Reading | Heart of the Matter

April 25, 2010 By Hannah 4 Comments

If you have boys, or even if you don’t have boys, Ralph Moody is an author your family needs to meet. He lived from the late 19th to the late 20th century and chronicled the fascinating life of a rural farm boy turned man of the family at age eleven during the early years of the 20th century. It is he you will meet on the pages of his nineteen books, classics in American biographical literature, as he describes how his family moved west, hoping the dry climate would suit his father’s lung sickness, and follows with vivid recollections of their many adventures there.

Our children sit captivated in silence each night as my husband reads a chapter or two…or three, depending how many the children can beg out of him.

As parents, we not only love the history, but also the fact that the books are packed full of fabulous moral and character lessons that one can’t miss. My husband reads the books to our children first because they are young, and secondly because the more colorful characters in the books use a few words we chose not to use in our family (what beavers build and the opposite of heaven) and reading aloud allows him to simply eliminate those words from the story when he comes across them.

Little Britches – Father and I were Ranchers is the first book you’ll want to pick up and read with your family. The fact that Little Britches (Moody) begins narrating his story at the time he was the same age as one of our sons is particularly fascinating to our seven year old.

I remember reading these books as a high school girl when my grandfather gifted them to me, loving them and the stories in their pages, and so my heart if full seeing my children have that same fondness for great biographical literature.

Hannah is a relaxed homeschooling mama of five. Her and her family are big on the outdoors, big on family days, and big on making memories in everyday small ways. She loves handcrafts, iced lattes, re-arranging furniture and counts falling into bed exhausted a sign of a really great day. She and her husband make a home in upstate New York with their energetic children and a menagerie of animals. Hannah blogs at Cultivating Home.

March 5, 2010 By HeatherW 5 Comments

If you’ve ever had an accelerated reader in your home, then you know it is a challenge to keep up with what they read and to keep them in books. They read everything and anything they can get their hands on and as a parent you are constantly on the search for a good read for your child.

In my experience, there are three things that present the most difficult hurdle when you have a student who reads voraciously.

First is finding books that are emotionally appropriate for their reading level. Just because a student can read what kids in high school are reading when he is 6, doesn’t mean he should. Worse than reading books that are no longer challenging, is reading books that are inappropriate for kids of a younger age.

The second is pre-reading fast enough to find out if a book is off the mark for your child or not. At our house, my husband is the pre-reader. Unencumbered with the daily tasks of homeschooling and being a fast reader makes him a prime candidate for this job. If I see a book or series of books that I think might be appropriate, I bring it home and set him to work. In one evening he’ll be able to tell whether or not our son should try the book. He’s read a lot of good books over the years and it gives my son the incentive to read it. Once his dad has read it, then he knows that he can share what’s going on in that good book with him. We’ve seen some wonderful conversations over the years that have begun because of a book they’ve shared together.

If you don’t have a good system in place for pre-reading, then there are other ways to be more certain about a book choice. One is to ask around. Ask family, friends, and online homeschooling forum buddies about a book. Chances are someone has some experience with it and can tell you about the book.

Another way is to get your hands on some books about books. My favorites include The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease , Honey for a Child’s Heart and Honey for a Teen’s Heart by Gladys Hunt. These authors have specialized in sharing good books with their audience. The Read Aloud Handbook is all about reading good books to your children even as they get older, which is another topic all to itself, but in it there is a bibliography of good books.

As my oldest son enters the adolescent world and has been at this reading thing quite a long time, my focus has turned to books for older kids. Gladys Hunt has come to my rescue with a book written about good books for teens and how to use them to communicate with your teen. Reading is a good way to connect with your children and it will continue to be true as they enter their teens. I’m hopeful that since we have a well established culture in our home of discussing books, it will continue to be an outlet for our kids as they get older. Another good source is The Kid’s Book Club Book by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp. This book not only has a good reading list, but it shares how to organize and carry out a book club for various age groups of kids.

The last thing that I find to be a challenge with an accelerated reader is that as they grow, they get more discerning. This is actually true of any reader that has been exposed to good books whether or not they are ahead of the reading game. I have observed over the years as my son has read a lot of good books, he has little tolerance for books which are not. As Gladys Hunt says in Honey for a Teen’s Heart, “Excellence has a way of eliminating inferior products.” In practical terms, this means that finding a good book gets a little harder especially since they read so quickly! That’s all the more reason to find a good source of information on books.

Finally, I’d like to point out that typically we think of early readers as being “accelerated” readers. They head out of the starting gate at a full run and keep a steady pace. Keeping them in good supply of appropriately challenging books is a key to nurturing the early start. In addition, you can have accelerated readers that begin reading more on a typical schedule for emerging readers. Once they catch on, they begin to read everything in sight. Just because they didn’t start super early doesn’t mean they haven’t caught up to the fast pace of reading books and don’t have the capability to read more difficult books.

At our house, nurturing our good readers means having a print rich environment and making sure that trips to the library are a priority. We have so many books home from the library at our house sometimes we wonder if there are enough still on the shelves for others! I’m sure this is a familiar scene in the homes of most homeschoolers. Keeping track of which books come home and encouraging the good stuff is the task at hand. I encourage you to find the resources you need to help your kids make good decisions about books. If you should happen to make a poor judgment, all is not lost. Sometimes those less than discerning moments give us opportunities to have good discussions with our kids.

Enjoy the journey with your accelerated reader. Chances are they will take you to places you’ve not been before through their adventures with books and it gives you as the parent a special role as adventure guide.

Heather Woodie is a homeschooling mom of four kids ages 10, 8, 6, 3 and wife to a handsome chemical engineer for 13 years. Before raising a family, she taught middle school science and has a masters degree in curriculum and instruction secondary education. Now teaching at home means the chance to provide the extraordinary for her children. Between family and homeschooling time, she is working as volunteer staff for MOPS International as an Area Coordinator for NY State. She’s been homeschooling four years and you can read about those adventures on her blog, Blog She Wrote.

February 28, 2010 By Jimmie 14 Comments

“So many books… so little time” is a common refrain among bibliophile homeschoolers. Laundry has to be folded, meals have to be cooked, and errands must be run. As much as we love reading aloud to our children, homemaking often keeps us from doing it as often as we would like. And we are not the only ones who are busy! Our children attend music lessons, help with household chores, and need time outdoors for free play.

Despite our busy lives, I’ve discovered a secret for injecting more books into our schedule – audio books.

grinning audio59

Whether downloaded for free, borrowed from the library, or purchased at a retail store or website, audio books are a super way to “read” more books with your children. We store our audio CDs on the shelves along with our books for constant access. Our family rule is that you must ask permission to watch a movie, but listening to audio books is okay anytime. I love that my daughter reaches for an audio book when she’s bored instead of watching television or playing video games.

homeschool audio31 My daughter’s favorite time to listen to audio books is while she cleans up her room. The story engages her mind and helps her forget the drudgery of her task. I love that she’s hearing good fiction or classic biographies while I’m busy with my own work elsewhere in the house.

Of course, we listen to audio books together as well. That’s the best situation because we can discuss what we’ve heard and share the memories of the book together, even weeks later.

Here are some great times to sneak in more books with audio books:

During meal preparation and clean up
While drawing or crafting
As you assemble a model
When sick in bed
During a trip in the car
As you wait for an event or a doctor’s appointment (use headphones)
While folding laundry

An average juvenile fiction novel at Audible.com is around 3 hours of listening time. So if you listened to an audio book only half an hour each day, you could easily add fifty titles to your yearly reading list.

Will you choose audio books for fun or for academics? That’s up to you. You can certainly choose historical fiction to match your history curriculum. Or you may want to choose some literary classics that aren’t scheduled in your language arts curriculum. Look at some of those great books lists that you never seem to get around to reading, and choose some titles to listen to on your computer or MP3 player.

Do you use audio books? What time works best for listening? And do you have some suggested titles that were big hits with your family? Please share them in the comments.

Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.

February 28, 2010 By Patty 2 Comments

You know there are times when we wish to really bury the past. It haunts us, reminds us of what was, and terrifies us of what could be. And it colors everything we do, because it dictates who we are and what we have become.

For me, my past placed a deep shadow on the subject of reading.

I have a mild case of Dyslexia, nothing major and I can normally work around it by being careful. Re-reading sentences that don’t quite make sense, using spell checker religiously, and having my wonderful husband read things for content.

However, learning to read for me was a nightmare. My mom ran out of patience LONG before I learned the alphabet. And when there was no where to turn for help, reading became a “painful” learning experience. Back then, Dyslexia wasn’t known, and learning disabilities were spoken of in back rooms only. So for me to have such difficulties, well let’s just say it’s a miracle I don’t have a complete block when it comes to picking up the written word.

Now though I love to read. I love making my escape in far off lands, fighting dragons, falling in love with Romeo and finding buried treasure. And so when I began homeschooling, my greatest desire was to instill in my children that same love and desire. My oldest two girls were public schooled for a while and so someone else taught them the basics. I soon discovered though that my second child was facing the same difficulties as I did. She could sometimes recognize the high frequency words, but she couldn’t spell anything, she couldn’t read words in order and she couldn’t sound things out in the proper order. In short, she couldn’t read and her teacher didn’t care enough to work with her. She was falling more and more behind and so we brought her home to learn.

But remember what I said about the past and wishing to bury it? I soon found that I was ill equipped to teach her something that I had such ill memories of. I would lose patience so quickly, and the more frustrated she got, the more tense I became. So I had a good talk with myself and did what any good mom would do–I put it off until I knew what the heck I was doing!

I searched the internet for the answer–Hmmm, PHONICS right? I knew any good reader needed to under stand phonics so that’s where we began. I took a full year to review her phonics. I used Phonics Pathways, Flash cards, White boards, and the like. My patience was tested beyond my limits, but I had learned from my mom–to just back off. As soon as frustration was setting in, we packed it away for the day. It was a VERY slow process. And I never thought we were getting any where. After about 12 months of frustration and self-doubt (for both me and her) I went looking online again. I just knew there had to be an answer that I was missing.

What I found was Back on the Right Track Reading (www.righttrackreading.com) . It was a remedial reading program that took you through the next step. It helped you review the sounds, and then place them together, in a different way than Phonics Pathways (which took the Ba Be Bi Bo Bu approach). But this new program took it to their hands! You used 2 inch tiles that you wrote the sounds on. And you used them to work on taking the step from just saying the sounds to creating words. By using this hands on approach it took the need for my daughter to have to visualize the words in her mind and actually had her creating them in her hands. There was no need for her to keep it straight in her mind–as long as they were straight in her hands. She could just keep at it until she got it right. Her frustration level was reduced instantly!

Over the next school year my daughter went from barely being able to read (not necessarily comprehend) an early 2nd grade level–to a mid 6th grade comprehension level. Being able to switch gears and teaching style made all the difference. I have learned that for her, anything that I can get her to do hands on, is an instant success. Anything that she has to do internally is a long drawn out process. Her dyslexia has created a need to not only see things, but to work with them. Since this discovery, I have taken this into the other subjects that she struggles with. Such as math–every lesson is now done with manipulatives.

So what about the past? Do I still wish to bury it? Well yes and no. It’s not very pleasant memory-wise, but that memory did teach me to walk away when I was out of my depth. To look first, learn first, then teach it. Being a parent to a struggling child has its challenges. We just have to take the time to find out where the problem lies and keep looking for that solution.

Patty has been married to the love of her life for 14 years and has 4 kiddos she lovingly refers to as her monkeys. She is constantly threatening to run away to the Circus–unfortunately, she keeps being informed she’s already there! She loves throwing together this and that to create a unique learning experience that encourages a love of learning. Come feed their school mascot Shiver and check out her blog at Shiver Academy.

February 28, 2010 By Guest Leave a Comment

As a child, I never liked to read. When I mention this to someone today, I can anticipate the reaction. Their mouth drops open in disbelief, followed by a gasp. “You’re kidding!” often follows. That’s probably because I’m also the author of a number of action-adventures and mysteries especially written for other boys who may be facing similar difficulties.

Photo Credit: Marsha, Other Such Happenings

Even as an adult, reading for enjoyment continues to be a problem for me. I find it ironic because my father has published over 70 books. Several of these were children’s books, and I never read any of them. I grew up in a family of seven children. We had avid readers, nominal readers, and me. Still, I managed to finish high school and graduated from College with a degree in psychology. But I have always been more interested in, or stimulated by, things visual. I do read in order to gather information, but not for pleasure.

I used to think that a reluctant reader was simply someone who hadn’t found the right book yet. But the causes may go deeper than that. The word reluctant is defined as opposed in mind, unwilling, disinclined, struggling, or resisting.

At the outset, it’s important to understand our terms. Parents must be certain that, if facing a struggling, reluctant reader, there aren’t any problems with vision, neurological issues, or other medical conditions that might hamper reading. These should be diagnosed by professionals, but here are some things to look for.

Difficulty with vision is a big one. The transposing of letters or numbers may indicate a vision problem. You might notice that your child sees 14 when the actual number on the page is 41. The same can happen with small words. Does the child use a finger to keep his place on the page? I always did this as a child. Does he have a short attention span, or hold the book too close to his eyes?

Does he have good posture while reading, or does he move his head from side to side during reading, rather than moving his eyes? This may indicate binocular trouble because both eyes aren’t working together. Again, I suffer from this. One of my eyes sees distant objects better, while the other sees closer items with more clarity. A child with this problem may slouch in the chair, or turn his head to one side in order to favor the eye that can see the book best.

In addition to vision, a child may suffer from ADD (attention deficit disorder), ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), dyslexia, or other learning disabilities. It’s only my opinion, but I think many of the hyperactivity problems, found more often in boys today, could be greatly mitigated by allowing them to run off much of that energy for an hour outside, or in some other physical activity.

Photo Credit: Marsha, Other Such Happenings

Based on my own background, I expected that reading difficulties came from what I had experienced. Readers would struggle because they were intimidated by large blocks of words on a page. Or they were likely to be more visual than linear, as I am. My research took me through nearly two hundred children’s books. I found that some were just silly. Others seemed too unrealistic, while quite a few were simply slow and boring. I wanted exciting, realistic, and very visual things to be happening.

Recently a study was released which noted that nearly 80 percent of children 6 and under, read or are read to in an average day. But it went on to say that children spend an average of 49 minutes with books in that same average day, compared with 2 hours and 22 minutes sitting in front of a television or computer screen.

My research into reading difficulties began about eight years ago. I truly wanted to understand why it was that I grew up as a reluctant reader. I found some interesting patterns in several of the books I selected for research. In many cases they defied a person like me to get into them. The style was boring, the dialog was sometimes sparse, or when it was used, seemed too adult. As I looked around for books written especially for boys 8 – 13, I found The Hardy Boys, and a few others.

An attractive book to a reluctant reader is one that is larger in size than most. The type in these books is also larger, with lots of white space, on high quality, bright, white paper, inviting even the most reluctant reader to come in, kick his shoes off, and stay for awhile.

My work with reluctant readers often allows me to speak in schools. One of the first questions I like to ask is, “Is there anyone here who doesn’t like to read?” A few hands go up, and then others follow. There may be two or three girls who raise their hands, but predominately it’s the boys who respond.

Next I ask, “Why?”

“Books are boring,” one will say. Another suggests, “They’re too slow and nothing happens,” or, “I’d rather do other things.”

“Like what?” I’ll ask.

The answers always include watching television, playing video games, and spending time on the computer. This is interesting since research by others arrives at the same conclusions.

For the purposes of exploring reluctant or struggling readers, let’s say that you’ve had your child tested, and we can rule out vision or medical problems. What is your next step toward getting him interested in reading?

This suggestion may seem odd at first, but parents, teachers, and librarians are reporting that they’ve found success by starting with audio books. In some cases, this is used while also holding a copy of the same book. A child is able to both see and hear the words at the same time, and practice following along.

Don’t be afraid to select a book that is below grade level. You may also want to experiment with comic books, or graphic novels. The most important objective is to find something he’s interested in and wants to read about. This could include the sports page in your local newspaper, or magazines like Sports Illustrated for Kids, Ranger Rick, Highlights, and others.

Some have found success by using electronic readers like Kindle. Your child is already comfortable with a computer, or video games. The e-reader allows him to change the font, make it larger, change colors, and even look up words in some cases.

It’s easy for parents to forget the power they have over their children’s behavior. If your child avoids reading in every way possible – choosing video games, or the computer over reading, you might set those activities aside as rewards. You can say, “After you’ve read for thirty minutes, or an hour,” for example, “then you may spend time doing those other things.”

Read aloud with your child, and make sure he sees you model that reading is important in your life. This has added influence if the dad is involved.

Get rid of distractions. Again, in my case, I find it difficult to concentrate if there are other noises around. This is compounded if there are lyrics in a song on the radio, or stereo, voices coming from the TV, or from nearby conversations. Set up a quiet, comfortable reading place. Above all, make reading fun.

Have your child try reading to a dog, a cat, a doll, or some other stuffed animal. In this way, children aren’t intimidated or judged by an adult. At the same time, you can monitor their progress. Also look for high interest, low vocabulary books called Hi-Lo.

Not only is it important for books to be constructed in order to be more user friendly for struggling readers, there should be lots of humor, dialog, and heart-pounding action and adventure, plus chapters ending with a cliffhanger.

Anytime I’m asked if reading is really all that important, I give several reasons why it is, and add that readers are the leaders others follow.

Copyright October 2009 Knowonder Magazine. Republished with permission. Visit Max Anderson’s Books for Boys blog and his website for books to jumpstart your child’s imagination.

Max Elliot Anderson grew up as a struggling, reluctant reader. Using his extensive experience in the production of motion pictures, videos, and television commercials, he brings the same visual excitement and heart-pounding action to his adventure and mystery stories, written especially for tween boys. Both boys and girls have reported that reading one of his books is like being in an exciting movie.

February 28, 2010 By Yvonne 11 Comments

When I hear the term “Literature Analysis,” I develop cold sweats. My mind is yanked back into the 11th grade and flashes back on eight page literary analysis essays, along with difficult and cryptic names for what should have been very simple. My compositions were forced and unnatural and my enthusiasm for reading all but dried up. Blech…no wonder I didn’t pick up a quality piece of literature for years afterward!

It wasn’t until I began homeschooling my children about eleven years ago, that I began to learn to enjoy literature again. Following Charlotte Mason’s wisdom to use living literature in our studies helped us to delight in the literature for the sake of the story. Reading each selection aloud, the children and I learned how to discover something fun from whatever we read. After that, we dove into a couple of years of Sonlight where we learned all about both World and American History and had fascinating rabbit trails of exploration.

Photo Credit: Heidi, Mt Hope Academy

With all of that reading, we never formally analyzed anything, yet our love and appreciation of literature grew by leaps and bounds.

During those years, we discovered that each book has a buried treasure, a hidden message to uncover. Most books are written by an individual and contain a distinct perspective. In each piece of literature the writer has a message to share or a lesson to teach. In a well written book it becomes the reader’s pleasure to experience that lesson through the pages of a story, discerning the message and evaluating it for possible application. Sadly, many teachers insist on turning this experience into a dreadful exercise!

In our home, we keep literature studies simple…and apparently it’s a successful endeavor. My children love literature and even more than that, we enjoy discussing it together.

Now before I tell you what we have done in our homeschooling, let me encourage you with a precious nugget of wisdom that I picked up from Ruth Beechick. If a child is curled up with a book, quietly reading to their heart’s content, they are comprehending. If they look up at you to share something that is exciting, they are comprehending. If they giggle, or if a tear rolls down their cheek, they are comprehending. It is unnecessary to have them answer twenty questions on a book’s content or to produce a book report for every book they read. We homeschool moms tend to worry too much! Early on, I chose to keep book reports and pre-fabricated comprehension questions at a bare minimum.

So how do I cover reading and literature in my home? Push the Easy Button here!

We have a daily quiet hour. This is a time in which the children go off to read a book of their choice. This is not assigned reading…but a quiet period, where they can enjoy whatever they have chosen to read for entertainment, edification…or whatever. Right now, my children are reading a variety of literature that run the gamut from “Encyclopedia Brown,” by Donald Sobol to “The Giver,” by Lois Lowry and for my oldest, “The Way of the Wild Heart,” by John Eldredge. The importance of having the quiet hour is simply to foster a love of reading and self directed learning.

We read aloud every day. There is something special that happens when a parent puts on a character’s voice. Children strain to hear every word, they sit forward in their seats and are often eager to discuss the material. There are so many great books that edify children with life lessons about a myriad of topics. From picture books to novels, there are wonderful examples of literature at every level of learning.

Unfortunately, some families give up on reading aloud because they have wiggly children. Please let me encourage you to work through the wiggles. The trick is in training younger children to listen and be still.

I’ve done three things that have helped my children grow to love reading aloud.

1. When training young children for read alouds choose books that support their interests. If your child is all about surviving in the wilderness, then choose a book like “My Side of the Mountain,” by Jean Craighead George or an adapted version of Swiss Family Robinson. Don’t bore them with a book that will only make their minds wander. Remember, this is training…try to make it pleasant.

2. Allow young children to build with Legos or Lincoln Logs, draw pictures, or color while you read aloud to them.

3. Alternatively, read aloud to them at bedtime. They’ll enjoy the snuggles and have something to dream about when the light goes out. As a plus, when they’re in bed, they can’t wiggle too far.

If the wiggles persist, consider reading another season of picture books to allow a child a bit more time to develop listening skills. Don’t give up, but be willing to find what works.

Photo Credit: Heidi, Mt Hope Academy

We learn vocabulary as we come across it. If we run into a word that we don’t understand, we try to figure out the definition by it’s context. If not, we look it up and say the sentence again, using the definition instead of the word being defined. I then read the sentence once more, this time using the word in question. I might write it down on an index card, but it’s not often necessary. I’ve discovered that the word is usually assimilated and will pop up in my children’s spoken and written vocabulary about six months later. (I don’t know why this is true, but this has been our experience.)

We discuss literature on the fly. As we read a book we discuss it informally. We talk about whatever pops into our minds as we read. From imagery to characters, to the problems they face, or the obstacles they overcome, we talk about it all. I remember one conversation back when my oldest child was in the fifth grade. We came to a scene in the Lord of the Rings series where Mr. Frodo tells Smeagol that he should not call himself names. We talked about the wisdom of relying on God’s truth about ourselves, that we are sinners…and yet precious to God. It was an opportunity to remember Jesus and how His estimation of us is that we are worth His life. Amazing. We made a memory and each of us remembers that conversation as a gift.

I use our read aloud time as a means to encourage my children to think. If a child can think, they can discuss…and eventually they will be able to defend their ideas and write about them in detail. (Usually in high school.) I use Bloom’s Taxonomy as a very rough guide, a basis in which I lead my children in our discussions of literature. Bloom’s assists me in evaluating where my children are regarding their thinking on any particular topic, literature or otherwise. It gives me a quick visual on where they each may be and assists me in stretching them to the next step in their thinking abilities.

I strive to give my children lots of experiences, talking about everything, asking many questions about opinions and thoughts. I really like to dig in, always looking for the heart. “How does that make you feel?” ”What would you do differently?” ”How does this information alter your opinion?” I guide my children through these discussions, keeping my feelers out for where they’re at on the Bloom’s chart with the goal of stretching them just a bit further.

By the time my oldest two children reached high school, they had developed adequate thinking skills to enable them to write. They needed a bit of encouragement in getting organized, but I discovered that if the thoughts were in their noggins, then the words eventually came spilling out onto paper.

Use movie versions of classics! I don’t want to make this a blanket statement, because sometimes the movie versions of literature are awful. But there are quality motion pictures which might spark an interest in reading a great work of literature. “Emma,” comes to mind, along with “Hamlet,” or the BBC versions of Jane Austin classics. I’m also reminded of “Heidi,” my favorite being the Shirley Temple classic. Use your discernment, of course, but I’ve found this an equally valid way to develop my children’s thinking skills as well as create interest in a title that otherwise might be overlooked.

Furthermore, if you have a teen who just cannot make himself pick up a Jane Austin novel, then consider having him watch the movie, and discuss it along with him.

Cliff Notes or Spark Notes – Lastly, and used sparingly, I allow my children to use Cliff or Spark Notes. I do this only in the case of assigned reading as a substitute for a book that I feel won’t work for us. This fall, in our chosen curriculum, one of the books assigned was Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I pre-read it and I decided that one of my students would find it too heavy to dwell on. So, at the encouragement of my personal mentor, I will have them read the Cliff Notes and we will discuss the social points important to understanding the historical significance of the book. This will help them appreciate this work of literature without having to experience something that is too heavy for them to bear at this time in their life.

So, as you see, we keep literature analysis very simple. We may discuss literature elements like foreshadowing or denouement from time to time, but mainly our discussions center around the heart in the form of building thinking skills, learning life lessons, and enjoying the love of finely crafted words…literature.

Yvonne Ferlita, married for nearly nineteen years, is a homeschooling mom to four children from kindergarten to high school. Her family has been blessed with eleven years of grace filled homeschooling. She does her best to follow Christ in educating her children, and she believes that when it all boils down, that means, “No Nonsense!” Visit her blog, The No Nonsense Homeschool.

February 28, 2010 By Jimmie 3 Comments

One of the many positives of reading aloud is that you can expose your children to books that they would have difficulty understanding if read independently. Until about eighth grade, children can listen and understand at a higher reading level than they can read. Often these advanced books have new vocabulary that your children (or even you) don’t understand.

So, how should you handle those new words when reading aloud?

read aloud vocabulary

You may be tempted to stop mid-stream in your reading and explain each and every new word. It may be counter-intuitive, but stopping to discuss each new word will dramatically decrease the comprehension of the story. When a story is chopped up into bits and continually analyzed, the flow of the story is destroyed, and it’s hard to regain it when you resume reading.

This quote by Esme Raji Codell in How to Get Your Child to Love Reading explains yet another downside to studying each and every new vocabulary word, “Don’t overevaluate. The more you formally test and check, the more you kill the affective gain.”

Put plainly, over analysis kills the joy.

More than likely, a new word in each paragraph will not greatly impede your child’s overall comprehension. The context clues help the child have a general grasp of the meaning.

Here are some Dos for dealing with vocabulary words in read alouds

Do make a note of new words or hard passages to return to.
Do postpone most vocabulary discussion to the end of the passage or chapter.
Do stop the story to explain a new word if it is pivotal to the action and/or is repeated multiple times in the chapter.
Do answer your child’s questions about a new word.

Once you’ve completed reading your passage, you can stop and discuss a few select vocabulary words.

Read the word in context again, and encourage your children to make an educated guess as to the meaning.
Use a dictionary to verify the correct meanings if you’re not absolutely sure. (Here you can sneak in some dictionary skills.)
Do reread the entire sentence or even paragraph with the new word after you’ve defined it.

Overall, you want the study of new vocabulary words to be an interesting complement to reading outloud. Don’t make it a drudgery of defining long lists of words. Instead, make it fun! Choose just a few of the most interesting words to study. And then try to incorporate the new vocabulary words into your lives somehow. How about using a book of index cards to make your own Word of the Day Calendar? See how many times you can appropriately use the word that day. My daughter and I added the words tatterdemalion and hoyden to our vocabularies using this method. I can tell you that we will both never forget these vocabulary words or the books we learned them from (The Sword in the Tree & The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed, in case you’re wondering).

What are your favorite vocabulary words learned from reading aloud? Do you have any unique ways to handle new words in your books?

February 28, 2010 By Debbie 1 Comment

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.

February 28, 2010 By Cassie Leave a Comment

There are so many things I want my children to learn before they are grown and out from under my wing. I want them to gain an understanding of God’s Word and develop a close relationship with Him. I want them to see God’s grace and provision throughout history and explore God’s beautiful and amazing world through science. I want them to experience great books and see history through the eyes of the people who experienced it.

In order to get all this richness from their education, there is one skill they cannot do without…

READING!

There are times in the past 5 years of my homeschooling journey I have wondered why it is that we are not just born with the ability to read the written word. For some of us, it comes easily. Translating all the letters and their combinations into sounds to make words is like second nature. My oldest son learned to read rather quickly, though he did not enjoy the process as much as I hoped he would. He is now almost ten, and starting to show signs of enjoying reading.

As for my younger son, reading was an uphill battle from the beginning.

I am a reader. I always have at least one book I am reading, most of the time I am reading two or three. I read a wide variety of books and I find that I go through “seasons” in the types of books that hold my interest. The one thing I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt from the beginning of our homeschooling journey was that I wanted my kids to love to read! If you enjoy reading, there is nothing that you can’t learn or experience through another’s eyes. The world is your oyster!

Unfortunately, my initial experiences in sharing my love of reading with my boys were less than encouraging.

I had so many questions that seemed to have no answers. Why isn’t my son getting it? Why doesn’t he like for me to read to him? Why doesn’t he want to learn to read? Is there something wrong with the curriculum? Is there something wrong with my approach? Is there something wrong with my son!? I have since learned that there are many parents that have struggled with those same questions. I am not alone, and if my experience sounds familiar to you in the least, neither are you!

I decided that since no one else was able to answer these questions for me, it was time for some trial and error. I started out using the same materials with my younger son as I had used with my oldest. When I initially realized he wasn’t learning or retaining anything we had covered, my first response was to try a different curriculum. We tried at least four different phonics and reading programs in two years. He didn’t seem to “get it” with any of them. It was when we were struggling through that fourth program that I came across an article about late readers. This was the first time I had heard or read about other kids not reading until they were 6, 7, 8, or even 9 years old! And what was even more encouraging was the author was telling me these kids were not abnormal or “special-needs”, they were simply not ready to read! Even still, when these children finally did learn to read, they learned quickly and advanced to their appropriate reading levels in a very short time!

After doing a bit more research and finding more to support this “better late than early” philosophy, I decided to relax. I planned to review what he had learned up to that point, take opportunities to read to him, and wait for him to show me some sign that he was ready to try reading again. We spent our time together playing games with letters and their sounds and reading appealing books such as those by Dr. Suess and fun poems by Shel Silverstein. Looking back, the time we spent away from workbooks and phonics lessons was enjoyed by both of us.

About a year ago, around his 7th birthday, he started showing me signs that he wanted to read. He would ask his older brother to read him picture books. When we were out running errands or shopping, he started to ask what this said and that said. SO I dug out that very first curriculum (mostly because it was the most familiar and comfortable for me), ordered a new set of workbooks, and we started over again.

Photo Credit: Heidi, Mt Hope Academy

My son is now eight. We are still doing a first grade phonics and reading curriculum, but he is no longer struggling. He is reading! He likes to read.

Phonics and reading are his favorite lessons of the school day and he enjoys reading Bob Books and easy readers from the library. If he continues at the rate he is going now, he will be at level by the end of next year (this is where I breathe a huge sigh of relief). But this is not the main reason I am sharing my experience with you. There is one major nugget of wisdom I have learned through our trials and triumphs (and yes, failures too) that I really want to share with you.

I firmly believe that had I not decided to take a step back and relax, if I had not decided to stop pushing him, that he would still be that kid who didn’t care if he EVER read a book on his own.

But instead, I see him smiling when he reads a story to a sibling or his father. He is proud to be a reader. And that makes me smile, too. If you have a child that is not yet reading at five or six (or even 7, 8, or 9) do not despair. Enjoy the time you have with them. Read to them every chance you get. Let them observe their siblings (and you) enjoying books. They will get to the point of readiness in their own time. And when that happens, you will be so glad that you waited! I know I am.

Cassandra Simpson is a homeschooling wife and mother of four children, ages 1, 8, 9, and 12. She is starting her 6th year of home educating in Indiana and uses a “Classically Eclectic” teaching approach. Cassandra is the Assistant Lead Moderator for HOTM’s forum and loves talking homeschool with anyone who will listen! Her hobbies are reading, blogging, sewing, and cooking. You can check out her family’s blog at In His Image.

February 28, 2010 By Stacey Leave a Comment

It’s no secret that in our house we like to read.

Our Family Library

We are blessed to have a library in our home – in what most people would call their formal living room. Right as your walk in our front door, you meet our friends of days gone by. Hardback, soft cover, picture-filled, reference, literary giants, epic tales, they are all there, keeping us company throughout our days. We live for library day, whether it entails picking a few gems from our own library, or going to the public library where even more adventures await us in the pages that live there. We are thrilled when we can all snuggle up on a Sunday afternoon with our books and some blankets and read the day away.

It has been that way in our family for years – in fact, it has been that way in our marriage since we met over a decade ago. So I suppose it should be no surprise to us that one of our kids’ favorite things to do is read. I must confess, I did not teach my children to read. They both went to a private school last year where they both learned to read on their own level. Emma who is in 1st grade is reading several skill levels above her peers, and Timmy who is in Kindergarten is reading at about a 1st grade level. While their teachers at school taught them the nuts and bolts of phonetical reading, I still take credit for creating an environment and lifestyle that fosters a love of reading and therefore cultivates the skill in our children.

Five Ways to Cultivate Young Readers:

1. Read. Not to them, not with them, not for them or about them. Pick up a book that interests you and read. Let them see you reading as you stir the soup, waiting at a red light, or in line at the grocery store. Let them see you toss your book in your purse for those unexpected snippets of time that you can spend reading. Develop a love of reading and you will see the fruits of that love blossom in your children. So go ahead, get the latest John Grisham novel, get a cup of tea, snuggle on the couch with a blanket and read a chapter. Then pat yourself on the back because after all, you’re doing it for the kids, taking one for the team.

2. Limit screen time for yourself and the children. Clearly, social networking media is something I think highly of. Writing for Heart of the Matter, authoring a blog, facebooking, and tweeting are all ways I stay connected with the women in my life that help me to be a better wife, mother, teacher. But let the kids see you set boundaries for yourself and their minds will connect it to their own behavior. This way you are less likely to wind up screaming, “Turn off the video game and pick up a book for goodness sake!!!!” Because, really? How is that enticing?

3. Make reading a family activity. Everyone goes to the library, everyone gets a book, everyone reads. Sometimes we lay all over each other on our sectional couch in the family room and there are 20 kids books strewn all about and Tim and I each have our book. And we just read. Nothing quite beats a good ole’ “family read”….

4. Except maybe a good ole’ “family read aloud”. Those are awesome, too. Be sure to do that. You can choose books according to age level, interest, or skill level if you want to have the kids help with the reading aloud. Or mix it up. We read aloud in a number of different ways around here. The kids read their own books to one another during the school day, and also to me while I am cooking, or folding laundry, or doing dishes. “Sit up on the counter and read to Mama, dear.” They love it! They get one on one time with me, and they get to show off their mad skills, and they get to sit on the counter! What’s not to love? We also read to them. Picture books? Yes! Some of our current favorites are Rain Makes Applesauce, Once Upon a Cloud, Blueberries for the Queen, and Roxaboxen.

We are also reading to them from a chapter book series called The Magic Treehouse. Have you heard of it? Hmmm, I thought maybe. We are keeping the end in mind as we read chapter books. It’s a learned skill, I believe, having the patience, attention span, and retentiveness for chapter books. So we are reading MTH series in preparation for some of the more heavy hitters like Anne of Green Gables, Little House, and Chronicles of Narnia. This brings me to my next tip.

5. Keeping the end in mind. Have some goals, and try to achieve them. And by this, I do not mean a goals & rewards program like pizza hut or anything like that. But if that’s what you need to get your kids reading, by all means look into those programs. Reading voraciously is wonderful, and reading everything and anything y’all can get your hands on is not to be discouraged, but perhaps we as parents can help to steer the course just a tad in helping with the book selection process. One thing that we try to do is encourage the kids to get several library books that are on their reading level and one that is 1-2 levels above their current skill level.

Timmy (kindergarten) reading The Polar Express aloud to us

This way, we can sit down with them and work through the book together, and their little brains are given a workout while they enjoy reading with mom or dad.

Here’s an idea of a specific goal: If you want your child to develop her attention span in the classroom, one great way to do this is to start reading chapter books. Our kids are too young for the Harry Potter series, but for all it’s controversy, I can tell you I see the merits in something that got kids reading for long periods of time. That was time they spent away from screens of any type, and time they spent engrossed in some well-written, fun literature. I had numerous friends tell me that after reading the series, they saw their kids’ grades improve because attention span issues were improved. So yes, reading, while excellent as a pursuit for it’s own merits, also can bring growth in other areas of our child’s life.

Stacey and her family recently relocated to Phoenix, Arizona where they enjoy hiking the many local mountains, swimming in their pool, and exploring all the family-friendly venues Phoenix has to offer. This is her first year officially homeschooling after several years of co-schooling. Curriculum changes, schedule re-vamping, and learning how to relax has been a theme around Nazareth Academy. It has been a learning experience for the whole family, but the fruits of homeschooling have become abundantly evident and Stacey is grateful for the long-awaited call to homeschool her children.

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