I do remember that my parents didn't teach my sister to read, that she learnt it in school. Which confused them, because whichever method they used on me (not phonetic, if memory served) was not the one she was taught, so they were perplexed as to how to help her properly at home.

How do they teach parents to support what's going on at school?

I was also what is called a "spontaneous reader." Some children watch the page while they're being read to and the connections just click. I was left to myself a lot because my sister was so sick, so I just read anything I could get my hands on. I could read when I went to kindergarten, and when the teacher started pointing to letters and saying, "This is Mr. A and this is Mr. B," I thought they were crazy. I spent the first couple of years of school being bored absolutely to tears and acting up. I can therefore testify that most children couldn't really read until they were at least 7. Eventually, I refined my reading behind the desktop skills.

Eventually, I refined my reading behind the desktop skills.

That's exactly what the b.org window behind Word and Excel and Outlook is today, isn't it?

I spent the first couple of years of school being bored absolutely to tears and acting up.

Yup, me too.

And about the typing conversation yesterday: the best typing practice I ever got was early days of AOL and the trivia chat rooms (ongoing user-created trivia contests). You had to learn to type fast if you wanted to beat anyone!

One of my earliest school memories was in the first week or so of first grade, when my reading teacher Mrs. Polley came up to me with a purple textbook (the class was reading a pink one) and suggested I try that one instead. I was much happier.

Mrs. Polley was the only teacher I ever made a craft project Christmas present for, she was that awesome.

I was also what is called a "spontaneous reader."

And me. Started reading things on packets and cans that I'd seen advertised on TV, aged about 3. "Cornflakes" etc. (And they say young people don't learn anything from TV.) I was reading books not long after that, but I remember failing the 'one word at a time' reading tests that the teacher used to make us take, because I needed context. (Obviously. Who reads one word at a time without any context at all?) Later I was told I'd learnt to read visually and picked up other useful skills to compensate for my dyslexia. I blame my parents for playing with flashcards with me when I was 2. And the cornflake packets.

When I was a kid, I used to mangle pronunciation of long words, even though I used them properly in context, just because I had never heard them read or used out loud, but had learned them from books, but not the dictionary, otherwise I would have known how to say them.

Using the words properly drove my two-years-older sister bonkers, so of course I did it even more! I had very little ammo to abuse her as a baby sister should, so my brains were an excellent resource.

When I was a kid, I used to mangle pronunciation of long words, even though I used them properly in context, just because I had never heard them read or used out loud, but had learned them from books

I still do this.

I entered kindergarten able to read.

I remember the 3rd grade, where I had a book open in my lap while everyone worked on something else. The teacher called on me, and a little knowing laugh went around the room in anticipation of me getting into trouble. I looked up, answered the question correctly, then went back to my book. Teacher was Not Pleased, and my reputation with my fellow students did not improve.

Who else got the "You think you're so smart, stop trying to show off" thing?