Homeschooling Hack: The Surprising Link to Raising Avid Readers
-
By
Angela D'Antonio
- May 30, 2024
You know that feeling when you're utterly consumed by a book, the rest of the world fading away as you turn page after page? For most parents, cultivating that insatiable love of reading in their kids is an arduous journey. But as a homeschooling mom, I stumbled upon a powerful hack for raising voracious bookworms.
I made the choice to homeschool my two daughters, Sophia and Olivia, to allow them to dive deeply into their curiosities while maintaining an academic rigor beyond what our local schools could provide. Little did I know that this path would lead us to unearth a profound love of literature.
My greatest challenge came after Sophia was diagnosed with dyslexia in middle school. Her spelling, math skills, and reading pace lagged behind despite my persistent efforts. We tried reading curriculum after curriculum but nothing seemed to unlock her potential. Each new program and dollar spent yielded minimal results.
It wasn't until Sophia reached high school that we finally found an effective structured program designed specifically for dyslexic learners called the Barton method. But by then, the journey had taken its toll. Sophia muscled through assignments at a glacial pace compared to Olivia. The disparities were glaring, and I felt mounting pressure to find efficient ways to accelerate her learning.
The more I pushed, however, the more Sophia withdrew. I didn't want her memories of homeschooling and her own mother to be clouded by stress and frustration. That's when I had an impulsive stroke of inspiration - I decided to take a break from Sophia's literacy lessons and turn to audiobooks instead.
It started simply enough, with us listening to audiobook versions of the texts for the girls' U.S. History course over family dinners as a time-saving hack. But then an unexpected transformation took place. Freed from laborious decoding, Sophia was able to absorb the rich, vivid narratives effortlessly. Her face became animated, her comprehension soared.
We were hooked. Suddenly, our budget shifted from reading intervention programs to Audible subscriptions. Every road trip and errand became an excuse to delve into extraordinary worlds - from the whimsy of Diary of a Mad Brownie (as story) that our whole Girl Scout troop enjoyed, to the epic masterpieces of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
Gradually, the tension surrounding Sophia's reading gave way to pure enjoyment and literary discussions. Dinners became lively forums for debating political intrigues or analyzing character motivations across centuries. The girls swapped cherished book recommendations with the zeal of traders betting prized possessions.
What had started as a simple shortcut for consuming course material blossomed into an entire curriculum of listening and learning. Through vivid dramatizations and masterful storytelling, both Sophia and Olivia cultivated profound reading comprehension, critical thinking abilities, and a worldly frame of cultural reference.
While Sophia's dyslexia made written text laborious, those very same brilliant auditory processing strengths allowed her to thrive through audiobooks. Finally, her innate gifts were being reinforced rather than scrutinized. Emboldened by her newfound literacy confidence, Sophia began devouring beloved book series independently, deftly navigating plotlines that once seemed impenetrable mazes.
As the years passed, our homeschooled bookworms inhabited more imagined worlds than many of their peers' collective experiences. From transporting dramas to whimsical poetry to evolutionary memoirs, our personal reading curriculum spanned a kaleidoscope of genres, cultures and centuries. In the process, an unquenchable curiosity and passion for literature had taken root in them both.
Today, as both of our daughters prepare for college, one piece of their journey shines most vividly: an enthralled, enduring wonder sparked by the written word in its spoken form. All thanks to a little-known homeschooling hack - the humble audiobook, powering voracious readers.
