Teaching Your Children to Read
When Maya was 3 or 4, LeapFrog came out with their LeapPad line of products, and I really wanted one for Maya. I remember thinking that the kids that had this toy might have some advantage, might learn to read more quickly than she would, might learn to love reading more than she did. But they were expensive. So I was hoping one of her grandparents might get her one.
At that time, my mom used to come down for a month in November. She would spend a week with me, a week with her friend Kate, and two weeks with my Grandma and Great Aunt. During her week with me, we went to the toy store, and I showed her the product. I thought she’d be amazed and thrilled. Was she? No. What she said was, “There’s nothing here that sitting down and reading to your child won’t give you.” At the same time, there was nothing there that would hurt her either, and she did want to get Maya a toy, so why not the one that made me happy. She bought her the LeapPad. And? Well, Maya played with it a bit, but really didn’t get into it. I bought different books for it, math and reading and all sorts of things. She would use each book a few times, and move on. I learned a lesson from that, which was, your baby is probably not going to gain any advantage in the world by these gimmiks that try to tell you they’re going to teach your baby to read (have you seen that product? What a crock!). There is not one more important thing you can do for your child, if you want them to be readers, than sit down and read to them. And model reading for enjoyment yourself. That’s it. Easy, huh? You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on systems and videos and toys. Just on books. Or go to the library. Read to your child, maybe 20 minutes a day (more if you have time, but really, that’s probably enough), and they’ll be hooked. And if you run your fingers along under the words as you read, they’ll get the idea that those things on the page mean something, and they’ll want to be able to read themselves someday.
I was reminded of all of this by the Baby Einstein flap that’s been going on recently. If you’re not familiar with the products, they are videos with bright colors and music and words, and are supposed to make your child smarter. I seem to remember reading a long time ago that kids who played musical instruments were generally better at math…that the part of your brain that learns music also learns math. Then they said that kids who listened to classical music, specifically Mozart, learned more than kids who didn’t. I suspect all of the pre-school and kindergarten teachers ran home to see if they had any Mozart CDs they could bring to school. I know they often had it on in the background at one of Maya’s schools. And you know what? Fine. Learning to love music happens by listening to music. Learning to love Mozart happens by listening to Mozart. Did it help the kids learn? Who knows. Did it hurt or hinder them? No, I’m sure it didn’t. What I have heard about the Einstein videos is that not only will they not make your kids smarter, but that the way they try to teach your baby isn’t as good as say, Sesame Street or something like that. I won’t speak to that much, since I’ve never seen one, but here’s my bottom line on it. Read to your children. Play with them. If you want to let them watch a video once in awhile, for down time or so you can cook dinner, go for it. Just don’t expect that video to do the parenting for you.
10 Comments
Nance
I learned to read from the newspaper while sitting on my dad’s lap as he read it to my mom while she cooked dinner. I never saw my mom read a book, but my dad read all the time. We went to the library every week or so, and I still adore reading. I read to my kids constantly, bought them books, and I am an English teacher. NEITHER OF MY KIDS READS FOR PLEASURE, AND ONE OF THEM DETESTS READING, PERIOD. How did this happen? I never even “forced” them to read, and always modeled reading for pleasure. It breaks my heart. I think it just goes to show you that some kids are, indeed “hardwired” for some traits genetically. You can try to exert some influence, but at some point, theories are just that–THEORIES.
ShortWoman
I can’t honestly remember learning to read; it’s just something I always did. In Kindergarten I resented being put in a “reading class” because I thought it meant I couldn’t read! After all why teach me things I knew?
Your mom was a very wise lady.
simon
My eldest daughter is just starting to read and obviously gets a kick out of being able to recognize words (which is a thrill for me too). I think you’re right; we never used any tricks or gadgets, just read to them regularly, surrounded them with reading matter (if you sit in our living room you couldn’t help but notice that my wife and I are big readers) and let them see us enjoying reading. You know, like “Daddy can’t play with you now, he’s reading the newspaper” 😉
dadwhowrites
We’ve always just read to them, constantly, daily, relentlessly! The house is full of books, his room is full of books and his baby sister is acquiring a similar collection. Dudelet learnt his alphabet quite early but reading didn’t really happen until his reception year. Now he’s reading himself, sometimes even reading to us at bedtime as well as us reading to him. But I do agree – the fact that neither of us are ever very far away from a book must have been a pretty substantial influence…
I know what you mean about expensive, sophisticated ‘educational’ toys, though. Our biggest mistake was a huge wooden castle he played with approximately once. Currently, it lives in the loft.
Uh-oh – row breaking out off-stage…
Starshine
amen, sistah!
C
J, I LOVE this post!!! Funny, since I just posted Little One bopping away to Baby Einstein! My mother-in-law was telling me about all the bad press Baby Einstein was getting and she was telling me I shouldn’t even be letting LO watch any TV at all because she’s a baby.
To be honest, I let LO watch her Baby Beethoven video not so much for its “educational value”, but because she enjoys it. I played a lot of classical music when I was pregnant with her (again, not because I heard that classical music is good for a baby while in utero, but because I enjoy listening to it). Anyway, ever since LO was born she seems to enjoy Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. Her mobile even plays the classical trio 🙂
I believe that time with Mom and Dad is the best thing for kids. Little One LOVES books and LOVES being read to. I sing to her and play with her. The 20 mins or so of her watching Baby Beethoven once in a while isn’t bad for her.
Hubby and I are avid readers and ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been in love with reading. It is my hope and wish that Little One also loves reading and books when she gets older. Right now she LOVES books. Let’s hope it stays this way 🙂
Autumn's Mom
Watching Where the Wild Things Are really (one of my childhood favorites) made me miss the part of childhood where we read to our children. I probably didn’t do it as much as I should have (because I was so dang tired!) but I loved going to book stores and picking out fun books. Autumn loved young childhood books (J, remember Walter the Farting Dog???), as she got older, she really lost interest. When I was her age, all I did was read, but I also didn’t have a life. Now she will read a good thick book, if the subject matter is something that really gets her interest. Otherwise, forgetaboutit.
I remember the whole Leap Pad thing J…I wanted Autumn to get one as well, but it never happened. And it’s just as well 🙂 You know what made Autumn happy? BARNEY. And I let her watch it. Because her reactions to those shows was PRICELESS.
Linda Atkins
When I was about three, my mother started to teach me to read. She made by hand a beautiful set of flash cards, each about six inches square, one letter per card, carefully painted in deep red on the white background. They were works of art, just lovely. (I still have one of them.) (She also took me to piano lessons at the YMCA when I was a tiny tot, which really paid off–I never had to learn to read music consciously, because I learned it then and so it seems like something I just always knew. Anyway, two thumbs up for reading to young children and feeding their brains. Thank goodness my parents did that.)
David
I agree that you do have to be careful with what products you choose when helping you teach your kid to read.
When I first taught my children to read, I used a method of phonics, but quickly realized this worked for my eldest but not my youngest. She didn’t grasp reading. So after trial and error I began to realize she was a visual learner who needed both elements to learn to read. She only became successful in learning after the sound and visual were combined. And now she is reading at a higher grade level than her fellow students.
I have seen a huge improvement, and suggest for anyone whose kid is struggling with reading to try using both sound and visual to help their kid overcome it too.
J
David, you’d like the Montessori method I’ll bet. They teach the letters using sandpaper letters. The kids see them, feel them, and say the sound as well. Three methods at one time.
🙂
http://www.montessoriworld.org/Reading/spaprltr/sprintro.html