Help, Junior can’t read!

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Reading on 15 Apr 2002.

Every now and then, someone comes along to tell you how clever his or her little girl or boy is. “Only 3 years old, my boy can already read so well.” You offer a polite smile, secretly hoping you won’t have to admit that your little one is nearly 6 and floundering in the shallow end of the literacy pool. So what is it that makes readers out of preschoolers? Methods? Kindy? Tuition? Curriculum?

I’m not an expert, but I was an anxious parent too. Bowled over by a sales person, my wife Sook Ching parted with hard-earned cash for an expensive reading programme. The Monopoly-size box contained coloured posters, flash cards, object cards of musical instruments, a hard cover book, and something about giving your child “encyclopedic knowledge.” I was aghast. In retrospect, the boys did pick up words and recognised parts of the human skeleton, and could tell a trombone from a tuba. But I must tell you that the whole experiment lasted no more than 6 months, maybe less. And it ended with us making our own picture cards, cut out of old magazines and calendars – that was an expensive lesson in making flash cards.

With the benefit of hindsight I’ve learnt something more important: it’s not how early you start reading, but how well you read all through life. Surely that’s an indictment of many of us grownups who after graduating from schools and universities read nothing heavier than the local newspapers or Everyday With Jesus. Better a child who reads late, but who reads well into adulthood, and whose wide reading becomes a wellspring of knowledge and wisdom.

I’m encouraged by the story of homeschooler and Cornerstone curriculum publisher David Quine’s oldest son. Now a law school graduate at 26, Bryce did not start reading until he was 12! The Quines never gave up, but persisted in reading aloud while providing an environment that was conducive to a reading and thoughtful lifestyle.  So be good to yourself and your kids, and stop the search for the holy grail of a perfect literacy programme.

Next to read-alouds, talking and stimulating discussions ought to rank high on your to-do list. In our home these conversations – books, sermons, news, politics, movies, issues, dreams, jokes – make our day! Then there are reading games too. For instance each child (and adult) takes turns reading on a pretend stage, in front of an audience comprising all in the family. Take a passage from the Bible, Aesop’s Fables, etc, and after it is read, let the reader retell the story in his/her own way.

These aren’t wallet-bursting ideas, but they are certainly smalls steps in the right direction.

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