Kindling Literacy Part 2: The Sound of a Good Book

(Read Kindling Literacy Part 1)

My husband John and I desire not only to help our own children love to read, but to help families all over the world discover this love as well.

Here’s how we endeavor to create a love for reading (through both content and method):
We choose attractive, quality books.

I was quite distressed over the literature selections I found in the children's department during a recent visit to a chain bookstore. I couldn't find a single award-winning book. Everything I looked at was the literary equivalent of junk food: the results of mass-marketing campaigns or spin-offs of cartoons and movies. I was absolutely flabbergasted. Where was the carefully crafted prose? The well-drawn characters that stay with you for a lifetime?

Kids and parents need lists of quality books, so they can know they are spending time reading GOOD literature—the kind of books that hook your kids for life. I want to make sure families can look to sonlight.com for books that are truly worthwhile.

We read aloud (that is a both past and present-tense read!) to our children and encourage other families to do so through the structure of Sonlight Curriculum. One of literacy’s best-kept secrets is the power of reading out loud to children. Why?

• As I noted in my last post in this series: Because reading aloud enables you to prove that reading itself is a valuable activity. When you read great books to your children, it develops within them (most children, anyway!) a profound desire to read on their own: "Oh, what am I missing?!?"
• Because when children can hear their parents tell colorful, rich tales from around the world, and when they hear the excitement in their parents voices as they “get into the best parts” of the story, they understand that books are more than lots of words to sound out and string together. They understand them as a valuable entertainment and an open door to a wide world of knowledge.
• Because when children can simply enjoy a story rather than having, also, to do the hard work of decoding all the words, it provides additional encouragement that reading is really worthwhile.
• Because when children listen to captivating stories above the level they can actually read themselves, it means they can find inspiration, discover the value of books, and find out why reading is worth the work. They learn it is worth their while to strive for something beyond their current abilities.
• When parents read aloud to their children…
  Kids gain a strong vocabulary.
• They learn how to relate to other people through the examples (positive and negative, good and bad) of people in the stories they read.
• Parents are encouraged to discuss issues they might not otherwise address--but that they really want to address, now that the subject has been broached. They are thus encouraged to shape their children’s character and critical thinking skills in ways they would otherwise not touch them.
• Besides just recounting the events of a story, children learn how to observe, make conclusions, and form opinions.
• And I cannot overestimate the value of reading aloud together as a family as a form of bonding and making memories. I fondly think of the times when my son Justin and my husband John read the Ralph Moody Little Britches series during the summer between Justin's junior and senior year in high school. They sat there, shoulder to shoulder, for hours. Not because Justin was incapable of reading the books on his own, but because he and his dad enjoyed the shared experience and the chance to dialogue together. Now, even though my children are all adults, some of them will come over and we will read books out loud together in the evening. It’s one of our favorite pastimes.

Reading out loud, I am convinced, is the best (and, possibly, only) way to prove to non-readers that they are missing something they really and truly do not want to miss.

At Sonlight, parents send us testimonies galore of children young and old who "hated" to read . . . but, when introduced to the wide and wonderful world of thoughtful, rich and emotionally satisfying literature, they "can't help themselves" but keep reading.

We often hear from women who had never seen their husbands read anything. These men overhear their wives reading to the kids. Next thing Mom knows, her husband is asking to be permitted to sit in on the reading . . . or complains when she and the kids read ahead and he can't overhear the story . . . or he begs to be permitted to do the reading for her.

Talk about captivating books! Just imagine the impact parents so “hooked” on good literature will make on their children. Kids may actually buy into the concept that learning is not just for “school days,” but a life-long adventure. (May it be so for more and more children!)

I aim to spread this contagious love for good books and a desire to learn through Sonlight Curriculum—it’s one of the reasons I spend so much time carefully evaluating and choosing great literature for our homeschool programs.

I believe families will love to read and learn by the time they finish a year of bonding and growing together over great books. I’m committed to finding materials that enable just that, and Sonlight Curriculum goes a step further and even guarantees it.

So what are you waiting for? Go steal a moment with your kids and a great book right now!
Sarita
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Be sure to come back soon to read the final post in this series “Motivation Stems from Perceived Value” or “Why you wouldn’t have to pay me to pan for gold.”