Slow Schooling Chapter 15: Teaching Reading
Not just learning to read, but CHOOSING to read.
Monday, June 18, 2007 09:52
Of Spitballs and Speedbumps
I should have known better. But once my children found my stash of Calvin and Hobbes books, they were hooked. Suddenly anything else worth reading was buried under blankets, clothing and toys, and I was sure to regularly find grubby little hands clutching collections of stories of this little boy with his stuffed toy tiger. Soon I was fielding questions such as,“Mom, what’s a spitball?” and trying to join in on the laughter about Calvin creating speed bumps all over the grassy lawn (all the while I’m giving the “don’t you dare” look).
My five year old graduated directly from easy phonic books and plunged into spending copious amounts of time giggling through the exploits of these characters.... It just goes to show you that while boxes of expensive phonic and reading programs may make you feel better about giving your child a “good education”, it won’t give them the same motivation to read as the opportunity to learn about storing snowballs in coat pockets, locking babysitters out of the house, and creating volcanoes out of mashed potatoes.
In one sense, reading happens. Given enough opportunity, modeling, motivation and coaching, reading is a skill that most children can master. And, like walking, it doesn’t matter much if the skill was mastered early on or later in childhood. Both early and late readers alike can learn to read well and read deeply. The challenge is that there is too much noise competing for reading time, and it isn’t so much the ability to read that is at stake, but the willingness to read. There is a vast difference between people who are functionally illiterate and those who are voluntarily so. It’s important for our children to choose to read.
Why?
Given that God so clearly commanded His Word to be written, it follows that people could be expected to read and clearly understand it. The very foundation for the sanctity of every life and for individual liberty rests plainly upon an understanding of the nature of God and man. Truly, the only way to enslave another person is to keep that person illiterate, for he will be without knowledge and utterly dependent. Furthermore, whether or not he listens to his conscience, he is expected to be obedient to the laws of God and will perish if he persists in breaking them without restitution in Christ. How can he heed God without knowing how to read the Bible? He will be a reed blowing wherever and however the cultural and fleshly wind blows.
As a homeschooling mother, my attitude was (and is) thus: there was great emphasis in teaching my child to read. It was (and is) a great blessing when that skill is attained, for their education is now more powerfully within their own hands, and they can read for themselves God’s Word.
At the start is an environment of literacy. Thankfully, the library is free, and oh, how lovely the smell of fraying old chapter books and the sounds of rustling paper. It’s a wonderful place to sample and carry home piles of books and yet maintain food money. We regularly have 50 or more library books in our home. Sadly, however, it is at times sorry not to find quality Christian classics among the stacks. Therefore, I think it most needful in creating that environment of literacy to maintain a fair library in the home.
Reading aloud is golden from the infant on the knee to the teen at the table. It is not something to be done too quickly, or with a droning tone. The reader must enter the text, boom the voice when it’s exciting and whisper when it’s still and sad. Reading aloud is a time of gathering together to experience and learn with one another; it ought to be a time to look forward to. Don’t discount reading aloud in the family home. After all, it was a read aloud that led to great repentance in Nehemiah 8! Read aloud proverbs, newspaper articles, poems, storybooks and unabridged novels. Read aloud advertisements and pick them apart for marketing ploys. And, of course, read aloud the children’s own writing and work, and teach them how to read aloud, too.
Unlike the dreamy pictures of read aloud times with children I see online (or in my head), more often it is like this: I read (blah blah blahblahblah blah.....).....tell the 4 yo to get off the table....read....pour another cup of milk......read.......answer the phone (a whole other problem, I realize, but truly it is usually either my husband or mother-in-law on the other end).......read.....shush the almost 2yo.....you get the idea. It is most often NOT the picture of a lazy summer afternoon, children clinging to my legs in earnest expectation of the glorious words about to pour forth from the pages I am holding. Which is why, I suppose, it not only takes us a whopping long time to get through a book, but also why we read in shorter spurts all throughout the day.
More often, reading aloud happens in spurts. Daddy might read a devotional before bed. I will try to get in a reading at lunch (having eaten ahead of time). Some “read aloud” time might be counted with audio tapes as we travel, or when a child reads Piggy and Gerald for the 314th time to a younger sibling. It is never perfect in our home, and hardly consistent. But we do it.
I’ve had many different experiences teaching my children to read, and I’m not so sure there is “the way” that works for every child. One child picked it up on her own, quite early. Another worked through a workbook with me (1). Another didn’t get it until he began writing (first) through Spell to Write and Read. Still another wasn’t even motivated until she discovered Calvin and Hobbes. One of my daughters with Down syndrome is learning reading by sight. Patience, persistence, and perseverance. And modeling. My children see their mother and father read real books, too.
There are valid concerns with the content with books, and many times I have heard people insist that I must pre-read everything my children read. I find this amazing, as I have nine children, most of whom have ravenous reading habits like crows plowing through open corn fields. Furthermore, I simply do not have the funds (nor the desire) to create a bunker style home library. The best I have been able to do with this regard is to share lists of quality titles that I ask my children to read on a regular basis. Yes, they still may pick up a series of “candy” reading, but it works to set specific books, authors, or genres as assigned reading as well. Also, when the Word is shared on a daily basis, children quickly see quite clearly reading material that would be shameful to set ones mind and eyes upon. Unfortunately, due to misguided “open access” to children, even pornographic novels are within reach in our community library. This is simply yet one more land mine with which to warn and teach our children about. Creating the illusion that (a) nothing is good “out there” or that (b) our home is “sinless” is not only untrue, but ripe for the call of hypocrisy. The Bible--and common sense--is clear here: there is no end to the making of books and there is no way we can absorb them all or preview everything our child comes across. Better to teach them how to discern good reading material, and then they will know.
Naturally, reading happens across the subjects taught in homeschooling. There is ample, good quality literature that very clever people have threaded through lessons in science and history, and I have found those sorts of curriculum to be very valuable in our home. (2)
What about real concerns for physical limitations with reading? Of course, some of these are real and should be checked out by the proper offices. Sometimes a child may need glasses, other times a dietary change is needed. Other times, a child may have a real visual discrimination problem. These are challenges, but not impossible ones. With real determination (and the right help as needed), your child can learn to read.
Dogs, Books, and Herbs
Wednesday, August 1, 2007 11:21
...let’s talk about the avalanches of books we have everywhere. My hubby and I love books, and thus our children are already doomed. I decided to just go around to their bedsides and take a count. That was the least frustrating action I could take at the moment. The 3 yo had eleven books in her bed, as did her 5yo sister. Already that’s 22 books in one room. Add the 4 their big 9yo sister had, and voila, 26 books. Into the boys room, I counted one in the baby’s bed, and...ready for this?....22 books for my 7yo son. TWENTY-TWO...5 on his bed, 6 underneath, 4 on the floor, and 7 piled on his bedside table.
So they like to read! But come now, how many books can you read at one time?
Ummm.....let’s see....I count 7 books and 2 magazines on my hubby’s side table, and 12 near mine. Hmm....
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox, and Elaine Bruner. The downside of this book is that I had to write all over it so that the phonics would make sense in spelling.
See Beautiful Feet Books, for example http://bfbooks.com/ Also, the Institute for Excellence in Writing also incorporates good literature in many of their studies.
If you’re looking for a simpler, more purposeful life outside of the rule of technology, perhaps you can glean from my experimentations in seeking a more present life. Learn more about the book (and how to get it) by clicking on its image.
