Wordfull Wednesday: Learning to Read

I can't remember being taught to read.  I think it just happened.  What I do remember is my parents and teachers being very concerned about my development and placing me in special learning classes and even hiring private tutors.  I could read but I didn't want to read what they placed in front of me, it was boring and my mind was elsewhere.  What they didn't know was in my free time I loved to read the Encyclopedia Britanica, the old brown leather collection neatly stored high on a shelf in my Dad's office, D and H were my favorites because I liked reading about all the different species of dogs and horses.  I also enjoyed the Sears catalog reading the women's clothes descriptions and strangely fascinated by my Dad's medical journals.

At this time only half of my children are independent readers. I can't remember teaching them to read. I think it just happened as well.

James was most unique in his development but since he was my first child I did not know it was out of the ordinary. He was a fussy baby so I did what I could to calm him and that was reading. He was constantly grabbing at any text in sight but most often the letters on my t-shirts and warning labels on his baby gear. When he grabbed I would read it out loud. Before he could walk he was sounding out the letters on his crib sss-iiii-mmmmmm-oooo-nnnn-ssss. At his 1 year well baby check the Dr. asked me about his development and I casually stated "oh yeah he knows all his letters". The Dr. didn't believe me so I walked James around the room to demonstrate and the Dr. soon followed with some very wise advice. He told me not to make a big deal about it and not to use it for entertainment. Every time I saw a child perform on Oprah or the Late Show I was happy to have stuck with that advice.

James continued to progress and before he was two he was clear and articulate in reciting "this crib meets the requirements of the consumer product safety commission standard for full size cribs", or "warning: never place a rear facing child in the front seat". He had also mastered such books as Green Eggs and Ham, Ten Apples Up on Top, and The Foot Book.  Sometimes I wondered if they were just memorized but it became clear that he was reading when in the grocery store check out lane he would read aloud the headlines from various magazines and tabloids. This would make me blush not only because the headlines were provocative but also from all the heads that would turn our way. At age three he created quite a scene when I took him Gap kids. We were picking out clothes for him to start pre-school but he threw a fit and the battle was about only purchasing clothes that were "Made in Cambodia" because his old friend from Philadelphia was Cambodian. He ran from table to table looking inside the clothes reciting "Made in Guatemala", "Made in China", "Made in Macau",....

James continues to progress and is continually amusing us. I have found it a humbling adventure to raise such a child. He is homeschooled but I was never his teacher, he has always taught himself teaching me along the way. When he was 7 I checked out a speed reading course to try and keep up with him but when the book was down he picked it up and left me in the dust.

His love and thirst for learning has become contagious in our home. In fact, I think it was he who taught his younger brother William to read at age 3. Peter didn't read until age 4 but with the help of his older brothers he also mastered how to read a clock in addition to all his basic math facts. The younger girls were taught by their older brothers as well learning all their letters by age two. The example has been set and learning at a young age has become the tradition in our home, it is fun and opens so many doors to explore.

But the most important thing that has evolved from the literacy in our home is our ability to study the scriptures together. It is not an easy task to gather young children together and expect them to sit, listen, and participate. We have often wondered whether it would be better to exclude the children 2 & younger but we have yet to do so. Paul and I listened to Elder Cook's talk Family Scripture Study and were impressed with his statement "our children learned to read by reading the Book of Mormon". Perhaps that is what has helped our children read. As soon as they can talk or even just imitate sound they are sat on our lap and with one finger under each word they are given their turn to read a verse repeating what we say. If they can read:

But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.  Alma 32:27 

then they will be ready to read and understand just about anything.  

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