Belle, I've been trying to convince hs'ers for quite some time that a "late" reader catches up to an "early" reader, if you just let him go at his own pace! But if you push when he's not ready, he thinks he "can't" read, it's "too hard", and combating that attitude is almost impossible!!! I also think that's why public schools are failing with their education in general. Amie, I knew an evangelist once who talked about Mom and Dad's "pet pig". See what I've trained MY pet pig to do? Can YOURS do that?
that is so wrong, I agree with Sommer, let those kids be kids. My stars what are they doing frying those babies brains before they are 5 give them a break, they will have enough time to learn, let them be babies and its nuts. I think its nuts they are starting PK 3 in our school system. WHY (FREE BABYSITTER) The only reason I see parents wanting there children to learn to read at that is age is so they can brag my child reads or does math. Yea right they memorize it. I don't believe in a child learning that young. But,then again who am I right.
I guess I don't see the point in a child reading that young. I feel programs like these are mostly for parents so that they can talk about how smart their kids are!
I'm sitting here as living proof of that! I had to repeat first grade, because I hadn't learned to read. I still didn't learn the read the second time through, so a friend of my mother's who was on the school board decided to use me as a guinea pig for an "experimental" phonics course they were considering adopting. I learned to read the summer I turned eight! And better than that, I also learned to love reading. P.S. About the pet pig? We called them "baby tricks", and taught all kinds of them to our children when they were babies. Hilarious, fun for parties, and forgotten the minute the kids move on to something else.
I did teach my son to read at age 3, but not so I could brag. He was having trouble speaking and had "borderline" hearing, and the only way I could think of to help him was work through phonics. That way, instead of me always telling him "No, no, say it like THIS," when the poor kid couldn't even hear what "this" was, I could work on each letter sound separately. On letters like M and N, where he couldn't hear the difference, I showed him how to make the shapes with his mouth. As it turned out, teaching him to read at that age was probably for the best. He has a fairly significant learning disability that *should* have held back his reading. Instead he reads for enjoyment, and with considerable skill, just rather slowly.
I think that's the same for anything. The tears and tantrums we went through teaching Dd fractions and decimals! You'd think some one had hog tied her and was trying to pull her fingernails out with pliers :shock: It just took longer for the "aha" moment, but once she got it, she has never had an issue with it since. My youngest was particularly trying when it came to reading. At 7 he was still struggling. (this is only 9 weeks ago) My method? I banned him from the PS3 until he could read. You can't play games on the PS3 if you can't read the instructions. And yep, sure enough, 2 weeks later, he was suddenly a pretty good reader! :twisted: Kids will get it when they get it. Sometimes you need to be mean (like the PS3 thing) but usually it just requires patience. My middle kid is the most passionate reader now, my little guy well that was only a few weeks ago now, but he has the strongest grasp on comprehension. He can't always read the words, but he has a much better understanding of plots, and subplot, much more so than his brother who read a little earlier and a lot more than his sister who was reading at 4. It all evens out in the wash eventually.
Any "new" person who has a good understanding of "aha" moments will sure fit in here!!! I'm a firm believer of "aha" moments, especially in reading. Once that moment occurs, the battle is over! I'm afraid your youngest and mine have a lot in common, lol! Phillip would have pulled something like that!
My oldest didn't learn to read until he was 7. I tried when he was younger but he really didn't care about it and I didn't want him to learn to hate reading. My dd who is 7 now is learning and she is doing great. Because she is learning, her younger bro (6) has picked up reading on his own and comes to me when he doesn't know what the word is. He is also doing really well. My 5 yo has asked me to teach her but she still doesn't have a firm grasp on all the letter sounds so we are doing that right now. Children will learn when they are ready. It really bothers me when parents push their kids so hard that they don't have a childhood. There was a family in our church that had their 2 daughters on the advanced fast track for school. Their 4yo was reading at a 4th grade level and their 8 yo was reading at a 9th grade level. Now I don't have any problem with kids that read early...I was reading at 4....my problem was that the 4yo girl was reading a book in the childrens class and she messed up a few words (she quickly corrected herself though) and the mom who was in the room totally chewed her daughter out for messing up the words and told her that she could do better and she would have to do 2 hours of reading later that night to make up for her reading mistakes. Seriously? The girl was 4. I just wanted to slap the mom.
:lol: Aha moments are the ones I live for. I can't believe I missed so many before we home schooled. My youngest has a habit of getting a little too big for his britches. Cheeky snot. Can't imagine where he gets it.....
Wow, that's unbelievable! I don't little ones should be made to do anything for 2 hours straight! Heck, I'm teaching a 7th grader right now and I keep a sharp eye on him to see if he's flagging. Every time I see him starting to wilt (every 20 minutes to half hour), I suggest a change of activities. Get up, play a game, read a book, just shake things up. Brains work better when they're given variety. My daughter is in a grade 8 gifted program, and back when we homeschooled she used to blame me for everything that was wrong with her life. But this year her tune has changed. She's been talking to her friends, a bunch of whom are severely hot-housed, and she's horrified by the things their parents do. Now she keeps telling me how grateful she is for the way I've raised her (a combination of benign neglect and nerdy fun).
Right before my son turned three, he kept wanting to know if "Three boys could read". I kept asking, "WHICH three boys?" Finally, I realized that he wanted to know if he'd be able to read when he turned three. (We had been discussing how 3yo boys use a potty, and how HE would be using a potty when HE turned three....) So I explained that SOME 3yo's could read and some could not. Did he want to learn to read? YES!!! Well, you need to know all your letters first. Do you want to start learning your letters? YES!!! So we started learning our letters, but after a week his interest sort of waned, so I backed off. It was really two years later before we started working on reading in ernest. I'm all for teaching them young IF they are ready and interested. I don't believe in holding them back, but I also don't believe in pushing them ahead when they're not ready! I wonder where that poor little 4yo is today. Probably a perfectionist to the max, terrified to get one thing wrong on her test. I think her mom is guilty of mental abuse (AND I'M NOT JUST SAYING THAT!!!) Does anyone really WANT a little kid reading at a 9th grade level? Rachael read well above her grade level, but it actually caused problems! I discussed with the librarian (and also the representative of Total Language Plus) that, while she was capable of reading the words, most of the books had conceptsl too adavanced for her level of maturity.
And that's the crux of the issue right there isn't it? I'm glad you brought that up! So you teach your 9 month old to read, how is this helping them in any way shape or form? They may identify the word, but they don't have the comprehension skills to understand it. What's the point of your 6 year old being able to read Chaucer if they can't comprehend it?
My DS 9 has always read above his grade level. He learned to read when he was 4. He reads on about 9th grade level now. I am very proud of him! He has read Treasure Island,20,000 leagues under the sea, and many other classics. Since I don't do to much shielding, I let him read whatever he wants, as long as there is no sex or excessive bad words in it. Our bookshelves are lined with classics that he is dying to get his hands on. I never forced him, he just loves books. He said it's like he's one of the characters in the story. He likes to write out different endings to the books he reads. He’s a perfectly normal kid.. If he reads something he doesn't understand then he ask what it means, then he rereads the page. I see nothing wrong with a child reading above grade level, if they enjoy it. Reading,Spelling and writing are his thing. I’m not bragging, I’m just trying to make a point. I do however hate that Your baby can read program. My son learned to read at 4 just by us reading with him or to him.
Kids will learn when they're ready to absorb and not a minute sooner. You can force the parlor tricks, but why on earth would you want to? My dd at age 4 before starting K was making her own lists of rhyming words. I didn't make a conscious effort to teach her, she just learned from being read to (endlessly!!!). I was also one of those kids who picked up reading as a preschooler, and sort of "intuited" phonics, because the "look-guess" method was in vogue when I started school. DS, however, didn't start reading until late in first grade, early in second grade, and we'd held him back a year at home before starting kindergarten. And by that time, they were heavy into "doing Spalding" (I won't say they were doing it according to the prescribed method...). I was very happy when he was eight, and I had to tell him for the first time, "Put down the book, turn off the light, and go to sleep!"
I didnt even allow my children to watch TV until they were about 2 (except for my youngest who does see the older ones watching and will stop for about 2 seconds) but even if I did I couldn't imagine them sitting still for more than about 5 min!
I think this is absurd, and although my son is 15, it reminds me of something I am fighting against. I have been fighting against two opposing viewpoints on education that makes it very hard to know exactly what to do in homeschooling. First viewpoint: keep on track with the general "normal" standards and try to make sure he has all the basics covered so he will not fall behind or not be able to go to college (which by the way-I don't necessarily see happening) Second viewpoint: chuck the system, let me son develop as he is ABLE and encourage him in his strengths. You see, we (myself included) seem to all agree that young kids should learn at their own pace, but when it comes to the pre-teen and teen years, a lot of us (I am very guilty) somehow get caught up with standards and expectations that others have put in place and somehow feel like we or our kids are failing or losing future opportunities because they are not on track. I so much want to be free from this fear, and I am sometimes, but then it comes back with a vengance (sp?). Why do I wholeheartedly believe that kids should not be forced above their ability, but I find myself doing just that (at times)?
Being able to state the words in a sentence does not equal reading. It is only reading when comprehension accompanies the interpretation of symbols. I just remembered an incident when my younger son was 3. We were waiting at a doctor's office and my son saw the exit sign on the wall. He said that he knew what the sign said and told me it said exit. I asked him how he knew it said exit and he said because it says e -x - i - t. A lady sitting there asked him what grade he was in and he didn't know what to say. I told her that he didn't go to school yet and she started complaining about all the hormones in milk today. LOL, my son is big for his age and looks much older than he is. Anyway, based on my reading definition here my son did read, but it was a couple years before reading clicked. Reading is so much more than memorizing a few words. For some kids it clicks young and others it takes longer. Play is the basis for strong language development. Strong language development is the basis for good reading and writing skills. So let those babies play!
I do the same thing. I try to let them learn at their own pace, but in our state you have to have them tested yearly so they need to be up to level to some degree. I hate that even though I homeschool I still have to have my kids at the grade they are supposed to be in. I am always so scared that when they are tested they will be so far behind and someone will force me to put them in school. But each year I am pleasently surprised that they are on track. So far.
I so hear ya about being caught between. My situation is a bit different than most, because we're schooling Other People's Kids. Most of those who have come to us have come out of the public system, and most of those come with the idea of "getting caught up" and going back to the public system. They come for fourth grade or fifth grade, either to avoid having to take the fourth grade state test, or because they've already failed the fourth grade test, and their whole plan is to test back into public at sixth grade "where they belong" without having a repeated grade on their record. Going around the system. On the one hand, I believe the kids should be able to learn at their own speed and in their own way. With those few who have come from homeschooling or who are definitely done with the public school system, we can take our time, experiment with methods, be at different levels in different subjects, pitch the whole idea of levels at all, and so on. But for most of those others who intend to return to public at a specific grade level, the pressure is on to have them "on level" to go back. I have one student right now, who will be in 9th grade next year, whose parents are perfectly content for her to take her time and do high school in five years or four and a half years instead of four, if that's what she needs to do. I have another, a boy who was homeschooled until coming with us last year, who has some rather pronounced learning issues, whose parents are glad for any progress that he makes academically with us, and have not and will not discontinue "homeschooling" him after school and during school holidays, because it's their lifestyle not just an educational choice. (He's the youngest of seven, all homeschooled, but was the only one not content with that and insisted he wanted to go to a school - his parents feel we're a good compromise.) I have another currently in first grade who was with us the last half of kindy, and is back for the last half of first after being in public for the first half. That's what fit with the mom's home/financial/whateverelse situation at the time, but she's stated her intention to keep her with us for however long because we're "the best thing that ever happened to her." I've let the mom know that we likely won't finish ALL the reading/language arts that I have for first, because we cover different things at different times than public, and there's some stuff she will need to do second successfully. So she's perfectly fine with us finishing this work next year before starting second. So NOT feeling the pressure with these three. I DO give an achievement test (Stanford 10) at the end of each year, but only because it helps me be accountable to the parent, not because the state demands it. Since we're private school, we don't report to anybody but the parents.
Lol- I'd buy it if I had a baby! It's all in what you do with it. HOP is all memorization- I know this personally, as I used it with both my kids-but many moms here love it. What's the difference?
