Reading

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)

The Phases of Learning

Thomas Jefferson Education speaks of various phases of learning that children will naturally progress through if allowed to.

Core Phase is roughly age 0 - 8. This is when children learn values. The lessons of this time is to learn the difference between good and bad; true and false; right and wrong. This is done through the curriculum of work and play with family. Academics do not need to be stressed, pushed, or required. If they are pursued, they are in the form of playing and working with the family.



As time goes along, children will transition into a Love of Learning Phase. People in the phase will develop many interests. The interests my last a week or several years. Think of an educational buffet as children sample and test many topics and subjects.



Around the age of 12 or 13, that love of learning gains more structure as the child progresses into Scholar Phase. This is when things start to look a lot more like school. Children are developmentally ready for more rigger in their studies. They start to gain a sense of mission. They may not yet know what they want to do in their lives yet, but they begin to feel the urgency to prepare



Depth phase is more of the college age. By this time they have a general knowledge of what they want to do in their lives and are ready for the in depth preparation to get ready.


There is more, like Mission phase and Impact, but this is good enough for now.


Once one transitions to another phase, they do not leave the previous. They build on each other. I have heard several analogies of how to visualize this, but my favorite is the bicycle tire. The core is the center of the hub. The spokes represent love of learning; the more the merrier. The rim is scholar and the tire is depth.

Agency is a beautiful thing

After the interruptions of summer and moving, Steven reverted back into Core Phase in his education. He was not ready to have anything required of him and was just in play-learning mode. It took me a bit to catch on to what what happening. In my mind he should have been eagerly in love of learning phase spending his days on learning all sorts of things. Well, I decided to back off and give him the space he needed to get back to where he was supposed to be. So about 6 weeks went by with my battling between thinking he really should be doing more and knowing he needed time. Why do I doubt myself?



Well shortly before Christmas, he kind of started to get back in the grove. Then that silly Diary of a Wimpy Kid came along. He started reading like crazy. I had to make him turn off his light at night so that he would get a little sleep. When he was done reading those books as fast as he could get his hands on them, he went over and picked up The Jungle Book of all things. Now that book is NOT necessarily easy reading!! But he is sticking with it and enjoying it.


That Diary thing also got him wanting to write in his journal more, but he feels self conscience about his spelling. So he has been asking to work on that too. I am amazed at the amount of spelling practice he is going through. He is reading his scriptures a lot and reminding me when we forget. He is finding passages he wants to underline and is even quoting stuff. He did say that reading his scriptures helps him understand the older language in The Jungle Book.



I am grateful I gave him the space he needed. I could have decided he needed to be studying more and require more of him. But not only would it have been a battle and not fun for either of us, I could not require all that he is doing now: he is asking for this stuff. He is now back in his Love of Learning and it is stronger than ever.

I love agency education!