I’ve read blog posts, message board posts, and had real-life conversations with homeschooling moms about making sure kids are reading at their level. All these moms have great intentions — they want to challenge their children and keep them on track.
It makes sense in theory. We wouldn’t want our kids to read something that’s too easy, would we? Wouldn’t that be back peddling?
Well, let me ask you:
Would you like to only be allowed or encouraged to read things that were at your reading level (or higher)? Would you like every text you try throughout the day to be challenging? How much would you enjoy reading if you lived with stipulations?
Here’s my simple advice:
Just let them read.
Just let them read good books and old favorites and new favorites. Let them read silly and classic and don’t forget to read together.
The go-up-a-level thing will happen naturally; just let them read.
Agreed, agreed, agreed!!!
One day Parker will be reading Harry Potter. The next he is laughing his head off reading Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus over and over again. As long as he is reading and enjoying it I am happy 🙂
I totally agree… Reading should, most importantly, be enjoyable for kids! On the other hand, I do sometimes get frustrated when we go to the library and Little Bear, who is 6, chooses board books with one word on each page,. I try to get her to choose regular picture books. I would read them to her, so she wouldn’t have to try to read them on her own, and I think she would just ENJOY story books much better than books that just go “Bear. Ball. Car.” I think sometimes she just gets lazy and looks for the easiest books!
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I absolutely love your blog! I homeschool our two boys, ages 8 and 5, and I get lots of ideas from you! The alphabet folders are awesome and my 5 year old is a very young kindergartener (he just turned 5) so we are doing those with him. I let him draw the letters out of a cup and we do one per week. He LOVES it! I will try to get some pics up of our folders..they aren’t quite as elaborate as the ones that you do but Dalton still loves them. Can I ask you how do you find the time to do all this preparation?? I would love to do a little more than I am doing for both of my boys but not sure where to start as far as that goes.
Lori in SC