Posted on 09/26/2013 1:23:55 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
What you are doing is "after-schooling", and a lot of folks who can't afford the time off work to homeschool their young children do this all the time.
SO very true!! It also opens up the whole world for them, because being able to read means they can teach themselves anything they want to learn.
We continued reading to the kids well into their early middle school years. Hubby read "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" to the older boys. Both of them got and stayed interested in the fantasy genre for years.
When the younger two came along, and got to be that same age, I read the "Redwall" series to them. It was a fun time, reading to them each night, and they enjoyed it because I would take on the varied British accents in the book; the moles and voles spoke in a Cockney accent and the hares had a British military, 'what? what?' pattern of speech. Both of them turned out to be voracious readers, as well.
My youngest is now in a wonderful charter where we don't have to do this drill. They teach the subject in class and give out their cell numbers to call for homework help. They check every day that homework is done and if it isn't the kid stays late to do it. No more finding out at parent-teacher night that your kid has a bunch of missing homework that it is too late to make it up. They test every six weeks and adjust to focus on where the kids need extra attention. It's great to have teachers who teach so we don't have to.
Nahh—There will be plenty of Ivy League-educated Navigators for that.
Exactly the same story. My parents read to me and I made the associations. When I asked a question, I received a phonics answer. I read above grade level (by a lot) from kindergarten onward.
Unless I’ve lost my ability to add, you’ve got 10 kids!
Congratulations!
Thanks, Bruce, for another well-researched article on reading. And just in time for school starting this fall.
How does a parent know if their first grader may be developing a reading problem based on lack of phonics? Here’s a checklist:
He guesses constantly.
He confuses “a” and “the.”
He can usually sound out the first letter and the last letter but the middle of the word is a mystery.
He looks at the pictures first and does a lot of his guesswork based on the pictures.
A word list to memorize appears in his homework, sometimes with instructions for him to call out the words as quickly as possible. (Speed is stressed rather than accuracy.)
If readers come home, they contain a high volume of irregular words that are difficult to sound out.
(Phonetic readers have very few irregular words.)
If you suspect your child is failing to learn to read, research the Internet and find a compatible phonics program to help you teach him.
Or hire someone to tutor him.
Reading is the most important thing he will ever learn in school and his future depends on it.
You are correct, and thank you. They range from Gunner Anoreth, USCG, age 22, to Kathleen, the Pink Pet, age 1-1/2. The first two boys are in their late teens, and then there’s the pack of “byos,” who are 11, 9, 7, and 4.
I’ve learned a lot about education the hard way. Tom (16), Pat (11), and Vlad (7) are the instant-readers, while Bill (19), James (9), and Frank (4), are the ones who had to be taught. Frank can’t read yet, and he’s hit-or-miss on recognizing letters and numbers. We were looking at flash cards this afternoon, and he’s quite unclear about 6, 8, and 9!
When I was in lower elementary school, our library had a *Bookworm* program each summer. We were allowed 10 books a week. I always checked out the maximum, read them and was able to give an oral report on each one. By the end of June, the librarian just gave me the weekly sticker, saying:”We know you read them and we know you understand them.”
By 5th grade, I was totally bored with the kids section. My father gave me his library card and I began a lifelong love of science fiction. At first, the librarian would call my father to check that I was allowed to use his card. He told her I could read anything in the library. I think that happened twice. My mother was afraid I was reading *inappropriate* things, but I was able to convince her that I had already finished all the children’s series, the teenaged series and the biographies and if she stopped me from reading adult books, I wouldn’t have anything to read at all except romance novels begged from the babysitter. She relented.
I’m no genius. I suck at math. I understand scientific concepts, but not the equations that support them. I learned to use a dictionary on my own and an encyclopedia. Reading is a gateway to knowledge and understanding of the world. I do not understand illiteracy being sanctioned anywhere.
I am reasonable certain that I won’t be allowed to retire because I am one of the last generation that is both literate and has an attention span.
And yet, the Hunger Games trilogy was/is amazingly popular with teens and I have read of it being used in public schools.
The possible answer is that the Surveillance State is not yet complete, so some things can still sneak through.
RE: “He guesses constantly. He confuses “a” and “the.” He can usually sound out the first letter and the last letter but the middle of the word is a mystery. He looks at the pictures first and does a lot of his guesswork based on the pictures...”
This is a great list. Everybody in the country should see it. The striking thing is how clear-cut the signals are. The kid is doing these things or not doing them. If he is doing them, he is the victim of bad reading instruction.
Look here, literacy used to be important, because it led to a society capable of figuring out everything about the universe. Now, knowledge is complete, the debate is over, and there’s only one valid opinion about any subject.
Thanks BruceDeitrickPrice.
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