Saturday, March 25, 2006
Learning to read
My oldest daughter taught herself to read when she was four. The only claim I have to success as her teacher is that I read to her day after day after day. When she was a toddler she used to pick up Reader's Digests and carefully flip through them page by page. When she was 17 months old my son was born, and while I was nursing him I would read her story after story after story. He liked to eat, so story time was frequent. Now at seven years old, to call her a voracious reader would be an understatement.
My son has always enjoyed listening to stories, which of course began during those nursing sessions. Since he turned five without teaching himself to read, I was thrilled at the idea that I could "teach" him to read. However, he wasn't the least bit interested in workbooks or phonics readers, so instead we would casually talk about the sounds letters made and we would read and read. Some of the first sight words he recognized came from the onomotapoeia in Dr. Seuss books
There is nothing like a good MOO or CRASH to get the attention of a budding reader. We read alphabet books and I pointed out the sounds that letter make in combination as an interesting word would appear in a book. My son turns 6 in May and he has started to read independently, seemingly overnight. Again, much as I would like to take credit, it really feels like all I did was model reading and he did the rest. I think that most of what we learn in life is "caught" rather than "taught" anyway.
And so, I look at my 4 year old girl who is eager to catch up to her older siblings I think that before long she, like her sister and brother, will be reading without my having taught them this skill. It is my love of reading and ideas, I think, that has taught these children, so much more than any worksheets, or formal lessons ever could.
Homeschool Mami
My son has always enjoyed listening to stories, which of course began during those nursing sessions. Since he turned five without teaching himself to read, I was thrilled at the idea that I could "teach" him to read. However, he wasn't the least bit interested in workbooks or phonics readers, so instead we would casually talk about the sounds letters made and we would read and read. Some of the first sight words he recognized came from the onomotapoeia in Dr. Seuss books
There is nothing like a good MOO or CRASH to get the attention of a budding reader. We read alphabet books and I pointed out the sounds that letter make in combination as an interesting word would appear in a book. My son turns 6 in May and he has started to read independently, seemingly overnight. Again, much as I would like to take credit, it really feels like all I did was model reading and he did the rest. I think that most of what we learn in life is "caught" rather than "taught" anyway.
And so, I look at my 4 year old girl who is eager to catch up to her older siblings I think that before long she, like her sister and brother, will be reading without my having taught them this skill. It is my love of reading and ideas, I think, that has taught these children, so much more than any worksheets, or formal lessons ever could.
Homeschool Mami
Comments:
<< Home
This so wonderful! I felt that it would've been easier to climb Mount Everest , then to teach my older daughter to read. And I was wrong! In my case it's too all my reading to her that did the wonder! As she is reading fluently in one language, I don't worry at all about the other. In the book "Learning All the time", Holt is ridiculing all the 180 (or something...) things kids need to learn in school before being able to read. All there is to teach them is that the letters reflect the sounds when we speak, and that we place letters from left to right in order of pronouncing them. It's that simple! I too was moving my finger on the page when we were reading, and taught Ivana to do the same. A couple of days ago when she was reading the book, she was covering half of the letters with her little finger and I moved it down, so that she sees the letters clearly. And she told me, "But Mommy, I know how to read the letters even if they are half covered with my finger!"
We are always reading all the signs everywhere we go. "Stop", "No parking", "Open", "Closed", etc. And again its a perfact example of how kids absorb everything and learn on their own! Ivana was drawing today and just started writing these words without me asking her to do it or showing her how. They amaze me every day!
Post a Comment
We are always reading all the signs everywhere we go. "Stop", "No parking", "Open", "Closed", etc. And again its a perfact example of how kids absorb everything and learn on their own! Ivana was drawing today and just started writing these words without me asking her to do it or showing her how. They amaze me every day!
<< Home
