This is just a random personal anecdote I thought I would share here. DD is a about 2.5 years old and is developing into quite a solid reader. Sometimes, when a new word comes up in conversation, she will listen to me say it and maybe repeat it incorrectly or just not “get it.” It has come in so handy to be able to write it down and show her, for example, last week it was “hospital.” She repeated something back to me, I think it might have been HOPsital, so I wrote the word down for her and she made the connection, with instantaneous correct pronunciation after seeing the word.
The other experience I wanted to share was that we took our kids camping for the first time last weekend overnight. We let them run around and spent tons of family time with no distractions. (I was pretty sure I was going to die without my laptop at one point, but I made it through 
) We played in an open grassy field, swung them around, sang songs, the whole bit. Sitting on the ground, my daughter looks over at me and randomly says “Thank you Mama for teaching me to read a story.” I don’t think I will ever forget those words as long as I live, if my husband wasn’t sitting there I’m not sure I would have believed my ears. I don’t know if I ever would have heard those words if we hadn’t take the time to unplug and have some dedicated family-time to re-connect.
I don’t talk to her about teaching her to read, we just do it, although I have discussions about teaching babies to read with my husband from time to time. At best guess, when a friend was over a few weeks ago, (who’s son is the same age but a little bit behind DD in skill b/c he started later), she said “It’s so cool that she can sit down and read a story.” That’s the only thing I can think of that might have prompted her to say such a thing?
Anyway, it made my heart skip a beat to hear my two year old daughter, who I know adores reading, actually thank me for it out of the blue. Didn’t see that one coming! 