Reading is Fundamental

After twenty two years of homeschooling and after teaching all seven of our offspring to read (one of my greatest accomplishments) we only have two kids who are avid book readers- the girls. This was despite the fact that the boys all witnessed the example of their manly father devouring thousands of books during his leisure time. I also expected that spending countless hours listening to me read literature out loud to them instead of having an evening in front of a television set would instill a love of reading in every single one of them. That is what the pedagogy books said anyway. It didn't work out that way though and I blame our modern, fast-paced, distracting world. I'm not sure what else to blame. The big boys occasionally read books but not at the rate that their sisters do.



But I am still working on the last two boys. They are just now becoming proficient enough at reading to be able to read independently though there are still plenty of vocabulary questions along the way.

I recently purchased several more books in my quest to find things for the boys to read on their own. Two that I found are by one of our favorite publishers- Usborne Books.



Though they are non-fiction books they still serve the purpose of getting the boys to sink into reading. This young reading series has proved to be a winner. The boys have been eagerly reading these books and in record time too. They pause to talk about the facts that are presented and to ask questions.





The drawings are fun as they always are in the Usborne books and the information is presented in an interesting way. They are getting science and history lessons without even knowing it and I get to learn things too.

I could relate to this episode with Dr. Luigi Galvani making the frog leg jump with electricity.

Raise your hand if you've ever had a Galvanic treatment in a chiropractor's office.
{{raising hand}}

Ah...it warms my heart to see little boys reading books.

I will definitely look for some more books in this young reader series. These books are so packed with information that I think the boys will read them time and again and each time learn new things.

Tonight Samuel announced that the TGV train is the fastest passenger train in the world. He was thrilled to be reminded that he has ridden on one of these trains. That led to a recounting of the whole high-speed-train separation episode that is forever branded on this mother's heart. It's no wonder this child still has separation anxiety issues. If you have a strong constitution and want to read all about it, don't miss reading the conclusion to the story.