear, child in question is now 20)

The problem was coming up with enough to read that wasn't too scary when he was young. Even the Hobbit was rough. Harry Potter is downright scary. Book series were falling in a week. We never had Christmas present books that lasted till New Year's.

I'm pretty sure that we have The Dark is Rising, but it was never one that was a reread, if they ever got through it. I've read the Little Fuzzy and other H Beam Piper books, and they're a little 50's to really let a young kid loose on.

Terry Pratchett worked, specifically the Bromeliad Trilogy. Eragon was ok. There was a set of Wings of Fire. And bookshelves of others that are gone by now.

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#88

Post by WillAdams »

wiredfool wrote: post #87
WillAdams wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A great follow-one to _The Hobbit_ is Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ --- my kids also enjoyed H. Beam Piper's _Little Fuzzy_ (and its sequels).

(To be clear, child in question is now 20) The problem was coming up with enough to read that wasn't too scary when he was young. Even the Hobbit was rough. Harry Potter is downright scary. Book series were falling in a week. We never had Christmas present books that lasted till New Year's. I'm pretty sure that we have The Dark is Rising, but it was never one that was a reread, if they ever got through it. I've read…

My youngest is 21.

See my comment elsethread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44126584

The problem of course is "the newspapers in utopia are boring" (to paraphrase Mark Twain) and "tales of the land of the happy nice people" doesn't make for much of a story.

Another couple of books which I enjoyed sharing w/ my kids were _Divers Down! Adventure Beneath Hawaiian Seas_ and _The Adventures of the Mad Scientists Club_ (and various sequels).

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#90

Post by ttshaw1 »

WillAdams wrote: post #41

The problem of course is how does one continue such a trajectory? Dividing classes up by reading level is a major factor in reducing problems in a classroom --- but it's only feasible where the number of classes offered and class sizes and school size/budget allow. The best school system I ever attended extended that to dividing classes betwixt academic and social --- social classes were attended at one's age level (…

What school system? Sounds like a great setup
Post reply on HN