Update about H.

[DadDude]

I've posted an update: http://larrysanger.org/2012/01/update-about-the-boys-part-1-january-2012/

The short version is that H. is almost done learning his basic addition and subtraction facts, on Singapore 1B, writing very well, learning in-depth about South America, reading an hour a day (to himself--I still read a lot to him) and now a fan of Beverly Cleary, onto Bauer's Story of the World, Vol. 2 and learning lots about history, making decent progress on piano (no prodigy though)...

As to baby E., I'll wait until part 2 to update you on him.  But he is reading some words.  I haven't made a video yet, mostly because he doesn't articulate very well, but he can read out loud the words that he can say, like go, cat (or "meow"), dog (or a cute panting sound), and moon.  He can also pick words out of a lineup (which word is "nap"?).  His favorite reading program?  Well, he's my boy...Reading Bear.  No kidding!  He's tired of YBCR now, but not of Reading Bear!

[sonya_post]

Daddude,

I always enjoy reading your posts. I will be very interested in your review of Jones Geniuses math program when you start. We are using Matrix Math. I am familiar with Singapore Math. I do like the whole concept of approaching a problem in many different ways. MEP math is very similar to Singapore and I think a better program though you can't beat Singapore for it's story problems.
I have been considering adding MEP or Singapore to the JG curriculum for the problem solving. Please let me know what you think,

Since your like fairy tales I'd highly recommend George MacDonald. The Princess and the Goblin and the Princess and Curdie are two of my favorite stories as well as At the Back of the North Wind. His short stories: The Wise Woman (where C.S. Lewis got the idea of the wardrobe),  the Light Princess (where you'll find references to nursery rhymes and other fairy tales), and Sir Gibbie. Huckleberry Finn was Mark Twian's response to Sir Gibbie and some of the lines from Huckleberry Finn are playfully lifted  directly from the MacDonald book.

Sonya

[at]

Daddude - would you please put more youtube version of Reading Bear on the website?

[arvi]

DadDude, can you please tell us how you encouraged your son to read independently. From what age did he start to read on his own.

[DadDude]

Daddude - would you please put more youtube version of Reading Bear on the website?

I believe we can hire someone to make those videos.  Can anyone here do that (for a fee)?

[DadDude]

I always enjoy reading your posts. I will be very interested in your review of Jones Geniuses math program when you start. We are using Matrix Math. I am familiar with Singapore Math. I do like the whole concept of approaching a problem in many different ways. MEP math is very similar to Singapore and I think a better program though you can't beat Singapore for it's story problems.
I have been considering adding MEP or Singapore to the JG curriculum for the problem solving. Please let me know what you think,

Since your like fairy tales I'd highly recommend George MacDonald. The Princess and the Goblin and the Princess and Curdie are two of my favorite stories as well as At the Back of the North Wind. His short stories: The Wise Woman (where C.S. Lewis got the idea of the wardrobe),  the Light Princess (where you'll find references to nursery rhymes and other fairy tales), and Sir Gibbie. Huckleberry Finn was Mark Twian's response to Sir Gibbie and some of the lines from Huckleberry Finn are playfully lifted  directly from the MacDonald book.

Sonya, no offense but I detest acronyms for things that I don't even know about...and frankly, I don't know much about other programs than Singapore Math, other than from reviews and samples.  I'm impressed that you find "MEP," whatever that is, better than SM (heh)!  Link, please!  You'd be the second person I've come across lately to praise a program by saying it's better than Singapore.

Thanks for the recommendations!

[DadDude]

DadDude, can you please tell us how you encouraged your son to read independently. From what age did he start to read on his own.

I'd like to hear other people's answers to this, especially those parents with kids who read chapter books to themselves for a few hours a day, out of their own desire!

Well, he didn't start reading a lot, independently, until I made him.  That's the honest truth, and I try to be honest.  But his favorite toys when he was one and two were books, he made a complete mess of the living room (where we had the books) as the books were always all over the floor, and he was looking at them a lot.  But he rarely read anything cover to cover (but he did, sometimes, I think--rarely, at that age).  When he was three and maybe a bit after his fourth birthday, I remember him reading a number of Magic Tree House books to himself, although never that much.  From about age 4 1/4 until around his fifth birthday, he read almost nothing to himself--I had few books to clean up.  He was very cool to the idea of books in general.  Occasionally he even resisted me reading to him (although that was rare).  Since his fifth birthday or so, however, he's gotten back into them more and more, and now I see him reading books to himself outside of the appointed time once again.  For example, this morning I came downstairs to find him reading the beginning of R. L. Green's Robin Hood, and then pointing out what Robin's real last name was.

But after he turned five, I felt licensed to start making him read for an hour a day.  (I never required him to read, or do much of anything, long before his fifth birthday.)  I knew he could, very well, and that he would enjoy it when he got into it.  So with a combination of incentives and threats of sitting in the corner, I got him started reading for an hour a day after lunch.  What really did the trick is that I let him read instead of taking his afternoon nap.  So that wasn't a problem at all.  Incentives and threats became necessary after a couple of weeks and he forgot that he was reading in order to escape naptime.  At first I let him read whatever he wanted, including picture books.  Later, I encouraged (rarely if ever required) chapter books.

I feel it's safe to say that he now likes his reading time--he came to like it gradually.  He doesn't need incentives anymore, and half of the time he goes over an hour, which means he isn't eager to finish when the 60 minute timer starts beeping.  Another clue--I've been reading Little House on the Prairie to him for bedtime reading lately (what a great book, well deserving its classic status--I read it as a kid myself but forgot how good it is), and while waiting for his Mama to come in to say good night, he was reading on in it.  As I write this now he is downstairs for his hour of reading, reading on in the book.  When I expressed disappointment that I wouldn't be able to read it now, he said, "That's OK, you can read it to me again for chapter book reading at bedtime!"  Finally, he declared recently that he likes reading.

So while I'm not at all displeased with how he's doing vis-a-vis reading, I do wish he would pick up books more, and read them cover to cover, more often.  I'm guessing he'll do more so when he gets older.

As to what to do to encourage younger kids to read to themselves (if they can), I think the most important thing is to make sure they have plenty of books to choose from, books that they like.  Also, as far as I can tell, small incentives can work and they don't really hurt anything.  What incentive scheme might work for you and your child depends on you and your child.  I have found that reading a lot to H. seemed to take up some of the "book time" that he might have used to read to himself, so possibly, cutting back on the amount of time spent reading to a child might cause the child to read to him/herself.  But maybe not...for H. at age four, it would have caused him to play with legos more!

[PokerDad]

I really enjoyed the update.

Regarding science and history, I think you're perhaps correct in putting these a little further back in importance. Having said that, you probably could integrate those subjects a bit more with some of the other things you're doing. During one of his choice readings, for example, H read a history book. That's combining two things at once quite nicely IMO. There might also be some fictional accounts in a historical backdrop. Reading an exciting story that takes place at a particular point in history could help in wanting to learn more about that history; such as when H wanted to learn more about muddy pigs because of Charlotte's Web.

I like the idea of doing narratives. That just seems genius to me, because it works on penmanship, sentence construction, and perhaps most of all, comprehension and retention! Well, maybe there's a way to better integrate some of that into the science or history (what did you call it... imaginations from the past). Maybe I'll see if I can talk to my wife about how she integrated history in her classroom and follow up if she tells me something interesting.

From what I've learned about Singapore, I like it especially because they focus a lot on number bonds. I don't have an opinion on the later books beyond 1A & B though. It sounds like H is doing fantastic.

Further, it's been a true treasure to read your posts, essays, and experiences. Thank you for that.

[Mae_Jakob_Ka]

Thank you for sharing.
I really enjoy reading your posts. 

[fma001]

My daughter started reading to herself at about 4.5 years old. She really liked mystery books and started reading mainly A to Z Mysteries and picture books at first. She now reads 1 to 3 hours a day willingly, mainly mysteries, American Girl, Beverly Clearly, abridged classics and the Little House series. So, for her, it was hitting on a genre she really enjoyed that turned her into an independent reader. Nonfiction has been a problem though. She occasionally reads nonfiction but doesn't care for it. When she starts 2nd grade, I'm going to make some nonfiction reading a requirement of the school day.

[sonya_post]

Daddude,

Oops sorry about that. Everyone that uses MEP refers to it as such since Mathematics Enhancement Programme is very long. MEP is a free program based off the Hungarian model - you can find it here: http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm  MEP is very parent intensive. You'll find mistakes in text at times but you can usually figure it out. The parent manual is worth reading. 

Sonya

[arvi]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Are you teaching print or cursive handwriting? What is your opinion on cursive?

Does Singapore math teach mental math? Are you considering Jones Geniuses just to teach mental math?

For baby E, I would recommend you to use SoftMozart piano program when he reaches 2 years old and if he is interested in music. It is really amazing to see my son play the first stanza of hot cross buns in treble cleff. It makes our teaching job relatively easy.

[DadDude]

Sonya--thanks, we printed out some of MEP.  H. says he wants to do it!  Looks great.

arvi, yep, we are considering Jones Geniuses for mental math, just haven't got the package yet.  Something is going to have to give, though, with all these math programs.  It would be silly to try to do it all...

Thanks for the SoftMozart recommendation.

[PokerDad]

I'm afraid I won't be of much help, but I did talk with the wife last night about integrating history. What she told me seems simple for a classroom setting and with somewhat older kids (though it sounds like H is not far off the kids my wife taught in her 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade class). She just said that there's "many" books that are fun and enjoyable to read, and that they'd do read aloud as a method of integrating history with reading. She also emphasized many projects; I remember one such project where Greek History was divided into sections such as homes, myths, government, or what life was like for the average person. She would then subdivide these to groups so that one group would go out and research a particular section, and then come up with a presentation on it. At the end of the unit, each group would present to the rest of the class.

Obviously, very little of that would applicable to H at this stage, but maybe somewhere in there you might get an idea or two that would be useful.

Looking forward to the next update.

[Tanikit]

My daughter turned 4 in September and I have had a time of joint reading with her for quite some time now. Only in the last month or so has she started to read anything independently - and most of the time these are baby books that she reads to her little sister. She has read two level 1 books (fairy stories) of her own accord too. But I also know that reading with her comes in spurts - she will not be interested for ages and then suddenly start doing something when I least expect it. I will eventually also introduce a period of reading for her - probably only when I am happy that her phonics is sufficient for the books she is likely to want to choose.

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