Reading Progress

Lamb 1 taught himself to read when we were on a homeschool break after Ram had major surgery. One day everything clicked and he knew how to read.

I have worked and worked with Lamb 2. We have used several different "teach your child to read" programs, he knows his phonograms, etc. but he just has not had that moment when everything clicked. This worries some of our family and friends and they have given several nice suggestions to help him. Some may not believe that Lamb 2 has even worked on reading at all. I haven't been worried, I've patiently waited for that moment for everything to click while continuing to work on teaching him to read daily.

I thought we were close to that point towards the end of Vision Therapy. He is able to go on to more difficult lessons in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Motivation is definitely not a problem-he has lists of books in his head that he is going to read as soon as he knows how to read. But that clicking moment has not totally happened yet.

A few weeks ago I remarked to Ram that I really didn't know what I was going to do when Lamb 2 did learn how to read. He is not interested in most easy readers, they are too babyish. But I want to give him lots of practice reading short books before chapter books. I'm talking about that point between very easy readers and Amelia Bedelia books. I'm talking about him not being interested in Biscuit books or books about Thomas the Train. Unfortunately Lamb 3 is not a baby either so Lamb 2 can't even practice reading easy readers to him.*

Last night Lamb 1 was taking a long time to get ready for bed before we had family read aloud time. Lamb 2 was impatient to hear the next chapter in Little Town on the Prairie. I had the book open waiting for Lamb 1. So Lamb 2 started reading the chapter aloud. He needed help with a few words, but he did great.

I think he'll do just fine. He may skip the easy readers and go on to easy chapter books. We have had a short break of school recently due to sickness, Lamb 1's standardized testing, family visiting, and other activities. It wasn't a complete spring break, but it wasn't 5 days a week school either. Perhaps this was Lamb 2's moment to put everything together during a break like Lamb 1 did. Whether it was or not, I look forward to our next regular week of school to see his progress some more.

I don't even want to think about Lamb 3's reading progress. Motivation is a problem for him.  He thinks, "Why should I learn to read when there are 3 others in the family that will read to me?" He's smart and he'll learn to read when he is motivated to. I will pounce on that moment and help him, but currently I'll keep snuggling and reading aloud to him.

*Note: I realize that the library has easy readers on other topics that aren't as babyish and we even own some many of them too. Elephant and Piggie books have been a hit with Lamb 2 and 3. I also saw this as problem when I taught in the classroom though. If you have a child that doesn't learn how to read in kindergarten or first grade, they aren't going to be interested in the books that are written at K or 1st grade reading level. I know there are worse problems in life. I realize Lamb 1 teaching himself to read and Lamb 2 needing vision therapy are special cases. This has all been interesting to me to see 3 boys from the same family and how they learn so differently. In the classroom there wasn't time to focus on each child like there is in homeschooling. Unfortunately in the classroom even with the children that I held back and worked with them for two years, there was never time to really get to the root of the problem such as Lamb 2 needing vision therapy. Especially for boys that learned to read later than "normal" finding books they were interested in was difficult.