Transcript of a Donald Knuth interview (2006)

Re:Transcript of a Donald Knuth interview (2006) by jakobegger on Monday November 23, 2015 @03:33AM (#10613447)

Something in the second "chapter" jumped out at me: apparently Knuth was reading at age 2 and a half. I have two sons, aged two and three, and the thought that they would read seems completely unthinkable to me. However, this is the second time I've read this about someone this week (there was a story about a boy genius who was admitted to MIT at age 15 on HN recently). In both cases, the parents taught their kids reading at an extremely early age.

So I wonder: Am I just underestimating the mental capacity of a 2 year old? Should I teach my kids more challenging things than playing with dough?

Or is there already such an incredible variance at age two, that there are children who can learn to read at a time when my kids are just getting the hang of basic grammar?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Transcript of a Donald Knuth interview (2006) by xyzzyz on Monday November 23, 2015 @05:15AM (#10613764)

From what my parents are telling me, my (one year) older sister was reading at the age of 4, and I was reading at the age of 3. Their technique was to read the books to the children with them sitting on the lap, so that they can see the text. One should also read the same books repeatedly, so that the kids are familiar with the text, and can match the words they remember with symbols in a book. They must also actually like the stories, so that they're not bored with the exercise.

My three younger sisters didn't learn to read so early, but it seems the reason was each additional kid reduced time the parents could spend per kid.

[ Parent | on HN ]