Trusting in natural learning doesn't come naturally to me. It has been a bit of a process to step back and watch life happen for the boys without 'teaching'. One area that I feel I have been successful in letting go has been reading. It certainly took a few years of nail biting as we sat back and watched as our oldest son Seamus became a proficient reader. We read to the boys often when they were younger. Books are everywhere in our house. Picture books, chapter books, non fiction, graphic novels, magazines are in almost every room. Seamus experimented with reading on his own mostly with collections of "Baby Blues" comic strips. He didn't start with 'early readers'. He would sit for hours first looking at the pictures and somewhere in there he began reasoning out the words for himself. If he asked for help with a word we simply told him what the word was. We didn't ask him to sound it out or test him on letter sounds. Seamus was between 9 and 10 when he could confidently read most words he came across and was reading short youth novels. Now at almost 12 he has no less than three 300 plus paged novels on the go at once.
Liam was writing long before he began reading. In fact we didn't even know he was reading for probably about 6 months after he made the leap in skill level. It seemed that he went from not reading at 8 to reading large words over night. What really happened was that Liam does not like to do anything half way. He will not share a skill with others until he feels he has mastered it to his liking. At 10 Liam is able to read most of what he comes across but does not feel confident enough to pick up a novel. And I suspect that he will not until he feels he can read one without stumbling. He reads graphic novels often and anything that he comes across that requires reading to accomplish the task.
Just a couple of days ago my mother mentioned that Eoin told her he wishes he could read. Eoin actually can read many words but what he meant was that he wanted to become comfortable with reading. I believe his motivation comes from the need to depend on others to read the on screen instructions for games he is playing. My approach with Eoin will be different than it has been with his brothers. I still won't be teaching Eoin to read but I will make more of an effort to offer to sit with him if he wants to practice reading. I will also increase reading out loud to him. Just like with taking pictures of your first child infinitely more than subsequent children I have found that we read less to Eoin than we did for Seamus and Liam.
Recently I came across a website readingrockets.org which claimed that reading for most students MUST be taught and refuted the idea that reading can come naturally. It also listed statistics of poor literacy and illiteracy of North Americans. The majority of elementary aged students are enrolled in institutional schooling systems and therefore are being 'taught' to read, so why are they not reading or reading well? Even allowing for the children who have poor attendance or traumas in their lives that inhibit learning processes the poor literacy statistics certainly cannot be because they are not being taught or at least present when reading is being taught.
At one time, before becoming a parent, I would have liked to be able to proudly announce that my 4 year could read. Now I am happy and comfortable in saying that my children came into reading confidence on their own when they were ready and have a love of books that we cherish.
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