reading to the very young

So in response to Smash’s question…what do you read to very young people, when you can’t imagine reading novels?  It all starts with story books.  Reading leads to wondering.  Reading leads to questions.  Reading leads to learning, research, delving into a subject with your heart and soul.

One of the best places to look for good children’s story books, is in a really good book store, or in the recommendations for in the children’s literature section of homeschool catalogues.  The library will carry all the beautiful books too, but also a lot of garbage.  If you are familiar with some of the good story books,  or some of the well reputed authors…you can go to the library armed and ready.

So the natural place to start is just with beautiful story books.  Before my kids were, “school age” we just cuddled on the couch to read, and asked our questions and did our wondering.  My kids have learned their letters by going to get the encyclopedias to answer their questions.

So the natural progression is from board books to story books, to longer story books, to novels of interest to young people.  And then onto more challenging novels.  We moved from each book being its own little unit study, a few minutes reading and a few minutes wondering…to longer books, ones that might have us spend our morning wondering and getting answers.  Eventually the novels we started would become our jumping off point for the length of the novel, a week or two.  Eventually, we could several books from a particular time period and study history through that method.

So the habit of wondering and finding out, is developed from a really young age, well before books, really.  All that said, though, we start novels pretty young.  Probably 4 or 5.  Even a 2 or 3 year old will sit at the table and listen.  And if they wander off…well that’s okay too.

A word on containment here.  It’s way more relaxing to read to your kids if your toddlers can’t beetle off into unknown territories of the house.  If you can close doors (put hooks up high if they can open knobs) or baby gate off a “safe” area so that you can relax and read somewhere and toddlers can’t get away.  They are trapped.  We have a “play corner” in our kitchen where we read, so there are lots of little things to play with while and keep little people (and bigger kids ) hands busy while I read. 

When my kids were quite small, I kept a little basket of wonderful little things, I called it the reading basket, that I only brought out when I read.  I had it there for the sole purpose of keeping little ones in the same room with me while I read, and out of harm’s way.  However, little girls are far more interested in little trinkets in a basket than boys are, I trapped them through interest.  Once the boys starting coming, I had to actually trap them. 

Sometimes it is hard and sometimes it is noisy and sometimes we didn’t get to read more than ten minutes…but that is okay.  When I had to give attention to quiet a toddler or baby, one of my older kids would take over the reading for a few minutes.  But they’ve always liked it best when I read.  

Like all aspects of motherhood, we can ease into it, over three or four years with resources and developing a method that works the the family.    If you want to start family reading, you are generally starting with small children, less reading time, less resources required as the books you are choosing are going to be geared towards younger kids.  There are a few early novels that would fall under the category of children’s classics that we have read over and over.  E.B. White, (Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little) The Five Little Peppers and How they Grew, Little House Series,  Abel’s Island, Chronicles of Narnia, and so so many more.

Here is not the place for an exhaustive list, but perhaps the recommendation of a couple of book guides, Honey for a Child’s Heart and Books Children Love have been our staple resource books for choosing literature.  Both well worth having, even when children are very small.  Charlotte’s Web has almost always been the first chapter book we have read to little ones.  The fascination with animals, and farm life and simple living and childhood adventures and country fairs are a great testing ground to see if a child is ready to for chapter books.

If they aren’t interested, if it is a chore to keep them engaged, just wait a little longer.  Six months or a year, then try again.  I’ll address resources for dictation for the Very Young in another post.