Practice Child #1

Keep in mind that Judah is, for me, practice child number one.

I don't pretend to have this parenting thing figured out. I'm also "officially" home-schooling this year. That doesn't mean I necessarily know what I'm doing. To be honest, I'm trying to do very little. Yes, trying, as in "intentionally not doing a whole lot."

Sure, by the standards of the average American household, we do a lot. We read tons of books, we frequent the library storytimes and we watch plays and get out in nature and we look for ways to volunteer our time and resources, we paint, we draw, we color, we sculpt, we act, we create.

But I don't use flash cards. And I don't own any "Teach your child to read" books. And I don't have the alphabet pasted to my wall. And I don't have any DVD's about the ABC's.

Basically, I'm attempting what might be called "the natural method" and I've recently discovered that I'm probably considered an "unschooler." I've read a few books by Dr. Raymond Moore, a developmental psychologist and educator who advocates waiting to teach children to read until they're at least EIGHT years old. I know. It sounded preposterous to me at first, too.

However . . .

Judah is a little more than six and a half. Prior to this year, he has had ZERO interest in learning how to read. Well, I say zero, I mean, almost zero. He couldn't remember the names or sounds of letters from one minute to the next. Fortunately, I had already attended a Carole Joy Seid workshop and wasn't freaked out. She introduced me to Dr. Raymond Moore. I'm pretty sure God knew what an over-achiever I am and He wanted me to take it easy on my son. So here we are.

Tonight, while I was making hummus in the kitchen, Judah was shouting from the other room, "Mom! I know how to spell flower!" And then he would take a pretty good gander at the spelling, I'd tell him how close he was and how brilliant he is, and he would keep guessing until he got it. Later, when we was trying to spell "tomato" (te-ma-to), he said he was writing down the letters, but that wasn't "cheating." He wanted to be able to read the letters back to me without having to keep them in his mind each time. I told him that of course that's not cheating--that's good thinking.

A friend who home-schooled her children through high school had told me once--years ago--that teaching your child to read is a lot like potty-training. Just wait until he's ready and then it's pretty simple. With Judah, I spent months attempting to potty-train him, but with Miriam, I just waited until she was ready, and in a couple weeks, she was fully potty-trained. Carole Joy Seid said you can take years teaching your child to read (like robots) or wait for readiness and watch them bloom in a few months or even weeks.

On the way to visit my parents in KY on Thanksgiving, Judah sounded out the word "brand" in the car. When Miriam asked what "brand" meant, he said, "It means a specific type of thing. Like this is a specific 'brand' of chocolate." Ah, the beauty of teaching a child to read who already grasps the meaning of the words he is sounding out.

I read an article recently about how both sides of the brain have to work together to decode symbols for reading. One side tackles the symbols and the sounds and the other attaches meaning. That's why it's possible to read entire passages and not have a clue what you've just read. One side of your brain was asleep or distracted.

I'm pretty excited about Judah's attempts to sound out words and write letters and basically teach himself to read. For example, we picked up a book from the library last week, and he came home, sat down on the couch, and sounded out the title again and again and again. He was studying the letters. He was literally teaching himself to read.

He wants to read so badly he can taste it. But I know that what he figures out on his own he will carry with him for a lifetime. What I try to spoon-feed him will either be spit out or quickly forgotten.

I'm here. I'm ready to answer questions. I'll read every day and check out audio books so he can listen to books even when I'm not available. The day will come when he will be reading to me and to his younger sisters. I think that day is not far from now. I'm eager to write down the name of Judah's first read-aloud book.

But for now it's time for bed. So says the husband.