I have been blessed with children that love to read. I, myself, also love to read. However, I know that not everyone enjoys this....in fact, for some kids, it's like pulling teeth to get them to pick up a book! I wanted to share with you some of the things I do. I don't have all the answers, but I believe that we all have something to offer each other that can help and encourage one another! Feel free to browse through these links. I will be adding new posts frequently, so make sure to check back in. Thanks for stopping by!
How to encourage a love for reading
We are gathering the tackle boxes, poles, and bait. Have I gotten everything for the baby? A bottle with water? Check. Formula? Check. Diapers? In the diaper bag, check. Standing from the dining room I scan the kitchen for anything I might be missing for our outing. Nope, nothing comes to mind. I turn and scan the living room........I see a my oldest sitting on the couch reading his book he just got from the library the day before. We are all rushing about trying to get out the door to go fishing and he is sitting on the couch intently lost in a book! "Michael! Stop reading and get up and help us! We are trying to get outta here!" Right when the words tumble out of my mouth I realize how funny it sounds. I'm telling a child to stop reading. We both start laughing. What a great problem to have.........
This kind of thing happens alot around here. I usually find Michael at night in the bathroom reading when he is supposed to be in the bed. I have to shoo him out and force him into bed. "But Moooooom", he drawls the words out, "It's just getting good". Daelynn is at most times reading 2-3 books at once. But it wasn't always like this.................
Things used be different. When my children attended public school they hated reading. Every night for homework Daelynn would have to read a selected passage. I would have to time her as she read as fast as possible as many words as she could (correctly) in a minute. I would have to write at the bottom of the page how many words she read and then circle any words she got incorrect. As I would circle words she would cry. She hated reading. Her confidence was thrashed to pieces. It was so sad to watch, and worse to participate in! I love to read. I would try to encourage the kids, but they hated it. For school it was so harshly forced and tested and scrutinized. Daelynn was "behind" and was put into a special reading group (which was away from the regular class). What is so funny is that now she is at home for school she LOVES to read. She is reading at about 2-3 grade levels higher than what grade she is in right now. What changed?
First of all, I don't force them to read anything. I do encourage reading by "strewing".....which is a word I found at my favorite blog (here) that explains exactly how I do it. Also, we make regular library trips. I pick out some books that I think would be a great choice to steer them in a certain direction (when we are learning about specific topics). I make sure they are super interesting and colorful. Sometimes they are a hit, sometimes not. I make sure to grab plenty of different types. For example, we are learning about fish and fishing right now for science (since it's the beginning of fishing season, and we love to fish).
The secret is to let them be in drivers seat! The kids asked "hey, can we do fishing for school". So I went with it. Why not? We went to the library. I got a bunch of books that have fish in them for my Kinder child. Things like One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and "girlie" fun books for Daelynn (Mermaid Sister). I made sure to get a few different ones for each age. Just fun reader type books. Then I got a couple specifically to teach about fishing: Freshwater Fishing and For Kids. And some about fish in general (scroll down in the link to peruse through this book: Amazing Fish) When we got home I left these books (and others I didn't link) around the house. I scatter strategically. I know this sounds gross, but leaving books in the bathroom for kids is a great way to get them interested! I can't tell you how many times the kids have burst into the living saying, "Mom, did you know......".
Also, while at the library I tell the kids to go find a few books they are interested in. If I see them walking around kinda aimlessly with no books.....I help out, saying "Hey, have you checked this out? Come over here. I think you will like this". I did this recently with Daelynn. I found a great section in the Children's department of book (aimed toward girls her age) that are historically based. The books are written in diary form of a girl (girl series) or boy (boy series) in a certain period of history. These books are awesome! I can't get my kids to put them down! We also count these books as two to three different subjects for school. 1) reading 2) history and if they ask me what a word means or how to pronounce a word, we look it up in the dictionary and count it as 3)Spelling/Vocabulary for that day. You are probably wondering how I can count those books as history.....and I'm glad I got you pondering.Think about it: They are interested in these books. They get lost in the plot. This gets them interested in the time period. They start asking questions....which leads to us looking up stuff on Youtube, Google, or going back to the library for more information. Sometimes it's a small search...but sometimes it ends up being a week or two (or longer) dive into history. Isn't this what we want from homeschool? Isn't this why we started in the first place? To have our children LOVE to learn?!
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Dancers and Monsters
"Oh, Mom! Look at this book! Isn't it so wonderful? Look at her pretty dress".
Daelynn moves the open book so that I can see the illustrations. Sitting on the library floor with books all around us, Daelynn says with squinted eyes, "Don't you just love books? I love em'. I just get lost in them. Don't you, Mom?"
I smile back and excitedly reply, "Me too! I love them so much."
"I know. Don't you just love the library?"
"Yeah I do. Could you imagine being a librarian?"
"Oh my gosh, Mom. I would check out all the good books!"
"I would get fired", I said with raised eyebrows. We both started laughing quietly.
We hadn't intended on checking out any books today. In fact we were only there for the Lego-build activity they have on Saturdays. Daelynn had walked around to find some books to read while her brother was creating Lego monsters. I found a comfy chair to relax in while I worked on my crochet.
When she brought the books over and sat down on the floor, she was so excited about the dancing book she found. Daelynn has been interested in teaching herself how to dance. I looked through the pages. What a great book for her to explore all the different types of dance there are.
She got even more inspired by this book. She decided to look through the DVD section. Not much time passed when Daelynn came running back to where I was sitting.
"Look Mom! A dancing movie!"
She showed me the DVD. It was an instructional video on ballet. What a great choice! I'm amazed how this un-schooling way of doing things is working! My child made 2 great choices for learning material, in the library, ON A SATURDAY, and was EXCITED about it. Wow!
If you have a hard time getting your children excited about reading, I would recommend a trip to the local library.....but not to look through books. You might need to be a little more creative. Check out all your branch has to offer. There are usually crafts, play-dates, tutorials, and other non-reading activities scheduled in the children's department. You can sneak in a book or two with whatever your child gets interested in......
For example, my son built a Lego monster that he was very proud of. I could say something like, "Hey, wanna get a book with more Lego ideas?" or something like, "Man, you are really good at making monsters! I found this book about monsters....pretty cool huh?"
I guess a Lego trip can turn into a lot of unexpected things.
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