Reading

Having a child who lives with anxiety can often be an overwhelming experience. It’s painful for us, as parents, to watch our children struggle with the weight of anxiety disorder. We work tirelessly to help them learn coping mechanisms, develop strategies for managing their anxiety, and help them live their best lives. What if there was one small thing—something many of us might already be doing—that could add another layer of support to their anxiety management?

Historical fiction is a big part of our homeschool. I believe that reading historical fiction greatly enhances both our understanding of history as well as our retention of facts from history.

That being said, you would be surprised how that flame got lit. It started long before I ever had children, long before I ever got married. In high school I had a history teacher who used historical fiction to teach. We would learn about a topic from the textbook, but we also had to read one historical fiction book from each unit.

We are those people. Both of my children love books. Yet, despite being read to almost every day of his life, my oldest hated to read.

Have you ever mentioned poetry and heard a groan? Every single time I told my students we’d be starting a poetry unit, the room filled with a chorus of nos. My students, like many people, found poetry boring and hard to understand. Poetry was a language they believed they did not speak.

I understood exactly where they were coming from. Until I took a teaching writing class in college, I stayed as far away from poetry as I could. What changed?

When your children are younger, of course you read aloud to them! But most people stop once a child is reading well independently. I want to share with you why I still read aloud to my teenage daughter. I did it for my now-adult son, and I will continue to read for my 8 year old as he matures.

As our children head rapidly towards adulthood, our time with them tends to be more about offering an ear for their thoughts, offering rides to their numerous activities, and offering sometimes unasked for and unappreciated advice. Draping ourselves on the couch and spending time enjoying a book together is a way to slow down and reconnect.

You assign a volume of classic literature or engaging historical fiction to your child, and he has no desire to read it. You push, assign pages, and encourage your child to stick with it. He fails to read as much as a single chapter. It’s driving you insane. What do you do?

First determine how important the book is to your child’s education. Is it a book easily skipped? If so, my recommendation is to drop it especially if your child usually reads his assigned books. Life is too short to argue over one book.

It’s fun to spend bright summer days outside exploring nature or running around the park. What do you do on gloomy, rainy days though? Those gray days when you’re trapped inside? You create a cozy reading atmosphere and turn gloomy afternoons into beautiful memories of a cozy reading atmosphere.

Gloomy rainy days tend to be cold due to the damp chill in the air. So light a fire in the fireplace to help create a cozy reading atmosphere. If you don’t have a fireplace, you can turn up the heat.

Ah, the winter homeschool rut. You come down from the merriment and flurry of December and find everything waiting for you back on solid ground. Everything. The math books, the phonics lessons, the list of activities that were pushed to the side in mid-November, and the half-finished Read-Aloud anxiously perched atop the pile.

Sometimes we embrace the familiar rhythm and purpose that waits in that pile. Many times though, we find ourselves dragging along by the end of January, completely uninspired and in need of something fresh.

As parents we are always striving to give and do for our kids. We research and worry about what is best and second guess every step we make. But here’s the thing, even if we follow all the rules — whatever they may be — our kids still might not turn out the way we expected.

Take learning to read for example. You spend your child's baby and toddler years surrounding them with board books, reading to them for countless hours, exposing them to as much reading as you can.

This might sound crazy, but one of my biggest fears as a new mom was that my children wouldn't like to read.You see, I'm a bookworm of the highest order. I'm always reading something, actually several somethings. I have my upstairs book, my downstairs book, and my car book. I am a bibliophile.

I'm also an educator. Before homeschooling, I was a school psychologist. In that role I saw so many children who loathed reading. Some of those children had underlying disabilities that made reading challenging, others were pushed to read too soon and balked while others lacked exposure.