The Start of Something Interesting

A different picture of Zoe reading to the little ones.

The children and I were sitting on the couch, reading books together.  This is not unusual, and it brings me a great deal of pleasure.

Then, something new happened, Zoe said, “I want to read this book to all of you.”  So she did.  It was this book:  Stephen Cartwright’s ABC’s.  It works its way through the alphabet with mini-rhymes like, “X is for Xerxes and Xanthe, it’s true.  Who played a xylophone, shiny and new.”  As you can imagine, the names were the difficult part of reading this book, but besides help with the names, she zipped through this book, with a great deal of pleasure and laughter for all of us.

Zoe insists on seeing/speaking of herself as a non-reader, even though we know this isn’t true.  Still, I am very glad that I haven’t ever pushed her to “try” to read something.  She loves to look at books, she loves to be read to, and she loves to listen to books on CD.  All of this has lead to a very literate, interesting to talk with, interested in understanding language, little girl.  For that I am thankful.

This happens to be one of very few areas on which Chris and I disagree.  He prefers to insist that Zoe practice her reading when they are reading together.  Though this probably has value, I recognize too much of my own personality in Zoe to feel comfortable with this approach myself.  Chris, being of a more complacent, pleasant personality than me, has trouble understanding this persnickety personality trait.

Still and all, it will work out in the end, and Zoe will have control of the situation, no matter what either of her parents do. In addition, the homeschool world provides ample stories of children who have started reading at a much later date than what is typical in schools, and when they begin, it is with ease and joy and huge gains.  I look forward to Zoe finding the joy that comes from reading to herself, and if that day doesn’t come for awhile, I’m very comfortable with that.  (And Buds will just have to deal with it however he chooses.)