Homeschool Reading Is Superior

Posted by Debbie | 0 comments

A big reason that homeschoolers do so well academically is reading. For one, they have more time to read since they do not spend hours on school buses and classroom busywork. And for another, they read real books, not the committee written textbooks.

Real Books. A real book is written by a real person with passion for his subject. Some of that passion and interest communicates to a child reading the book. He reads with high interest, forms images in his mind, agrees or disagrees. In general, his mind is working and growing as the author communicates with him.

In real books, children can read a biography in which a man is such a hero he does nothing wrong. Then he could read another biography that tells some faults and mistakes in the man’s life. With that, the child learns to think. He has more stories and interesting information to think about.

Textbooks. By contrast, a textbook is a non-book. The content is chosen by committees, possibly a range of committees in teachers’ organizations. Then after a text is planned or even written, various pressure groups push for their ideologies: “You can’t say that; it sounds like creationism.” “You need some homosexual people in the stories.” And so on. All views are pre-selected. Students are supposed to come out believing what the committees want them to believe.

Some homeschoolers like to look at textbooks to use for what they call a “spine.” They see, for instance, that a textbook covers the westward movement in U.S. history. And they see that this includes information about Indians, farming, gold mining, pony express, and other topics. Then they can find real books on those topics. Sometimes they read the textbook afterward, to provide a quick summary of the topics.

Learning to Read. Probably the most scary part for first time homeschoolers is teaching children how to read. Some people buy an expensive phonics kit with games and bells and whistles, and then spend years trying to get their money’s worth from it. Others find their children learn to read while they read picture books to them, teaching letter sounds from the books now and then in haphazard order.

Almost anything works when the time is right. A good average age for boys to begin reading is 7½. Girls about a year earlier. If you’re trying and trying to teach your child to read and not getting anywhere, maybe it’s too early. It would be better to wait awhile rather than to frustrate the child and make him feel like a failure. Also, it is better to wait because the too-early start wastes time. Children could use that time to learn from real life and from you reading to him. He grows a wider vocabulary than he would while drilling on phonics sounds and rules. This increased knowledge and vocabulary help his later reading more than early phonics does.

Some children have physical or neurological problems that interfere with reading. Their eyes may not track together and focus as they should. They may be cross-dominant, as right-handed but left-eyed. If a child is not reading by age eight you should try to find what his problem is and treat it if possible.

Enjoy Stories. If a child sits and reads for a time, maybe chuckling now and then, you know he is getting meaning from the book. So you don’t need to test him by asking questions. Especially don’t ask the “literature” kinds of questions found in some lessons. (Who is the protagonist? How did the antagonist trouble him? What is the climax of the story?) That kind of analyzing is for writers or for college courses on writing. But it has been pushed down to the early grades and it spoils stories for children.

Let the children enjoy mentally living in the stories they read. That’s what stories are for. Talk naturally about them sometimes—about what happened, what people did, what you think you would have done, and so on. No literary analysis.

Better than TV. Time spent reading is far better than time spent watching TV. The fast pace of cartoons and other features scrambles the brain’s mode of thinking. Commercials and other features flash by rapidly, and that trains children to have short attention spans. TV mixes music and wild sound effects with the talking, and that misteaches concentration. Since children cannot listen to the three things at once, they tend to turn off concentration and genuine thinking and just let the mixture of sounds surf across their brain.

Some TV images are scary. In a book you can read that the lion roared and the child makes his own mental image, one he can handle. But a full-screen lion head roaring may give him nightmares.

The Major Academic Skill. Colleges these days are happy to get homeschool students because they can read and think, and they are motivated to learn. Through reading, students can learn about the world past and the world present, even about the world future from the Bible and theological writings. They can learn about science far beyond what experiments they have time to do. The learn information about anything and everything by reading.

Students not only learn information, but they gain skill with language through reading. They broaden their vocabulary. They see good and elegant sentences that professionals write. They see beautiful descriptions and strong arguments. Reading provides models for students’ own thinking and writing.

Reading is why homeschoolers excel academically.

Debbie Strayer is a veteran educator, speaker, author and home educator. She enjoys spending time with her husband of thirty years and her grown children.

Dr. Ruth Beechick, too, has spent many years teaching and writing on education. She specializes in curriculum and in how children learn. She is mother of two and grandmother of four and loves working together with Debbie because they think alike on education matters. For more books and articles, see debbiestrayer.com.