Thursday, August 09, 2007
On Reading
From Always Unschooled:
Unschoolers do not depend on reading for their kids to learn. And
unschooled kids learn just fine. The learning that unschoolers do
looks different. It looks like play. But it is not only just as
effective, it's more because kids are absorbing what fascinates them
in ways that are natural to their personalities.
When kids are allowed to read when they want to, when they find it
meaningful for them, when their brains are developmentally ready, when
they have pleasant associations with reading then kids do learn to
read. It happens usually between 6 and 8 but can be earlier and can be
later. Thirteen is not an unusual age to learn to read. (Kids who
learn at 13 are not 7 years behind in skills. They quickly are reading
at age level.)
In the mean time they are learning just fine in other ways: listening
to people, talking, watching TV, listening to music, playing games,
doing things hands on, analyzing, making connections and so on.
You might consider reading Frank Smith's books, in particular,
Reading Without Nonsense, in which he outlines the reasons that he
feels confident that reading cannot be taught to children. He feels
that they learn themselves, when surrounded by adults who will tell
them what words are, and when they live in a print-rich environment
(which most of us live in regardless of whether we try or not, these
days.) It is extremely technical, although the exercises are simple
and powerful illustrations of how the brain/eyes work. He is an
official educational "expert." I believe he also has a book out
about math, which I'm interested in reading.
We have an 8.5yo that is not yet reading even more than a few words,
and so the situations in which we find ourselves where both close
relatives and casual acquaintances are surprised by this fact occur
more and more regularly. Fortunately most of our relatives are
somewhat okay with it for now, it is just the casual acquaintances
that we need to address these days, with a brief statement (that I'm
still refining).
# posted by Anne @ 10:12 AM 
