I'm not sure of Alan Kay's childhood, but in my case I was reading at a 6th grade level (IIRC) when I entered kindergarten, and was reading and writing stories from a very young age. I can't speak to the nature side of things, but I can speak to the nurture:
Every day from the time I was born, my mother would spend hours reading to me; not just "See Spot Run" level books, but things like the Bruce Coville "Magic Shop" series. Instead of just letting it stay there, she'd ask me questions about what she was reading, and then we'd make up our own stories that riffed on the same concepts/characters/settings. When going to bed, she wouldn't read to me, but rather we would make up our own stories using a theme that she'd select, which forced me to think through things at a higher level.
The one part I wish I understood better was how it went from oral to written, both in terms of reading and writing stories; I remember well her reading to me, but not how it switched to me reading. Regardless, I imagine that the nurture side of things had a huge, huge impact on my abilities, so: thanks mom!
[Edit: Linked her this thread, so I'll update with her thoughts whenever she sees it, if she doesn't comment herself.]
That's awesome! One thing I've started to do with my older son, who'll be 4 in a month, is helping him journal about his day. About half an hour before he goes up to bed, we sit down at the table and he dictates a journal entry about his day. If he says something ungrammatical, like "I go'ed to the library," I'll say aloud, "I went to the library" as I write it down, so he picks up on it. I've noticed, over the past six months or so that we've been doing it, that he's gotten better at putting events in a sequence, and I think it's helping to spark his imagination, too, because sometimes he'll tell me fanciful things about his day that I know he didn't actually do.
That sounds really neat, I think I will start doing that with my daughter. I am away from home a lot so it might be something that we can do over the phone as our thing.
If anyone is curious, a few random thoughts from my mom on this:
It was important that you understood how to get from point a to b. You were always good at being able to put things together easily. Sequencing and figuring out how a character came to be are elements that are often overlooked. Knowing that 1 story could be many with just a small twist is what the Coville books were so good at. Another thing is that your father and I never talked down to you and allowed you to come to your own conclusions.
My wife started with 3-letter rhyming words. Cat, Bat, Hat. Lists of them. Once the 3-year-old could recognize the 1st letter she changed it up. Cot, Not, Hot.
A couple of weeks of this and they were reading. We continued to read to them but just for fun, for the theatre of it. With voices and acting out, hilarious with young kids.
My youngest got tired of all that and would grab the book and go to his room to read it alone. He was also reading Wizard of Oz when he entered Kindergarten.
Funny, teachers are often highly resistant to admitting any kid is at a different level. They even went so far as to bring in a 'reading expert' to test him. Showed him some stupid picture with a 6-word poem and read it to him, asked him what it 'meant'. Nothing of course. So he 'was reading at a normal 5-year-old level'.
Did they ever just ask him to read a book? No. Why not? What is the deal with teachers? Is it inconvenient to have kids at different levels so they go into denial? Do they feel threatened?
This isn't an isolated case. Its been played out in my experience with my kid and others of my friends. I've been buttonholed by experienced teachers and given a tirade on the evils of teaching kids on your own.
I like teachers, respect them. But they often have a chip on their shoulders, and its holding kids back.
I don't have a source, but I remember reading that a child observing a parent reading (As opposed to a parent reading to a child) was a better indicator of whether the child would be a reader.
Every day from the time I was born, my mother would spend hours reading to me; not just "See Spot Run" level books, but things like the Bruce Coville "Magic Shop" series. Instead of just letting it stay there, she'd ask me questions about what she was reading, and then we'd make up our own stories that riffed on the same concepts/characters/settings. When going to bed, she wouldn't read to me, but rather we would make up our own stories using a theme that she'd select, which forced me to think through things at a higher level.
The one part I wish I understood better was how it went from oral to written, both in terms of reading and writing stories; I remember well her reading to me, but not how it switched to me reading. Regardless, I imagine that the nurture side of things had a huge, huge impact on my abilities, so: thanks mom!
[Edit: Linked her this thread, so I'll update with her thoughts whenever she sees it, if she doesn't comment herself.]