Fish, at 7, can read: his name, and game commands such as "play", "start", "go", "joshua", "save" as well as recognising and being able to form 11 letters. His is aware of his very fledgling reading status, particularly as age-mate friends are varyingly more reading-able at the moment.
As an unschooling family we have seen Cricket learn to read without lessons or reading-programs, although he did not have an age-mate crisis because of a dearth of age-mates until his reading was established.
The greatest risk for Fish at this time is *not* that he may not learn to read as there is no doubt that he will (because he already is... learning...) but that his self-esteem will be eroded by comparison with others or "polite" (ie doubtful) queries from family/friends. I do hope his extended family will avoid such negative well-meaningness.
Of course I am happy for extended family to discuss their interest in Fish's reading with me, if they are sufficiently interested in first reading about our perspective on the subject.
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