One of the greatest joys of my life has been reading to the children. When the boys were little, I'd put them in the bathtub with lots of Mr. Bubble, and we would read through a pile of books every night. Michael has also read to them--maybe even more. When they were still in public school, he read to them from the Bible and from a biography of a great Christian every morning as they ate breakfast. When I taught night classes or worked at my retail jobs, he would read the Little House stories to them.We still read together. The boys and I are working through Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper; John Thomas and I are reading Don Quixote at lunchtime during the week. We just finished The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (again). These books have meant so much to us--they are like friends we visit and visit again.
A friend/relative of our's is homeschooling her children. She and her husband are both professional educators, and she taught in the public schools before her children were born. She makes reading the centerpiece of her homeschool. You should see how those children love to learn! The older boys can't wait until their reading time after supper every night.
A problem Michael and I both encounter with our students is that they are so reluctant to read! This is probably our biggest challenge, and my understanding from talking with others is that it is this generation. And they really seem to resist the classics; a few years back, I taught a group of really sharp, competitive students who were lamenting having had to read Robinson Crusoe!
How do we explain this? How can it be addressed? Please share your thoughts!
I regret that I have not read more of the classics. I grew up in public school of course, and the classics were not really emphasized, and if they were it was too early. My example of this is reading Dante's Inferno. It is a great piece of literature. We were supposed to read it in 10th grade, but it wasn't until I was a junior in college that I actually wanted to read it.
ReplyDeleteThe only way we can make people read again is to put the books in their hands. This is one reason I like volunteering in a kindergarten class... I want to instill a love of reading.
Kate, you will be a blessing to those children. You are a natural at teaching. They will also pick up your love for the Lord! You're a blessing, precious girl!
ReplyDeleteI used to read to my children and they still remember it fondly. I know with my own children that the books they could read fluently were not very interesting to them. Because they could understand books that were too hard for them to read independently, I would check out books, like mysteries, and let them read a page or a paragraph now and then, as I read aloud. It also gave us a chance to discuss the plot and to make predictions.
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