A Reflective Memoir
Part One: How I Learned to Read

Learning how to read was an exciting and enjoyable experience for me. The experience began with hearing stories being read to me. My parents told me that when I was an infant, they constantly read bible stories, children’s stories, and nursery rhymes to me.

My parents made reading part of my everyday life. For Christmas and birthday gifts, they gave me all types of books. When we were in the car, they made me play games of pronouncing and spelling road signs, fast-food restaurants signs, and gas station signs. Also, before going to the supermarket with my mother, I would write down a grocery list. At the supermarket, I would practice spelling the names of fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. On Sunday mornings, my father would give me a page of his newspaper and ask me to look for and circle articles, conjunctions, and prepositions. By age four, I was already able to read Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back and H.A. Rey’s Curious George Learns the Alphabet.

My preschool and elementary school years began my formal reading instruction. By placing around the room in alphabetical order spelling charts with words that were familiar to me, my teacher simplified learning to read. Whenever I had a chance, I would identify the letter of the alphabet and its correlating sound according to the charts, pictures, and posters on the wall. I memorized sight words, recognized context clues, and played flash card games to help me increase my vocabulary, ultimately increasing my reading skills.

By the time I was in the first grade, my classmates and I were given spelling tests to ensure that we mastered our word lists. We completed worksheets and other take-home assignments that made learning to read more gratifying. We received validation whenever we wrote sentences with words given in class and whenever we read them aloud to the rest of the class. This challenge allowed us to be creative while learning to read at the same time.

Indeed, my parents and my early childhood education teachers gave me a strong foundation of reading, for which I am grateful. Today, I read the stories I used to read in those days to my own daughters, and they seem to enjoy learning to read just as much as I did when I was their ages.