The children receive this type of writing as they would a handmade versus a store bought gift. All depends on how open parents are to the goals of Waldorf education. If a child experiences doubt or hostility towards their school from a parent the child will naturally and rightly assume the attitudes of that parent, and the work of even the finest teacher will be of no benefit. But if parents want a child's power of imagination to be nourished and cultivated, if they have faith that not learning to read as quickly as a neighbor or relative expects is fine then even the most academically advanced child will retain the openness necessary to enjoy and benefit from the Waldorf approach. In second grade reading instruction more closely resembles conventional methods of phonetic and sight vocabulary instruction.
Second grade is also the time when the majority of the children discover that they know how to read.
This discovery takes place in the most wonderful manner. Each day during a writing block the class teacher reads from that day's writing assignment. The child lowers her eyes to her own book, looks upon the writing from a previous day and realizes she can read her own hand. One of life's great threshold's has been crossed. The use of readers may happen as early as second grade, and this decision is left to the discretion of the teacher.