Recently I offered free books to parents who could explain the most creative ways they have used to train their children to read and to appreciate books. I’ve chosen three finalists. The third entry comes from Lisa. Lisa writes:

I have taught four of our kids to read. Some of our kids loved it and it came easily, others struggled and needed more encouragement, but there’s a way to get through to every kid!

1. Make it fun!

When our kids were little we decoded and learned words by writing them on anything BUT paper. We wrote them in flour filled cookie-tins or outside on the driveway with chalk held in our toes, or played H-O-R-S-E with the basketball (except spelling out other words).

We turned our spelling words into puzzles and cut out images of what shape a word would be if the letters were invisible (the shape of a word is a great aid in learning it!). We rolled out Play-doh ‘snakes’ and turned them into letters and words. We spelled words with Nestle Chocolate morsels (and then ate them!). Anything to get them to think about how words are built and have some fun along the way. Visual leaning is a great standard tool, but kinetic learning has it’s advantages too!

2. ‘Salt the oats’

Encourage a long-life affection for literature by reading captivating books to them. Like no other approach, this develops a hunger for reading in them. Little ears have an appreciation for classics and great literature well before little eyes can decode the visuals of advanced language.

It’s important that story time is not laundry-time or dish-washing-time, it’s story-time, it’s time to delight in the pure joy of being enraptured in a tale.

The best feedback for me came at the end of a chapter, when a chorus of voices pleaded, “Mom, read just one more chapter? Pleeeeaaasseeee!”

Even now on occasion, when I read classics to my little ones, I catch the teenagers quietly coming into the room too, just to be part of the journey again.

Note: This habit created an affection for stories and a joy in literature in one child long before she was diagnosed with dyslexia. After the diagnosis, we made more use of audio books for her texts as well as for her pleasure reading. The American Printing House for the Blind (and others) have great audio resources for people who struggle with the printed word. After all, he goal is the absorption of great books, not the movement of eyes across a page! Dyslexia and other learning disabilities can snuff out a love of reading and be very discouraging if the love of books isn’t already secure.

3. Practice

Improvement in reading, like anything else, only comes with practice. So we varied their personal reading with level-appropriate biographies, mysteries, historical fiction, subscribed to sports magazines and nature magazines, enjoyed how-to books… everything!

There’s something for every child on the shelves of your local library. We set goals, made charts, joined book clubs for kids, got free pizzas from Pizza Hut through their reading program (Book It), and enjoyed book reviews from siblings around the dinner table.

Also, since a reward can be motivational and can add to a child’s pleasure in reading, a special, chosen treat often awaited them after meeting their reading goals.

Happy reading!

Winners will be contacted via email on Wednesday. Thanks for the entry, Lisa.

Recently I offered free books to parents who could explain the most creative ways they have used to train their children to read and to appreciate books. I’ve chosen three finalists.

The second finalist is Deb, who has 20 years of experience homeschooling her 6 children ages 7.5–25. Here’s her entry:

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be —
I had a mother who read to me.
—Strickland Gillilan

This poem expresses the cornerstone of teaching my children both to read and to love reading. I was blessed to have a mother who read to me, and I have passed that blessing on to my children. I have found in 20 years of homeschooling that many times it is the basics, adapted for each child’s needs and interests that produce the best results.

1. Read Aloud to Your Children—both consistently and often

Reading aloud to my children started with simple board books when they were only weeks old. We would look at the pictures and I would talk about them, often only for a few minutes at a time. But my children came to associate reading with snuggling with mom and listening to my voice. As they grew older through the pre-school years we read many, many picture books. We had regular reading time before naps and before bedtime.  And woe unto Dad & Mom if we had to skip that time for some reason!

We did fun things with their favorite read-alouds.  They looked forward to when I would “make mistakes” in reading and they could correct me!  Sometimes we would change the story line around  to include their favorite toys and make Barney Bear’s Pizza Shop become Erin Joy’s Ice Cream Parlor. Never mind that the pictures didn’t exactly match—they loved it! They begged to have their dad (a construction contractor) read The House Book because as he read he would point out all the defects in the pictures (like a closet located in an impossible spot). They would all be in gales of laughter by the time he was done. Many, many memories in our family center around reading aloud.

As it became time for schooling to start, the reading aloud continued. I have used a literature approach to history for most of our homeschooling years.  We’ve traveled in Egypt with Mara, Daughter of the Nile and met King Hezekiah in God King.

Adventures on the high seas were exciting as we carried on with Mr. Bowditch and traveled with Columbus. We’ve put The Wheel on the School and had adventures with the Swiss Family Robinson. All my children would laughingly tell you today that Mom always cries at the end of biographies when the person dies. Even my older children still enjoy listening to a good book.

Reading aloud books with my children has nurtured in them a love of reading and a love of learning that has continued into adulthood.

2. Take them to the library regularly

Weekly trips to the library are another foundational aspect of learning to read and love reading. Kids want to read or be read to more when they get to choose the books. My local librarians often joked with me that my children believed that books were cheaper by the pound. We came home with stacks and stacks of books.  Sometimes we would get an older-level book about a topic that interested one of them, and we would snuggle on the couch so the child could look at the pictures while I either read or paraphrased from the book to bring the information to the appropriate level. One library book on how roads are repaired (a photo essay for children) was so memorable to one of my older sons that he found a copy online to buy for his little brother for his birthday a few years ago.

Our kids have looked at the librarians as their friends and a great resource for learning. Recently, my 11-year-old son went to the librarian on his own one day and had her help him look online for some books on trebuchets, which he then asked her to inter-library loan. When my kids start doing things like that, I know that they have learned what a wonderful resource the library is.

3. Let them read at the level where they are comfortable

This was probably the most valuable advice on teaching reading that I came across as a home educator (credit goes to Ruth Beechick). Two of my sons struggled in learning to read. For both of them, reading did not completely “click” until about 5^th grade. With my older son, I made the mistake of pushing him to read simple chapter books when I thought he should be ready. After reading Dr. Beechick’s advice I changed my approach. I let him choose the books he was comfortable reading. Often it was Dr. Seuss, Frog and Toad or other picture books or easy readers. He was allowed to read those as long as he needed to read them to become comfortable. It gave him the opportunity to practice reading and built fluency. When he was ready, he started reading chapter books by his own choice. Now a senior in college, the books he is apt to choose are by Bonhoeffer, Lewis and similar Christian thinkers. My youngest son went from picture books to The Hobbit in about 15 months once he was ready.

I hear a lot about creativity today, but in 20 years of home educating experience, I have found that the need to be “creative” often intimidates home educators. It is the simple things like reading to your children regularly and often, day after day, that do the most nurturing. You demonstrate both your love for your children and your love of reading as you do this. And through the years, the delight of reading is caught more than taught.

Winners will be contacted via email on Wednesday. Thanks for the entry, Deb.

Recently I offered free books to parents who could explain the most creative ways they have used to train their children to read and to appreciate books. I’ve chosen three finalists: Brett, Deb, and Lisa.

The first entry in the “Train up a child in the way he should read” contest comes from Brett:

I used a mix of reverse psychology, play acting, and simple quizzing while reading to our children before bedtime.

I would start with the book out on my lap and tell them to never learn to read because there is too much silly fun stuff and too much cuddly cozy stuff in books and that I was going to stop reading anything anymore that’s it—goodnight. After the giggles and goading to get me to read just a few minutes (a game for the kids and me), I would start into one of a handful of books or Bible stories that they knew backward and forwards, over acting all the parts. I would change names of characters, the sex of characters, the qualities of characters, or change the story completely (i.e. Jesus road into Bethlehem on a penguin with his brother Mary on Thanksgiving day). After some giggle/snorts they would correct me and nearly recite the rest of the story.

After a while, I would make so many gaffs in the story, they would crawl right up beside me to the point it was hard to read so they could look on to make sure I was reading it right. By kindergarten, all of our children could read those books even though they couldn’t read; those sentences in those books made sense but they couldn’t pick up Green Eggs and Ham and start reading. Even though they are beyond the bedtime story age, they savor the story of Esther and also the Runaway Bunny (which is written for a two year olds).

I am a horrible reader, a worse actor, and have a poor imagination, but it worked. Although not all my children love to read like I do, they all love to write and create stories and read faster and better than I do. I know this will not work for everyone, but we happened upon a bedtime system that worked for our little sinners. But if you have daughters and sons together, Esther right out of the Bible is always a home run.

Winners will be contacted via email on Wednesday. Thanks for the entry, Brett.