When Steven was about a year old, I started reading about homeschooling and different philosophies about learning. One of the first books I found was by Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore called Better Late Than Early. Raymond Moore was the California State school superintendent of instruction during the 70's. In this book he documented why it is better to wait for children to be developmentally ready to learn instead of pushing them during the preschool years. They followed several hindered children who did not enter school until they were about 8 years old. As long as these children were placed with their age-mates they caught up with their peers within a matter of months and generally passed them up. The only children who had problems were the ones who were not permitted to be with their age mates. If they were put in kindergarten instead, they suffered. The Moore's also cited studies that showed that pushing children could actually do much more harm than good, sometimes even physical damage.
This book was very influential for me. But this was not the only one. I seemed to be lead and guided to similar writers/educators who advocated waiting. As I began to explore further I did eventually come in contact with the opposite philosophy, but by then I felt strongly that, for my family, I should not push. It has been found that generally by the time children are 13, you can't tell who began reading at 4 and who began reading at 10. It all seems to average out. What does matter is if that love of reading is alive. Many children pushed before they are developmentally ready resist and never really love reading.
Now this did take some faith on my part. I ended up with an eight year old who would decline to read in church because he "couldn't read." Now he could, but not well, and he did not feel confident. I knew from my research that his time would come. That he would blossom.
So you can imagine how exciting the last couple of months have been for me as I have watched Steven's love of reading blossom. It is sometimes hard to have faith in what you know is right in your heart but what others question. It really does work. I just need to trust the process! (and wait 10 years)
I read quite a bit about this in my Child Development class. It's interesting how schools are just not tuned into their students. Which is probably why I've never taken much stock in what the teachers had to say when they give extra homework so the kids can catch up. They'll catch up when it means something to them and no amount of me sitting at the kitchen table forcing them to do their homework is going to change that in any positive way.
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