The Horror/Journey of Inspiring My Six Year Old to Read

Posted by Andrea | 0 comments

Homeschooling has been a little rocky considering we started during hurricane season and Gustav ran us down. Getting back into a routine, my first grader is now doing well with Saxon Math but refuses to read and learn new words. Since I am determined not to fail, I decided to take the advice of seasoned homeschoolers and find some reading material that he would be interested in reading.


I picked up a book on the free table at CO-OP. “25 Emergent Reader Mini-Books” and  “Easy-to-Make Reproducible Books to Promote Literacy by Maria Fleming (Fleming, 1997). These were great. Did I mention it was free and for grades K-1^st grade?

I also found some suggested reading list links: Reading Rockets.

This is a list of recommended books for 3-6 year olds and is part of “The Big Summer Read” through reading rockets (Reading Rockets, 2008). Since my husband is a welder, this book caught my interest:
Metal Man By: Aaron Reynolds
Illustrated by: Paul Hoppe
Age Level: 3-6
Reading Level: Beginning Reader

During the hot summer, Devon likes to visit Mitch. Mitch is a man who makes sparks fly as he creates welded metal sculptures — and invites Mitch to make one with him. As the boy decides what to make, he begins to see things differently — because of “that fiery metal man.”

Reading Rockets, (2008)

This looked like the perfect book. It could create a bond between father and son, it was interesting to my child, and it had received rave reviews.. After all reading rockets is funded by the US Department of Education; therefore it should be educational. I was sold and since proceeds from the books purchased though Amazon.com support the project, I headed to Amazon, found a new book for less that $10 and ordered it.

It came in a few days later and I could not wait to read it… I mean, read it with Grant but I needed to look at it first, right? Well, it is a good thing I did.

The first line of the first page read precisely “Summer’s hangin’ on” (Reynolds 2008). It only “got” more intriguing from there; stickin’, cookin’, headin’, goin’, she don’t follow, ain’t, flyin’, grindy, whatcha, whaddya, he don’t stop. There are many more but you get the idea. I was mortified. My child is a beginning reader and this could definitely throw all of his new found skills out of the window, not to mention confuse him.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a great story, awesome in fact, of a welder who helps a little boys’ imagined creation come to life…out of old junk. This could get my child interested in reading. The illustrations are wonderful too, but how could I let my child learn these ungrammatical words? I just don’t think he is old enough to understand the difference.

Dad came home and saw the book on the counter. He says, while grinning at me I might add,  “what is this, a bonding book for me and my son?” I explained how unsure I was about it and he read through the book while he expressed that he didn’t think it was appropriate and he needed to show all his welder friends at work. Meanwhile, Grant has heard enough about it and now desperately wants to read the book so, the two of them retreat to the back to read it. I hoped that Daddy would explain that these words are not correct or at least try to read it using the correct grammar.

Grant was so excited about whatever happened that he came running to the shelf and retrieved all of the books for his age, because “he is six now and he needs to read these books”. Well Hallelujah! Something good has come from this. He has read every day from those 6 year old books, with no persuasion.

God must have planned that out because I could not have asked for a better conclusion.

Jeremiah 29:11: For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope.

This book was wonderful in spite of my preconceived notions and it did serve a purpose but I will be sure to investigate next time, Lord willing.

We also borrowed the Magic Tree House series from my sister. Those are still on the shelf. What is off the shelf and now being read is the Rocket Readers series of “you can read” bible stories. Not to be confused with the Reading Rockets Board of Education recommended reading list. We have every Rocket Reader series we could find at the Dollar Tree. Yes, that is 3-5 readers per series for $1.00 and all of the stories are Bible based too. This series also contains 5 different reading levels. I am a happy homeschooling mom now. Thank you, Metal Man.

In addition, just to get another reaction, I also showed Metal Man to our neighbor, an elementary public school teacher. She said that it is a dialogue book and should be read as such. It is just meant to be fun and enjoyed. She said it would be same as reading a Cajun book or the Hawaiian Bible (aka Da Jesus Book) for that matter. For the record, I do not let my child read the LSU cajun kids books either. Somehow spelling go as “geaux” and the over use of the word cher (“cher,” a short form of “cherie”, and pronounced “sha”) just aren’t what I imagined early readers would contain.

I do understand the point and this is a great story, but this was on a recommended reading list for 3-6 year olds. How is that justified? I am happy to keep the book for reference, the moral of the story, the illustrations and the idea of getting my son into the reading closet. Bless God! I have to ask though, have you ever had this type of experience with a recommended book? Am I being too cautious? Come on you experienced moms. Help me out!

References
Fleming, M. (1997). 25 emergent reader mini-books:easy-to-make reproducible books to promote literacy. Broadway, NY: Scholastic Inc.
Reading Rockets, (2008). The big summer read. Retrieved October 20, 2008, from Reading Rockets Web site: http://www.readingrockets.org/books/summer/2008/3-6
Reynolds, A. (2008). Metal man. Watertow, MA: Charlesbridge.

Andrea is a laid back gal from the south who has been married to a loud little Italian man named Darin for 7 years. They have two kids: one thinks he is a professional wrestler and the other thinks she is a professional princess (yes she wants to be paid to be bossy and prissy.) She has recently given up the corporate world to step into a land of kisses and learning. You can visit her at her blog: The Honest Woman. Help!