I grew up and was
educated within the New Zealand state school system. Then I trained to become a
teacher within that system. A system that was built upon the foundation of
teaching the “3R's”: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. I'm
not even going to get into the probable efficacy of an education
system that fails to recognise the accurate spelling of Writing and
Arithmetic.
I chose to homeschool, and particularly to unschool, also known as natural learning. Unschooling seemed a natural follow-on from the attachment parenting philosophy I applied in my children's early childhood. It's a relaxed implementation of self-directed learning advocated in several discipline papers in my B.Ed course of study. Unschooling / Natural learning also provides a platform to eliminate the negative consequences of being “taught” before an individual is ready.
I frequently face some interesting internal challenges in our homeschooling / unschooling journey in finding a comfortable fit for myself, my husband, and my individual learners (my boys). On the one hand, we have the processes through which I was taught by going through the state school system as a student, and as a teacher. On the other hand we have the pedagogical philosophy I developed through later professional development and reflective research.
I chose to homeschool, and particularly to unschool, also known as natural learning. Unschooling seemed a natural follow-on from the attachment parenting philosophy I applied in my children's early childhood. It's a relaxed implementation of self-directed learning advocated in several discipline papers in my B.Ed course of study. Unschooling / Natural learning also provides a platform to eliminate the negative consequences of being “taught” before an individual is ready.
I frequently face some interesting internal challenges in our homeschooling / unschooling journey in finding a comfortable fit for myself, my husband, and my individual learners (my boys). On the one hand, we have the processes through which I was taught by going through the state school system as a student, and as a teacher. On the other hand we have the pedagogical philosophy I developed through later professional development and reflective research.
Without a
doubt, to date, the greatest challenge is that revolving around the issue
of reading.
In addition to my
internal conflict and warring pedagogies of 'personal experience' vs
'best practice as shown in the latest research', I have the challenge
of over coming the experiences my eldest had at school and reading
recovery. Experiences which have left him with the firm belief that he is unable
to read.
So far my belief in the
latest research, is supported by reports coming out of
scandinavian countries, who have the highest literacy rates in the
world per capita, and where formal instruction in reading is not started
until a child is at least 7 years of age. I have further support in the New
Zealand based research showing that children who had trouble
speaking, or are late to talk, will also be later in reading
acquisition. The NZCER publication (pictured below) about the reading currciculum in New Zealand advocate delayed intervention for these children, have won out. I have not yet capitulated to my internal voice that stems from my own educational experiences, and force either child to *learn to read* by forcing the boys to read books with simplistic words, and mind numbing story lines.
One benefit of the sitting down and having a child *read to you* is that you have an immediate evaluation tool to assess progress. As neither of my children sit down and read aloud, there is no immediately obvious means of assessing their progress, I have to be alert to more subtle cues and behaviours.
One of the biggest indicators of a reading child, is purportedly an enjoyment of books. Carl, my husband, and I LOVE to read. Both my babies quickly learned that there was no way they would be getting their Mama Melk if Mama did not have a book in hand. Once they achieved some independant mobility, yet were not yet verbal, they'd ask for milk by approaching me with my book in hand. This active modelling of reading has been shown in various studies to be the key indicator in the succees of literacy acquisition in children, and has led to a number of inititaive such as Allan Duff's "Books in Homes" to promote literacy in New Zealand. When T(8) was in school two years ago he was quickly deposited into reading recovery, despite my pointing out that he was late is talking, had been in speech therapy, and would likely not be ready for reading yet. T however stated a desire to go and I agreed (had I known then about the puppy that the reading recovery teacher had in the room with her, I may have recieved this statement with a little more reservation). Two days after he started, he stopped looking at books at home. He used to spend upto 2 hours per day sitting and looking through books. He no longer enjoyed books. actually that's a huge statement... it needs to be written like this:
He no longer enjoyed books.
My biggest indicator that we were on the right track with homeschooling, was that after about 6 months he started to sit and look through books. It was marvellous, 6 months was the expected time frame for the de-schooling process, and sure enough, after 6 months he resumed his former habit of sitting for upto 2 hours looking at books. I introduced him to Asterix. After all, I taught myself to read in Dutch by reading my father's dutch asterix comics, it seemed perfectly reasonable to expect a similar result for T.
T was interested in learning Bridge not long after, so I created work sheets with information, that he then had to complete the reflective questions. I did not help him at all with these sheets.
After he had completed the first three or four, I felt some constructive feedback was required, as I knew he held the belief that he can not read. I said, "Hey, look at you, you're reading those questions and answering them" He looked up, aghast, and threw his clipboard with attached papers away. He shouted out "No! I can't read!" He has not touched them since!!
I learned my lesson. Watch for the signs that he is reading, and register them internally, share them in private with Carl, but do NOT under any circumstance mention them to T(8). I am developing a (currently very) little collection of indicators in addition to those above. He still happily spends long periods looking at books, and trips to the library are a weekly event, where he selects a variety of books... yet I still fret.
Indicators Collected:
"Babsie, what does O-L-E spell?" after reading Asterix in Corsica
In a shop, pulling K(6) back from a door saying "No see it says 'Staff Only', we can't go in there K"
While at Crystal Monuntain, and having seen a sign on the gate with an information plaque about Llama, the boys were walking around the park, when K(6) spotted a Llama and exclaimed "Hey what's that?"and T(8) replied "oh, that must be those lama's" (the mispronunciation made me realise he had read the sign, and not that he had overheard from someone else).
 |
| NZCER publication created as a guide for teachers, principals and Board of Trustees to formulate reading programmes, apparently ignored by the school T was attending. |
One benefit of the sitting down and having a child *read to you* is that you have an immediate evaluation tool to assess progress. As neither of my children sit down and read aloud, there is no immediately obvious means of assessing their progress, I have to be alert to more subtle cues and behaviours.
One of the biggest indicators of a reading child, is purportedly an enjoyment of books. Carl, my husband, and I LOVE to read. Both my babies quickly learned that there was no way they would be getting their Mama Melk if Mama did not have a book in hand. Once they achieved some independant mobility, yet were not yet verbal, they'd ask for milk by approaching me with my book in hand. This active modelling of reading has been shown in various studies to be the key indicator in the succees of literacy acquisition in children, and has led to a number of inititaive such as Allan Duff's "Books in Homes" to promote literacy in New Zealand. When T(8) was in school two years ago he was quickly deposited into reading recovery, despite my pointing out that he was late is talking, had been in speech therapy, and would likely not be ready for reading yet. T however stated a desire to go and I agreed (had I known then about the puppy that the reading recovery teacher had in the room with her, I may have recieved this statement with a little more reservation). Two days after he started, he stopped looking at books at home. He used to spend upto 2 hours per day sitting and looking through books. He no longer enjoyed books. actually that's a huge statement... it needs to be written like this:
He no longer enjoyed books.
My biggest indicator that we were on the right track with homeschooling, was that after about 6 months he started to sit and look through books. It was marvellous, 6 months was the expected time frame for the de-schooling process, and sure enough, after 6 months he resumed his former habit of sitting for upto 2 hours looking at books. I introduced him to Asterix. After all, I taught myself to read in Dutch by reading my father's dutch asterix comics, it seemed perfectly reasonable to expect a similar result for T.
T was interested in learning Bridge not long after, so I created work sheets with information, that he then had to complete the reflective questions. I did not help him at all with these sheets.
 |
| T worked independantly, the answers clearly demonstrate his comprehension of the written questions. |
After he had completed the first three or four, I felt some constructive feedback was required, as I knew he held the belief that he can not read. I said, "Hey, look at you, you're reading those questions and answering them" He looked up, aghast, and threw his clipboard with attached papers away. He shouted out "No! I can't read!" He has not touched them since!!
 |
| This is the 1/2 completed sheet that was thrown away in rejection of my statement that he was reading |
Indicators Collected:
"Babsie, what does O-L-E spell?" after reading Asterix in Corsica
In a shop, pulling K(6) back from a door saying "No see it says 'Staff Only', we can't go in there K"
While at Crystal Monuntain, and having seen a sign on the gate with an information plaque about Llama, the boys were walking around the park, when K(6) spotted a Llama and exclaimed "Hey what's that?"and T(8) replied "oh, that must be those lama's" (the mispronunciation made me realise he had read the sign, and not that he had overheard from someone else).
 |
| Getting information from a book, and sharing it with younger brother... but NOT reading (yeah Right) |
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