One of my jobs around the house is each week to build the list of library books that are due. On Friday mornings I connect to our local library. I enter the name and library card number for each person in our family. Then I'll add to a list the books that are due in the next week. I email the completed list to my wife. Then most Friday afternoons the girls have the treat of going to the library.
Today I was struck by how my second daughter currently has 40 books checked out. I think this is the max for our library.
My wife posted last November that School would have ruined that kid! She wrote about how our daughters tend to be late readers. Our first daughter got off to a slow start. Our second daughter got off to even a slower start. But about six months ago the second daughter, who is ten, went from being able to read to having a love of reading. She now comes home with stacks of books, curls up on a couch, and reads for hours on end. (Our youngest daughter is often frustrated because she has no one to play with.)
Many of the children of our friends do not like to read. In public schools children are often forced to read before they are ready, they are told what to read, and given a schedule as to when they should read. Reading becomes a chore, something they have to do.
We are very grateful that we've been able to nurture a love of reading in our daughters.
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4 comments:
You speak the truth! My daughter was dyslexic, and would have been so defeated that she would never have even learned to read. Now, at 12, she will tear through book after book.
I think many early readers suffer as well. I remember my son, who read Tom Sawyer between K & 1st grade before we pulled him from school, getting teased at Cub Scouts because he admitted that he loved to read. He was in fourth grade, and doing a challenge for Read-To-Feed. He was well over a hundred books, and said he loved it because reading is so fun. The other kids made him feel like an odd-man out for that comment, and he heard about it for weeks. Apparently reading is not cool.
This is sad for more than one reason. First, why do kids feel compelled to make fun of each other? Second, why is reading considered a bad thing?
I think I can answer both questions. Children who are socialized by other children are very insecure, thus they are quick to make fun of each other. And, if you force children to read before they are ready, reading becomes a bad thing.
My experience reflects yours. Our daughter was a wee bit late in reading, but now is a voracious reader. Our 10yo son is a strong right brain thinker, and I believe putting him public school would have been a terrible mistake. At home he's been allowed to mature at his own rate. And for that, I'm grateful.
Sherry
I too have had this experience. My son struggled with reading till we read a book about right-brained children and changed our tactics. Now he loves to read and comes home with a huge stack from the library each time we go. Funny - he tends to read nonfiction on his own, leaving the fiction to me to read aloud. In any case, I am convinced that working with him his way, in his time, helped him to become the happy reader he is now. It can be a little daunting to have an 8 year old who can't quite read, but it's worth the wait to have an older child who loves it!
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