For our fifth installment in the series on "What We Do" in our homeschool, today we are going to be discussing the language arts with a focus on reading. As you might have gathered from last week's post, reading is an incredibly important part of our homeschool routine. If you haven't seen our other post in the series or would like to catch up
Why Read Daily?
I have heard it said the the first three years of school you learn to read, and then from fourth grade on you read to learn. This is so true for us. After getting the basics of phonics down our kids are expected to read on their own for fun and for learning in addition to our group studies, plus we do read alouds. I want to spend some time today discussing each of these areas along with why we work so hard to incorporate reading into our daily routine.
Reading is something which only improves through practice. So the more you practice the more fluency that you gain. Reading fluency is just a fancy way of saying that reading flows well particularly when you read aloud. The reason the fluidity in reading is so important is because it is an important part of both communicating with others and with your own comprehension when reading. There is nothing quite so annoying as getting a message or document and the whole thing being confusing because the writer didn't possess any fluency of their own. Additionally, if you don't have fluency when reading, you may have to read and re-read a piece multiple times in order to comprehend it. By encouraging our children to read and then discussing books or having them write about what they've read, we can improve these key life skills.
Reading is a gateway; it allows you to in essence communicate with a multitude of people. When reading for fun, it gives you access to another's imagination opening up potential for both creative and emotional growth as you are drawn into another world. It is also a way to gain empathy and understanding of other's experiences. This doesn't change as we age. I read a book this summer that detailed a young, bright, black man's experience with police and the judicial system in a Southern state. Despite living nearly my entire life in the Deep South, it gave me a new perspective on what life is like for a whole group of people.
When reading to learn, our kids have access to experts that they most likely will never meet who can detail and explain facts in a way that the teachers or parents or adults in their lives never quite could. Possibilities abound because they now have more knowledge than they did before. This also doesn't change as they age. Gary constantly follows the newest news in the ag industry to increase his chances of getting more and better work, by having more knowledge about changes and improvements in the industry.
The kids both are able to see the growth their parents experience by reading, and feel it for themselves. It helps them to grapple with larger than life issues and manage their own desires, feelings, and expectations. It is a way to make sense of the world around them and their own experiences. It can also be a fun way to relax as they check out the newest fanfic story, fantasy book, or graphic novels. They get comfortable and get lost in another world and make friends with the characters. Better than tv, reading works their imagination as well as their comprehension.
DEAR Time
Each day, except the mornings when one of the kids has an online class, they start out their school day with thirty minutes of DEAR time. DEAR stands for "drop everything and read." Occasionally I may assign a book, such as "The Giver" to Britt and Ruth like I did at the beginning of the year. Other times it may be a book they are reading for an online class, such as Rebecca reading "The Bridge to Terabithia" recently. However, most of the time this is their chance to read anything they like. Ruth loves to read fanfic pieces on the ipad, while Britt prefers library books. Sometimes Rebecca even reads the latest magazine that came in the mail. The only requirement is that they read for 30 minutes each morning. This is to let them get in an academic mindset with an assignment that they really enjoy. It also allows them time each day to practice reading with something that appeals to them. After all, if you are interested, your fluency and comprehension will be higher than something that was chosen for you without your interests in mind.
Frequently they read to themselves in DEAR time, but sometimes they practice reading aloud. That might be listening to a sibling read and helping them where they have trouble. Other times it might look like reading to one of the toddlers. This is a sneaky way for me to work on their reading aloud: pronunciation and fluency. They enjoy reading and the time with a younger sibling, while actually improving their own skills. They younger sibling enjoys the attention and listening to books or getting help with their own reading.
Read Alouds
Tons of parents read aloud to their children when they are small, but we continue read alouds through high school. That might surprise you, but science has shown that even older children benefit from read alouds. While simply googling "why read aloud to older children" will give you a host of hits, this article from readtoachild.org sums up some of the benefits. Simply put, kids can understand what they hear prior to being at the same reading level to understand what they read with their eyes. This practice of ear reading actually increases vocabulary and deepens their understanding of complex works whether of fiction or non-fiction. For dyslexic learners in particular engaging in ear reading also decreases the mental and physical strain that comes with eye reading. Reading aloud also is a good place to begin reading the classics, because many of these works are writing in older styles of English they included difficult words and sentence structures that may seem archaic to students. Reading aloud helps make these more understandable because you can feel the rhythm of the language and the fluency of a good reader aids by increasing comprehension.
Aside from these many educational benefits, read alouds create shared bonds, increasing family togetherness. We practice two types of read alouds, we have school read alouds and family read alouds. School read alouds I chose for their literary elements or their subject matter. While trying to also find books that the kids will enjoy, the primary purpose of reading these books is to expand their own writing horizons and expose them to good grammar. I read the current book myself over lunch most days, and we often use Brave Writer to discuss them. I'll share more in depth how we use such read alouds in next week's article on what we do for writing and the following week's article on what we do for grammar.
The second type of read aloud that we practice are family read alouds. I chose these almost solely for their ability to engage and entertain. We frequently read series this way. These books I check out on audiobook from the library and we listen to them only in the car when driving. Every time we need a new book or a new series, I pick out something with a particular child in mind, rotating through our children, so that everyone can enjoy these books. They create subjects for us to discuss, bring up questions, and make great dinner conversations for everyone to talk about together. I discussed these read alouds some when I mentioned how to keep your cool when traveling with kids. This teaches our children that reading is both educational and recreational.
Supplemental Reading
The final way that we incorporate reading into our daily schedule is to do supplemental reading. This is really where reading to learn kicks in. As the children get older I want them to learn the practice of reading and synthesising material to be able to file away in their brains for reference. For example, Kate is young and while she understood some of the material we covered on the Civil War, I didn't expect a six year old to come away with detailed tactics and understanding the nuances of how and why the Emancipation Proclamation made an impact on the war. Some of the material she didn't catch. Some of it she did, but it didn't take root. A few pieces made lasting impacts. However, as the kids get older I want more and more of that information to stick. I want them to then be able to work with and apply what they learn to other scenarios. One way to do that is to have them do supplemental reading.
Twice a week the two oldest read from a college history textbook about events and information that coincides with our group lessons. This gives them a deeper understanding of what we are learning and its importance. They then get the chance to work with this information by writing about one of the chapter's thematic questions. In science, similarly, they watch a video on the topic and then each day have reading that parallels that information at a deeper level that they then answer questions about. This skill of understanding and being able to utilize what they have read is another life skill that will be vital to them as adults.
In Conclusion
Reading is an essential life long skill. The more that my children can practice with it the better they will develop that skill. As dyslexic learners, it is even more important to practice frequently. As such we have made it an intricate part of our schooling, from fun reading at DEAR time to academic reading of supplemental material. What we do for reading sets our kids up to thrive in the greater world all while building a shared community here at home. Something that both connects us to one another and improves our education is a win all the way around. Remember to check out next week's post in the series What We Do: Writing.
Comments