My grandmother told me she was taught to read at a very young age, by her grandmother, sitting by an old coal stove with a lantern. She said that was a number one priority in their home by her grandmother. The first book she learned to read was the bible even before going to school, my said she was a great reader, and I know for a fact she could quote the bible and spell very well.
By time my mother was born, my grandmother had somehow got hit in the eye, and because she could not afford to go to the doctor right away, her eyesight had started to deteriorate to the point that there was nothing they could do to save her vision.
Now, my mother was her eyes. My mother told me that when she was about 3 or 4 years old my grandmother wanted to vote. She wrote Roosevelt in big letters on a piece of paper, so my mother could vote for her. Grand mom had to teach my mother to read at a very young age for she could help read the labels at the supermarket, read the utilities, and the street car signs as they travel daily. My mother read the paper to my grand mom every day until her death.
My mother is an extraordinary read I love to heard ,her read, as children she use to read to us all the time. I was never made to sit down and just read by my mother.
I have three children, education and reading has always been a number one priority when it came to my kids. They knew my expectation when it came to school and reading.