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How My Kindergartener Learned to Read Chapter Books

September 14th, 2007 | parenting, reading

girlreader.jpg

To be fair, she’s in the first grade now, but she did begin reading chapter books last year. I was the typical proud dad, but I only recently realized what most kids are reading at her age. The contrast is startling.

I guess I could pat myself on the back about all of the wonderful things we did, including pass down some apparently awesome genes. But that’s obnoxious, and probably untruthful.

So instead of gloating, I thought I would talk about the easy things we do that have probably helped our kids learn how to read. Most of them are accidental. Here they are in no particular order:

  1. We read to our kids. This one’s not an accident, but it’s true. Reading is part of our going to bed process. I read about 15 - 30 minutes each night with each kid. Sometimes my wife reads to one kid, while I read to the other. Sometimes we skip reading if it is late (but the kids HATE that). By the way, I plan to read to my kids until they tell me to stop. My wife and I read to each other too. If my daughter can read Magic Tree House books and Junie B. Jones on her own, then I can read American Girl books to her. Or Tolkein. Or Little House on the Prairie. Or whatever she’s interested in.
  2. We read to our kids before bed. Wait, didn’t I just say that? But notice the detail about doing this at bedtime. They are calm. And even better, they know they can stall bedtime by asking for “just one more book.” Heh heh heh. They don’t know their little ploy to stay up later is all part of my plan to get them thinking they are pulling one over on me just so they can read more.
  3. We limit screen time to two hours per day. We know people who are militantly anti-TV. That doesn’t seem realistic. And I fear it might even teach a binge mentality. So we just teach moderation as best we can. Sometimes we get more than two hours. Sometimes less. And screen time includes computer/net usage.
  4. We watch TV with closed captions. I’m not sure when I started doing this, but I always watch everything with closed captions or subtitles. Try it. No longer will you wonder what that movie star just mumbled. You’ll read the dialogue as it goes. (I’m convinced this helps writers trying to learn the art of dialogue too.) And frankly, I think it helped our kids learn the connection between written and spoken language.
  5.  We never force our kids to read a particular book. I really want to read The Wizard of Oz to my daughter, but she keeps saying no. That’s ok. She gets to have a say in what we read. (I’ll keep asking though.) Also, my son hates The Cat in the Hat. I’m not allowed to read that to him. Darn shame, but I don’t force it because I don’t want to create a negative experience around reading.
  6. My wife and I read a lot. And I mean a lot. I read magazines. I read books. I keep books on my night stand. Etc. I don’t know that my kids see me reading every day necessarily, but there is definitely print all around. They know I value reading. And they are learning to value it too.
  7. Our kids play with Leap Pads. I’m not being paid to say this, but I think it really did help my daughter learn to read. She got a “My First Leap Pad” when she was three. Often, if she didn’t want to nap, we let her “read” her leap pad books. By themselves, I don’t think the toy will teach much. But as a supplemental tool, I think it can be really powerful. In the beginning, we read the Leap Pad books with her to teach her how to use it. (That took several months.) My son is just now getting to the age where he can use one. And the full blown Leap Pad is just so cool. Especially the music book that includes samples from all of the major composers and musical styles.
  8. My wife and I read like actors. We’re not going to win Oscars or anything, but we aren’t boring readers. We read with passion. And to a subtle degree, with “voices.” My wife is better at this than I am. But the key is to be subtle. A good voice doesn’t need to be extreme, but don’t read Lucy’s dialogue in the same way that you read Aslan’s. She’s a little girl. He’s a lion. Duh.
  9. Reading is not a chore. We never read books because we are supposed to. We read books because they are good stories. Or because they have interesting information. Or because they have neat pictures.
  10. We go to the public library every week. See, books are expensive. But library books are free! Why don’t people go to the library anymore??! Crazy.
  11. We own a lot of books. Both of our kids have bookshelves in their rooms. They aren’t ridiculous, but they are appropriately stocked with books. And the kids can reach the books.
  12. We encourage them to play with books. Books are special and fun, but they aren’t sacred. We gave board books to them when they were babies. And let them chew on the edges. Some of the books have been torn. That’s okay. We teach them to treat their books with respect, but it is okay to use the book as a ramp for hot wheels too.

What are some easy tips you know for helping kids learn to read?


Viewing 12 Comments

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    Mark, Great advice and ideas here. We read to Tiffany too, and at one point they said she was easily the best writer in the eighth grade at a charter school. She read, "Lord of the Rings" three times (I have yet to read it!). But now she's on a hiatus away from it, and seemingly not either interested in writing or reading. Don't know....

    But yes, great advice.
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    Have you ever listened to books on tape? I'm currently going through Harper Audio's Chronicles of Narnia (funny you should mention Lucy and Aslan!). They're read by famous British actors (Patrick Stewart does The Last Battle!!!) and although I don't have kids yet, I can see my family putting on an audio book rather than watching TV. You can imagine the story in your head infinitely better than any screen could capture!

    I remember my mom reading to me before bed when I was little and I would always draw pictures of what she read about. Got to exercise my mind and my creativity, too. It's no wonder I ended up a graphic designer :D
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    All of the above.

    And patience regarding development. Research on reading and the brain suggests that no child shall read before her time. There's a part of the brain that simply has to mature before the whole thing "clicks". Even if the child has known her letters and written all of them and made their sounds since she was two years old (On this one, I can attest), it doesn't matter. So pushing a child to be an early reader can be counterproductive and ultimately irrelevant.
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    As a teacher I can attest to all of the above and more. I have found that the strong readers in a class, whether it be a second grade, fifth grade or even in high school, are those that have some or all of the items mentioned above in their homes. I have also seen many a good reader who enjoys reading turned off by his late elementary years because of some of the inane curriculum, lousy "research based" ideas and just plain bad literature used in the school system (that's why I would expose my second graders to the likes of Whitman, Twain, Dickinson, and even Shakespeare!).

    With your permission, I would like to copy/print your post and send it home for my students parents as well.
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    I was going to do lots of things to be the perfect parent before my kids were born; drag them to a different museum every weekend, sign them up for every possible volunteer opportunity, teach them how to manage their money. But I quickly discovered I couldn't sustain all those "do-gooder" activities, because they weren't truly part of my core.

    Ah, but reading. There is one area where it was easy for me to model passion. My kids see me getting excited about reading, and they make a connection in their own lives.

    Not every parent has such a passion for reading (but given that this is a writing blog, it just feels like it here!) so I don't want to make any parent feel guilty that they don't approach reading with the virulence that my wife and I do. In the same way, I bristle when a colleague tells me his little Janey has already mastered basic interest rate calculations. "Yeah," I think, "but can she read 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations?'"

    Somehow, I've also taught my kids to be sanctimonious (and misuse big words.)
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    wonderful comments, all!

    I love to read - always have - so my kids grew up seeing me read. I've logged a LOT of hours turned around backwards from the front seat of the car (oh seatbelt laws) reading to the backseat as we traveled cross-country with 4 kids.

    My youngest is a 5th grade teacher and living at home for the first time in several years - and she still loves it when I read aloud to her!

    And I still do voices!
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    Great advice! I wish the schools would take a closer look at this.

    When my kids were in private school, they didn't like to read mainly because the school dictated what books qualified for reading credit. My eight year old was just not interested in reading the books in their classical library. So I found books he liked to read and though he didn't get credit for them, I let him read them.

    When we started homeschooling his love for reading took off. I would often catch him staying up way too late engrossed in a Christian fantasy novel. I do limit his reading to books I feel enforce Chritian values and principles, but I'm so glad he has learned to love reading. I don't think he would have learned to love books if he was always forced to read things he didn't enjoy.
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    If we read something that has the movie out, we watch the movie after.

    The other thing we do is to ask questions and relate it to our lives.
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    A friend's husband used to sit in the hallway after their five kids were tucked into bed, and read so everyone could listen. His wife got a lot of laundry folded during those hours -- she had to find something quiet to do so she had an excuse to listen!

    When my boys were young, I tried to read the "Little House" books to them, but they were put off by the girls on the bookcovers. Finally, I just started in on Farmer Boy, and they loved it and let me read the rest of the series.

    Modeling reading (both silent and oral) is great, but being excited about the story is the best selling point possible. My kids are nearly grown now, but I've taken a tip from Jim Trelease and read aloud interesting tidbits from the newspaper or whatever I'm reading, in real time, every chance I get. They'll stop what they're doing and listen out of politeness, but often will then engage in a short discussion about the topic at hand.

    My boys aren't big readers now, because there are so many other things they'd rather *DO* than sit still and read. They think reading only fits them at night, in bed, but I think they'll come back to it someday.
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    Thanks for all of the great comments, you all.

    Ted, don't worry about your daughter's reading hiatus. I've taken many myself. Once I went nearly a year without reading a book. There are just seasons like that, you know?

    LaurenMarie, I listen to podcasts obsessively. (See my post at Writer... Interrupted.) My kids love books on tape, especially for car trips.

    L.L., that's a great reminder. We never pushed our kids to be early readers. We just tried to share our joy of reading. Here's an example: Our son doesn't care for the LeapPad toys. We don't push it. Instead, he and I play pirates EVERYDAY.

    Eric, of course you can reprint this! We are a bit concerned about schools turning CJ off of reading. It isn't a problem right now. As a kid, my answer was that I supplemented my education with whatever I was interested in reading.

    Tom, you make me laugh! I certainly don't mean this as a prescription for other parents necessarily. Just an example of what has happened in our home. In fact, parents might do good to read "The Courage to Teach." I think it is more important for parents to share their passion--whatever it is--than to try to manufacture some passion to help their kids get ahead.

    Susan, reading backwards in the car? Ugh. I'd puke. I'm so glad to hear that you and your daughter read to each other. It has become one of the great joys my wife and I share--when we find a good book to read.

    Gina, so many classical books just aren't very fun to read. I made a pact with myself one year that I would never teach The Scarlet Letter again. Too many of the students hated it. I deemed the book dangerous to literacy and tossed it from my curriculum. (Without telling my department head, I might add.)

    Eve, movies are great for studying ekphrasis. I figure every movie is just an artistic response to the book. So Jackson's Lord of the Rings bears the same relationship to Tolkein's book as Led Zepplin's songs do.

    Katharine, if your boys read at night in bed, they are readers as far as I'm concerned. I love hearing how you read tidbits from magazines and newspapers. That kind of group reading can be lots of fun. It's our breakfast activity sometimes, but we do it with magazines. My daughter gets Lady Bug, my son gets Baby Bug, I get Wired or The Week, and my wife reads Newsweek or Parenting. And we all share good sentences that can't be kept silent. (OK, not my son. But he shares the pictures he likes.)
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    I was thinking about this post yesterday. My mom read to me a lot, always giving inflection to make the reading interesting. She says I was reading by 4. I can't quite recall...

    One of her favorite moments of mine in elementary school was when my 2nd grade teacher told her she loved to call on me to read instructions or other things in class, because of the inflection and enthusiasm I showed when doing it. Because of her I've always been a strong reader.
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    Great thoughts, Marcus and everyone. As a newer mom, I enjoy reading them. Interestingly, the last time I was at the pediatrician's office, our doctor said, "You read a lot to your daughter, don't you?" I replied that we did and gave him a funny look. He commented, "I can always tell which kids are read to a lot."

    Fascinating.

    We also read every single night before bedtime. At various other times during the day we read as well, and we've started attending our library's toddler story time every week. We want our daughter to view reading as fun, not another required task.

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