Thursday, June 26, 2008

Re: teaching to read

From the AlwaysLearning list...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-=-With dd, I had already had the benefit of seeing ds teach
himself- -=-

I think it will help you move further faster if you revise this
thought to "I had already seen him learn to read."

He didn't need a teacher, not even himself.

http://sandradodd.com/wordswords
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was just thinking about this today because on Monday someone complimented Marti's reading skills. She is 8 (or will be in about 3 weeks) and I believe she reads at or above her level (whatever that means), but really don't know in honesty. I think the reason that I get this comment (Wow! She reads really well for her age) is because she looks younger than she is (many people think she is 6 or younger).

But the situation left me wondering what to say to someone that tells me that she reads well. I know that "She taught herself" isn't "appropriate" if you ask Sandra (lol), but with others outside the unschooling world, it seems like the best answer I can come up with. A couple times it has sparked a conversation and sometimes I hope the little things (like that or like seeing the girls out and about with us during school hours or seeing that we treat our girls like we love them instead of like they are burdens (which happens a lot when you ride the city bus around here)) will enlighten people. I don't know.

Anyway, I my point was that I was just exploring this theme today. Crazy how that works, huh?

2 comments:

Shell (in NZ) said...

Hiya...that was me that made the first comment :0) I meant it as in- *noone8 taught my son to read, he picked it up naturally- and frankly, it blew me away...at that time I hadn't heard of a child learning to read beofre school, and certainly not without instruction. Now I hear about it all the time :0)
And, I still think it is the best way to put forth that pov without many words, lol.

Unknown said...

Oh, I knew what you meant and I know what Sandra means too. I was just thinking out loud. What Diana said makes sense too. "She learned herself". It doesn't have the same umpf, but I will try it out and see what effect it has for sure.