Fascinating article: Children Teach Themselves to Read - Page 3

[Lillian J]

A couple being interviewed in that article I just posted mention that Swedish parents of children are more likely to compare things like swimming or sports that their children do rather than about how they're doing with things like reading or writing. They also talk about how children are excited to enter school at age 6, knowing they'll be learning those things, having had years to just be children and play. It's a rather long video, but well worth watching - very interesting peek into another culture. - Lillian

[jessicaSAR]

Originally Posted by Lillian J

Article with a video - Sweden - Early Years
Part of the series How Do They Do It In...?

Excerpt:
"Most Swedish children who leave pre-school at the age of six cannot read or write. Yet within three years of starting formal schooling at the age of seven, these children lead the literacy tables in Europe."

Lillian

Very interesting video. The comments below are interesting too.

But, this is exactly the point I am making. What is the relevance for the original article? In those three years, from ages 7-10, Swedish children have intensive reading instruction. It clearly works well. I just never understand how not teaching early reading (before age 6) gets conflated with unschooling and not "teaching" reading at all. There are plenty of believers in systematic, phonetic reading instruction who also don't believe in starting at age 4.

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by jessicaSAR

I just never understand how not teaching early reading (before age 6) gets conflated with unschooling and not "teaching" reading at all. There are plenty of believers in systematic, phonetic reading instruction who also don't believe in starting at age 4.

I've never understood this either. I find it very frustrating that my own comments about not needing to teach reading to young children are so often taken as just more "unschooling" talk. They're two separate subjects. But what the article relates to is the discussion as to whether any children have been turned off to reading from having been forced too early. The Swedes have feel it is very important not to do that.

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by SagMom

This is something that needs to be addressed socially. If we (society) ever gets to the point where we believe that there is a range of development that is acceptable, then there won't be any "slow" or "behind." If someone is giving a child that message, that PERSON should be corrected--we shouldn't be pushing kids to learn things they're not ready for just so others won't think they're dumb.

A child who wants to be able to read should be given every opportunity to learn and the support to learn long before his self-image becomes damaged. I can't imagine an involved parent NOT helping a child who wants help. I've seen many later readers shrug off the fact that they haven't yet learned, without a shred of self-consciousness. I think that's because they're being given the message that it's okay for them to learn when they're ready.

I love this about the people we hang out with . The kids just think of reading as something some of them do and others don't do yet. Ds had friends over to play and came into the room to ask me to read something to the kids (something on the computer). His friend piped up "Oh! I can read" and took it from there. There was no shaming, no comment about ds not reading. Ds can read but he'll ask to have something read to him if he is unsure about some of the words.

In contrast, every time the neighbor sees ds on a bike with training wheels, he feels the need to comment. Now ds doesn't need training wheels, either. But he likes them just for getting the pedals lined up to push off (since kids bikes can't be back pedaled due to the pedal brakes) and so his bike doesn't fall over or need to be leaned against something.

The comparisons do seem to come up more with sports or athletics in our experience. Who can swim and who can't, etc. But the homeschoolers accept those differences easily, likely because of the wide age range of the kids who are interacting.

[craft_media_hero]

Originally Posted by One_Girl

That was an interesting article, but I don't think a kid is truly teaching themselves to read if they have been taught some information about sounds letters make. Most of the people in the article seemed to have some instruction and then read when they were ready to. I think it is a great article for pointing out that reading instruction can be really easy, fun, and informal because kids will read when they are developmentally ready to. I am interested to know if there are children who actually just start reading without any knowledge of letter sounds or sight word instruction.

I remember always knowing how to read. I remember being in kindergarten and already knowing all of the letter sounds. I remember my grandma reading to me all the time, and me reading all the time before kindergarten, but I don't remember anyone ever systematically teaching me "a goes aahh" etc, tho I'm sure I must have picked up some of that from Sesame Street and my big sister. But I don't remember anyone ever teaching me how to read!

That's why it's so weird to me to be helping dd along; her mind is different than mine (ie, I never thought twice about any kind of math before school, and she is just a natural with numbers). I am just trying to be a resource to her mostly. After some faint-hearted attempts at systematically "doing reading" we ended up just doing what felt right the whole time: just reading books

This article is very reassuring because even though I was a "spontaneous reader" I have had a hard time just "letting it go" with dd and trusting that she will just "get it" because it did not come as naturally to her as it did for me at that age. She was pretty much a non-reader up until this year (she is 6), even tho she's known her letters and their sounds and had all the pre-reading stuff down since exceptionally early on.