The Teachable Moment

Something amazing happened here Wednesday night.  My older son was finishing his homework, and my three year old was sitting at the table as well, coloring in a blank sketch pad. He’s been fixated on letters for a while (I teach 4 year old pre-k classes during the week, so we have quite a few “letter” toys), so I wasn’t too shocked when he drew almost a complete circle and said, “C!  The C says /k/!”  What impressed me was when he turned the page and wrote his name.

One of my mainstays in my classroom is to not push the child into something in which the child isn’t interested or for which the child is not ready.  My younger son sitting down and writing his name was completely on his own.  I like to think of him as a bright child, but he’s not that different from most other children his age.  Writing his name just after his third birthday sounds amazing, but when I analyze the road this child has traveled, he was simply ready.

First of all, my younger child has an excellent model in reading and writing - his brother.  There is a five-year span between my children.  My younger child absolutely idolizes his big brother and wants to do everything with him.  When it is homework time, my younger son is right there, practicing spelling words, “reading” his books, working on a writing assignment.  He is very aware that writing is a way to convey meaning.  It has been modeled for him his entire life.

We also surround our children with the printed world.  The boys love to read the newspaper.  We read the comics together, we look at the weather report together, we read the funny and odd things people have for sale in the paper.  They know that the newspaper is a way to gather information.  We also have several magazines in the house as well.  Now, I’m not a huge subscriber, but we do get two children’s magazines and one magazine for the “older folk” in the house.  My older son loves magazines because the stories are fairly short, and there are a variety of different parts of the magazine to keep him occupied.  My younger son sees this all the time, and he is now eager to look at them as well. 

In addition to newspapers and magazines, we have a SLEW of books, partly because of my occupation and partly because I am an avid fan of children’s literature.  Our books are meant to be used and read, touched and handled.  My children both learned early on how to care for books, but if they do damage or ruin a book, I don’t make a huge issue out of it.  It is all part of the experience of learning about books.  My children would rather read a book than watch TV on most days.  And, our books are varied as far as genre.  We have quite a few fiction books, but my older son is a huge fan of nonfiction, so we have a collection of those as well on various reading and comprehension levels.  We also have poetry books and activity books, such as I Spy and pop up books, books set to song, and books about our favorite subjects. 

Having plenty of print in the child’s environment isn’t the end-all to encouraging a child to write and read; using these tools in a way that encourages a child to think about print is also important.  Pointing out letters or words that are familiar (names, words they may see on a daily basis) will instill confidence in learning them.  If a child wants a book read to him or her, by all means read it!  And talk about it.  Talk about the illustrations.  Talk about the words.  If the child isn’t interested in that approach, then by all means do not push it.  Turning a child off from print and reading/writing is not the result that is hoped for!

Give the child plenty of opportunity to explore their own sense of control over their own print.  Provide a variety of media for writing, scribbling and drawing, such as art pads, notebook paper, small spirals and notepads, even large sheets of paper (I bring home leftover butcher paper from the school).  Try a variety of implements from washable markers, colored pencils, even watercolors and stamp pads with stamps.  Make printing and coloring fun; use colored chalk outside to encourage large-motion skills for writing, such as big circles and long lines.  Invest in a pair of child-size scissors and allow the child to cut on a variety of materials (while supervised), from clay or playdough to newspaper and old mail. 

We also have a variety of early language activities on hand in our house, thanks to my pre-k teaching job, which my younger son believes to be his.  And, that is okay, he can certainly think they are his because he loves to play the games and, in turn, he is exposed to how letters work and beginning sounds.

Each child acquires skills in his or her own time; your child will be ready to write (and read for that matter) when he or she is, well, ready.  As adults, we can make the experiences leading up to those moments as fun and exciting and new as possible, modeling the joy and satisfaction found in writing.