Skip to main content

Learning to Read is Not a Race

So much emphasis is put on early literacy these days. Many school districts expect children to be reading by the end (or sometimes even the beginning) of kindergarten. While there is certainly nothing wrong with a child learning to read early, not all kids are developmentally ready to read at age 5, and that's okay. In this post I share several reasons why learning to read isn't a race.


#thebarefootmom

Developmental Readiness

Kids all develop at their own pace. We know this when it comes to learning to walk, or climb the jungle gym, or being ready for slumber parties, but it is often overlooked when it comes to learning to read. Not all kids are developmentally there at the same age.  

Pushing kids to read before they're ready can cause a lot of frustration and resentment. It can destroy a child's chance to develop a love for reading by turning it into a frustrating chore. 


Reading Isn't The Only Way To Learn New Information

One of the reasons reading is pushed so early, is to get kids ready for learning in the public school system, where textbooks and worksheets are the most commonly used learning resources.

As homeschoolers we have a great advantage in that we can offer our kids a wide variety of methods for learning. We can do more hands on learning, more field trips, watch more documentaries, read more books aloud, etc... Reading and writing are not the only ways to educate.


Let Kids Be Kids

Young children learn so much simply through play and everyday interaction with the world around them. Early childhood is a time for learning to be kind to others, learning to read social cues, developing good social habits, and developing muscle and coordination. Too much emphasis on academic learning can take time away from play and hands on experiences.

I read something once that said: "Employers don't care when you learned to read, only that you can". In the grand scheme of things, whether you learned to read at age 4 ,or 7, or even 8 is pretty irrelevant. 


#thebarefootmom


What We Can Learn From The Finnish School System?

Finnish schools are among some of Europe's highest ranking schools, but surprisingly, they don't start any sort of formal education until age 7. Before that emphasis is put on play based learning and arts and crafts.

This "late" start on learning to read doesn't hold students back, in fact Finland is one of the world's most literate societies. 

Pushing the expected reading age earlier, as many school districts here in the U.S. have done, hasn't done anything to increase test scores or literacy rates. What it has done, is destroyed the opportunity for many children to develop a natural love of reading.

Maybe it's time to rethink the way we do early childhood education.





Comments

  1. I wrote a post about the same thing a while back!! My daughter is 8 years old and her reading just took off in the last 6 months. So many people hounded me about her reading and questioned me all the time. I started our homeschool journey following the public school system and it seriously made my daughter frustrated and dislike reading. I backed off and let her develop more, now she begs to read books :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wrote a very similar post when my youngest was struggling to read. My middle son taught himself to read at age 4 and my youngest couldn't have cared less about anything to do with reading until at least age 7 or 8. Then he skipped right ahead in no time and I know if we had pushed and pushed he would have hated reading.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love this...great reminder! Gauging the child as an individual is the benefit of homeschooling and yet even we can lose sight of that when we go for traditional standards!

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a great post and so try. Children all learn at different paces and we shouldn't force them into reading when they are not ready. We should help them develop a love of reading.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Water Relay Races For Kids

I don't know about your kids, but mine absolutely love games involving water and getting wet in the summer time. In  this post I share 5 of our favorite water relay races to play with friends. These are perfect for birthday parties, homeschool get togethers, and other group events. Sponge Relay: For this relay you will need: - 2 teams of several kids each -2 large sponges -4 small buckets or containers of some sort Divide your participants into 2 teams and have each team line up single file at a predetermined starting place.  Hand out a sponge to the first participant in each line. Set a bucket of water by each team. Set an empty bucket about 20 ft away from each team.  The two empty buckets should be the same size and should have a "fill line" marked half way up. On a count of 3 (or ready set go) the first participant in each line should dip their sponge in the bucket of water, run to the empty bucket, squeeze the water from their spo

Make Your Own Mineral Identification Kit

One of my family's favorite hobbies is rock hounding. We love collecting and trying to identify neat rock and mineral specimens that we come across. You can put together your own simple kit for identifying rocks and minerals with materials you likely already have around your home. In this post I will explain how to put together your own mineral identification kit and how to use it to identify rocks and minerals you find on your adventures. Making a Rock and Mineral ID Kit Grab yourself a printable Rock and Mineral Journal for recording your observations here:  Printable Rock and Mineral Journal ,  and then gather the following supplies: -A pencil -A coin -An iron nail -A piece of glass (an old pocket mirror works well) -A ceramic tile -A small watertight bottle or container -Some vinegar -A magnet  -A magnifying glass -A dropper (optional)  -Rock and mineral guide (optional)  -A small container or bag to keep it all in Fill the small watertight

STEM Art: 21 STEAM Project Ideas

My kids love STEM projects and we're always looking for ways to add more art to our homeschool days, so I decided I am going to try to dedicate one morning a week this year to STEM art activities. In this post I share some of the ideas we're planning to try, plus a few favorites we've done in the past. What is STEM Education? STEM education is a blended and often hands on approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which are some of today's fastest growing industries. STEM education offers students the opportunity to problem solve and work on real world problems and questions. Sometimes the acronym STEAM is used, to include the arts. Adding art to STEM education encourages creative thinking and problem solving skills. It can also help make the other included subjects more appealing to some students. STEM Art Projects  Penny Spinners-   Learn about centrifugal force and make your own spinning tops with this fun post from Teach Beside Me. Explo

40 Things To Look At Under A Microscope

Microscopes are a scientific instrument that all kids should get a chance to learn how to use. There are so many everyday things that look really amazing up-close. Under a microscope you can see that objects and even plants and animals are made of tiny intricate parts. The microscopic world is amazing! In this post I share 40 things to try looking at up-close under a microscope. 40 Things To Look At Under A Microscope: 1. A feather  2. Soil 3. An insect wing 4. A human hair 5. An animal hair 6. Pond water 7. Diatomacious earth-  diatomacious earth looks SO cool magnified! 8. Cheek swab 9. An insect leg 10. A drop of blood 11. Mold 12. Sand 13. A shaving from a chicken bone- try both a piece of hard bone from the outside and some spongy bone from inside a bone. 14. Kombucha 15. Snake or lizard skin after they shed  16. A flower petal 17. A sliver of wood 18. Sugar 19. Salt- try different types 20. Thread 21. Saliva 22. A s

Learning About The Human Body Part 1: The Skeletal And Muscular Systems

At the end of each school year, I sit down with my daughter to discuss what topics she wants to learn about the next year. One of her science topics she picked to study this year was the human body. Instead of ordering a boxed curriculum set, I decided to put together my own human body unit. In this post I share some of the resources we used for learning about the human skeletal and muscular systems, plus instructions for a couple hands on learning activities. You can find my post about the human respiratory and circulatory systems  here , and my post about the human digestive and nervous systems  here . The Human Skeletal System Our skeletons are the frame of our body. They give us structure, without them our bodies would be limp like noodles. They also provide places for muscles to attach so our bodies can move. Why Does Your Body Need Calcium? Experiment: This is a simple experiment you can do to explore why calcium is important for our bones. You will need: -several clean