Reluctant Reader to Book Enthusiast

My son is that kind of child who enjoys his freedom. I was even afraid of getting him involved in our homeschooling. And here I am pleasantly surprised, introducing to you a reluctant reader who turned into a book enthusiast!

I am talking of a 6 year-old perfectionist here. He frustrates easily and either gets it right or refuses to do it at all!

I wasn’t ready to get into tiffs with him. And my patience bucket was almost on empty because my eldest daughter was struggling with reading too. From my previous posts I have described the differences in my kids’ learning styles; my son being a combination of a kinesthetic and auditory learner, whilst my daughter is more visual.

After establishing that he wasn’t the type to sit still and be lectured, I was content to continue only with his 8 year-old sister. I figured he was still too young to do academics seriously anyway. I also knew he was feeding off crumbs from the sister’s table. Yes, I am more inclined to letting children enjoy being kids for longer before sitting them on the desk.

The birth of a reader

Our daughter’s reading improved with much practice from the bible during evening family devotions. Suddenly, our son asked for a bible too! I always thought I would get one for him when he was much older, but now I had no choice.

We went and got him one, boy was he so over the moon! Never mind that this was a purple bible. He wears his heart on his sleeve, so his big smile and shining eyes told it all. And just like that, our little reluctant reader transformed to a book enthusiast.

We patiently sat through the trying and tantrums sometimes, if it became too hard he would declare to never, ever read again!

I had forgotten to mention that I am using quite an old but rigorous curriculum to help my daughter with spelling as well: The Writing and Spelling Road to Reading and Thinking. I had tried it on him too but then thought I would only frustrate him. So now we are on it again, and I must say we are reaping small rewards. He can recognize letters and sound them out, it’s the blending that’s an uphill task for him.

One thing that amazed us was his enjoyment of what we thought would be boring text for children. Earlier, my daughter had enjoyed Pilgrim’s Progress but my son would be in and out of the room during those reading sessions. He would sit and listen to us reading One Miracle After Another: The Pavel Goia Story at bed-time; much to our delight. Hearing him request for one more page was exciting.

I borrow books from the library centered around his interests – planets, countries, fascinating science facts. So far, so good. I don’t mine reading them for him, but it’s much more fun when we read together. Even when he just reads one word in 3 pages 😁. I am excited to see what the future holds in the reading department for these kids.