Late Readers
I really don’t like the label, “Late Readers,” as it supposes there is a proper age or grade when reading should occur. Learning to read competently can happen in many ways and stages of life, not just in third grade, the usual cut-off for determining if you are a “late reader” (though you might want to think twice about using conventional school reading methods). Alternative schools, such as Waldorf schools, are often more flexible about making children learn to read by a certain age or grade. But homeschoolers, and unschoolers in particular, have a much different story to tell about how children learn to read, and it tends to unnerve those who feel that three years of conventional school inputs are the best way to make an “on-time” reader. Here are two stories, from Growing Without Schooling 75, about the support and patience parents can use to help their children learn to read at home.
Thoughts from Parents of Older Readers
From Diane Robertson (NJ):
Like Moira Nobles’ son [GWS 74], my son Bryce was a “late” reader. I did read to Bryce a lot and had tons of interesting material around the house. Invented spelling was also a big plus in our lives. Bryce would leave me many notes around the house and I never mentioned spelling. I am a big list person so I often had Bryce write lists for me. If he did not have a clue as to spelling, I told him to draw a picture instead (of an apple, juice, etc.). This was a big help to me: he knew this and felt good about it.
What benefitted us the most was reading simple but interesting books together. Sitting next to him, with lots of hugs, I would read a line from the book and he would read the next. In the beginning I would read nine out of ten of his words for him. I never had him sound them out, but when I read them I would enunciate each sound clearly but quickly. As time went on he read more and more himself. This did not happen overnight, but we both enjoyed it.
When Bryce was 8½ he began reading a few words. At 9 ½ he was reading simple books. I’ll never forget when I bought him A Bargain for Frances by Russell and Lillian Hoban. Frances, through a series of events, is deceived into buying her friend’s old tea set instead of the one she wanted. At the end of the story Frances tricks her friend into taking the tea set back and has her money returned. I read the story to Bryce first. Maybe because this was a time when he was having some problems in the neighborhood, he loved this book. He literally read it twenty-five times a day for two months. That seemed to be his launch into the world of reading. Now at 10½ he can read anything.
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From Carole Skinner [NS]:
Our son Nicholas (9) has had the same problems described by Moira Nobles: inability to read, friends making fun of him, negative attitude, easily frustrated, unable to recognize words, easily distracted, cannot tolerate noise, reverses letters, and mispronounces words. Nicholas was diagnosed as learning disabled during his second year at school, and at the height of his frustration we turned to homeschooling.
Now, two years later, having been allowed to be totally self-directed, Nicholas still cannot read, but his attitude is no longer negative. Although many of the things I listed still apply, he is a much happier boy now that he has been relieved of the pressure of having to satisfy someone else. I believe that if Nicholas has a serious problem (if say, he is dyslexic), then he will always have a problem with reading, and all my badgering will do nothing more than create negative feelings towards reading. If, instead, he outgrows his delay (as Grant Colfax did at 9½), then, and only then, he will read. [PF: Grant Colfax was unschooled on a dairy farm in the late 1970s, graduated from Harvard, became an AIDS researcher, and is now Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. His parents wrote two books about helping their children learn—Homeschooling for Excellence and Hard Times in Paradise]. Nicholas and his younger brother (who has learned to read at a normal pace) have an endless enthusiasm for “projects,” from fort construction to collecting seashore treasures, abandoned birds’ nests, and fossils, to studying the live specimens they collect for their aquarium. Nicholas taught himself the concept of telling time (in blocks of fifteen minutes), inspired by the need to know when his favorite TV show starts. And the boys practice counting with their card collections, which also prompted them to memorize the names of players and teams.
A NOTE FROM PAT: If you have concerns about your children’s reading abilities check out the Close the Reading Gap Summit on October 18–20. This is an opportunity to hear from experts that it is entirely possible to homechool a child who has reading issues with the right tools and support! And I am among the speakers, so please don't miss my talk as part of the summit.
