And Still She Couldn't Read...
A few days ago while I was out with my daughter, she asked me to buy her a bookcase. A few days before that, I'd bought her a $10.00 book, and just before that, a $17.00 book. Whew! This reading thing can get expensive.
But I am so thankful.
You see, now she's 15 years old and loves to read.... devours 800 page books without blinking an eye and then begs for more... but it hasn't always been that way. I can remember a time when I thought the child would never learn to read.
We tried all the popular reading curricula. We forced the issue. We didn't force the issue. We tried to make it fun. We exercised her work ethic. She cried. We cried. We argued. We prayed. We whined to everybody who would listen. None of it did any good. Still she couldn't read. She hated to read. She scored in the 10th and 15th percentile on every standardized test because she just couldn't read.
We knew she was smart. We'd seen evidence of that since she was a baby. (Or were we as parents imagining things?) She had decent genetics... her parents were reasonably smart people. (Or did we just think we were?) She had a dedicated mother and teacher. (Ah... maybe THAT was the problem.) Why couldn't our daughter learn to read? Why, at the age of 7 and 8, was she still struggling with the simplest books while other children read circles around her at the age of 4?
Thank God for Raymond and Dorothy Moore! Just as I was getting ready to despair of her ever becoming a decent reader, I happened upon an old cassette tape featuring a Focus on the Family interview with the couple many consider homeschool heroes. I have never been so relieved in my life as when I heard them explain that some children's brains are not ready to read at the age of 3 or 4, or even 5 or 6. Some children are 7 or 8, or even 9 or 10, before they are able to learn to read.
Such was the case with my daughter. I'd say she was a good solid ten years old before she began to read fairly well. I remember she finally found a book series that actually interested her... Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events... and we bought them all faithfully. Then one evening when she was around 12, she found herself bored and finished with her latest book and asked to borrow one of mine. I gave her a book of historical Christian Women's Fiction and she loved it! She devoured that and the two others in the series. And the rest is history.
Having a child who cannot read can be one of the hardest things for a homeschooling parent, especially one who lacks confidence in her ability to teach her children at home. But what if that same child was in a public or other traditional school? Why would we think that a school teacher charged with the education of 25 to 30 children would be willing/able to take the time to work with one struggling child? (Even if the child has a reading disability, I still firmly believe a parent is the best to teach them, after themselves having learned the best method.) If my daughter had been in public schools, I fear she would have been placed in a "slow learner's" class where she would only have learned to believe she was... well... a slow learner. Instead, she learned to read at home at her own pace and in her own way, her self-confidence unscathed, and she now does it well... very well. If she'd been allowed to believe she was a slow learner, would she have ever learned to read? Or more importantly, learned to LOVE to read? Somehow I don't think so.
Better Late Than Early!
...be it unto me according to Thy word...
Posted by Kathy at 2/11/2009 6:54 PM 
Categories: Biblical Motherhood
Tags: homeschooling raymond moore
Categories: Biblical Motherhood
Tags: homeschooling raymond moore
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