Our son Erik was a visual learner who picked up the skill of reading quickly as a kindergartner after only two or three weeks of simple home phonics lessons. Once he “clicked” on reading, he read all the easy-to-read books he could find.
He usually read them many times.
I thought he was ready for something harder the summer after first grade. By then he read easy books fluently, and he had a hardy attention span. He could sit attentively for a half hour or more at a time while we read him long children’s classics like C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe at bedtime.
So I suggested he try reading The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, a book he was familiar with because I had read it aloud.
He was ecstatic to find out he could read a novel-length book.
Every day, he reported his progress: “Mom, I’m on page 67!” or “Mom, I’ve read 200 pages!!”
Not every child is ready to tackle such hard books at age 7. Two equally bright children may reach reading readiness at different ages—even five or six years apart.
Our son Matt was a late bloomer who finally “clicked” on reading at age 10.
Yet he, too, was reading novel-length books within two years after he began reading.
For both boys, the key to moving on to the hard books was twofold. First, as parents we built up our children’s vocabulary by reading them many stories that were written well beyond their reading level.
Second, as newbie readers, the boys developed fluency by reading many easy books over and over.
Reading Fluency: Don’t rush kids into harder books too soon
Author and educator Ruth Beechick states that encouraging reading fluency is an important step that parents (and schools) tend to skip by pushing children on to harder and harder reading materials.
This is a mistake, she says, because reading lots of easy books helps developing young readers in several essential ways. First, it gives them practice with decoding skills until these skills become over-learned and automatic. It also helps them learn and relearn the common words that make up a large percentage of all books, including difficult ones.
Reading Fluency: Reading lots of easy books helps children read more smoothly and rapidly
It also helps them develop comprehension, instead of losing the sense of a passage while struggling to deal with difficult vocabulary and decoding at the same time. Finally, reading lots of easy books helps youngsters find out that reading can be fun.
But what is an easy book? The answer varies from reader to reader.
Beechick explains that every child has three reading levels at all times:
· A frustration level
· A learning level
· And a comfort level.
(These levels provide a way to rate books, not a way to rate individual children.)
She says to rate a book, mark off a section of about 100 words, and ask your child to read it to you aloud.
The frustration level
If your kiddo has trouble reading more than five words, the book is at that child’s frustration level. It has so many new words that the child cannot follow the sense of the story.
Avoid pushing kids to read at their frustration level. Set aside the book for a while.
Kids who are pressured to read books at their frustration level become reluctant readers. It makes them want to give up on reading.
The learning level
If your kids miss three to five words in the 100-word section, the book is at their learning level.
This is a book for you to read together. Take turns reading every other paragraph or page. Whenever Junior encounters a problem with a word, you can help him solve it.
The comfort level
If your kiddo misses two words or less in the 100-word section, the book is at their comfort level. It’s an easy book. They can read it independently and understand the story well.
It’s a good book for a child to read alone or to a younger brother or sister. Reading many books at this comfort level will improve a child’s reading fluency.
Here’s how to teach kids to test themselves when choosing library books.
· Tell them to read a page in the book (assuming that a page will have from 100 to 200 words on it) and
· Use their fingers to count the words they don’t know.
· Whenever they run out of fingers on one hand, the book is probably too hard.
If the simplest books in the library are on kids’ frustration level, it means they don’t really know how to read yet.
In that case, you need to back up and figure out whether or not your child has reached reading readiness yet.
(Beechick’s book, The Three R’s, includes information about ways to tell when a child is ready to read.) If your kiddo is ready, you can try to teach them to read using a good phonics program.
However, if your kiddo shows symptoms of dyslexia, such as
writing letters and figures backwards
confusing the order of letters in words
(and look up “dyslexia symptoms” online for a more comprehensive list)
you’ll need more help.
Testing in the schools is uneven. Parents are more likely to obtain the most up to date testing for dyslexia by asking their pediatrician for a referral to a child psychologist to address that specific issue.
The Orten Gillingham system appears to be the one phonics reading system that has shown proven success with people who struggle with reading.
Resource: The Three R’s by Ruth Beechick includes a reading section (telling how and when to begin phonics and how to develop comprehension skills) a language section (showing how to develop written language skills naturally) and an arithmetic section (explaining how to teach children to understand math concepts). Beechick explains the reading process simply. She gives directions for providing reading readiness activities, introducing phonics, teaching children to read using real books, testing children’s reading level, and tutoring spelling. ISBN13:978-0-88062-173-1
How could I be grumpy with a baby in distress and feel OK about it?
It was especially hard for me the year after our third child, Matthew, was born. We had
two preschool energizer bunnies and a new baby for me to keep up with during the day,
and my husband was frequently gone nights, traveling out of town with his work.
Even when Dennis was in town, we felt I should be the one to get up with the little ones
at night since he had to get to work in the morning. While I, theoretically, could sleep in.
We didn’t realize that an undiagnosed thyroid condition added to my tiredness.
Caring for Babies: Overcoming Sleep Deprivation with Gratitude
How could I hear that little wail, push my protesting body out of bed, and come up with the loving patience I needed to comfort my child?
First, a bachelor writer helped me.
C.S. Lewis advised his readers to be grateful to Jesus during everyday challenges. With his wisdom, I learned to pray when I heard that little wail: “Thank You, Jesus, for dying
on the cross to save me.”
“My little bit of suffering at getting up right now is nothing compared to what You did for me. Thank You for suffering for my sake.”
And then there were the nights – so many of them! – when the baby was sick and kept waking over and over.
That was when my mother helped me.
“‘All to Jesus, I Surrender’ makes a good lullaby,” she told me.
So I learned to settle down in the rocking chair with the baby and begin to surrender:
“Jesus, I don’t get many opportunities to praise you at 2 in the morning,” I’d say. “So, I’m
going to take this as my opportunity.”
Then I would sing that old familiar hymn:
All to Jesus I surrender (All? Even my sleep? Yes, Lord, even my sleep)
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.
Refrain: I surrender all, I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
All to Jesus I surrender,
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.
All to Jesus I surrender,
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power,
Let Thy blessing fall on me.
After I sang the surrender song, I’d begin singing praise songs to the Lord.
Over and over, time after time, the presence of God would fill the room.
I lost track of time. My fussy baby stopped fussing and fell dead asleep in my arms. But
I’d keep singing. It was so good to be in the presence of the Lord. To know His peace in
my chaos.
Then finally, sleepiness would overwhelm peace.
I put the baby back to bed, slipped into my own bed, and then – no longer irritated, no
longer upset, but still tired – I drifted off to sleep.
It happened many times, thanks to a song.
Here’s a story/journal prompt for you:
Is there a song that calms and speaks to you? When? Why?
Or maybe there is something that bugs you, something that happens over and over that
troubles you. Is this something you need to surrender to Jesus? Would the words to this
song help you think through that hurt, habit or hang-up?
Try writing and reflecting on it in a journal or notebook. It might be useful to include
the date, turn it into prayer and come back to it one day.
(Note: Judson W. Van DeVenter is the author of “All to Jesus, I Surrender.” His hymn is
in the public domain.)
Children can create healthy, no-cook recipes for summer
Even when it’s hot, kids love to help out in the kitchen.
These snacks are great for teaching children kitchen skills and kitchen independence. They require no cooking, and they are easy enough for a 2-year-old or 3-year-old to help and 5-year-olds to manage most of the steps with assistance. Responsible older children can make them easily by themselves.
Toddlers need assistance, but it’s essential to let them help and learn when they want to do it. If you keep shooing them away while working in the kitchen, they absorb “Go Away” messages. And that often makes them resist learning to help when they are older. A 2-year-old or 3-year-old can learn safe-cutting skills if you teach them to cut something easy, like slicing banana rounds with a dinner knife.
That said, in these recipes, cutting with sharp knives and using an electric mixer are jobs only for adults and older children who have had a lot of practice under supervision and have proven themselves to be responsible.
The no-cook recipes
Graham Cracker Faces:Spread graham crackers with peanut butter and make funny faces on the crackers with raisins, chocolate chips, carrot curls, coconut, etc.
Apple or Banana Slice Delight: Spread apple and/or banana slices with softened cream cheese or peanut butter.
Ants on a Log:Cut celery in short lengths, spread the cupped side with peanut butter and add “ants” (raisins)
Fruit kabobs: Gather and prepare an assortment of fruit and place each kind in a bowl – pineapple chunks (cut fresh or from a can, drained), cantaloupe or honeydew melon balls or chunks, sliced bananas, and washed grapes with the stems pulled off. Push one piece of each kind of fruit onto a bamboo skewer. Repeat your pattern until the skewer is full.
Toothpick treat: No bamboo skewers? Arrange the fruit on a plate and let kids eat it with toothpicks. Add chunks of cheese, pieces of cooked cold meat, or sandwiches cut up in one-inch squares to make this a whole, balanced meal. Toothpick meals are fun for kids to prepare and eat as a special treat. Somehow, spearing food with toothpicks makes ordinary food special.
Cereal balls:In a large bowl, thoroughly mix ½ cup peanut butter, 1/3 cup honey, ½ cup flaked coconut, ½ cup of your children’s favorite cereal, & any popular extras you have on hand, like raisins or banana chips. Pour another 1 ½ cups of your children’s favorite cereal into a second large bowl. Shape spoonfuls of the first mixture into balls and roll them in the cereal in the second bowl. Chill and eat.
Homemade popsicles:Pour fruit juice into paper cups. Place a clean plastic spoon into each cup for a popsicle holder. The spoon will freeze at an angle, but that just gives juice popsicles a little more character. Freeze. When the popsicle is frozen, tear off the paper, or if you want to recycle the cup, run it under warm water and gently pull it on the spoon.
Let your children experiment by combining juices—cranberry and orange are tasty combinations, for example. You can also try other things, such as chocolate milk-flavored yogurt. A great yogurt combination is 2 cups plain yogurt, a 6-oz. can of undiluted frozen orange juice, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Even plain water works in a pinch. It makes a true icicle and cools you off marvelously when the temperature soars.
Frozen yogurt pie: In a mixer, whip together two 8-oz. cartons of yogurt and one 8-oz. carton of Cool Whip.™ Pour into a prepared graham cracker crust and freeze until set. This is especially tasty when made with lemon or berry-flavored yogurt. You can spoon the yogurt and Cool Whip™ mixture into paper cups for lusciously rich popsicles instead of making this recipe into a pie.
Personalized trail mix:Visit a natural food store or the natural food department at a supermarket to buy your ingredients: nuts, dried fruit (raisins, apricots, dates, apples), granola or muesli, and carob or chocolate chips. Mix everything in a big bowl and spoon it into sandwich bags. Take it along on a hike or set it out for a snack. Somehow, trail mix that kids make themselves tastes better to them than what you buy for them already mixed in the store.
Frozen bananas:Slice bananas in half and insert ice cream sticks in the cut ends. Freeze on a cookie sheet or pan and store in ziplock bags. When you want to eat them, allow the bananas to thaw slightly, and dip them into different toppings, such as peanut butter, finely chopped nuts, flavored yogurt, coconut, or caramel ice cream topping.
Frozen banana drink:Peel a banana, wrap it in plastic, and freeze it. Blend the frozen banana with ½ cup half-and-half, 2 tablespoons honey, and 1 teaspoon vanilla in an electric blender until smooth.
Our son Erik was a visual learner who picked up the skill of reading quickly as a kindergartner after only two or three weeks of simple home phonics lessons. Once he “clicked” on reading, he read all the easy-to-read books he could find.
He usually read them many times.
I thought he was ready for something harder the summer after first grade. By then he read easy books fluently, and he had a hardy attention span. He could sit attentively for a half hour or more at a time while we read him long children’s classics like C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe at bedtime.
So I suggested he try reading The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, a book he was familiar with because I had read it aloud.
He was ecstatic to find out he could read a novel-length book.
Every day, he reported his progress: “Mom, I’m on page 67!” or “Mom, I’ve read 200 pages!!”
Not every child is ready to tackle such hard books at age 7. Two equally bright children may reach reading readiness at different ages—even five or six years apart.
Our son Matt was a late bloomer who finally “clicked” on reading at age 10.
Yet he, too, was reading novel-length books within two years after he began reading.
For both boys, the key to moving on to the hard books was twofold. First, as parents we built up our children’s vocabulary by reading them many stories that were written well beyond their reading level.
Second, as newbie readers, the boys developed fluency by reading many easy books over and over.
Reading Fluency: Don’t rush kids into harder books too soon
Author and educator Ruth Beechick states that encouraging reading fluency is an important step that parents (and schools) tend to skip by pushing children on to harder and harder reading materials.
This is a mistake, she says, because reading lots of easy books helps developing young readers in several essential ways. First, it gives them practice with decoding skills until these skills become over-learned and automatic. It also helps them learn and relearn the common words that make up a large percentage of all books, including difficult ones.
Reading Fluency: Reading lots of easy books helps children read more smoothly and rapidly
It also helps them develop comprehension, instead of losing the sense of a passage while struggling to deal with difficult vocabulary and decoding at the same time. Finally, reading lots of easy books helps youngsters find out that reading can be fun.
But what is an easy book? The answer varies from reader to reader.
Beechick explains that every child has three reading levels at all times:
· A frustration level
· A learning level
· And a comfort level.
(These levels provide a way to rate books, not a way to rate individual children.)
She says to rate a book, mark off a section of about 100 words, and ask your child to read it to you aloud.
The frustration level
If your kiddo has trouble reading more than five words, the book is at that child’s frustration level. It has so many new words that the child cannot follow the sense of the story.
Avoid pushing kids to read at their frustration level. Set aside the book for a while.
Kids who are pressured to read books at their frustration level become reluctant readers. It makes them want to give up on reading.
The learning level
If your kids miss three to five words in the 100-word section, the book is at their learning level.
This is a book for you to read together. Take turns reading every other paragraph or page. Whenever Junior encounters a problem with a word, you can help him solve it.
The comfort level
If your kiddo misses two words or less in the 100-word section, the book is at their comfort level. It’s an easy book. They can read it independently and understand the story well.
It’s a good book for a child to read alone or to a younger brother or sister. Reading many books at this comfort level will improve a child’s reading fluency.
Here’s how to teach kids to test themselves when choosing library books.
· Tell them to read a page in the book (assuming that a page will have from 100 to 200 words on it) and
· Use their fingers to count the words they don’t know.
· Whenever they run out of fingers on one hand, the book is probably too hard.
If the simplest books in the library are on kids’ frustration level, it means they don’t really know how to read yet.
In that case, you need to back up and figure out whether or not your child has reached reading readiness yet.
(Beechick’s book, The Three R’s, includes information about ways to tell when a child is ready to read.) If your kiddo is ready, you can try to teach them to read using a good phonics program.
However, if your kiddo shows symptoms of dyslexia, such as
writing letters and figures backwards
confusing the order of letters in words
(and look up “dyslexia symptoms” online for a more comprehensive list)
you’ll need more help.
Testing in the schools is uneven. Parents are more likely to obtain the most up to date testing for dyslexia by asking their pediatrician for a referral to a child psychologist to address that specific issue.
The Orten Gillingham system appears to be the one phonics reading system that has shown proven success with people who struggle with reading.
Resource: The Three R’s by Ruth Beechick includes a reading section (telling how and when to begin phonics and how to develop comprehension skills) a language section (showing how to develop written language skills naturally) and an arithmetic section (explaining how to teach children to understand math concepts). Beechick explains the reading process simply. She gives directions for providing reading readiness activities, introducing phonics, teaching children to read using real books, testing children’s reading level, and tutoring spelling. ISBN13:978-0-88062-173-1
© Becky Cerling Powers 2021
Reprint with attribution only (www.beckypowers.com)
You can find more parenting insights from Becky Cerling Powers in Sticky Fingers, Sticky Minds: quick reads for helping kids thrive in the Bookstore