How Alex Learned to Read - very long
Cheryl Carroll
I wrote an article for my website, but since my site is kinda schoolish and most of you would never come across this piece, I thought I'd send it to the list.
It's all about Alex (9yo ds) and how he learned to read. I'm sort of happy with it, but then again I'm not. Although it's very long, it doesn't seem to say enough. Anyway, here it is. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask. Questions may help me when/if I change or add to this.
Introduction:
Alex seemed to go from not reading to reading quite well, nearly overnight. Of course, as with many overnight successes, there was a lot more to it. His accomplishment is presented here in four parts, from age two to age eight.
If you've never heard or read about unschooling, this account of Alex's journey to reading will seem very strange indeed. If you have heard of it, if you're thinking of going that route, or if you are currently unschooling and having worries about reading, I think you'll find this article encouraging.
I cannot thank the unschooling community enough for changing the way I looked at children and learning. Without them, I would not have had the courage to trust in a child's natural desire to learn. To learn more about unschooling, please visit http://unschooling.com
That being said, however, please note that some of the ideas/beliefs expressed in this article are completely my own and do not come from any definition of unschooling. What I write here is simply our story. It's not meant to be instructional.
How Alex Learned to Read
Part One: Age about 2 to 5
We lived in a very reading friendly environment. I love to read, so Alex would see Mom reading books, reading on the computer, a magazine, letters, recipes, sale ads, street signs, etc. I would frequently turn to a book or the computer for information, for pictures, and for entertainment.
We had many, many books covering a wide variety of subjects. Children's books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, science experiments, Star Wars books, books on dinosaurs, craft and puzzle books, etc. Any time Alex was interested in something, one of the first things he would do would be to run to our bookshelves to see if he could find a book with pictures of his subject. His favorites were Lego magazines, books about cats, planets, and books about dinosaurs.
We had many computer games. Alex was mostly interested in arcade style adventure games, but occasionally he would play things like Arthur and Winnie the Pooh. He began recognizing simple words by sight. Words like "play", "exit", "print", and others.
We watched the kids shows. Sesame Street, Barney, Between the Lions. His absolute favorite was Barney. I taped all the episodes, so he could watch anytime he wanted.
I strewed alphabet stuff all over, including posters of the letters, alphabet bingo games, magnetic letters, and so forth, but I let him do what he wanted with it. I didn't try to teach him letters or sounds, unless he asked about them. I trusted that he would learn what he needed to learn in order to do what he wanted to do.
A few times, Alex would ask about a letter or sound, but for the most part, he was interested in complete words for his pictures. He would ask me to spell words and then ask what the letters looked like so he could write them. He started carrying around a Reader Rabbit laminated alphabet card so I could point to the letters he needed for the words. He would sometimes even write short stories like this. I was always amazed that he was writing stories before he knew the alphabet.
A story I love to tell has to do with an alphabet chart. It was a huge fold out coloring poster that came in a workbook someone had given him. It had seven rows of letters, six rows having four letters and one row having two. Alex colored the first two rows of letters and then asked me what "two fours make". I told him eight. He colored the third row and asked what "three fours make". I told him twelve. He went on to ask what "four fours make" and what "five fours make". Again, I just gave him the answers -- sixteen and twenty.
After coloring the sixth row, I was waiting for him to ask what "six fours make". Instead, he asked a question that caught me completely off guard. "What do three two fours make?" After thinking about what he was asking, I told him twenty-four. He then asked what twenty-four and two made and after hearing my answer, told me there were twenty-six letters in the alphabet.
If you think about what most people would do in a situation where a child is coloring an alphabet chart, you would probably picture them pointing out the letters as they were colored and maybe asking or telling a child what they are and what sounds they make. They might even mention words that begin with those letters.
Since I didn't do any of this, but instead just watched and answered his questions, I was able to get a glimpse of what he was thinking and where his interest was. He wasn't interested in the letters at all, except in their numbers. He was realizing that the rows all had four and he could know the total by knowing how many rows of four there were. Not only that, he also realized that six fours was the same as three eights, or "three two fours".
This episode helped strengthen my belief that we could be holding our children back by trying to make sure they learn what we think is the important thing for them to learn at the time.
And so I never taught Alex the alphabet. He saw and heard the letters so many times while writing, watching his shows, playing with various toys and on the computer that I'm pretty sure he just absorbed the information. I can't be sure when it was that he knew their order, but I do know it was much later than anyone that knew us was comfortable with.
One thing I haven't mentioned yet is story time. We never really had that. I would read stories to him when he asked, but he was usually so busy doing other things that he wasn't interested in or didn't think about hearing a story. Sometimes he would ask me to read while he was building with Legos or jumping on the sofa. Of the books I read to him, Beneath the Ghost Moon was his favorite. Whenever I read, he would come to glance at the pictures, but never followed along with me in a book.
Part Two: Age about 4 to 6
A lot of Alex's time was spent watching and acting out movies and musicals, building with Legos, playing games on the computer, going to the playground, painting, drawing, and collecting things.
Except for writing stories and playing games on the computer, there was not a whole lot of reading related stuff he did. Of course his pen and paper where never far away as he didn't go through a day without writing or drawing something. When writing his stories, he would still ask how to spell words and ask me to point out the letters on his chart, so he would be sure he wrote the right one.
As with most children, many of the letters he wrote were backwards, but I never worried about that. I don't remember exactly why, but I began to believe that there was a reason his brain was seeing things that way, and I felt that if I tried to correct it, I would be messing around with things I didn't understand. So I left it at that.
He also wrote stories backwards. If he wrote them on separate pages, he would put them in a folder or staple them with page one in the back and the last page in front. If he used a notebook or pad, he always started in the back.
There were a few times when Alex voiced his desire to know how to read. Not to "learn", but to "know". Although I would always help him read whatever he needed to read, he still wanted to know how to do it himself.
When I could see this desire was actually his, I would assure him that he would learn if he wanted to. I would ask him if he wanted to try small words or learn sounds the letters made, but on the rare occasion he said yes, this would only last a minute (literally). He didn't want to be taught. He wanted to just "know".
When I could see the desire was brought about by a good intentioned friend or relative mentioning something to him, I would assure him that he didn't need to worry about pleasing anyone but himself. I would tell him that one reason school children were prompted to learn earlier was because most of their learning experiences involve books.
Another reason was it was simpler to teach thirty children reading at the same time, rather than individually when they were ready. I would tell him that nearly everyone around us was used to the way it was done in school. They didn't understand our way.
I'd been reading more and more about actual experiences of unschooled children, so I was able to let him know that many unschooled children didn't learn to read until much, much later. Luckily, Alex wasn't that concerned about what others said to him, so this wasn't a problem. For the most part, he didn't think twice about whether he could read or not. He had so many other things on his mind.
The computer games that taught reading got played more in these years than before. Still, he didn't play them much. They couldn't keep his interest. He would only play a few minutes at a time. After about age six, I don't think he ever played them. He never finished one.
Alex watched Between the Lions fairly often. He had an assortment of electronic toys with the alphabet and words. He started receiving Lego and Turtle magazines in the mail. And we were always adding books to our library.
I'm sure a great amount of the foundation needed to understand written words was acquired between the age of four and six. It can't be gauged because most of it probably went unnoticed in the course of his daily activities.
I know he thought about sounds and letters. Occasionally, he would come to me and ask if I knew things, like the letter "m" makes the "mmmmm" sound.
Part Three: Age 7 and 8
I could tell Alex was beginning to know the alphabet letters by the change in the questions he would ask. He used to ask me to show him what the letters looked like. Now, when writing a word, he would ask the spelling and use his fingers to form the letter, then ask if that was what the letter looked like. Most of the time he had it right.
More and more, the letters were turned the right way, although a lot of them were still backwards. They were all capitals. He was recognizing many more words by sight. Mostly short words like the, cat, top, etc., but some longer ones that he had seen over and over again.
Sometimes he would get phone calls from relatives asking about his reading progress. He would say "no, I'm not reading, yet". One day, I told him I thought he could probably read more than he thought. We opened up "Hop on Pop" and he slowly read some of it. He stopped as soon as he didn't consider the words easy, but from then on, he would tell them, "yes, I'm reading".
Alex was very interested in Japanese Anime. We bought a huge comic book for him. This was probably the first book he ever tried to read seriously. Just like his stories, you would read the book from back to front. He thought that was pretty cool. He would spell out most of the words to me, but he would try to read them on his own first.
Playstation games started replacing the computer games. Between the Lions was still one of his favorite shows. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released on video and for the first time, Alex wanted to sit still and be read to.
We had the first four books of the series. He hadn't shown an interest after the first movie, but now he was excited. He wanted to know what was going to happen in the next movie. He sat riveted while I read "The Prisoner of Azkaban", and then sat through many more hours and days as I read "The Goblet of Fire". Next I read the first two books in the series to him, and when the "Order of the Phoenix" came out, I read that one to him.
One day we went to the park to read and while I was driving, Alex tried to read the book. He was able to read many of the names and some of the other words. Since he was very familiar with the subject I think it was easier for him to figure out some of the words. He didn't spell out very many words to me.
Around this time he started spelling out words to me from candy wrappers, food labels, ps2 instructions, buildings we passed, street signs. Just about anything that had a word on it was fair game. Sometimes when I told him the word he would say "that's what I thought". I never asked him things like "what do you think it is?" or asked him to try sounding it out. I always gave him a direct answer. Sometimes the words were really simple and he'd asked me so many times that I was positive he knew them, but I didn't say anything. I just answered him.
Part Four: Age 8
Alex once again got interested in computer games. One game he really liked was Runescape. He was always calling me to read the screen. Sometimes this required quite a bit of reading. When I was not available to read it when he needed, he would spell out the words for me.
After the first few days, I noticed he had stopped asking for my help. I thought he was getting familiar with the game and skipping parts he knew he didn't need to read. I was wrong. As I watched him play one day, he read everything he needed to read all by himself! I had problems pronouncing some of the character's names myself and here he was doing a marvelous job of sounding them out.
So that was it. One day he was spelling the words out to me and the next day he wasn't. One day he could only read simple or familiar words and the next day he was reading words ten characters long.
Not long after this, we were out eating when he said a word I didn't understand and asked me if I knew what it was. I didn't. He said another and another and I finally caught on. He was pronouncing words backwards. It started because he was reading signs that were facing outside and by two days later had blossomed into saying whole backwards sentences and talking in our own code! "I ma ruoy dneirf" was his most used sentence.
I found this incredible because it's hard to say a word like "sandwich" backward, but he figured out an accurate way of doing it, so that I had a fair opportunity to guess the word. We played this game for months.
And I guess this is where I'll end our story. Alex is now a very good reader. Although I have told many people that when he was grown, no one would care at what age he learned to read, I hope I was mistaken. I hope the age at which he started reading (eight and about ten months) will somehow be of help to others. Whether you're going the same route as us, thinking about it, or you're just trying to understand it, I hope our story will help you to trust it will all turn out okay.
Thanks for reading!
Cheryl
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
It's all about Alex (9yo ds) and how he learned to read. I'm sort of happy with it, but then again I'm not. Although it's very long, it doesn't seem to say enough. Anyway, here it is. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask. Questions may help me when/if I change or add to this.
Introduction:
Alex seemed to go from not reading to reading quite well, nearly overnight. Of course, as with many overnight successes, there was a lot more to it. His accomplishment is presented here in four parts, from age two to age eight.
If you've never heard or read about unschooling, this account of Alex's journey to reading will seem very strange indeed. If you have heard of it, if you're thinking of going that route, or if you are currently unschooling and having worries about reading, I think you'll find this article encouraging.
I cannot thank the unschooling community enough for changing the way I looked at children and learning. Without them, I would not have had the courage to trust in a child's natural desire to learn. To learn more about unschooling, please visit http://unschooling.com
That being said, however, please note that some of the ideas/beliefs expressed in this article are completely my own and do not come from any definition of unschooling. What I write here is simply our story. It's not meant to be instructional.
How Alex Learned to Read
Part One: Age about 2 to 5
We lived in a very reading friendly environment. I love to read, so Alex would see Mom reading books, reading on the computer, a magazine, letters, recipes, sale ads, street signs, etc. I would frequently turn to a book or the computer for information, for pictures, and for entertainment.
We had many, many books covering a wide variety of subjects. Children's books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, science experiments, Star Wars books, books on dinosaurs, craft and puzzle books, etc. Any time Alex was interested in something, one of the first things he would do would be to run to our bookshelves to see if he could find a book with pictures of his subject. His favorites were Lego magazines, books about cats, planets, and books about dinosaurs.
We had many computer games. Alex was mostly interested in arcade style adventure games, but occasionally he would play things like Arthur and Winnie the Pooh. He began recognizing simple words by sight. Words like "play", "exit", "print", and others.
We watched the kids shows. Sesame Street, Barney, Between the Lions. His absolute favorite was Barney. I taped all the episodes, so he could watch anytime he wanted.
I strewed alphabet stuff all over, including posters of the letters, alphabet bingo games, magnetic letters, and so forth, but I let him do what he wanted with it. I didn't try to teach him letters or sounds, unless he asked about them. I trusted that he would learn what he needed to learn in order to do what he wanted to do.
A few times, Alex would ask about a letter or sound, but for the most part, he was interested in complete words for his pictures. He would ask me to spell words and then ask what the letters looked like so he could write them. He started carrying around a Reader Rabbit laminated alphabet card so I could point to the letters he needed for the words. He would sometimes even write short stories like this. I was always amazed that he was writing stories before he knew the alphabet.
A story I love to tell has to do with an alphabet chart. It was a huge fold out coloring poster that came in a workbook someone had given him. It had seven rows of letters, six rows having four letters and one row having two. Alex colored the first two rows of letters and then asked me what "two fours make". I told him eight. He colored the third row and asked what "three fours make". I told him twelve. He went on to ask what "four fours make" and what "five fours make". Again, I just gave him the answers -- sixteen and twenty.
After coloring the sixth row, I was waiting for him to ask what "six fours make". Instead, he asked a question that caught me completely off guard. "What do three two fours make?" After thinking about what he was asking, I told him twenty-four. He then asked what twenty-four and two made and after hearing my answer, told me there were twenty-six letters in the alphabet.
If you think about what most people would do in a situation where a child is coloring an alphabet chart, you would probably picture them pointing out the letters as they were colored and maybe asking or telling a child what they are and what sounds they make. They might even mention words that begin with those letters.
Since I didn't do any of this, but instead just watched and answered his questions, I was able to get a glimpse of what he was thinking and where his interest was. He wasn't interested in the letters at all, except in their numbers. He was realizing that the rows all had four and he could know the total by knowing how many rows of four there were. Not only that, he also realized that six fours was the same as three eights, or "three two fours".
This episode helped strengthen my belief that we could be holding our children back by trying to make sure they learn what we think is the important thing for them to learn at the time.
And so I never taught Alex the alphabet. He saw and heard the letters so many times while writing, watching his shows, playing with various toys and on the computer that I'm pretty sure he just absorbed the information. I can't be sure when it was that he knew their order, but I do know it was much later than anyone that knew us was comfortable with.
One thing I haven't mentioned yet is story time. We never really had that. I would read stories to him when he asked, but he was usually so busy doing other things that he wasn't interested in or didn't think about hearing a story. Sometimes he would ask me to read while he was building with Legos or jumping on the sofa. Of the books I read to him, Beneath the Ghost Moon was his favorite. Whenever I read, he would come to glance at the pictures, but never followed along with me in a book.
Part Two: Age about 4 to 6
A lot of Alex's time was spent watching and acting out movies and musicals, building with Legos, playing games on the computer, going to the playground, painting, drawing, and collecting things.
Except for writing stories and playing games on the computer, there was not a whole lot of reading related stuff he did. Of course his pen and paper where never far away as he didn't go through a day without writing or drawing something. When writing his stories, he would still ask how to spell words and ask me to point out the letters on his chart, so he would be sure he wrote the right one.
As with most children, many of the letters he wrote were backwards, but I never worried about that. I don't remember exactly why, but I began to believe that there was a reason his brain was seeing things that way, and I felt that if I tried to correct it, I would be messing around with things I didn't understand. So I left it at that.
He also wrote stories backwards. If he wrote them on separate pages, he would put them in a folder or staple them with page one in the back and the last page in front. If he used a notebook or pad, he always started in the back.
There were a few times when Alex voiced his desire to know how to read. Not to "learn", but to "know". Although I would always help him read whatever he needed to read, he still wanted to know how to do it himself.
When I could see this desire was actually his, I would assure him that he would learn if he wanted to. I would ask him if he wanted to try small words or learn sounds the letters made, but on the rare occasion he said yes, this would only last a minute (literally). He didn't want to be taught. He wanted to just "know".
When I could see the desire was brought about by a good intentioned friend or relative mentioning something to him, I would assure him that he didn't need to worry about pleasing anyone but himself. I would tell him that one reason school children were prompted to learn earlier was because most of their learning experiences involve books.
Another reason was it was simpler to teach thirty children reading at the same time, rather than individually when they were ready. I would tell him that nearly everyone around us was used to the way it was done in school. They didn't understand our way.
I'd been reading more and more about actual experiences of unschooled children, so I was able to let him know that many unschooled children didn't learn to read until much, much later. Luckily, Alex wasn't that concerned about what others said to him, so this wasn't a problem. For the most part, he didn't think twice about whether he could read or not. He had so many other things on his mind.
The computer games that taught reading got played more in these years than before. Still, he didn't play them much. They couldn't keep his interest. He would only play a few minutes at a time. After about age six, I don't think he ever played them. He never finished one.
Alex watched Between the Lions fairly often. He had an assortment of electronic toys with the alphabet and words. He started receiving Lego and Turtle magazines in the mail. And we were always adding books to our library.
I'm sure a great amount of the foundation needed to understand written words was acquired between the age of four and six. It can't be gauged because most of it probably went unnoticed in the course of his daily activities.
I know he thought about sounds and letters. Occasionally, he would come to me and ask if I knew things, like the letter "m" makes the "mmmmm" sound.
Part Three: Age 7 and 8
I could tell Alex was beginning to know the alphabet letters by the change in the questions he would ask. He used to ask me to show him what the letters looked like. Now, when writing a word, he would ask the spelling and use his fingers to form the letter, then ask if that was what the letter looked like. Most of the time he had it right.
More and more, the letters were turned the right way, although a lot of them were still backwards. They were all capitals. He was recognizing many more words by sight. Mostly short words like the, cat, top, etc., but some longer ones that he had seen over and over again.
Sometimes he would get phone calls from relatives asking about his reading progress. He would say "no, I'm not reading, yet". One day, I told him I thought he could probably read more than he thought. We opened up "Hop on Pop" and he slowly read some of it. He stopped as soon as he didn't consider the words easy, but from then on, he would tell them, "yes, I'm reading".
Alex was very interested in Japanese Anime. We bought a huge comic book for him. This was probably the first book he ever tried to read seriously. Just like his stories, you would read the book from back to front. He thought that was pretty cool. He would spell out most of the words to me, but he would try to read them on his own first.
Playstation games started replacing the computer games. Between the Lions was still one of his favorite shows. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released on video and for the first time, Alex wanted to sit still and be read to.
We had the first four books of the series. He hadn't shown an interest after the first movie, but now he was excited. He wanted to know what was going to happen in the next movie. He sat riveted while I read "The Prisoner of Azkaban", and then sat through many more hours and days as I read "The Goblet of Fire". Next I read the first two books in the series to him, and when the "Order of the Phoenix" came out, I read that one to him.
One day we went to the park to read and while I was driving, Alex tried to read the book. He was able to read many of the names and some of the other words. Since he was very familiar with the subject I think it was easier for him to figure out some of the words. He didn't spell out very many words to me.
Around this time he started spelling out words to me from candy wrappers, food labels, ps2 instructions, buildings we passed, street signs. Just about anything that had a word on it was fair game. Sometimes when I told him the word he would say "that's what I thought". I never asked him things like "what do you think it is?" or asked him to try sounding it out. I always gave him a direct answer. Sometimes the words were really simple and he'd asked me so many times that I was positive he knew them, but I didn't say anything. I just answered him.
Part Four: Age 8
Alex once again got interested in computer games. One game he really liked was Runescape. He was always calling me to read the screen. Sometimes this required quite a bit of reading. When I was not available to read it when he needed, he would spell out the words for me.
After the first few days, I noticed he had stopped asking for my help. I thought he was getting familiar with the game and skipping parts he knew he didn't need to read. I was wrong. As I watched him play one day, he read everything he needed to read all by himself! I had problems pronouncing some of the character's names myself and here he was doing a marvelous job of sounding them out.
So that was it. One day he was spelling the words out to me and the next day he wasn't. One day he could only read simple or familiar words and the next day he was reading words ten characters long.
Not long after this, we were out eating when he said a word I didn't understand and asked me if I knew what it was. I didn't. He said another and another and I finally caught on. He was pronouncing words backwards. It started because he was reading signs that were facing outside and by two days later had blossomed into saying whole backwards sentences and talking in our own code! "I ma ruoy dneirf" was his most used sentence.
I found this incredible because it's hard to say a word like "sandwich" backward, but he figured out an accurate way of doing it, so that I had a fair opportunity to guess the word. We played this game for months.
And I guess this is where I'll end our story. Alex is now a very good reader. Although I have told many people that when he was grown, no one would care at what age he learned to read, I hope I was mistaken. I hope the age at which he started reading (eight and about ten months) will somehow be of help to others. Whether you're going the same route as us, thinking about it, or you're just trying to understand it, I hope our story will help you to trust it will all turn out okay.
Thanks for reading!
Cheryl
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
soggyboysmom
--- In [email protected], Cheryl Carroll
<nicholas230@y...> wrote:
said another and another and I finally caught on. He was pronouncing
words backwards. It started because he was reading signs that were
facing outside and by two days later had blossomed into saying whole
backwards sentences and talking in our own code! "I ma ruoy dneirf"
was his most used sentence.
LOL - oh my! reading books entirely backwards was how I coped with
reading aloud some of the Berenstain Bears books to DS over and over
and over....per his request. One day I was just tired of it so I
started with the last word and drawkcab ti lla daer. DS got the
giggles and said Again, again, DH thought I was nuts, and I was
actually putting into practice the concept of using letter sounds
and blends to figure out "new" words right before DS' eyes. We had a
blast!
<nicholas230@y...> wrote:
>didn't understand and asked me if I knew what it was. I didn't. He
> Not long after this, we were out eating when he said a word I
said another and another and I finally caught on. He was pronouncing
words backwards. It started because he was reading signs that were
facing outside and by two days later had blossomed into saying whole
backwards sentences and talking in our own code! "I ma ruoy dneirf"
was his most used sentence.
LOL - oh my! reading books entirely backwards was how I coped with
reading aloud some of the Berenstain Bears books to DS over and over
and over....per his request. One day I was just tired of it so I
started with the last word and drawkcab ti lla daer. DS got the
giggles and said Again, again, DH thought I was nuts, and I was
actually putting into practice the concept of using letter sounds
and blends to figure out "new" words right before DS' eyes. We had a
blast!
Sylvia Toyama
LOL - oh my! reading books entirely backwards was how I coped with
reading aloud some of the Berenstain Bears books to DS over and over
and over....per his request. One day I was just tired of it so I
started with the last word and drawkcab ti lla daer. DS got the
giggles and said Again, again, DH thought I was nuts, and I was
actually putting into practice the concept of using letter sounds
and blends to figure out "new" words right before DS' eyes. We had a blast!
****
Andy's enjoying spelling and writing words backwards, then reading them to me. It's just amazing how he can do it in his head now. At the same time, he's reading ever bigger and more difficult words every day. This week he's read psychoanalyzed, psychologist, manufactured, apteryx -- all found in Garfield cartoon books!
Sylvia
soggyboysmom <debra.rossing@...> wrote:
__________________________________________________
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
reading aloud some of the Berenstain Bears books to DS over and over
and over....per his request. One day I was just tired of it so I
started with the last word and drawkcab ti lla daer. DS got the
giggles and said Again, again, DH thought I was nuts, and I was
actually putting into practice the concept of using letter sounds
and blends to figure out "new" words right before DS' eyes. We had a blast!
****
Andy's enjoying spelling and writing words backwards, then reading them to me. It's just amazing how he can do it in his head now. At the same time, he's reading ever bigger and more difficult words every day. This week he's read psychoanalyzed, psychologist, manufactured, apteryx -- all found in Garfield cartoon books!
Sylvia
soggyboysmom <debra.rossing@...> wrote:
__________________________________________________
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Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Robyn Coburn
<<<<Andy's enjoying spelling and writing words backwards, then reading them
to me. It's just amazing how he can do it in his head now. At the same
time, he's reading ever bigger and more difficult words every day. This week
he's read psychoanalyzed, psychologist, manufactured, apteryx -- all found
in Garfield cartoon books!>>>>
So I just have to have a play and do this:
Dezylanaohcysp - a rare species of butterfly from the Amazon with markings
similar to Rorschach Blots.
Tsigolohcysp - another distantly related insect with an unusual conformation
of extra antennae.
Derutcafunam - an obscure architectural term referring to a small room
similar to a butler's pantry in Ancient Roman middle class houses.
Xyretpa - An item of traditional Ukrainian jewelery worn with a dleifrag.
I love that game Dictionary. By the way I couldn't even attempt to do the
words backwards in my head without the right way in front of me.
Robyn L. Coburn
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to me. It's just amazing how he can do it in his head now. At the same
time, he's reading ever bigger and more difficult words every day. This week
he's read psychoanalyzed, psychologist, manufactured, apteryx -- all found
in Garfield cartoon books!>>>>
So I just have to have a play and do this:
Dezylanaohcysp - a rare species of butterfly from the Amazon with markings
similar to Rorschach Blots.
Tsigolohcysp - another distantly related insect with an unusual conformation
of extra antennae.
Derutcafunam - an obscure architectural term referring to a small room
similar to a butler's pantry in Ancient Roman middle class houses.
Xyretpa - An item of traditional Ukrainian jewelery worn with a dleifrag.
I love that game Dictionary. By the way I couldn't even attempt to do the
words backwards in my head without the right way in front of me.
Robyn L. Coburn
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bunsofaluminum
Thank you, carol, for this post. My youngest is 10 and isn't reading
fluently, yet. She can read many MANY words on their own, but it
still hasn't "clicked" yet.
Having been an aide in public school, and having been a teacher's
helper in my older daughter's kindergarten class, and my mom having
been a second grade teacher, I've had opportunity to watch the sort
of "stages" that quite young kids go through, in their journey to
reading. One of the stages is "natural spelling" and the schools and
teachers I was involved with have actually taken to encouraging this.
It is pure "sounding out" and creates some comical and sweet "words"
from kids.
Well, my 10 year old is in this "natural spelling" phase, where she
is trying to hear the sounds of the word, and then put them on paper.
The other day, she drew a picture from Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire. I'm not sure of the scene, since it's from a book that isn't a
movie, yet. L
In it, was Hagrid's cottage, and she labelled it COTOCH. The closest
she's ever come to and accurate spelling of a word without looking at
it. She told me it took her about five minutes to figure it out.
She'd worked SO hard on getting that word written, and I'm proud of
her. Other words in the picture were The forbidden forest (which was
spelled The Fded Freo) and Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Hermione is eim,
and Ron is nor. (backwards) Harry is a word she already knows,
somehow. :)
Besides the natural spelling, which is charming and humorous (and, my
school teacher mom would think it wonderful, if DD were 5, not 10,
but that's another story)...the detail in this picture is pretty
impressive. She put every brick on one building, and the paving
stones in the walkway. And the trees in the background are quite
stylistic and "modern" looking. Two horses outside the COTOCH. A
tulip growing, lots of windows. I'm going to ask her to tell me
everything about it. I haven't been reading Harry Potter, but she
has. Thank goodness for books on tape!
blessings, HeidiC
--- In [email protected], Cheryl Carroll
<nicholas230@y...> wrote:
thought I'd send it to the list.
doesn't seem to say enough. Anyway, here it is. If anyone has any
questions, please feel free to ask. Questions may help me when/if I
change or add to this.
lot more to it. His accomplishment is presented here in four parts,
from age two to age eight.
heard of it, if you're thinking of going that route, or if you are
currently unschooling and having worries about reading, I think
you'll find this article encouraging.
had the courage to trust in a child's natural desire to learn. To
learn more about unschooling, please visit http://unschooling.com
fluently, yet. She can read many MANY words on their own, but it
still hasn't "clicked" yet.
Having been an aide in public school, and having been a teacher's
helper in my older daughter's kindergarten class, and my mom having
been a second grade teacher, I've had opportunity to watch the sort
of "stages" that quite young kids go through, in their journey to
reading. One of the stages is "natural spelling" and the schools and
teachers I was involved with have actually taken to encouraging this.
It is pure "sounding out" and creates some comical and sweet "words"
from kids.
Well, my 10 year old is in this "natural spelling" phase, where she
is trying to hear the sounds of the word, and then put them on paper.
The other day, she drew a picture from Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire. I'm not sure of the scene, since it's from a book that isn't a
movie, yet. L
In it, was Hagrid's cottage, and she labelled it COTOCH. The closest
she's ever come to and accurate spelling of a word without looking at
it. She told me it took her about five minutes to figure it out.
She'd worked SO hard on getting that word written, and I'm proud of
her. Other words in the picture were The forbidden forest (which was
spelled The Fded Freo) and Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Hermione is eim,
and Ron is nor. (backwards) Harry is a word she already knows,
somehow. :)
Besides the natural spelling, which is charming and humorous (and, my
school teacher mom would think it wonderful, if DD were 5, not 10,
but that's another story)...the detail in this picture is pretty
impressive. She put every brick on one building, and the paving
stones in the walkway. And the trees in the background are quite
stylistic and "modern" looking. Two horses outside the COTOCH. A
tulip growing, lots of windows. I'm going to ask her to tell me
everything about it. I haven't been reading Harry Potter, but she
has. Thank goodness for books on tape!
blessings, HeidiC
--- In [email protected], Cheryl Carroll
<nicholas230@y...> wrote:
> I wrote an article for my website, but since my site is kindaschoolish and most of you would never come across this piece, I
thought I'd send it to the list.
>of happy with it, but then again I'm not. Although it's very long, it
> It's all about Alex (9yo ds) and how he learned to read. I'm sort
doesn't seem to say enough. Anyway, here it is. If anyone has any
questions, please feel free to ask. Questions may help me when/if I
change or add to this.
>overnight. Of course, as with many overnight successes, there was a
> Introduction:
>
> Alex seemed to go from not reading to reading quite well, nearly
lot more to it. His accomplishment is presented here in four parts,
from age two to age eight.
>Alex's journey to reading will seem very strange indeed. If you have
> If you've never heard or read about unschooling, this account of
heard of it, if you're thinking of going that route, or if you are
currently unschooling and having worries about reading, I think
you'll find this article encouraging.
>way I looked at children and learning. Without them, I would not have
> I cannot thank the unschooling community enough for changing the
had the courage to trust in a child's natural desire to learn. To
learn more about unschooling, please visit http://unschooling.com
>
>> Thanks for reading!
>
> Cheryl
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Cheryl Carroll
Most of my adult family could be considered natural spellers. Alex never went through that stage because he was always asking me to spell the word for him.
Now that he reads, though, he is attempting to spell the words himself and I'm seeing some of it. He just went back to RuneScape when I read him the article I wrote and he's started talking with other players. A lot of what they write is just how it sounds.
Your daughter's COTOCH sounds wonderful!
Alex says he doesn't like the word cottage because it reminds him of cottage cheese. He says he likes the word "cotock" better, which is how he pronounced what your daughter wrote.
Cheryl
Besides the natural spelling, which is charming and humorous (and, my
school teacher mom would think it wonderful, if DD were 5, not 10,
but that's another story)...the detail in this picture is pretty
impressive. She put every brick on one building, and the paving
stones in the walkway. And the trees in the background are quite
stylistic and "modern" looking. Two horses outside the COTOCH. A
tulip growing, lots of windows. I'm going to ask her to tell me
everything about it. I haven't been reading Harry Potter, but she
has. Thank goodness for books on tape!
blessings, HeidiC
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Now that he reads, though, he is attempting to spell the words himself and I'm seeing some of it. He just went back to RuneScape when I read him the article I wrote and he's started talking with other players. A lot of what they write is just how it sounds.
Your daughter's COTOCH sounds wonderful!
Alex says he doesn't like the word cottage because it reminds him of cottage cheese. He says he likes the word "cotock" better, which is how he pronounced what your daughter wrote.
Cheryl
Besides the natural spelling, which is charming and humorous (and, my
school teacher mom would think it wonderful, if DD were 5, not 10,
but that's another story)...the detail in this picture is pretty
impressive. She put every brick on one building, and the paving
stones in the walkway. And the trees in the background are quite
stylistic and "modern" looking. Two horses outside the COTOCH. A
tulip growing, lots of windows. I'm going to ask her to tell me
everything about it. I haven't been reading Harry Potter, but she
has. Thank goodness for books on tape!
blessings, HeidiC
"List Posting Policies" are provided in the files area of this group.
Visit the Unschooling website and message boards: http://www.unschooling.com
Yahoo! Groups SponsorADVERTISEMENT
---------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UnschoolingDiscussion/
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]