Bob Books makes one of the best sets of early reading books commonly available to us parents. I think this is the hardest level to buy for, and you can't find it in the library - when your child can read a three-letter work like cat, but not much more. You wouldn't think it would be that hard to write a book just using the short letter 'a' sound, but I guess not too many people do it! When you do find the right book, and your child feels that pride of reading an entire book for the first time, it's an amazing experience.
Anyway, Damon received the first three sets of Bob books as gifts, but he was already past the first level at the time. I was going to return Set 1 for something else more challenging, but hadn't gotten around to it. A couple of days ago, he insisted on getting them out.
"But those are too easy for you, now," I said.
"But I want to read them!"
Well, OK. You can't argue too much with a kid who wants to read, right? He opened them up and started reading. He read the first few on his own (there are twelve in the set), then decided to read to Dad. Before we knew it, he'd gone through the entire set, reading one after another and elaborating on the stories by describing the pictures.
In the end, I was glad I'd let him open the books. Not only did it give him a great sense of pride and satisfaction to go through the whole set so easily, he was able to show off his skills to Dad (who doesn't get to see him read as often as I do), and it helped solidify his skills. You can never get too much practice, and taking that time to go back and reinforce the basics from time to time will really help him later on.
Sometimes we parents get carried away pushing all the time for our kids to do challenging work and keep progressing, but we forget that sometimes it's just more fun to not work quite so hard. And fun is good. I want my kids to love learning, and to have fun reading. Sometimes easy is more fun.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
More Than One Teacher
My son came home recently with new math homework. He was proud and eager to show me. "Look, Mom! I'm doing double digit multiplication now!"
When it was time to do homework that evening, I sat down to watch. I showed him I had confidence he could do it and let him show off his new skills to me. After a couple of problems, I noticed he was circling one of the digits - something I'd never been taught to do. I asked him what the circle meant and he explained it to me. It helped them identify how many zero's to carry down. OK, great. Show me more!
I watched him do a few more problems, and noticed that some of the answers were coming out with too many digits. I pointed one out, suggesting the number looked long for that problem, and asked how he got the answer. This allowed me to identify what his thought process was and where he was making the mistake. I followed by explaining it in a way that made sense to me. "Here, try it this way." We had a quick discussion on where different numbers went and what they meant. We work as a team in these situation making sense of what each other is trying to say.
After a minute, he said, "Oh, now I get it. Mom, you explain things better than my teachers!" He redid the problems he'd made the mistake on, and this time got the right answers. I continued to follow along, encouraging him as he went. Occasionally he makes a careless mistake. I point it out just by saying, "Are you sure that one's right?" When he double-checks, he's able to find his own error.
The point here is not so much that I'm a better teacher than his teacher at school, but rather students need multiple teachers. There are many different ways to explain the same thing, and different students will respond to different explanations. The best teachers can explain the same thing many different ways. Adding additional "teachers" to the mix (whether they're parents, tutors, siblings, or fellow students) is always a bonus. The more different way something is explained to you, the better chance you have of, "getting it."
When it was time to do homework that evening, I sat down to watch. I showed him I had confidence he could do it and let him show off his new skills to me. After a couple of problems, I noticed he was circling one of the digits - something I'd never been taught to do. I asked him what the circle meant and he explained it to me. It helped them identify how many zero's to carry down. OK, great. Show me more!
I watched him do a few more problems, and noticed that some of the answers were coming out with too many digits. I pointed one out, suggesting the number looked long for that problem, and asked how he got the answer. This allowed me to identify what his thought process was and where he was making the mistake. I followed by explaining it in a way that made sense to me. "Here, try it this way." We had a quick discussion on where different numbers went and what they meant. We work as a team in these situation making sense of what each other is trying to say.
After a minute, he said, "Oh, now I get it. Mom, you explain things better than my teachers!" He redid the problems he'd made the mistake on, and this time got the right answers. I continued to follow along, encouraging him as he went. Occasionally he makes a careless mistake. I point it out just by saying, "Are you sure that one's right?" When he double-checks, he's able to find his own error.
The point here is not so much that I'm a better teacher than his teacher at school, but rather students need multiple teachers. There are many different ways to explain the same thing, and different students will respond to different explanations. The best teachers can explain the same thing many different ways. Adding additional "teachers" to the mix (whether they're parents, tutors, siblings, or fellow students) is always a bonus. The more different way something is explained to you, the better chance you have of, "getting it."
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