Montessori, Kindergarten and reading ..

[Melda]

My DS just started K at his M school (has been there for over a year and a half now). He was starting to read and was sounding out words in simple books at the end of the year. Like "Sam the cat" (just an example cant think of the exact words right now) .. anyway he has been back to M school for almost a month now and still not doing well with this reading thing. I see all the other K's bringing books home and being told that they are reading them and he is still struggling with "sam the cat"... It makes me sad. Now i know that M school is all about what they choose to do and my son is VERY much into science, animals, geography etc. and I am sure knows much more about these things than the other kids do. I will be having him tested for gifted (well if he can read better) in the January/Feb to see if he can test gifted and go into public school gifted program. I know if he is not a better reader by then he wont (which i dont want him in something he is not able to do either) .. If we dont test for gifted then he will stay in M school because i REFUSE to put him in a mainstream public school setting he is very smart and i am afraid he will "lose" what he as if i do that. It scares me though to have to pay out for several more years of M school (yall know it is VERY expensive and we dont qualify for any type of assistance) ...

Anyway. I am not sure where to go with this. I try to work with him at home but he shows no interest here in it and dont want to push him. I do read to him but he is so literal that he will only allow me to read 1 chapter a night (and he only wants chapter books) .. So he is not getting much reading in here. I have found free programs online to help him read and he makes a game out of it and is "rapping" to the sounds ... and not using the program correctly. I know it is early to have these expectations but it is so hard to just grasp when i see all the other K's are reading. I am scared for him come Christmas because they have to read at the Christmas program. Now i know it wont be much but I also dont want him to be the one kid who cant read well or barely read while the others are reading books and words that I can read.

Anyway thanks for listening.
Melda

[Lillianna]

My approach is to strengthen the basics. Make sure he is understanding the components that go into reading. Linking speech and symbols, desire to read and practice with the compontents (phonetics, phonograms, puzzle words). If the desire is not there, pushing can work against him becoming spontaneously interested in learning to read which will come naturally. After having the intial spark of interest, he will take off and assume the skill of reading just as he assumed the skill of speaking. Remember back to those days of one and two syllables, when we are hanging on every sound to hear your child speak his first word? He will learn to read the way he learned to walk and talk, when he is ready. You just cannot put a time table on it. However, you can allow for many opportunities to observe others (which your son has at school)...and the materials needed to practice the specific skills related to total reading which includes phonograms and sight words with the phonics. You can ask the Directress to give you more info about his recent lessons in the language area. Is he working with phonograms and puzzle words? Maybe not so much emphasis on reading books at all! Read signs, lables, mail, etc. Also, the science, geography, zoology, botany, music and art materials for his age all involve reading practice. I'm sure you can find something for him to read for the big production by Christmastime. One chapter a night sounds just about right
Let us know how things go! I know what you mean though, I am getting anxious to see my little one reading, I know it's just around the corner!

[RomanGoddess]

He will learn to read the way he learned to walk and talk, when he is ready. You just cannot put a time table on it.

Exactly my thoughts! I only have a 2-year old right now but my experience with 8 nieces and nephews and with other people's children is that some learn as early as 3 and others as late as 8 years of age. Something just clicks one day. I have friends who had their (very intelligent) son get his eyes checked, wear special glasses (completely useless), practise reading before bed, etc. No results at age 6 or 7. Finally, one day at age 8, something in his brain just clicked, he figured it out and he knew how to read. After that, he was reading anything he could get his hands on.

I think it is kind of like walking. The average age to walk is at one year but some babies take their first steps at 18 or even 20 months and they walk just fine after that!

[BeckiCNM]

I agree - kids learn to read like they learn to walk or talk, and some kids just wake up one day and it all clicks and they start reading...my son didn't talk for the longest time, and then one day he started speaking in phrases...and then he did the same thing with reading. He went from reading single words to reading whole books - not the early reader ones, but real story books.

I also think it helped to find him books about things he was passionate about - like cars/trucks/trains, etc. He was more excited about those books.

Becki

[Montessori Mommy]

sounds like he's a bright boy and he'll learn to read when he's ready. I don't think it's something you can push or hurry, like the other mamas said.

I don't know what your local library is like, but ours has a seperate section just for children. I take my girls there once a week and they get to pick out books that interest them. They were so excited that they could get their very own library card, and are happy to exchange their old books for new ones each week.

He'll get there, mama, the best thing you can do is be there to support him when he shows interest, and it sounds like you already are.

[flyingspaghettimama]

I really like Montessori Mommy's suggestion! Going to the library!

I would disagree that reading is like walking and talking - it's not that natural and inborn of a phenomenon, or else we'd have a 100% literacy rate around the world. However, I think the biggest contributing factor to wanting to read (like walking and talking) is the desire to do so. And it really needs to be an innate desire. I read at three. My brother didn't read until eight. And my mother pressured him, nagged him, and got on his case, though he was "slow" because he didn't read as early as I did. And perhaps she slowed his progress from nagging him so much - no smart child will willingly do what they're high-pressured into. Where's the joy in that? And now, he's an extremely-well read (probably more than me) guy with an advanced degree.

At home, I would leave it alone for a while. Get lots of books and just read, read, read to him. You might also try comic books or the like as well. Get books about topics he enjoys (nonfiction, fiction, whatever).

Don't worry about "what all the other kids are doing." It's putting competitive pressure on yourself and your very young son. I also don't know about the gifted testing (and you don't need to be able to read to do an IQ test, BTW - it doesn't even test on reading if you're doing a WISC or S-B). I feel like you're possibly putting a lot of pressure on him to meet some predetermined schedule (Christmas reading) and outcome (testing gifted)...regarding the Christmas program, I'm sure the teacher will find a workaround. Don't give him a 4-month reading goal.

[Thalia the Muse]

Flying Spaghetti Mama said what I was scrolling down to add -- reading is not like walking or talking; it's not an instinctive skill, but one we have to work to acquire. Fortunately, almost all of us are more than equipped to learn it, but it doesn't come "naturally" the way speech does.

And I also agree that he's getting the structured learning about it at school -- rather than pushing at home, I'd just read to him at home, make it fun, read things you know he's interested in, and don't even suggest that he try to read it himself. The books are there when he's interested in reading them himself, and you're establishing reading as a source knowledge, pleasure, family connection.

[Lillianna]

I agree that reading is not an instinctual skill but a child will even fail to walk or talk when left without any stimulation or guidance. And so, in a way, even walking and talking are not so much instinctual as they are easy to learn for a child of typical development when demonstrated, practiced and perfected. Montessori writes of a classic case in developmental psychology: The Savage of Ayeron, a little boy who had been abandoned in the forest as a child. He was around 7 when found and was not able to speak and also walked on all fours, like the wolves he grew up with.
In any case, I never said that learning to read was an "instinctual", I just said that he will learn to read the way he learned to walk and talk and that is: by seeing others demonstrate this skill, by practicing the skill on his own initiative, and by working to perfect it. Montessori created a way for children to learn to read in a way that is as effortless as it was for them to learn to walk and talk and her great contribution to the study of mathematics as well - which was to provide materials that help the child to teach himself! Her genius was in isolating each difficulty so that the child could practice and master one aspect or component to the skill before moving on and applying the skill to more complex computations. Same as in language. And as beckinben described, alot of times the child is absorbing and preparing himself mentally before he will demonstrate the skill. Often, the child who takes longer to demonstrate the skill (begin reading) will all the sudden display a higher aptitude.

[Raven67]

Testing for gifted programs usually consists of an IQ test.....Real IQ tests, administered by a psychologist, do not require reading and writing. that's why they are considered "ability" tests, rather than "achievement" tests, like the SATs. There are a variety of subtests, including arithmetic, but nothing that requires reading at all. It shouldn't matter whether he can read or not. All school districts have their own cut-off score for what they consider "gifted." Don't get your heart set on the results....in my experience, all parents think their kids are bright, and most think they have gifted kids. They are shocked when the test comes back "high average." It's hard to know for sure, unless you do the testing.