Wednesday, July 4, 2007

waiting untill kids are ready...

Something I think I've been pretty good at in our home school is not pushing the kids to learn something just because they are at the age they are "supposed" to be doing it. For example, when my 13 year old was in kindergarten through second grade he hated reading. He liked to be read to, but the process of learning to read was overwhelming to him. He also didn't have the fine motor skills to begin writing. I didn't push him.

For kindergarten I used Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. It has 15 minute lessons that you can snuggle on the couch with your child and do. For handwriting, I allowed him to write giant letters instead of having to write within tiny lines that most handwriting courses use.

In first and second grade we played homemade phonics games and read lots of "I can read" books. When he was in third grade he found a book series that he was interested in reading, so he read the entire Redwall series on his own. And many of the books are 400 pages long! Since then reading has become one of his favorite pastimes; he always has a book going.

Another example is when my oldest son was in 4th grade, he just couldn't understand long division. He would cry and get so frustrated. So, I just dropped it for a while, but when he was ready he picked it up easily. Sometimes it's ok to push a little though, so you need to find a balance. 

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