Aimee, please please do not worry about Emeline's progress, and whatever you do, don't freak out. Not reading at 5 is considered normal progress. What you look for at 5 is reading readiness: recognizing letters and their names, interest in following a book read to her, etc. She's right where she needs to be.

There's a lot of focus in US kindergarten on reading, but in some educational programs reading isn't even taught until kids are 7. Learning to read is like learning to walk, a lot of conceptual and perceptual pieces need to fall into place in order for it to happen, and every kid does it at her own pace.

There's a lot of focus in US kindergarten on reading, but in some educational programs reading isn't even taught until kids are 7

In my kindergarten, there were one or two kids who knew how to read. I wasn't taught reading until first grade.

I mostly read science books - by second grade, I was reading books on astronomy and space exploration from the adult section of the library.

Aims, volunteering in Owen's kindergarden class has given me much perspective on typical reading development. Only two or three of Owen's classmates are reading. We work on letter recognition in their centers. Em's probably very much on track for her age.

Owen's reading level is freakish. I'm proud of it but it is also hard to keep him interested in what the rest of the class is doing. And his social development is way behind.

Stop freaking , Aimee. Don't push. Limit tv. Limit what she can do on computers

I do not know what your library has available -- but my library has tumble books on line-- which reads the story with the words on screen . ( very cool) To get in you need a library card. you can get an online library card with a California address

[link]

some kids don't really figure out reading until 2nd grade. this has nothing to do with intelligence or future school performance. If screen time is limited, they got to find something to do - and if it isn't reading, well it isn't passive.

An hour might be too long for homework time. and right after school might be too soon ( she might need to burn off energy before she can sit) so be flexible until you find what works.

and I had a friend ( children's librairan) youngest -loved books instantly. Oldest learned to read but didn't care for it . Until he was 20 and found a mary higgins clark book. now, he reads.

and one of my sisters -- didn't finish a book until 5th /6th grade -- when she found biographies.

Aims, I just wanted to let you know that I share your freak-outs. Ellie is only four and so she's only learning letters and numbers but her teacher told me a while ago that she needed to "work on learning all her letters." And I know she's only 4 and I know she's fine, but I *love to read* and hearing that she might miss out on that makes me freak out even more. (Although I know Laura is right, of course.)

Anyway, 90% of the issue is me just chilling, which I know and try to do, but for Christmas I got Ellie this leapfrog plane that goes onthe fridge and has a spot for three letters and lets kids spell three letter words. It's actually pretty cool. Since then, Ellie's had a lot of fun spelling three letter words on the fridge and I've had fun helping her. She was super proud of herself for spelling "sit" the other day. It might be a fun way to encourage reading.

eta: And I have to say that while I know every child is different, hearing that Owen reads at the third grade level made me go "Holy shit!" (as in, wow) but then of course I immediately started thinking of Ellie as "so far behind". When does that weird mommy thing go away???

eta2: and I hope this doesn't sound like I'm not happy for Owen because reading is so cool and reading so far above his grade level is awesome.

Our school system has tumble books online for free. So awesome.

Aimee, I have had this struggle with Casper as well - she's now 6 and almost a half and still not *really* reading. She can sound words out when she has to. But the teacher tells me she is right exactly at grade level for first grade.

It's sometimes hard for me since I can't remember not being able to read and could read when I started K. But she loves to be read to, she knows all the letters and sounds, and everyone tells me that often kids just *get* it and it's like a switch flips - they go from reluctant and struggling to reading fluently very fast.

If you don't watch The Electric Company (new version) I recommend it - it's pitched right at the sounding-out stage, and Casper loves it. They have some online games associated with it, too - which they use at Casper's school. They also use starfall.org at school which is a little more basic (letters and sounds).

The biggest thing I would say is not to worry or project too much (yeah, this is hard, I have so been there). She may be reluctant to "perform" for you and you want to cultivate the love of story and reading, not focus on performance. If she loves stories, she'll want to learn to read, and barring disability (schools are pretty attuned to as a rule) she will.

An hour might be too long for homework time. and right after school might be too soon ( she might need to burn off energy before she can sit) so be flexible until you find what works.

I was just thinking that after talking about this with another friend.

And I admit, we are totally lax on the tv thing, as in, we allow WAY too much of it.

Anyway, 90% of the issue is me just chilling,

This is me, also. We also have a sneaking suspicion that she is reading Doestoyvsky at school, but throws a fit over Fancy Nancy at home because she KNOWS we want her to read.

starfall.org

That's the one vw introduced her too and she loves it!

We really really really try to not make it THAT big of a deal and not to show her that Joe and I are totally having our issues. But sometimes, I want to bang my head on the desk or wall or whatever and I worry that she's not smart.

Which, she TOTALLY is. And she's creative as hell. And she's AWESOME and AMAZING! She's right where she should be, age-wise, and if there was a problem, her teachers would totally tell us.

Parenting is not for the weak. That's for damn sure.

The biggest thing I would say is not to worry or project too much (yeah, this is hard, I have so been there).

That's one of the things I love about this board. I'm sure we are not all big readers, but I feel like if there was ever a place to stress about your kid not reading, people here would get it.

Ellie loves to "read" books at school but we don't read that much at home. Which is weird because I love to read. I would love to spend more time reading to her at night, but it takes forever to get Frisco to sleep which sort of sucks up our evenings.