I am so excited for fall! It's true, I am actually excited for the first day of school! While I love teaching all subjects. Language arts is near and dear to my heart.
When our children are young, we teach them to decode (read) and to encode (write) language. This work, in fact, is a complicated task that spans at least three years of our child’s education.
We teach the child that letters—abstract strokes on a page—represent sounds. String those sounds together and you get words. Place words in just the right order on that same page and, well, now you’re talking.
From here the child learns to define, punctuate, to structurally order words on the page according to the rules of grammar. The child might not be able to define exactly why, but soon will discover that words strung together just right are delightful!
Remember Mother Goose?
Blow, wind, blow! And go, mill, go!
That the miller may grind his corn;
That the baker may take it,
And into rolls make it,
And send us some hot in the morn.
And Robert Loius Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses?
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.
My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.
Remember when syntax was a wonder before it was a chore? We crush wonder when we belabor rules at the expense of discovery. Reading and writing is so much more than decoding and encoding.
How do we encourage our children to care about the work of reading?
How do we encourage our children to care about the work writing?
We encourage them to be curious. We encourage them to care about their ideas.
Many years ago, curiouser and curiouser, I had an idea.
How could I teach my children the valuable “HOW TOs” of reading while simultaneously encouraging their curiosity? How could I teach them the valuable “HOW TOs” of writing while simultaneously allowing them to shape their big ideas?
This quest has developed into an extended family passion—Blackbird & Company Educational Press!
I have found that books are terrific mentors, but I have a support team too. Following are some of them:
For phonics I use Explode the Code and a fun new online version.
With my older children I use, Vocabulary from the Classical Roots.
I love Easy Grammar (have used it for dozens of years).
When we teach our children that reading and writing is not a chore but an opportunity, we empower our children to delight.