My link post a few back? Mostly stolen from Gaines.
Driving the other day, we heard this interesting story on literacy and reading for pleasure. Basically, reading for pleasure is declining at a startling rate, with corresponding drops in comprehension and literacy. The best indicator for children being lifelong readers was how many books are in their home. I think our kids are set! Seriously, though, I know some people who have become interested in those Teach Your Baby to Read programs, but I am glad we’re holding out. I want our girls to understand the power of reading to some degree before they learn to decode. Because reading is so much more than decoding, and I’d hate to reduce it to that.
My mom is from Northeastern Pennsylvania, a peculiar place, with a peculiar dialect, which is not highlighted nearly enough on The Office.
I’m nearly finished Christmas shopping, and I’m excited about the number of handmade gifts I was able to buy. Etsy rocks! Supporting real people using their real talents is exciting. I recommend luvlugs for baby stuff, some made with salvaged fabrics and sweetpea76 for cool prints.
I found this article on teaching children to read recently http://www.lilipoh.com/articles/2007/fall2007/teaching_children.aspx ,I’ve also been looking at Waldorf for some creative ideas (though I’m not into their whole thing)and I’m reading You are Your Child’s First Teacher. It’s just makes me want to do more research from other sources so I make well informed decisions about how to spend my time with my children and teach them. I am finding out how little I really know but at the same time I’m really starting to feel good about how we spend our time. I need to build up my collection of children’s books! I get so many good ideas from you:)
oh my word. thanks, friend!
You are right about decoding. I teach students who are Grade 8 age, but read at a grade 2-5 level. Some are very fluent readers, but can’t answer any questions about what they’ve just read. It’s as if there’s no “movie in the head” going on as they read. Most of these kids had little or no reading happening pre-school. Since reading is such a pleasure in my own life, it’s quite sad to see.