My little girl is five and a half. If she were in school she would be being taught to read; she often asks me to teach her to read. Initially I was enthusiatic: I bought a scheme I had heard about and we tried it; I used the books I had used with her brothers; I sounded out words with her. But she doesn't seem to quite get it. Random sounds and guesses appear, it all becomes hard work and I get frustrated and lose my joy. I never, ever, want one of my children to say that they hate books or that reading is boring, so I have backed right off. I cannot believe that a child would grow up, loving stories, delighting in books, surrounded by text, and not learn to read.
Yesterday, as I finished our tea-time chapter of 'Our Island History', she pointed to the last word: "S-E-N-D,' she sounded out, "send." She could see it. She had heard me read the word and she could see how the letters made it, even with the blended consonant.
So often, their learning reminds me of bulbs. You can't see anything happening, but somewhere underground, in private, in the dark, growth is occuring. Sometime those tiny green shoots will appear and all you really did was plant them and water them; they grew because that's what they do!
2 comments:
Tigger had a fantastic reception teacher when she was in school in England. This woman had over 20 years experience and she did a session for parents at the beginning of the school year. In it she addressed head on the fact that learning to read is the thing that parents always ask about as the measure of what kids are learning in school -- "can she read yet"-- and this teacher said that it wasn't the right question.
She then went on to explain all the physical and neurological development that needs to happen first and that some kids just aren't PHYSICALLY ready to read at 4 or 5. (Please, someone tell David Cameron!)
Then she talked about how increasingly difficult jigsaw puzzles, drawing (and scribbling), and all the other "play" that they do at that age is crucial to the physical development (including in how your eyes work) that provides the necessary foundation for reading and writing.
5 is very young. I the Netherlands and Finland they wouldn't even think of it then. I'm glad she is working it out for herself but just keep reading to her, doing puzzles, talking about things...
Thanks for this Jove, it's so good to be reminded that I'm not nuts and not damaging my children by not teaching them to read. I am always a little freaked by stories of younger kids learning to read earlier than mine!
In fact, my little girl loves to write and copies words or asks me to spell them out for her a lot and she loves to draw too.
There are those people who ask "Is she reading yet?", as they asked with my middle son, and it does get under my skin, but I am learning to ignore it!
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