Learning to Read...

("... But I ain't got wings..." I know that my age is showing, but in my head Tom Petty sings this post title.)

Larkin and Finn have been doing tons of reading for a long time now, mostly in little pieces: signs, book titles, food labels, etc. However, neither of them were labelling themselves "readers." I was beginning to think that until they could read as fluently as Emile and I, they would continue to announce to the world at large that they couldn't read. And, I admit, that admission was starting to make me a little uncomfortable in public.

A few months ago, I felt like their interest level and readiness had peaked and I mentioned an on-line reading program that I had seen recommended several times on unschooling mailing lists. Reading Eggs is essentially a series of progressively more advanced reading lessons for young children. Finn is at the higher end of their suggested age range, but neither he nor Larkin have felt patronized by the program.

I have LOVED this experience. I feel like it has given me a much clearer look into how Larkin and Finn are learning to read and it has been remarkably fun watching them amaze themselves with their new Mad Skillz.

So... Larkin and Finn have come at reading from two very different directions. Larkin has been sounding out words for years-- mastering all the sounds various letters and letter combinations can make in sequence. She could sound a word out with the best of them... but, until recently, she had no idea what word she was saying. In fact, it had been a favourite game for quite a while for Larkin to sound out a word while Finn would tell her what word she had read. She had no concept of "sight words..." words like "the" were painstakingly sounded out every time.

Finn, on the other hand, couldn't sound anything out to save his life, but had learned tons of words in context from day to day life. Okay, the day to day life of someone who particularly enjoys video games. :) Words like "continue," "player," "again," "open," and "game" were part of his handy repertoire. When faced with words he didn't know, he would look at the end and the beginning of the word and make a wild guess. Something like "weird" was just as likely to be "weathered" or "world" or "word." Vowel sounds, especially, were completely interchangeable in his mind. Bed, bad and bid? Probably identical. With context clues, he was pretty good... without, a bit of a wild card.

Larkin and Finn have never had any kind of academic lesson or test. I was honest when I presented Reading Eggs... I told them that it was essentially a series of lessons designed by people who wanted to make learning to read more like a game for kids. They were super enthusiastic. I told them we could start at the beginning of the program or they could take a test and be placed at whichever level seemed appropriate to their current reading level. I was a little surprised at just how excited they both were to take the test. It may have been a life experience thing: People on TV take tests! Let's see what that's like!

It was surprisingly hard (for all of us) to keep quiet and let the test-taker proceed as directed. We were using our iPad, all snuggled up in bed, but they were determined to follow directions and not give or get any help so they would be placed appropriately. They both tested more than halfway through the program, much to their surprise and delight.

I definitely set a precedent there. They love "doing" Reading Eggs, but they don't just pick it up randomly as I imagined they might. They request it and we pile into bed and they take turns doing levels while we all snuggle and watch and laugh at the silly animations. The Rules have evolved such that we're all allowed to pitch in as desired in the levels, but the quizzes at the end of every 10 levels are a strictly solo event. We have probably been getting through 5-7 lessons every week since starting the program (just as a reference, the lessons started out taking about half an hour and now are probably down to 15-20 minutes each).

I was amused/surprised at how Larkin and Finn's approach to these games/lessons differed from what I would have expected... or perhaps from how I would have approached them in school. As an example, there are some games that ask you to match a word to its illustration. If you hover over the word, it is read aloud to you. I actually found myself getting frustrated with how long the kids were taking on those levels... I mean, it's not rocket science to hover over a word and then match it to a picture, right?!? Then I realized that Larkin and Finn were both figuring out what they thought the word was *before* hovering over it to check their work. They weren't trying to get through the level as fast as possible; they were actually using the lesson as a tool to learn how to read. Thank goodness I can (usually) manage to keep my mouth shut while figuring this stuff out.

It has also been interesting to see how differently Larkin and Finn approach the games. Larkin wants to get the right answer. She looks at everything pretty carefully before choosing her answer and whacks herself in the forehead or makes a disgruntled noise when she makes a mistake. Finn, on the other hand, makes exactly one mistake for each new type of game. He also looks at everything pretty carefully before choosing his answer, but then he deliberately clicks on a wrong answer just to see what the animation and/or sound clip associated with a mistake is. Then there is usually a certain amount of laughing and falling off the bed before the level can proceed.

I really think we introduced this at the right moment for both Larkin and Finn. It probably would have been more frustrating than fun even just a year ago. Finn can now sound out words like a champ, and Larkin has built up a considerable collection of words that she can read on sight.

Mostly, it has been a huge confidence booster for both of them. Once, Finn said that Reading Eggs really taught him to read. I told him that, in my opinion, Reading Eggs was a big help while he was learning to read. Semantics? Maybe. But that feeling of ownership over such a big thing (Learning To Read!!) is huge. Neither Larkin nor Finn describe themselves as non-readers any more. They may still be slightly behind their school-aged peers (although I honestly don't have any idea what their school-aged peers are supposed to be reading), but learning to read was never a struggle for them. In some ways, Reading Eggs is as traditional as can be: a reading curriculum, complete with quizzes and points that you earn by completing levels. But the freedom to come to it (or not) when it felt useful to them makes all the difference. Reading was not a lesson imposed upon them, but a skill they gained over time and with interest. That's a big part of what makes this so exciting for me-- that is what I want learning to be!

Yesterday, in the car, Finn asked me what a "phthalate" was. Disregarding the obvious question of what exactly we're leaving in our back seat, yeah, I think the kid can read.