Re: CHAT: learning to read

"J.Barefoot" wrote:
>
> >From: Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:
> >Barry Garcia wrote:
> > > Well, i grew up learning through the phonics system.
> >
> >I'm amazed that people on this list can remember what system they used,
> >I don't remember learning to read,
>
I know that both my parents read to me when I was young, but Mom also
used phonics with me because that was in part how she had learned. I
think the combination was quite powerful. But there's one more factor
which some others have alluded to, but I think is often discounted. See
below.

>
> Something bothers me about how children learn to read these days. Parents
> buy tapes and games and "Hooked on Phonics," but I think if they would just
> read to the child regularly there wouldn't be so much of a problem.  That's
> how I learned to read (probably why I'm biased to the method, though it
> seems the simplest), though I think I could actually recite "Goldilocks and
> the Three Bears" before I could read it. Nevermind, I'll stop babbling now.
Although I am childfree, I've had a chance to observe the
learning-to-read stage with my friend and her son. The boy is now 11
years old. My friend is like me, an avid and skilled reader from her
pre-school days. Her boy has always shown great native intelligence and
she read to him a *lot*. But it didn't seem to do any good. The boy
didn't eschew those reading sessions as he enjoyed the companionship
with Mom. And he did learn some from her. But he showed little interest
in reading well into second grade, to the degree that my friend was
starting to get worried. The trick was finding something he *cared* to
read. With this boy, it was puzzles and games and toys which required
assembly. My friend realized that he needed motivation and so stopped
reading the instructions to such toys for him. Once his interest was
engaged, his natural ability took over and he has progressed rapidly. He
even enjoys fiction reading now, although he'll probably never be the
complete bookworm that his mom is.

Laurie
milo@winternet.com
http://www.winternet.com/~milo