yukonaurora65

Just wanted some feedback from the group on this issue. The question
is this-when and how do you decide that someone is now "reading"?

With my two older girls (13 and 17) who've been schooled, the school
declared that they were, right "on time" with all the other
kids..oh, yucky untrue stuff there, all right!

With my younger two (ds6 and dd3) who are being unschooled, I've
just never worried about it, to be honest. I'm REALLY not into
labels of any sort, and I just wanted to treat reading like any
other skill in the world. I've just trusted that David would learn
to read when he needed to. And he can navigate his way around his
world just fine now. He asks for words to be read to him on an as-
needed basis, and then he just seems to digest that for a bit, then
ask for more.

So, it seems to me that all is right with our world..BUT..the
question about homeschooling (don't mention the UN part to anyone
but you guys, my Mom and dh!)that I seem to get all the time from
relatives is "So, is he reading yet?". I can foresee that I'll get
this more in the future. Anyone have any good responses to
this question?

Thanks
Nadine
Yukon, YT, Canada

J. Stauffer

Reading responses----

What about "He is in the process"?

Julie S.
----- Original Message -----
From: "yukonaurora65" <nadineb@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 11:33 AM
Subject: [UnschoolingDiscussion] When does a person become a "reader"?


> Just wanted some feedback from the group on this issue. The question
> is this-when and how do you decide that someone is now "reading"?
>
> With my two older girls (13 and 17) who've been schooled, the school
> declared that they were, right "on time" with all the other
> kids..oh, yucky untrue stuff there, all right!
>
> With my younger two (ds6 and dd3) who are being unschooled, I've
> just never worried about it, to be honest. I'm REALLY not into
> labels of any sort, and I just wanted to treat reading like any
> other skill in the world. I've just trusted that David would learn
> to read when he needed to. And he can navigate his way around his
> world just fine now. He asks for words to be read to him on an as-
> needed basis, and then he just seems to digest that for a bit, then
> ask for more.
>
> So, it seems to me that all is right with our world..BUT..the
> question about homeschooling (don't mention the UN part to anyone
> but you guys, my Mom and dh!)that I seem to get all the time from
> relatives is "So, is he reading yet?". I can foresee that I'll get
> this more in the future. Anyone have any good responses to
> this question?
>
> Thanks
> Nadine
> Yukon, YT, Canada
>
>
>
>
>
> "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 Links
>
>
>
>
>

Mary Gold

>>"So, is he reading yet?". I can foresee that I'll get
> this more in the future. Anyone have any good responses to
> this question?

How about "He's on his way and it's so exciting to watch!" <Big
smile> "Pass the bean dip please."

At age 6 "reading" is very broadly interpreted. In schools it's
usually about being able to identify letter sounds and tell what
letter a word starts with and maybe sight read or sound out some
simple words. It's not about fluently reading novels or recipe
directions.

Your son sounds like he's on his way to me. :o)

Life is good.
~Mary

pam sorooshian

On Sep 2, 2004, at 9:33 AM, yukonaurora65 wrote:

> So, it seems to me that all is right with our world..BUT..the
> question about homeschooling (don't mention the UN part to anyone
> but you guys, my Mom and dh!)that I seem to get all the time from
> relatives is "So, is he reading yet?". I can foresee that I'll get
> this more in the future. Anyone have any good responses to
> this question?

"He's doing really well - making lots of progress. I can't believe how
awesome it is to be able to watch him learn and grow so much. He's into
so many things and so smart and, oh my goodness, do you know what he
said the other day? ........... I'm just so amazed by him sometimes!"

I always found it was best to be confident and talk about 'progress.'
I took the question as an opportunity, assumed the question meant they
were interested in hearing about the child, and I talked their ear off,
in fact, about all the interesting and fascinating things the child was
doing.

-pam
National Home Education Network
<www.NHEN.org>
Serving the entire homeschooling community since 1999
through information, networking and public relations.

Debbie

> With my younger two (ds6 and dd3) who are being unschooled, I've
> just never worried about it, to be honest. I'm REALLY not into
> labels of any sort, and I just wanted to treat reading like any
> other skill in the world. I've just trusted that David would learn
> to read when he needed to. And he can navigate his way around his
> world just fine now. He asks for words to be read to him on an as-
> needed basis, and then he just seems to digest that for a bit, then
> ask for more.

Nadine,

You're doing what works for you and your children and that's what
counts. My son (also David) is 8yo. He learned his letters "on
schedule" but was "behind" (according to my mom) on putting sounds
and words together. I've been very relaxed about the whole reading
thing, expecting that it would come when he was ready. He's been
learning how to spell a lot of words the past year or so, and we read
to him all the time. I could see him absorbing and digesting the
words as we spelled for him and as we read to him.

Recently, we were on a weekend away with my mom, when she asked David
to read something. He piped up with "I can't read!" Well, I could see
in her face what she was thinking, but she didn't say anything. The
very next day we were in a bookstore and David picked up a simple
book (Biscuit) and read the whole thing to me (of course, I helped
him with any words he couldn't figure out). Just like that, he's now
a reader. He's into very simple books for now - we're just moving
into some of the easier Step 1 books about animals. He'll stay at
this level for as long as he needs then he'll move up on his own. He
reads to me every day and he chose when to move into a slightly more
difficult book.

The best thing - he told me last week "Mom, I love to read." That's
what I wanted to hear from him. I don't want to raise a child who
reads because he's supposed to. I want to raise a child who loves to
read.

I was planning to wait longer (years) if that's what he needed. It
would have gotten more and more difficult (for me), but I was willing
to do it.

Good luck to you.

Debbie
Highland, NY