I started reading a couple of years ago when I joined my daughters local music trust orchestra.
I've been playing for almost 30 years and that ear & jam experience was generally useless when I had sheet music thrown at me every week - especially when it wasn't in the original key but had been transposed and re-arranged to take into account the very wide ability range of the kids that attend, and often to edit long tunes down to 5 mins or so.
It really has opened up my musical world - not just about the dots themselves but also the subtleties of proper notation, the dynamics and feel that tab can't do.
My kids' music teacher uses the 'Abracadabra' books so I bought the Double bass versions. I'm ignoring all the bow stuff of course and I'm following the learning progression / reading 1 exercise at a time. My kids do 10 mins practice a day so I try to do the same.
The improvement of the 'little and often' approach really seems to work.