Learning in the Absence of Education
Essays on Homeschooling
© Beverley Paine
Index
Homeschool
Australia
Worrying about late readers....
Reading is such a major focus of education, because so much of school education hinges on a child being able to read reasonably well by age eight. Home educators also worry about late readers. As a parent of two boys who began reading late I understand the worry and frustration that can undermine one's confidence in the whole home education process.
I tell parents not to worry about the reading part of education so much. I advise them to continue to find things their child likes to do that are mentally challenging. If the child is spending time thinking through things of interest, then he or she will probably start reading when ready, or when it is necessary to get at information that is only available in written form.
As parents we can always continue to read things to our non reading children, or help them find other ways to get information, rather than by trying to push them to read before they're ready, or want to. This is always the best way - and reading aloud should be encouraged in any case. Sharing a newspaper report, a chapter from a novel, a poem - these are important activities in family life.
I have always taken the time to read aloud to Thomas and Roger wherever we have been, at the museum, subtitles on movies, labels on boxes. Much conversational learning has been sparked by doing this, learning I may have missed witnessing if the boys were competent readers.
When my children were younger I knew a couple of late readers. By age twelve they seemed to have it altogether and showed no disadvantage in their reading ability. Both boys suffered some loss of self-esteem and confidence with their school experiences. One was helped with‘special’ classes at school; the other began homeschooling at nine. Both were emotionally sensitive boys, with practical interests, mostly mechanics. And both were classified by their teachers as 'problem students'.
I wanted to spare Thomas, who has a similar learning profile to my young friends, the loss of self-esteem I saw in them. It wasn’t easy for me, an excellent reader, to watch Thomas learn to read so slowly, and I constantly kept up with information about how children learn to read and how learning happens. I needed to know he was not ‘learning disabled’, simply different. Over time I recognised his unique learning style was not hindering his progress, but it would have in a school environment.
By continuing to educate myself about how reading skills develop across the spectrum of learning styles, and by reassuring myself with stories of successful late readers in the homeschooling community, I was able to practice patience and have faith in Thomas's ability to work it all out eventually. I was also able to more adequately help Thomas cope with the comments and inquiries constantly directed at him, and his own frustration. I found it extremely valuable to recognise and celebrate his difference, and to help him see that learning to read is just one facet of life, just another skill to accomplish in a long list of skills.
In fact I de-emphasised its importance. He knew that in time he would master the printed word. At times his patience would run thin, and we'd do some 'school' work for a week or two. This was all that was needed to demonstrate that without book work Thomas was progressing, in his own way and style. Honouring that process, one that is not practiced in schools, has been the secret to maintaining Thomas's level of self esteem.
We could have done a lot more to accelerate Thomas’s reading skills, and spent a lot more
time focussing on it. But would that have meant he wouldn’t have been developing other skills,
ones that are far more important to him? I feel that the key to helping children improve or
develop any skill is in a low key approach. Allowing it to develop over time. It takes about three
years to master talking, and then no child is a competent user until adolescence... why rush into
learning to read, or write.
We should let our children have their childhood, their entire childhood, to explore and play and learn.
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Excerpt from Learning in the Absence of Home Education: Essays on Homeschooling
© Beverley Paine, 1999
