DS is READING!!!

[EllyMayMomma]

My son is reading. Really reading - like real words in real sentences, even longggg words!

He is 10 and only in the last 6 months has really started putting sounds together. We taught him the basics ages ago but forcing him to read just did not work at all. He got so frustrated so quickly and I knew when he was ready he would put it all together. And boy has he. He has a cousin the same age in public school and he can read BETTER than his cousin. I was floored 2 weeks ago when cousin was asking my son to read his questions for him in a board game. Funny thing was that child's grandmother, my aunt, has been so concerned about my kids school level - you know, asking my kids to say their abc's out loud, how to spell words and so on.

I am just so proud of him - I had to brag to some ladies that would understand.

[luvmybaby333]

That's awesome! It really gives me hope. My 7½-year-old is still not reading, though she can sound out simple words. I feel so bad when I hear about 4-year-olds reading chapter books and stuff. I don't want to force the issue, but I get so scared that she will never really pick it up. So I love hearing about late readers that are thriving! What changed in the past 6 months. You're in the unscooling forum, so I'm guessing you don't sit down for reading lessons with him, right?

[SundayCrepes]

How wonderful. My son is only 4.5 and I wonder when he'll read. Daughter is 2. It's so good to hear stories of children who read in their own time.

[MsCCM]

That's awesome! And how wonderful that your son has had the privilege to learn reading at his own pace.

[EllyMayMomma]

When he asked to learn to read - not knowing how hard it is to learn it - we did sit down and teach the basics - letter sound recognition and my husband went through about half of Teach your child to read in 100 lessons. It is not my favorite way to teach/learn but it does get some basic sound lessons across and we took it slow and easy. When he would just start to get frustrated - which he did really easy - we would set it aside. Tears are not acceptable in learning, even something as hard as learning to read is, it's just counter productive.

For the most part, it has just been reminding him of reading rules when he was trying to sound something out out loud (things like - that the e on the end of "make" gives the a all it's own power to speak and so has to be quiet and the a is able to say its name with the e's help). He does still sound out the biggest words but is beginning to recognize them as well.

What has changed? Development is a lot do do with it, I think. He is just really ready. He has had periods of time that he would really have liked to been able to read and his dad and I have reminded him of how great it will be. He is into robots and he wants to be able to read about circuits and how to do all that kind of stuff.

We do a LOT of reading around here. I try to read to them at least an hour a day and we read every night before bed. It is great family time and finding appropriate material for all ages little kid to adult that we all find interesting has been a challenge. After over 10 years of reading out loud like this, I have gotten good enough at it that they would rather listen to me read than watch tv, even my husband. So the kids KNOW how great reading can be so I know it will only be a matter of time before they have that desire to make putting effort into it worth it.

My 7 year old has really wanted to read for a while but hates the 100 lessons book so we are not going that route at all, just sounding out words and working on letter sounds and blends when he asks. He likes work books so he is doing some of them - my aunt got him several for CHRISTMAS! But I do think he will pick it up much faster than my older two.

[Anglyn]

I LOVE it!! My seven year old dd also did this. Asked to learn to read and VERY quickly hated me teaching her, so I stopped. Just plenty of books, ABC posters, writing materials, starfall.com and reader rabbitt cd roms. She had the basics forever but that was it. Suddenly, one day, she just started reading and within a week or two was reading WELL, better than the cousin in public school that she gets compared to!! Once she had it, she HAD it! And my oldest child, nearly 19 and a public school graduate, was the loudest one about trying to 'test' her all the time and saying how he could read in kindergarten blah blah blah.

CONGRATULATIONS and to everyone whose child isn't reading yet, don't panic, they WILL! I am so amazed and yet I know it wasn't really sudden, she had been sounding out letters forever. It just suddenly clicked is what. So now I'm totally relaxed about my five year old. He will read when he reads.