Rye has been playing with the books, taking them out, mixing them all up; looking at the pictures - and this evening he asked if we could read a couple. So, I obliged. The purple section of the books are aimed at Rye's age. Its not really a story; but rather a simple sentence describing an action in the picture. Not the most scintaliting read for myself - but Rye seems to really like the books.
We looked at the pictures, guessed what the "story" might be about, and then went back and read the story. Rye impressed me by guessing many of the words correctly. Bless him, he looked so proud of himself and oh, how he loved looking for starfish on each page of one story; and a red robin in the other. Interestingly, he didn't seem to remember the names of the characters in the stories - but he was able to guess the last word in sentences like: "Dad was fishing". But if I pointed to "Dad" he didn't recognise it or even attempt to guess, he just said he didn't know. Still, for a first "reading", I was very impressed.
I will have to be careful not to get carried away with this and keep it casual and fun, rather than go into "teaching" mode. Besides, if tonight has demonstrated anything - it's that Rye is picking up "reading" quite nicely on his own without me turning into teacher mama. Reading all those stories.. and re-reading the same story for a week or so is obviously making an impression; along with the singing, looking at letters on street signs etc when out and about. I've always thought of reading as a skill that needs to be taught, so when I've read blogs where kiddies are teaching themselves - I've always wondered on earth that works... now I know.
Amazing.
4 comments:
Oh, that sounds good Joxy :-) Would you recommend the books?
Hmm, let me spend a bit more time with them. On first glance they seem ok; and I did buy them because a few mum's at my HE group recommended them - and they were a bargain price of £15. I wouldn't have thought them particularly worth the extortinate retail price, had I paid that!
I'd check out your library too, I noticed the other day that ours had books aimed at children starting to read. (I'd already bought the series tho).
Sounds like he's picking up on the words around him nicely, and keeping it fun is so important. It sounds like he is remembering parts of the story, and then recognising words soon follows, long may he enjoy his books.
I, like you, assumed you taught children to read, but left to it they do just do it themselves - some people I know IRL look confused when I say Imogen taught herself, but she did, it does happen.
John Holt's "How Children Learn" has quite a lot about this; I found it a really interesting read.
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