Tuesday, September 30, 2008

A borrowed post: Types and purposes of Reading by Catherine Levison

This last week the littlest one has taken me to another level of tiredness which I am still in the throws of trying to cope with. I tried writing a post but I just stare blankly at the screen even though I have much to say..I just don't seem to be able to compose anything, especially when the screen is so blurry.
I hope you enjoy this atricle from one of my favourite Charlotte Mason writers-


TYPES AND PURPOSES OF READING
Copyright Catherine Levison
Used with permission. All rights reserved.
http://charlottemasoneducation.com


There are basically two types of reading: There's reading for
enjoyment and there's reading for knowledge. And on a very
happy day, the two collide.
You can't expect to find little Eddie in the living room reading
a physics book all on his own because he likes it. Well, if you
do, then congratulations, that's a very good problem to have.
And don't rely on electro-shock therapy to create a love for
reading. Can you picture that? "Hold still Timmy. Quit wiggling,
Mommy just has to get these attached to your head. Okay, this
will only hurt for a second."
No, that isn't the answer, either.
The way to create the love of reading is to have the most interesting
books ever written, and if at first you don't succeed, keep trying.
Get away from the easy readers as soon as possible and put one
book after another in front of your child. Either they'll be readers and
like it with very little effort, or they will be the "other kind" and they
need more time. If they think they hate to read and you allow that
idea to cement, you'll regret it later.
Instead, go ahead, wear yourself out going back and forth to the library
because someday the clouds will part, a beam of light will appear and
yes, Johnny will say the words you've been longing to hear, "Mommy,
I like this book!"
Quickly ascertain what it is about this book he likes. The content?
The writing style? The colors? Whatever it is go and get more just
like that one. We want to develop the habit of reading as well as the
enjoyment of reading. We want the child to find out that he won't die
from it. No, it's fun. But he has to come to that conclusion on his
own.
Another thing that will help greatly is reading aloud to any and every
child you have. Forget their ages and disregard who likes to read and
who doesn't. Read a lot and from vastly different kinds of books. Read
like your life depends on it. I promise it will come back to you. You
will thank yourself later.
The more any child learns to enjoy reading, the better. One of many
reasons is someday, somewhere they're going to have to read
something they don't want to read. It will be boring, it will be tedious.
However, they will learn to tolerate those moments and view them
as temporary. The child who decides they don't like to read anything
at all, thinks that way all the time. They're always tolerating. If any
person -- young or old -- likes to read, they know that just as soon
as they finish this poorly written boring book, they can get back to
reading something great.



3 comments:

Kerrie said...

Here's to days where we only readaloud...and thanks for sharing again how precious a gift it is!

milkandhoney said...

Great article and hope you get some much deserved and needed rest real soon.
xx

lin x said...

what an encouraging article. love it.love you. lin x