Homeschooled Kids Who Read – Pastime Pleasure or Professional Prerequisite?

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In the early years of homeschooling much of our time is focused on how to teach reading and rightly so.

Today, homeschooled kids who read for pastime pleasure or as a professional prerequisite is about giving you a bird’s eye view of reading.

Being in the homeschool reading trenches, it is important to glance up every now and again to hone our reading vision.

Look at some tips to remember on your reading adventure.

Make it your aim to associate reading with pleasure in the early years.

How do you do this? By not just teaching phonics and then stopping for the day.

I know your time is stretched thin when the kids are all little but one attention grabbing story can capture the attention of 3, 4 or more young children.

Too, another tip I did along this same lines was to start a chapter book or long book like Charlotte’s Web instead of reading just a short children’s book that could be read in one setting. 

Don’t worry about the higher vocabulary in chapter books.  Just explain the meaning and move on. 

I piqued their attention for the next chapter or the next time we sat down together. They didn’t want to miss what happened next in the story.

Environment matters too.

Try to move away from a stiff and formal atmosphere for reading.  Don’t do like I did with my son.  The minute he started rolling on the floor, I got onto him. 

Soon I realized there was a difference between moving and wrestling.  Too, when I asked him at 3 years old what we were reading about, he could still tell me in a few simple silly words.  He was listening.

I learned to relax by taking a lesson from my son who was relaxed while we read even though he was moving a bit.

Add in choral reading.

I never heard of choral reading before I homeschooled.

Shortly after reading about the benefits of it, I added it quickly to my reading schedule.

In teaching my boys to read, next to reading aloud, choral reading was by far the best teaching tip that spanned from beginner reader even to high school with my boys.

Choral reading is reading a short passage with your child at the same time.  The benefits are far from simple.

I had one son who equated reading with not breathing or at least it seemed that way. 

He read so fast without pauses because I had focused so much on getting up his reading speed that he wasn’t comprehending, much less enjoying anything we were reading.

When we started choral reading, he could see where I paused, where I put emphasis and how I took a longer pause at the period.

It wasn’t too long before his reading fluency changed and he could not only understand what we were reading, but his volume, diction and rate of reading improved quickly.

Since he is my Sociable Sam type of personality, it was always a fun time for us.  He liked the challenge of reading with me.

Homeschooled Kids Who Read  Lifelong

It was also a skill I practiced with my sons as they entered high school.

Though I had let my oldest two sons do choral reading together a few times, it ended up being competitive and one son would always feel like he was doing less. So that didn’t work in my circumstance.

You may have children that are spread apart enough in age that an older child could do it with a younger child and not make the younger one feel defeated.

Much later in the teen years and even into high school, it was a fail-safe practice because not only would my sons be reading for pleasure but understanding what they read in books would be the stepping stones to passing tests for any profession they chose as adults.

Create memory aids.

Visual person that I am, I knew that at least two of my sons were visual learners also.

In the beginning, I made story props so that each child could hold up the character or prop when he heard it in the story.

Using hands-on props helped me sons to remember certain parts to a story.

For older kids, letting them look at a timeline or visual fact card on the subject you are reading about is helpful.

Public reading aloud.

Public reading aloud infused my boys to take reading seriously and to see the value of it beyond pleasure. 

When reading for pleasure, it’s not really important to have to remember what you are reading.

When my sons took up public reading aloud, it is a form of reading that is done in the adult world or work place. 

Public speaking and public reading aloud helped my boys to prepare for the work force and equipped them with valuable study skills if they are pursuing college courses.

Homeschooled kids do not have to make a choice between a pastime pleasure or using their reading skills as prerequisite for a professional job.  They can have both.

Adding in a few of these tips to your reading schedule not only will make your child a better reader, but when he is an adult, he will be an avid learner.

Guess what? Things have become too serious around here.

To celebrate National Reading Month, we are going to PARTY!!!!

I LOVE giveaways and I am so excited for you about this giveaway.

I have joined a few of my fellow bloggers from iHN to give away a Kindle Fire HD 6 16 GB !  Oh yeah baby, it’s nice!

Would you like one FREE?

Just a few guidelines.

1. Open to U.S. residents only.

2. The giveaway is from 6:00 am EST Monday, March 16 until 6:00 am EST Friday, March 20.

 The winner will be announced on Saturday, March 21.

3. Follow the instructions closely on the Rafflecopter. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Scoot by and visit the other hosts and check out their tips about reading.

Starts at Eight: Children’s Books about the Library

The Heart of Michelle: 5 Ways to Encourage Reading in a Reluctant Reader

Our Journey Westward: 11 Tips for Raising Readers

Life’s Hidden Treasures: Family Favorites and a Kindle Fire Giveaway for National Reading Month

Hugs and love ya

Look at some more helpful tips!

Teaching Homeschooled Boys How to Read – When to Panic!

Letting Go of the Homeschool Language Arts Stranglehold

What You’ve Got To Know About Teaching Reading Comprehension