Reading is one of Ben and my top parenting goals.
We want our kids to absolutely love reading. We want them to know that reading is one of the best ways to learn. We want them to enjoy novels. We want them to pick books over things like TV or Facebook when they're older. We want them to grow to love a lot of the books that we love and choose books.
One of the ways we are doing this is by reading to them everyday. When Parker was younger (7 months) she wasn't into books at all (Ashtyn was, so we had that comparison). I remember putting Parker in her high chair with food to get her to hold still while I read to her. I persisted in reading to her (I tried to read to her before her naps and bedtime and sometime during the day, even if I had to distract her with food to do it, each day). We also kept books around at her level. She loved to play with the books and "read' them herself as a toddler. She loves books now; she loves to pick books at the library (her favorite right now are Fancy Nancy and nonfiction books about bugs) and often asks me to read them to her. She also still loves "reading" the books (looking at them and sometimes making up a story with it) herself.
We want to keep her love of reading as she grows older. I know that one area we'll have to tread carefully with her is learning to read. With Ashtyn, even as into reading and letters as she is, it's been a learning process.
Ashtyn started to learn to read in the spring of 2019, with sight words and letter sounds. She progressed pretty quickly and then the holidays came at the end of the year and we were not very consistent with having her practice reading each day. In January, we set a goal for her to read to me every day for 25 days and then we would get ice cream. I brought a Henry and Mudge book downstairs for her to read to me. We only read a couple pages, but she got really frustrated. The next day she didn't want to read, but I coaxed her into it and she did a couple pages again. The next day, she didn't want to read again and I couldn't coax her into it. I didn't want to force her, because that would go contrary to our goals. She had me worried as she said things throughout the day like, "I'm never going to read again," and "I hate reading."
As I pondered over what to do, I remembered Ashtyn insisting on reading Green Eggs and Ham to us at bedtime in October (she had to insist because it took her forever, compared to us reading it to her, but we let her because she really wanted to). That night at bedtime, I reminded her of when she liked to read Green Eggs and Ham to us and asked if she wanted to try that one with me before bed. She was very excited to do that and giggled through the whole book. The entire feeling of the experience was opposite of trying to read Henry and Mudge.
I realized that the Henry and Mudge books were too advanced for her still. I talked with her the next day about that, and about how she was so frustrated because she wasn't ready for the books I'd picked. Together, we picked some other Dr. Seuss books and she read them all to me. Now, we pick pre-level 1 books at the library and she reads one a day to me. She knows most of the words in them with a few new words for her to sound out. It's the perfect level because she gets to practice the words she already knows but doesn't know as well as, say an adult, and also gets to enjoy the story without frustration while also getting to practice a few new words.
It was a learning experience for me, but also for Ashtyn. I loved that we got to use this experience as a way to show Ashtyn how to reevaluate her goals and where she is at with them, and also talk about how we progress a little bit at a time and can start at a more basic level to begin with. It turned out to be a really great experience.
Teaching kids to read while keeping their love of reading can be tricky. I know that as we are patient with our kids and let them learn at their level (while making sure we're helping progress when they're ready rather than staying in a comfort zone), and continue to read aloud to them, our kids will continue to love books. They might not read as much as I do as an adult, but I'm confident that they will grow up knowing that they love to read, that they can read to learn, and that we will be able to continue to connect over books.
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