Starting X early is IMO a bit of a red herring with child development, especially when they're in the low single digits. Their minds grow in power recognizably on a weekly basis (particularly noticeable when you spend a week apart) that an amazing uphill achievement at time t can be a trivially picked up thing at time t+1.

I think you're right on the culture thing. My kid loves new books and understands that they contain stories. A household without that is far more likely to cause issues with reading because the motivation will be missing.

Yeah. Tried to get mine to ride a bike at 3.5 and he kept falling over. Now he tries again at 4.5 and he just immediately drives away.

Indeed, and it varies with each kid. My younger brother and I were 18 months apart. Whether he was "early" or I was "late," what was my mom going to do with him while teaching me to read? So we learned together.

Also, school curricula in the US are all based on grade year... which spans almost a whole year of age within a class based on enrollment date cutoffs.

Exactly. I try things with my son and observe if he's ready or not. There's no rush, nobody will care at 30 if you were a year "late" learning X. For example, I'm very skeptical of the trend of trying to teach advanced/abstract math to kids earlier and earlier. If they're that one in 100 and they are interested, sure. But in your late teens you just have so much more brain power, you'll easily catch up. I remember being intimidated in CS undergrad by the ubernerds, who had been coding since they were 6. But within a few months we were all at the same level anyway.

My story reflects yours (I was a "late" reader by grade but also the youngest in my grade, and voracious after I found the world larger than my tiny country town).

Because we read with our kids, all of them were reading by late 3/early 4 years old, by their own desire. While none have had a propensity for George Orwell at the third grade, they do read things beyond their age levels.

I was lucky, and my kids are lucky.

I wonder, are there any organizations that folks can volunteer at to help kids at your and my age in elementary school learn to read?

I was not considered a "late" reader at all for the early 80s though, at least where I was -- they just didn't try to teach preschoolers to read then and there like they do now. I think what they do now is a mistake... but that could be my own anecdotal prejudices.

I think a family culture of reading is huge. They eventually pick up that it is important and fun and that leads to a lifetime of learning.

> And my parents read to me a lot before I could read.

I think this is the huge thing in common here. If kids are read to from a young age some might pick it up almost "on their own" while others may wait and learn in early elementary school "on schedule", but I think will largely see similar outcomes. But the ones coming at it for the first time from _not_ having experienced reading, even if only from being read to, are starting from a perspective lacking both background and motivation.