frozenandcold

I think it was The Art Of Education (great book by the way!) where I
read that Denmark doesn't start compulsory education until age 8 and
they have virtually no illiteracy in their country. That tells me
that we are pushing our kids WAY too soon to begin "adademic" sorts
of things. Just a thought.

I have an 11 year old that is just beginning to learn how to read.
He started, like many kids, to become interested in letters around
age 6 or so but since then it has been a very SLOW process in
getting to the reading point. School would have destroyed him!!!
He has just naturally, slowly become interested in learning how to
read. For him, it is a jumbled, doesn't make sense, sort of thing
and he just needed more time. He has mostly learned how to read by
my sitting for HOURS and reading the screen for his Game Cube and X
Box games. Sometimes it can get frustrating but I know that is what
he needs so I do it.

He is just beginning to read street signs and store front signs.
The other day he asked "What is Grat Clips?" It took me a while of
looking around to figure out that he was looking at the Great Clips
(haircutting place) sign. So he is slowly getting there. He has
gotten there in his own way and without anyone shaming him because
he doesn't know how to read. I never worried because I knew he
would get there (thanks Jared for paving the way). Jared is Ren's
son that didn't learn to read until age 12.

The one thing that I did do though was to protect my son from anyone
that might try and shame him. If he got a card I would be standing
right there reading it for him, pretending to read it to myself. If
he wanted to go to Sunday school I made sure I taught his class. I
am always on the guard for situations that open him up for teasing
or any kind of shame from public school kids. Meanwhile, he is
happily doing the things that are relevant to him and that bring him
joy!!

Heidi Snavley