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I have a two year old who loves reading and learning. I make sure he finds learning interesting so the skills and knowledge he's picked up are a natural part of his play.

The negative replies to your comment irked me as being a bit brief and harsh.

But I do wonder where "we haven't progressed as quickly as I had hoped" came from? What made you hope for more? Prior children? Holding him up against brilliant peers? Arbitrary expectations?

I think it's one thing to push and motivate your child in a supportive and happy way, but another to have rough expectations, even if you don't share them with your child. Your experience teaching them can be as positive as theirs is being taught by you.

I can see why you would be curious, or maybe even concerned. My goals are arbitrary. They are definitely not expectations but rather hopes that my child will be able to meet them. He has already exceeded my expectations.

My approach to parenting is an experimental one. I don't assume that there is anything he can't do, I just expose him to ideas or different activities and see how he responds.

I'm happy that your two year old has a loving parent that has thought about how to teach him/her without compromising his play. That must be one happy kid.

I learned to read at about the same age as your kid. Make sure you place the same value on math and programming as you do reading such that your kid sees it as something important and fun. Maybe lead by example and play math-based games every morning or evening.

Good luck, you're doing great already.

I don't have a child yet, but if I do I'd want him to be able to do basic algebra at around that age, let alone reading, which he or she would, obviously have to be at an adult level for. I like how you keep alive the illusion that a child could play at some point in their life; as if.

People assume so much. You don't have to be a Tiger Mom to teach your kid how to read. You just have to keep exposing them to it over time slowly. Its a trivial time investment which empowers them to explore their own interests independently.

I didn't say "no playing until reading is done" I said "no video games until reading" is done. This was because I was concerned with the amount of video games he was playing.

This rule provided a way for him to self regulate his game time, and on the days he does play video games, at least he spent some time expanding his mind.

Dunno, man. I just let my kids be kids.

He is still very much a kid. If you met him, you wouldn't know that he could read unless you asked. To give him this skill took 10-15 minutes every few days over two years with months in between of no reading.

My exact sentiments...