But Why Would You Want To Do a Thing Like That?

by Little Miss Attila on April 29, 2010

Don’t most people have enough problems as it is?

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

retriever April 29, 2010 at 9:55 am

I hate those pushy parent books and programs. That baby Einstein thing was dumb. As a voracious reader myself, born into a family of voracious readers, with kids ditto, all I know is that kids do what they see their parents doing (if they don’t react violently against it). SO, if you want your kids to read, just read yourself. Setting aside half an hour for reading or whatever, makes it a chore. Have books in every room (kitchen, bathroom, laundry room included) shoved in the back seat of the car. Let them check out as many books as they want in the library (we regularly took home 60-70 picture books when they were small. A few fines here and there will cost you less than ONE of those stupid books on forcing a kid to read. Let them get what they are interested in, but do some judicial censorship. My second grader was interested in dragons and progressed to the Dragon riders of Pern, which have a certain amount of “unsuitable” aka sexual stuff in them.

My kids grew up in a messy (tho clean) house, and saw their mother reading while she stirred soup, waited in line, pretended to watch the news.

ALso, just don’t have a TV. We put ours in the attic for several years until they were all confirmed readers. When they are bored, say “You can read one of these that I liked at your age, but DON’T read those, as they are too grownup for you” (then they will sneak off and read the ones crafty mama actually hoped they would read). Or do what we did and only allow parent selected dvds or videos.

Acquisitiveness helps. Take them to thrift shops and second hand book sales and tag sales and let them get whatever they want. Stress treating books carefully, but not reverently when they are their own. We don’t allow trashing books, but normal wear and tear shows that they are being read.

Put away all your first editions, fancy copies of things, and only keep out the books you want well loved (as opposed to ornamenting the shelves for interior decoration). Once they are ten or so, you can bring back the leather bound family heirlooms.

As far as the mechanics of learning to read? Kids will read when they want to, and should not be pushed. If the subject matter interests them, and they haven’t got other distractions, they will. Our girls didn’t learn until late in kindergarten (others, with pushier moms came in to kindergarten reading) but by first grade were reading chapter books because we let them read what they wanted. Our son had learning disabilities, and the way we got him to read was by letting him play role playing games on the computer, after a couple of years of unsuccessful Reader Rabbit type things recommended by his school. He would keep hollering at a crucial juncture in the game: Come and read my options!, and we would (initially). THen we would take a little longer to come and read, and he would struggle to decipher the letters. Then a little longer, and he was so frustrated that he read. The thing with that, apart from desire, was context and appealing graphics. which helped him.

Sorry to go on so…

I think the seduction of the net and all things tech are hard to resist now. I read fewer paper books now myself.

But with kids, you can just play audiobooks in the car (instead of videos) and they will hear a LOT of great literature that way. At least if you live in the burbs and that van is your second living room. BY the time they are in middle school, you can alternate Teaching COmpany cds with more dramatic kiddie pleasing novels or plays.

love from the Churchmouse

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Little Miss Attila April 29, 2010 at 11:07 am

Yes. I was being partly tongue-in-cheek, but it seems like a silly premise–that one ought to manipulate the situation to death, rather than letting it happen organically.

I don’t remember learning to read. Not at all. I sort of assume that my grandmother (a schoolteacher) took care of it the summer before I entered first grade. Either that, or it “clicked” pretty instantly for me, because first grade was for me like it was for so many others: learning to keep two places as I read, so that I could go back to where the other kids were when it was my turn to read out loud.

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