Reading Early-Reading Before 5
Without Prejudice
I can remember oh so well the writing in the dirt road. A girl over the road from our Commission house in Port Augusta wrote "Running Writing" in the road and I was so jealous of her. I couldn't even print words but this thing, this "Writing" galvanised my 3 year old brain like nothing else. I wanted to learn this "thing", this running writing and before I started school I could read and write.
It helped to have the parents I had. Both were highly intelligent and my Mother was a genius. She was a strong woman in that way and believed in education for girls. At home intelligence was highly prized. My oldest brother Ian was also a genius and in that sort of atmosphere any child was going to thrive. I don't remember lessons with my Mother but I know I wanted to write. Learn those words as they fascinated me.
When I started at Wilsden Primary School I was assessed and put up to Grade 1 half way through the year. I never had to read Janet and John, I had passed them eons before. I was allowed to have my own head and at 6 was allowed to roam the library and choose the books I wanted. I can remember reading adult books at an early age, 6-7. I became the reader of stories to the whole school. My voice echoing over the school in the afternoons as I read stories with inflection.
At six I knew complicated adult words that I can never remember seeing before. I knew the word alphabet had a ph that spelled f and I can't remember anyone that taught me that. Kids would come up to me and point to words that were way above what I should know and I knew them. I read Little Women at six, What Katy did and I read everything in the house. My sister loved books too and I would pinch hers and put it back before she noticed.
At home we read encyclopedias and loved them. We always were learning and learning. I romped it in at every school I went to. Head of every class and Top Girl. I was painfully shy at most other things but with learning I was a show off. I didn't want to be, I hated calling attention to myself. But it was important to know the answers and put my hand up. I worried about being popular as no one likes an "I know". My parents sat me down and gave me a good talking to.
They said it was OK to be gifted. It was OK to put my hand up. It was OK to read a book a night and it was OK to write stories. I read everything. I wrote prodigiously. I was lost in a world of imagination most of the time. I was never bored nor pulled back by others. I had to do it. It was beyond my control. I had to read, write, and talk. I read Wind In The Willows at 7 and was blown away. Same for The Water Babies and the classics.
I would pinch my brothers books and we would get in a fight over it and Mum would hand it to me, saying,
"let Janette read it first as she will be done with it quickly, you will take weeks and she won't wait."
I had to read, had to, wanted to, nothing fascinated me more. And at 10 I wrote a poem for class and hated it. So I wrote a story for a competition and won. I was first published at 11, in the children's section of the Courier Mail.
Always we were learning as kids, my brothers struggled with reading and writing but excelled at other subjects. George was a plodder and a slow learner but he is pretty much on a par with me in his chosen fields, David too. Ian is a genius beyond measure but lacks my general knowledge. I have a long memory and once I learn something I never forget it.
Even as an adult now when we get together as a family we are all highly intelligent and try to outdo each other mentally. My brothers are good at war stuff and history, geography and I am good at everything else. I can Write 3 stories at once, switching from one to the other and keep up a conversation on Facebook at the same time. Alena my youngest now has the same ability.
I can only say it's like bubbles in my head. When someone asks me a question one of the tiny minute bubbles pop up to my mouth and the answer comes out. That does not mean I am more intelligent than anyone else, it just means I have a good memory and a high academic brain. I love my brain and my mental capacity as in other areas I fall short. I can't sing like my Sister. I can't nurse like my other Sister, I am so squeamish it's not funny. I can be impractical and impulsive, not methodical and diligent like my brothers.
But when they want an answer they turn to me. Now there is Google and answers come readily about everything, but a computer can't read nor write, yet, that takes a human, although you just never know !
I can remember oh so well the writing in the dirt road. A girl over the road from our Commission house in Port Augusta wrote "Running Writing" in the road and I was so jealous of her. I couldn't even print words but this thing, this "Writing" galvanised my 3 year old brain like nothing else. I wanted to learn this "thing", this running writing and before I started school I could read and write.
It helped to have the parents I had. Both were highly intelligent and my Mother was a genius. She was a strong woman in that way and believed in education for girls. At home intelligence was highly prized. My oldest brother Ian was also a genius and in that sort of atmosphere any child was going to thrive. I don't remember lessons with my Mother but I know I wanted to write. Learn those words as they fascinated me.
When I started at Wilsden Primary School I was assessed and put up to Grade 1 half way through the year. I never had to read Janet and John, I had passed them eons before. I was allowed to have my own head and at 6 was allowed to roam the library and choose the books I wanted. I can remember reading adult books at an early age, 6-7. I became the reader of stories to the whole school. My voice echoing over the school in the afternoons as I read stories with inflection.
At six I knew complicated adult words that I can never remember seeing before. I knew the word alphabet had a ph that spelled f and I can't remember anyone that taught me that. Kids would come up to me and point to words that were way above what I should know and I knew them. I read Little Women at six, What Katy did and I read everything in the house. My sister loved books too and I would pinch hers and put it back before she noticed.
At home we read encyclopedias and loved them. We always were learning and learning. I romped it in at every school I went to. Head of every class and Top Girl. I was painfully shy at most other things but with learning I was a show off. I didn't want to be, I hated calling attention to myself. But it was important to know the answers and put my hand up. I worried about being popular as no one likes an "I know". My parents sat me down and gave me a good talking to.
They said it was OK to be gifted. It was OK to put my hand up. It was OK to read a book a night and it was OK to write stories. I read everything. I wrote prodigiously. I was lost in a world of imagination most of the time. I was never bored nor pulled back by others. I had to do it. It was beyond my control. I had to read, write, and talk. I read Wind In The Willows at 7 and was blown away. Same for The Water Babies and the classics.
I would pinch my brothers books and we would get in a fight over it and Mum would hand it to me, saying,
"let Janette read it first as she will be done with it quickly, you will take weeks and she won't wait."
I had to read, had to, wanted to, nothing fascinated me more. And at 10 I wrote a poem for class and hated it. So I wrote a story for a competition and won. I was first published at 11, in the children's section of the Courier Mail.
Always we were learning as kids, my brothers struggled with reading and writing but excelled at other subjects. George was a plodder and a slow learner but he is pretty much on a par with me in his chosen fields, David too. Ian is a genius beyond measure but lacks my general knowledge. I have a long memory and once I learn something I never forget it.
Even as an adult now when we get together as a family we are all highly intelligent and try to outdo each other mentally. My brothers are good at war stuff and history, geography and I am good at everything else. I can Write 3 stories at once, switching from one to the other and keep up a conversation on Facebook at the same time. Alena my youngest now has the same ability.
I can only say it's like bubbles in my head. When someone asks me a question one of the tiny minute bubbles pop up to my mouth and the answer comes out. That does not mean I am more intelligent than anyone else, it just means I have a good memory and a high academic brain. I love my brain and my mental capacity as in other areas I fall short. I can't sing like my Sister. I can't nurse like my other Sister, I am so squeamish it's not funny. I can be impractical and impulsive, not methodical and diligent like my brothers.
But when they want an answer they turn to me. Now there is Google and answers come readily about everything, but a computer can't read nor write, yet, that takes a human, although you just never know !
