Start With a Solid Foundation

Teaching (and parenting) is based on philosophies – and evidence-based practices. But how those best practices appear are based on one’s philosophies. As a teacher (every child’s first, most important and most influential ‘teacher’ are their parents) and as a parent, I do strive to hang out in the “radical middle” (Thank-you Miriam Trehearne, for this wonderful phrase and other related advice that has stuck with me throughout my teaching career).  Some things work for some kids and don’t for others, so I try to stay open to most ideas and, as much as possible, follow the lead of the child.

There is no ‘right’ way to teach children to read. There are practices that certainly improve the likelihood of success(like active, positive reading with children), but I always remind myself, these are children, not mathematical equations, where if you do ‘X’, ‘Y’ will happen. Learning should be fun, especially when people are little.  All children deserve to have fun. And fun and playing is work when you are little. (And when you are big – nothing exhausts me faster than an hour (if I can last that long) of imaginative play with 2 young children.) But, there are some things all kids should know – and their parents and teachers should know to. One blog that I do follow fairly regularly, A Magical Childhood, sums up many of my beliefs in this area very eloquently in this post about “What Should a Four Year Old Know?”

            I realize that this link is technically about 4 year olds, but it is not just about 4 year olds. It is about all children – and it is about all children’s parents. My belief, my philosophy, if you will, is that we need to give ourselves and our children a break – whatever that looks like for your family. Take the pressure off. Your four year old will not fall behind if you are providing good, natural, learning opportunities, but she does not have her ABC’s ‘memorized’ (and thinks “LMNO”, is a word, rather than four separate letters) by the time she goes to kindergarten. And if the curriculum does travel at a different speed than your child at some point (too fast, too slow – or maybe in the complete wrong direction), that is the curriculum’s problem. Yes, it may feel like your child’s problem, and it may, unfortunately, somehow get all switched around so that your child may feel like it is her problem. But then I need to go back to my core philosophies, and that is to, as much as possible, follow the child’s lead. Make learning as fun as possible and enjoy this journey WITH them – love reading with them. It is only for a little while.

I do not expect anyone who reads this to agree with me or the blog entry I have attached. I write in hopes of getting parents and teachers to stop and really think about their personal beliefs and philosophies. That will help ground and focus the choices we make as we travel this road of learning with our children

And so it begins....

Books. Good old fashion books that you hold in your hands and turn the paper pages and hear that "skrrritch" sound as the paper gently scrapes past your sweater as you turn it - That's what I read. That is what I am used to. That is how I learned to read (okay - that over-simplified it, but for the purpose of this blog entry, lets go with that...) and for the first part of my career, that is much of how I taught.

As I just alluded to, I am a teacher, and apparently I am now teaching "21st century learners" (Are those different from kids? When I signed up for this job over 10 years ago, I thought I was teaching kids.) so I need to move forward. And so here I am "taa-daa" - blogging. If you are reading this, you are reading my first attempt at blogging. Honestly, I never even figured out how to properly sign up for a blog, comment on a blog before, but here I am - hello web 2.0!

I guess the best way for me to go about this is to blog about something I love. I love reading to and with children. I have always loved it. I loved it as a babysitter, a camp counselor, as a teacher and I especially love it as a parent.

I write this, but I do not read to my own children often enough. I will stand by my claim that we read together at least, at very minimum once a day, as a part of our bed time routine. But the teacher in me knows, while that is good, that is not enough if I could do more. There are far too many times in the day that our little guy, Buster Bear, says in his sweet voice of a two year old, "Read this to me, please Mommy?"while trailing after me with a dog-eared copy of his favourite book in hand, and I use the 4 words I have learned are often my biggest parenting cop-outs "In a minute, Sweetie."

But that minute passes by, and turns into the next, and soon he gives up on me and finds something else. And I have missed an opportunity. And much of the sad irony is that one of my main reasons for saying "In a minute, Sweetie", is that am am working on my own school work - an MEd. that focuses on literacy...early literacy.

Ugh.

So I have decided to blog on reading with our children in our busy, every day lives. How to fit it in, how sometimes it doesn't fit how we wish it would, what books are great to share, different ways to read with our children as they progress through their early reading lives - whatever comes up, I guess. I look forward to sharing this journey with anyone who is interested and will appreciate your comments and input as I blog along into the 21st century...only 10 years late!

Gotta go, my "one minute" is almost up - time to go read...
Kiki J.