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The start of a magical journey into the world of books

Chris and I both started reading at three years old and were fluent independent readers before starting school. I think we both kind of assumed that our children would be, too, and it’s been a little surprising that RoRo has learnt to read at school. She’s had a fair bit of help from us and we have certainly not been remiss in sharing our love of books with her. Bedtime stories have been part of her life almost from day one and we’ve read to her at other times, too. We are regular visitors to the library – and the girls usually have their tickets full. We both read a lot and always have a book (or three or four, in Chris’s case) on the go, carrying them round the house with us and out and about when there’s any likelihood of having to sit and wait anywhere.

I made a half-hearted attempt to do phonics with RoRo when she was three, but I really didn’t understand it and she wasn’t noticeably receptive at that point. She’s always been much more keen on being read to, than reading herself. We’ve tried to entice her with the possibilities open to her once she learns to read – if she wants one more chapter, she’ll be able to have one, she won’t be tied to what we want to read, she’ll be able to do the accents herself in her head, she’ll have so many books and worlds that she’ll be able to discover – but she’s only shown the odd glimmer of interest in this end result.

But, I think, as with so many developmental steps (talking, crawling, walking, jumping…), she needed to be ready in herself. Some people will jump in at three, others will not really get into it until they’re seven or so. Not that I’d advocate doing nothing to teach or encourage reading until a child suddenly develops an interest. I don’t think I was wrong in attempting to teach her phonics at an early age (though I was definitely wrong in the methods I used), I don’t think we were wrong in helping her with her school books and getting other books to encourage her when she was losing enthusiasm with the school books. I don’t think we were wrong in practising her phonics with her throughout Reception. And I most certainly don’t think we were wrong in filling her life with books from her first days. But I do think we were (I was – I may well be putting words in Chris’s mouth here) wrong to expect her to read at a very early age just because we did.

This weekend, though, she searched through all her Magic Tree House books (that I’ve read to her once), found the first one and read it. To herself. She sat on the stairs reading it (out loud, though sometimes under her breath) and wouldn’t come down to dinner until she’d finished the bit she was reading. She sat in the armchair and read before and after dinner. She got into bed and read while I was getting LaLa ready for bed and reading to her, then came through to our room and read some more, before she was interrupted to be read to – one chapter of The Silver Chair from me and one chapter of Archer’s Goon from Chris – and then she finished the book in bed before going to sleep. She came downstairs this morning carrying the second book and proceeded to read half the first chapter – some bits to LaLa and some bits on her own.

I’m sure there are some of you out there who understand my total and utter glee at this step: moving on to enthusiastic independent reading. I had butterflies, I was so excited. All the books out there to discover and get lost in. Magical worlds to explore. Fascinating facts to delve into. Mysteries to solve. Beautiful passages and poems to bury herself in. How wonderful to have all that ahead of her.

And I really don’t care when it happens, as long as it does happen. I believe that she’s pretty much at the stage she’s expected to be at this point in her school career (in the final term of Year One) – perhaps a little ahead, though I’m not positive. Which is great. It would have been great if she’d done it before school. It would have been great if she’d done it in Reception. And it would have been great if she’d done it in Year 2. What is without a doubt great is that she’s got the reading bug and hopefully will never lose it.

What do you think? Do you think there’s an ideal age or stage when children are most receptive to learning to read? Do you think it’s wrong to try to start them earlier? Do you remember when you started to read independently? Did you feel a similar excitement when your children reached that point? Oh, and, can you recommend some other good chapter books for her to get her teeth into, once she’s got through (or got fed up with) the Magic Tree House series?

20 Responses to "The start of a magical journey into the world of books"

Jodi says:

30 April 2012 at 10:51 pm

I too took a while to decide I was going to get into reading, starting at a later age than either of my siblings, but I took off very quickly after that and am definitely the most avid reader today. I think you’re right in that you can support, encourage, teach, etc but not force. You have to keep it fun.
As for books, you can always take her to the library (or a kids’ section of a bookstore) and let her pick out what looks interesting or ask teachers, friends, librarians, or other parents for recommendations. Don’t discount picture books just because she’s “big” now. Personally, I LOVED the Amelia Bedelia books as a child. They’re very basic reading, but lots of fun.

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1. Tasha says:
  
  01 May 2012 at 6:35 am
  
  Thanks, Jodi. It’s definitely important to keep it fun and enjoyable and not a chore.
  
  RoRo already reads quite a few of our picture books, both to herself and LaLa, and I’m sure she’ll continue to do so – I think it’s great for them to rediscover them all in a whole new way once they’re reading independently. I think the thing that excited me is moving on to the non-picture chapter books, though I definitely hope she doesn’t ignore the amazing picture books out there. Again, she already picks her own books from the library, but I think we’ll need to show her the blurbs on the back of the chapter books so she can get an indication of what it’s about – at the moment, she’ll look at the cover and then flick through looking at the pictures to decide whether she wants to read it.
  
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sarahmumof3 says:

30 April 2012 at 11:04 pm

Lovely post so pleased your daughter has found the wonder that is inside a book. I have been probably too slack with reguards to reading, my eldest is dyslexic and really wanted to read but got increasingly frustrated with it when his peers suddenly made that jump to reading alone and he was left behind, I tried hard to keep the momentum going and it backfired and he quickly learnt to hate books in general and its a slow and painful process now getting him to keep trying, 🙁 so I decided to be less forceful in my expectation and have been more relaxed with my younger two, my daughter who is now 8 can read well, but has no real love for books… although it is slowly coming and now i do catch her reading alone but I still hope as she gets older she will find more and more adventures in books as I did through my childhood.
sarahmumof3 recently posted..Great Outdoors – Water Fights!

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1. Tasha says:
  
  01 May 2012 at 6:38 am
  
  It must be difficult to instil a love of reading in a child who is dyslexic – though definitely not impossible. I have no tips, I’m afraid, though I know some people have found comics and graphic novels helpful (but I think it depends on the type and level of dyslexia).
  
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Lisa | Mama.ie says:

01 May 2012 at 9:03 am

I think that instilling a love of reading and of literature is more important when children are young, than teaching them HOW to read. My son is only two and a half, and though we have several ABC books in the house, they never get opened! It’s stories all the way for him. He is our first child, so I have no idea this approach will work out, but I figure if we open his eyes to the magic of reading, then he will want to learn when it is time for him to learn his letters and reading for himself. I have this notion that he will pick it up by osmosis and in his own time I guess! And in the meantime, I am going to enjoy reading to him for as long as it lasts, because I’m sure in a few years time, it’s one of the activities I’ll miss most when he’s reading independently. 🙂
Lisa | Mama.ie recently posted..Egg carton raft

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1. Tasha says:
  
  01 May 2012 at 10:19 am
  
  Completely agree that instilling a love of reading and books is the most important thing when they’re young, yes. I don’t think they can pick it up by osmosis, really, but I do think they show signs of wanting to learn or start learning. LaLa is showing them earlier than RoRo did, I imagine because she sees RoRo reading and she’s sat there watching and listening while she did her phonics. LaLa is interested in letters and sounds and she’ll point at words in books and ask what they say, where RoRo for a long time was just interested in the story. Knowing what to do with the signs is probably the challenge, though. You don’t want to push too early, but you also don’t want to miss that interest and then have them lose their enthusiasm. I know a lot of people believe that leaving it until 6 or 7 is best, with lots of exposure to books and letters and the alphabet and mark-making, because then they do seem to pick it up very quickly and easily. I do think I incline towards wanting it earlier, because I did it earlier.
  
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  1. Lisa | Mama.ie says:
    
    01 May 2012 at 10:56 am
    
    When I say I think he’ll learn by osmosis, I guess I don’t really mean that I expect that he’ll just one day be able to read, without any learning as such. But I think he’ll pick up a lot without any direct teaching as such. We use the iPad a lot in our house, and games such as the First Words apps are excellent I think, because while they don’t teach the ABCs in order, they do teach phonics or letters in the context of words. And I’ve noticed that he already knows some letters by sight. Whether that’s a result of those apps, or perhaps lessons he gets in creche I don’t know for sure. I’ve also noticed that some words that he comes across a lot like his own name or “Play” are recognisable to him now.
    
    I agree, it’s hard to know when to push and when to sit back. But as much as possible, I am trying to follow his lead and his interest and see where we end up! 🙂
    Lisa | Mama.ie recently posted..Egg carton raft
    
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    1. Tasha says:
      
      01 May 2012 at 11:17 am
      
      Oh, that makes sense, yes, and I think is exactly how it should be, in an ideal world. Getting exposure to books and letter forms and mark-making and starting to recognise their name and so on are all steps to learning to read and they should naturally move on through those steps themselves, with our help. Giving them the opportunity to explore further when they show they want to is how I think it should be. I wonder if that might be another reason I wanted it to happen before school, so that we would have control over the speed with which it happened. Once in school, there is more of a structure to it that suits some very well but not all.
      
      I’m not an expert, but it sounds like you’re doing exactly the right thing.
      
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Circus Queen says:

02 May 2012 at 1:54 pm

I’m curious myself about what causes a child to learn to love reading. My brother and I were both read to as children yet I am by far the more avid reader and always have been. Yet we were both early readers – like you and Chris we went to school already knowing how to read. My mother, who is an education researcher and a teacher of many years keeps warning me that you don’t teach children most things, you guide them. Yet what this really means, I’m not yet sure. I’d love Talitha to fall as much in love as her father and I have both been. Your paragraph about every genre sums it up perfectly.
Circus Queen recently posted..More of this feminism, please – Katniss and The Hunger Games

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1. Tasha says:
  
  02 May 2012 at 10:28 pm
  
  I like the ‘you don’t teach children, you guide them’. I suppose it must be possible for a parent to do all the ‘right’ things and a child to grow up not liking reading. But… I think it’s much harder for the reverse to be true – to not encourage or help in any way with reading and for a child to still grow up being an enthusiastic reader. So, we can only do as much of the ‘right’ things as we can and hope for the best. Maybe.
  
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Muddling Along says:

02 May 2012 at 5:33 pm

I cannot wait for Bigger to read – she’s close but not quite there (yes I know I should probably think about helping with this over the summer…) and I just want her to have that world of reading stories open to her

She loves books, loves telling the stories and I have to admit I’ve already started storing up the books I remember from my childhood – just need to keep reminding myself to let her take it at her own pace!
Muddling Along recently posted..Dairy free life – 6 months later

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1. Tasha says:
  
  03 May 2012 at 5:14 am
  
  Ooh, what books have you been storing up? I’m really struggling to remember early chapter books I read – I remember some of the first picture books (especially Blackberry Farm, Beatrix Potter and Mister Men), but I only remember the later chapter books – Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Secret Garden, Goodnight Mister Tom… I do remember trying Enid Blyton and hating her books. May have to ask my mum if she can remember.
  
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allotmentmum says:

02 May 2012 at 7:54 pm

Hi, just discovered your blog, and that’s a really interesting post. I think it’s so true children need to learn to read in their own time (obviously positive encouragement is good too!) – I think, as in all areas of parenting, there’s an element of competition between parents to get their children reading first, when the important thing is to do what’s right for your child. I too was reading before I started school – though I distinctly remember hating been made to recite flashcards by my teacher father, and then feeling left out at school when I had to do different work to the other kids. So although I did try a few phonics with my son before school, I didn’t push it. He’s in reception now and doing really well. I’d love him to enjoy Roald Dahl (he currently prefers Astrosaurs!) but I think you’re right, the main thing is that they just develop a love of books – and then later hopefully an appreciation of the good ones!
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1. Tasha says:
  
  03 May 2012 at 5:18 am
  
  Your memories of being pushed in learning to read are interesting. I remember being upset because I got told off for saying the alphabet using letter names instead of sounds. I understand why, now, of course, but it was frustrating and a bit embarrassing at the time. But, as I recall, I just got to sit reading books in Reception when others were reading. I only stayed at primary school for two years, though. After my second year (and the most horrendous teacher ever) I was home-educating until secondary school, because the school couldn’t offer me anything helpful.
  
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TheMadHouse says:

03 May 2012 at 4:19 pm

I am a firm believer that you can not push a child to read and they will do so as they wish. Maxi is a reluctant reader, but was and is very advanced in his reading. Mini was a very early reader and reads like mad. He devours books, but it used to make me sad was people asking what we did differently with him to Maxi. The fact is we have done nothing differently, they are different children!
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1. Tasha says:
  
  03 May 2012 at 8:32 pm
  
  Well, there you go. Thank you. That was kind of where I was going, I think (that, as with everything else, children develop at their own rate), so it’s nice to hear of some evidence.
  
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Glosswitch says:

09 May 2012 at 4:10 pm

The first word my eldest son (now four) ever read was the word “Tesco” on a yoghurt pot. We were so proud! Right now he’s not into reading books but picks on other things – signs, labels on packets, that sort of thing. He’s also obsessed with watching TV with the subtitles on so he can see the words as well as hear them.
His younger brother (almost three) has noticed that reading is praised so he pretends he can do it, too. He’ll sit down with a book and say “can you help me? I don’t know that word … or that word…. or the next one, or the one after that”. It’s very sweet. I don’t try to push him but I’m hopeful that he’s absorbing that it’s a good thing (and not just something to compete with his brother over!).
Glosswitch recently posted..Maternity leave: What is it good for?

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1. Tasha says:
  
  09 May 2012 at 9:28 pm
  
  Watching TV with the subtitles on is interesting – I liked doing that on the French challenges, though for different reasons, obviously.
  
  It seems (from my paltry 2.5 years of experience) that younger siblings do pick up a lot from the older ones, so he might well be absorbing it.
  
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Willa Taley says:

31 July 2012 at 10:22 am

Wow, your daughter is so cute and adorable. She is starting to study reading and it is so good. In fact, it is really good to teach our kids reading at the young age since kids can easily learn everything when they are still young. I have read a book that kids can easily learn reading at the young age.

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1. Tasha says:
  
  01 August 2012 at 10:28 am
  
  Reading is so important, yes.
  
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