A Little Unobtrusive Help with Reading

 Or so I thought.

 Then Duncan came along and the word ‘frustrated’ became part of my everyday vocabulary. He could remember the sounds of letters, but running them together to form words was a slow and laborious process. I suddenly realised I hadn’t taught Felicity to read at all. She’d been ready to read and really had done all the work by herself.

 Unfortunately, (big sigh!) I wasn’t a brilliant homeschooling mother after all.

 Two of my seven homeschooled children have been ‘slow’ at reading… not really slow… just slower that the average mother is comfortable with. Both children seemed to want to read so I went looking for something to help them.

 Both Duncan and I had got fed up of trying to read simple, not very imaginative texts. Duncan was impatient to read real stories so I asked him to choose a book he really wanted to read. I didn’t make any comment about its level of difficulty or suitability. Then we settled down to enjoy…

 I’d start reading and when Duncan wanted to take a turn all he had to do was tap the page and I’d pass the reading over to him. If he got stuck on a word, I’d say the word for him (without requiring him to sound it out) and then continue reading until Duncan again wanted to take a turn. He really enjoyed reading this way. We could read complicated books that engaged his interest, he didn’t have to worry about sounding out words, the story flowed at a quick pace and we didn’t get bogged down. Best of all, Duncan loved deciding when it was his turn to read. His face would light up just as he was about to tap the page. All the pressure was gone. Duncan and I just enjoyed our reading times together.

 It all sounds so simple but did sharing our reading help?

 Every two years we need to be registered as homeschoolers. When Duncan was six, an authorised person (AP) came to visit and look at my plans for teaching him. It didn’t matter Duncan couldn’t read at that stage. It wasn’t expected. This was his first registration.

 Two years later, as Duncan’s 8th birthday arrived, I was just a tiny bit anxious about his second imminent registration visit. After two years of homeschooling, wouldn’t the AP expect Duncan to be reading fluently? I had decided I would have to look very confident and tell the AP how much Duncan was enjoying his reading and how I was sure independent reading wasn’t too far off.

 Then the day before the visit, I noticed Duncan was reading our current book. “Can I read to you, Mum?” And he did… pages and pages, all by himself. Everything had fallen into place. My son was an independent reader. The AP never even suspected he’d been a fluent reader for such a short time.

 After that experience, I thought I could tackle any reading problem. (ha ha) Then Sophie came along. Her problem was even more basic than Duncan’s. She couldn’t even remember the sounds of the letters. I did some more research and…

 I discovered a book where each letter was represented by a picture. The letter was modified until it looked like something starting with that sound. For example, an ‘o’ looks like an orange, a ‘b’ looks like a bat and a ball, an ‘m’ could be a mountain, ‘s’ is obviously a snake…

 I liked some of the picture and letter associations but I did modify a few. ‘l’ became a long stick of liquorice, ‘h’ became a horse, ‘r’ was a roof, ‘w’ represented the wings of a bird.

 Sophie would look at the letter, imagine the associated picture, think: “Horse”, and say, “h”.

 It didn’t seem to matter if the pictures exactly matched the letters or not. Close enough was good enough. ‘p’ became Polly with plaited hair and ‘g’ was a girl.

It didn’t matter I can’t draw very well. Soon Sophie knew her sounds.

Why do we get so worried about our children’s reading? Do we think our homeschooling will be judged on our ability to teach this essential skill? Sometimes I think we bow to outside pressure and force our children along before they are ready.

Thinking back, did I offer my children extra help they wanted, or did I just want to push them along because of my anxiety? To be honest, I think it was a bit of both.

 Mothers do sometimes get worried, but at the same time children do want to learn to read… so maybe a little unobtrusive extra help makes all the difference.