Homeschooling and Learning To Read

 

I have tried many, many methods of teaching my 4 year old how to read.  He has refused to cooperate with any of these methods/ curriculum.  In November I decided to shelf everything.  He was just not ready.  

I decided to just focus on to reading to him as much as possible.  I started slipping in how to sound words out while we were reading since he wanted to repeat all the words that I read to him.  He already knew his letters and sounds, mostly in part to the Caterpillar alphabet game that he loved.  We also used bits and pieces of curriculum from workbooks as he tolerated doing them.  

He has been memorizing stories that are read to him for over a year now.  A few months ago he decided he was going to "read" to me.  He was "reading" his memorized books to me.  I had to slow him down and encourage him to look at the words and run his finger along as he "read".  When he would miss a word in the story I would tell him the word and then sound it out.  This worked here and there, he usually wasn't patient enough for this.  

Every once in a while I pull out some of the Bob phonics books and would read with him through them.  About a week ago he started, on his own, to try to read books to me that he didn't have memorized.  To see if he was actually reading the words, I pulled out a few phonics readers we hadn't used yet.  He read me more than 75% of the words.  

He is very proud of himself.  He is a stubborn and determined boy.  The way our homeschooling journey is going, it isn't happening unless it is his idea.  I have been trying to just toss all age expectations out.  

I am trying to embrace unschooling.  The problem I am running into though, is family and acquaintances.  Everyone seems to think it is ok to ask him if he is able to do something, or quiz him on stuff they think he should be doing.  It's very frustrating.  This is his journey and he is naturally curious about everything.  

I recently purchased a field guide for rock identification as well as a book on tree, plant and flower identification.  He always wants to know what everything we see is, I figured he could learn to look things up.  He was excited and already going through the book.  They will be a nice companion to our warm weather trail and nature walks.  

I have been trying to focus on teaching him how to learn.  So many things fascinate him and learning how to research his interests and questions will be an important skill for life.