Reading skills

All three children can read now to varying degrees. Kira and Xander are self taught/can naturally read, they just read random words from a work uniform and sign post one day. They then picked up books and just knew the words, moreover they have full comprehension what they read too. I take no credit except offering them open access to resources since they were babies. Kira forthrightly reminded me recently that I had not taught her how to read... I own this completely... However I was shocked to realise that she is fully aware of this fact, considering she started reading at the age of three. 

Sophia was the classic student and she's my success story with reading. She has accomplished so much, and grown phenomenonally in the last year, really showing that children shine when they're allowed to come to reading when they're ready, rather than forced through social expectation. 

I was led by the school method at teaching them to read at the age of four as she was my eldest and I did not trust myself or Sophia to make the decision. I was wrong. Sophia made me see this. 

She is the one child I had to teach to read from scratch, and we had a rocky beginning because she was not interested. I started her in January 2020, aged four, and she argued and fought against it. This was the first and last time I have pursued a subject when they have not been ready and open minded to it. Six months later and she still looked at the word 'the' as if she had never seen it before. Phonics was a non starter, and by this stage Kira was confidently reading first readers and knew her phonics. 

I was panicking a little. It was the first and last time I have come across such a teaching obstacle. I was getting nowhere. This is where I truly learnt the lesson of child led initiative teaching. Sophia was excelling in many subjects at this stage, except literacy. 

I sat Sophia down in January 2021 and asked her how we could work as a team to combat this issue. What did she want? What would make it better? 

I was dreading the answer, thinking she was going to say she never wanted to read again, and walk off, and I would have ruined that special relationship beween herself and books forever. 

Her answer shocked me, she asked for Peter and Jane books (having read the first couple as the first books I ever tried her with back in Jan 2020). She asked if  there were any more of those books, because she felt she could learn to read them. My then five and a half year old was correct. I brought the series immediately and it arrived a couple days later and she immediately grabbed the first book and sat in the sofa. I could have cried. She was a different child. 

We have worked slowly and steadily since then and now she can read any book age appropriate off the shelf 90% unaided. She reads packet ingredients, subtitles, text messages and workbook questions. She reads, and comprehends. 

She will talk about the story and the pictures. She will ask why secondary characters are not personally named in Peter and Jane books. She's affronted on their behalf and consequently she names them. If she reads a sentence and she hasn't understood it, she'll read it again silently to herself and then out loud once more and you can tell by the way she's reading it that she now understands the context.

She runs up to me every day, book in hand to read with me. Other times I catch her curled up in the corner reading privately, and she takes a book to bed with her. We have won. Right there. As a team we overcame a massive mental block and obstacle. This gives me such an amazing feeling, being an avid bookworm myself. I was so desperate to pass on my love of reading to her, I smothered the joy out of it. 

She is going to get a really big present for having achieved reading all 24 books of the set. There are also 12 comprehension books to work through, she's working on her first one now. The completion of these will unlock another present.

Last night Sophia read the last six pages of 10a to me as she's really excited to finish off the remaining six books. She unlocked some chocolate. Kira then wished to have some chocolate and Leighton explained that Sophia had really earnt it. Kira said 'OK I'll read some too'. Leighton laughed, 'OK then then read that last page', clearly not believing she could. 

Kira does not read this set and she's never seen the book before. She read the last page flawlessly. Leighton's face was priceless, full of shock and pride. I was laughing, I knew Kira could. She has an insane reading level, she just chooses to read age appropriate books which I encourage, she only stretches herself for a page a day, rest of the day 'Spot the dog' remains the favourite.