Inspired by Floyd's Kids Book question - do you remember learning How To Read?

[electric_blue68]

Last edited Tue Jul 29, 2025, 05:53 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't.

I remember a bit of practicing writing the alphabet.

I remember seeing Dick and Jane books on the shelves, which at that point I could read. Later Harold, and the Purple Crayon.

But actually looking at "words" and getting their meanings? Nope! Not a clue!

Anyone?

[bamagal62]

1. I remember.

It was before kindergarten started (probably the summer) and I was terrified that all the kids would know how to read and I couldn’t.
I asked my Mom to teach me to read. Then, when I got to kindergarten, I found out they didn’t teach reading at all! We just played. 😂😂😂

[electric_blue68]

6. 😄 Well, you had a head start then! TY

[TexLaProgressive]

2. I remember the exact moment

I was in the backseat of a car with a friend. We were trying to sound out words on passing signs. Suddenly it was like a switch closed, I was reading. Not my friend but me. I was just 4 by a few months.

By the time I was in 1st grade with the Dick, Jane and Spot primer I was reading about 3rd 4th grade. Needless to say I was bored.

[electric_blue68]

7. Very cool! Ohhh, boy, I could see how you'd be bored!

[JoseBalow]

3. I remember flash cards

[electric_blue68]

8. I wonder if we had flash cards back in the 50's. Ty.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

4. The funny papers, then the news.

[electric_blue68]

5. That's a fun way to start. 👍

[Floyd R. Turbo]

10. 😃

[buzzycrumbhunger]

9. Dr. Suess and comics first

Started at 3-4... then I just read EVERYTHING. I spent hours in my bedroom closet, the attic, on the porch roof, and gobbling books in the library.

I think it irked my first teachers, but my mum shrugged them off.

Still a huge reader. Ditched satellite over a decade ago because I hated having to pay for tons of channels I never watched. Then Covid hit and I did nothing BUT read--366 books in 2021 (thanks for counting, Goodreads!).

I figure there are worse things I could be doing. I just wish it paid.

[Brother Buzz]

11. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

Scoring a stem a shovel and a stem roller has been on my bucket list for almost seventy years





I still have my dog eared copy of Virginia Lee Burton‘s wonderful book.

[Diamond_Dog]

27. I loved that book, too, Brother Buzz!

[Ohiya]

12. I remember when fell in love with reading,

It was reading "Mr. Popper's Penguins." When I was quite young.

[berniesandersmittens]

13. I remember the first book I read

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

I was probably 8 or 9, but that was the first time I focused my attention long enough to sit down and read for that long.

Didn't put another book down until I needed bifocals to see the words.

[chowmama]

14. No.

My older (by a little over a year) sister asked to learn to read before kindergarten and my mother agreed to teach her. I sat on the couch with them. The family story goes that they realized a few weeks later that she'd taught me, too. However, I don't remember any of this; I just always knew how to read.

I do remember in kindergarten that there was a book written in handwriting script on the teacher's shelf, and I spent a lot of time struggling to decode it. I don't remember what it was about, but the code aspect fascinated me. They kept trying to drag me away to play with the other children and I kept going back as soon as their backs were turned.

Apparently, this was a problem. Notes were sent home. And the dreaded 'conference' came up from time to time. You'd've thought I was selling high fructose corn syrup behind the teeter totters.

[electric_blue68]

19. Almost by osmosis. Heh, they should have admired your initiative!

Wow, I never asked to learn to read. But I was doing a lot of building stuff, and wooden train layouts.
Once I learned; I read a lot.

[KitFox]

15. I remember being taught to read by my grandma

when I was 4 years old which would have been 1953. She had been a first grade teacher. I learned from the readers that had been my dad’s books. He had written his name on the inside covers. It was “The Natural Method Readers” series. I still have them (First Reader through Fifth Reader). I have clear memories of sitting next to her on the couch and reading aloud to her. I have vague memories of learning rhyming words. Thanks for this post! It brings back nice memories!😊

[electric_blue68]

18. Interesting - readers. TY, and YW.

[irisblue]

16. My moms brother Pete, sat me down and we looked at newspapers together.

So Uncle Pete

[electric_blue68]

17. Interesting!

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. Nope

One day when I was 2, my dad was reading the paper, and there was an ad for Sears with the old round logo. I up onto his lap, pointed to it and said, "Look, Daddy! Sears!" Or, so my mom told me a few years later.

I dunno if I'd call that actually "reading" as much as recognizing the logo on tee vee and hearing the announcer saying "Sears."

I did the same thing with other business and product names. My mom saved 'em all on index cards.

[LudwigPastorius]

21. I kind of taught myself before 1st grade started.

Mom helped, of course.

I was afraid that when 1st grade started, the other kids were going to think I was stupid because I couldn’t read. So, I knuckled down and figured it out.

This was the first book I could read all the way through:

[electric_blue68]

22. Good on you. 👍 TY

The title sounds familiar.

[10 Turtle Day]

23. My older sister taught me

We used to play teacher and student. I don’t know why we thought this was fun, but we played school whenever we had to stay inside. I don’t remember how old I was. I didn’t go to kindergarten, evidently that was optional back then or being a military family always on the move, the timing didn’t work for me. We were always starting a new school in the middle of the year. Anyway, by the time I got into first grade, I could read and write very well and do math so I was ahead of all the other kids. The nun took me to the library for the older grades and had me pick out books and do reports on them. At first I thought she was just being mean and singling me out for extra work but she must have recognized how bored I was with Dick and Jane. I especially remember reading books about Florence Nightengale and Clara Barton. I loved the books in the older grades library. I thank that nun to this day for nurturing my love of reading and my sister for teaching me through play.

[electric_blue68]

37. Good on your sis, and that nun!

Somebody says: "Let’s play skool!".
Most kids: "Eeeewwww!".
😄

That nun had good teacher skills helping you get out of the boredom for you of Dick & Jane!

Woah, always starting a new school mid-year.

[quaint]

24. Library card at three years, remember being taught to find small words in big words...

Read everything I saw on road trips. My parents laughed for years over We-sting-house.

[electric_blue68]

38. At 3 yrs old! Wow.

We-sting-house!
Well, you found all 3 words!

[quaint]

43. Picture books helped me learn; wasn't reading then, just learning to love books.

[electric_blue68]

49. 👍 🤔 At the moment I can't think of any picture booksure

[quaint]

50. Petunia

28 Books That Will Make You Nostalgic for Preschool

[electric_blue68]

51. Ah, I ?misunderstood... I was thinking...

Picture books with no words. Is there such a thing?

In this case, then - Yes!
Harold, and the Purple Crayon books were a favorite!
Seeing the cover - I read a few of the Madeline books.
Of course Dr Suess.

[LogDog75]

25. I don't remember how old I was but it was when I was very young

I remember learning the alphabet and the sounds of each letter. Then learning when you put the sounds of the letters together they make words. Once I learned that reading became more easier.

[electric_blue68]

39. Ah...i don't remember that, either...sounding out the letters.

👍

[Permanut]

26. I learned from an expert - my first grade teacher..

Mrs. Read.

[electric_blue68]

40. Well! There ya go!

😄👍

[Diamond_Dog]

28. I don't remember anyone really teaching me, I must have picked it up by myself.

I knew how to read by the time I was in kindergarten. My mother was an avid reader. She eventually went back to school and became a reading teacher, but that was when I was in high school. I just don’t remember a time when I didn’t know how to read. I was a quiet nerd who liked to read and draw.

[electric_blue68]

41. Cool you knew how by then. Interesting about your mom.

[Ocelot II]

29. I don't remember not being able to read.

I do have vague recollections of being really proud of myself when I showed off to my parents that I could read long words.

[electric_blue68]

42. I like your long words skill!

[ms liberty]

30. I was reading and writing at 3. My older sister liked to play school

So by 3 I was reading and writing.
I can remember reading the billboards and road signs on the highway at about 3-4, and I remember reading daddy's road maps by about 5. He had a really bad car wreck right before I started first grade, so it becomes a marker for memories, as those kind of things do.

[electric_blue68]

44. Another one who's older sis played school! And writing at 3!

Billboards, and maps at 3-4. Wow

Woah, about your dad's car wreck. I hope he wasn't seriously injured!

[Jilly_in_VA]

31. I don't exactly remember

I do remember being mad when I wasn't picked in the first group to "learn to read" in my first grade class. I was in the second group. Then one day, all of a sudden I was reading and I wwent home and read something to my mom. In a couple of weeks I had passed up the "first group" and was reading everything I could get my hands on, and I have continued that since then. Mostly these days I read on my iPad, but my house is still full of books.

[electric_blue68]

45. Woah, having a first and second reading group...

I think that might have felt unfair to me.

Am I missing something?
If you weren't being officially taught at that point (waiting in group 2) how did you pick it up?
Good on you for doing so well.

Once I get my library card renewed I'll go back to ebooks which I took up during Covid.
I still want to go back to our Bronx Central Library bc it's a nice space. And they were supposed to redo the outdoor patio which was nothing previously. I still would enjoy reading physical books.
I should check their website. I used to go there to get Free WiFi for my tablet- what blessing that was! And borrow books.

I lost many of my books in one move, but gained some new ones over some years. Then much of the rest in a different move. Still have a few of my some of my favorites.

[Jilly_in_VA]

56. In fairness to my first grade teacher

my class was huge (we were war babies, GI Bill kids), I think about 35 of us, and in those days, when reading stuff wasn't taught to us in kindergarten and there was no such thing as Sesame Street, moms were encouraged NOT to teach their kids before first grade. We were given a series of "reading readiness" tests, and apparently I didn't score high enough on them to make the cutoff. But hey, I fooled them, didn't I?

My daughter taught herself at 4, partly through Sesame Street and Electric Company, partly through phonics word games we played at the dinner table with her older brothers. One day while her brothers were at school, I heard her in the living room playing with a magnetic letter board we had. " 'G., guh, o, g, o. GO. MOMMY, I CAN READ!" We got together while she puzzled out some othe words, and sure enough, she had it figured out. I couldn't wait to tell her preschool teacher. As with everything else. she spent the whole day with her books, trying to figure out what they said, That was her way. The next project was writing her name (first name only) so she could get her library card. That was a priyd day! Two weeks later she had the coveted card with her name on it. Somewhere I have a picture of her holding it up.

[electric_blue68]

58. Wow. Moms(parents) were told Not to Teach their kids before first grade...

Ahhh...reading readiness tests. Got it.

I love your daughter's "I can read" revelation. Then printing her name for her library card. Sweet! And you still have a photo.

[DBoon]

32. yes - we had a magnetic board on which you could attach letters

to spell out words

There was a cartoon of a young boy and girl on the board holding up the letters "F-U-N"

I asked my mom what it spelled and she said it spelled "fun".

First word I learned

[electric_blue68]

46. Cool! Good to start out w a positive word.

I hope you've had a bunch of F-U-N in your life reading, or otherwise. 👍

[susanr516]

33. I can remember not being able to write

But not being able to read. My mother said my father to use my blocks to teach me letters and the sounds they made when I was a year old. I was reading by the time I was two.
Almost 70 years later, I still love to read. Thank you, Daddy.

[electric_blue68]

47. Blocks - clever, at 2! Yay on your dad!

[Dorothy V]

34. Yes I do! I was 3 years old and I reckon Dad wanted to see what all I could do. He started putting me in his lap with

the Sunday funnies opened out before us and began reading. He followed every word with his finger. Soon I began to equate the sound of the word with the looks of it. Been reading voraciously ever since.
Mom, seeing what he was doing, got one of those pads of paper with the Indian chief on front and had me start copying the alphabet.
They nearly got me labeled a prodigy by the time I started school.
Unfortunately, their attempts to get me to stop adding on my fingers failed miserably.
Among Dad's "textbooks" were his Mad Magazines. And yes, Potrzebie IS a Word!

It probably contributed heavily to my eternal hatred of school. After being afflicted with Dick and Jane and Spot, I'd go home and read Mom's Better Homes and Gardens, and of course Dad's Mads. About the only children's books I can recall is Dr. Seuss's "If I Ran the Zoo", and some of the Little Golden Books and All About Books.

[electric_blue68]

48. Yay on your folks, great process!

Hahahaaaa, Mad Magazines! Loved em!

"After being afflicted with Dick and Jane and Spot, I'd go home and read Mom's Better Homes and Gardens, and of course Dad's Mads.".

Oh my goodness, I'll bet! 😄

Loved Dr Suess. The 500 Hats, On Beyond Zebra, The Burthday Book in particular.
Vaguely remember Litte Golden Books. Never heard of All About Books.

[Dorothy V]

57. All About Books

had titles like All About the Weather and All about Archaeology. They were geared towards kids in grades 4-6 and are the kid's books I remember best. They realized kids aren't scared of the big words, and were great intros to their subjects. I bet a lot of kids were inspired by them to further study on their subjects and may have been the first inspiration for future meteorologists, paleontologists, archaeologists, etc.

[hunter]

35. I don't remember not being able to read. I do remember learning how to talk.

While the rest of the class was learning how to read, kindergarten through third grade, I was spending time with the speech therapists or was off in the corner reading or writing my own assignments.

I probably have some issues processing spoken language that go well beyond "not listening" and there have been times in my life where it's cost me.

[electric_blue68]

36. Wow, sorry to hear that! The brain is still fairly mysterious

[CrispyQ]

52. The three little kittens who lost their mittens

was the first book where I actually learned words. I was 4-5. My mom was an avid reader & read to me, too.

[electric_blue68]

54. Cool! I don't remember if my mom ever read to me.

[boonecreek]

53. Yes I do.

We had the Dick and Jane books. "See Spot run. Run Spot run!"

[3catwoman3]

55. I don't specifically remember any "Aha!" moment. I have a very distinct memory...

…in first grade of not being able to figure out a word the teacher had written on the blackboard. A classmate and I kept begging the teacher to tell us what the word was, and she would not. She said it was part of the lesson for the next day and we would have to wait. We were very frustrated by not being able to figure it out.

Tomorrow came. The word was surprise.

In that same first grade class, we could earn stars by reading a list of books. My mother was surprised to find out I wasn’t earning any stars. The class rules had been that you couldn’t read the more interesting/higher level books until you had read the simple beginner level books. It turned out I was bored to tears by the Dick and Jane series and was refusing to read them because they were so dull. My mom managed to get the teacher to agree to let me bypass the Dick and Jane pablum.

Family lore has it that I showed a very early interest in letters. My parents had a Philco refrigerator and the letters of the brand name were on the door in raised chrome upper case letters. I’m told I liked being held up so I could trace them with my toddler fingers.

One other very distinct recollection that I have is experiencing great difficulty learning to write the number 5. It kept coming out looking like an upper case “J.”