We’ve always been a family of readers and take turns reading aloud together for a half hour every evening. This couldn’t be more painful for our eight year old. He’s bright but loves just about everything else better than reading. Are we pushing too hard?
By third grade, children develop their own learning style, drawn from their early patterns of exploring the world. Some explore by looking, others by listening, tasting, moving, or touching. The favored mode of exploring shapes later preferred learning styles. Your child may resent reading because it draws on one of his less-preferred exploration modes. Give him a break and let him strut his stuff instead. Can he teach the family a game or share a discovery? We can’t all be bookworms – we’re simply not born that way.
Tags: Early childhood development, Early childhood education, Learning styles, Reading
I have to agree. I grew up hating to read, and my father was the author of over 70 books. I was a visual learner and devoted most of my life to film and video production. Today I write action adventures and mysteries for readers 8 and up, especially boys, which bring much of that visual part of my life onto the printed page. Kids tell me that reading on of my books is like being in an exciting or scary movie.