Who taught you to read?

Published on by Margaret

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A while ago, Deb at Booking Through Thursday interviewed her readers for a change, and her final question was, ‘œWhat question have I NOT asked at BTT that you’d love me to ask?’

This morning’s BTT question is the question I asked:

Who taught you to read?

I asked this because I don’t remember who taught me to read and I wondered if anyone else does actually remember being taught.

I just can’t remember a time when I couldn’t talk, walk or read. I know that I could read before I went to school and that I loved being read to and being told stories. It was my dad who read to me at night before I went to sleep and he was the one who made up silly, funny stories to keep me and my sister entertained. So maybe it was him who taught me to read.

But it could have be my mum who taught me because she was the one who took me to the library with her. The library was a small branch library with children’s and adults’ books in the same room and I could choose my own books whilst she chose hers and she could keep an eye on me at the same time. She was the one who always had her head in a book when she wasn’t busy doing anything else. 

I wish I could remember. All I do remember is loving books and it seems as though I learnt to read by looking and listening rather than being taught. But it can’t have been that simple – can it?

14 thoughts on “Who taught you to read?”

  8. I can’t remember either, who taught me to read. I can read in two languages as well. I just remember that I’ve always felt a book was a treasure. I still do. I can’t imagine not having a spare book or two around. Fortunately I do.

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  9. I can’t remember not being able to read, but I do remember my mother, who was a teacher, telling me that she had only taught me my letters and left the rest to school, in case she and the school used different teaching methods.

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  10. Some people do just teach themselves by asking questions and following words when they’re being read to, my eldest did that and when he got to nursery and could read fluently, they weren’t happy about it. I remember being taught at school because it was the new ITA system (1964) which they tried out for a couple of years, absolutely crazy with double ‘o’ being two loops and other differences to the alphabet. Despite that disadvantage the whole class did manage to learn to read.

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  11. I personally don’t remember being taught to read as I have a terrible memory but my mother has always said that she read to me every night and that she did to all of us children when we were youngsters. So I believe that my mother taught me to read as I definitely take after her when it comes to loving books and reading 🙂
    Thanks for sharing and thanks for a great question!

    here’s my BTT:
    http://lostinthought-becca.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/booking-through-thursday-4.html

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  12. I think I taught myself but I’m not sure. I know my parents both read every evening and Mom read her detective magazines that Dad didn’t really approve of during the day too. My best friend lived two doors down and she was also from a reading family. As soon as we were allowed, Phyllis and I walked to the city library every Sat. morning and brought home as many books as we could carry. A lot of good example for me.

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  13. I can’t remember a time when I couldn’t read. I could read fluently before I started school. Neither my mother nor I can remember her teaching me in any formal fashion, although she did teach me the alphabet. There were so many books in the house perhaps I just picked it up.

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  14. It was my Mum. I remember having some of the later books in the Ladybird Key Words scheme (Peter & Jane books), but I could read well before going to school, and we did have a bedtime story every night.

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