Reading: Just Do It!

So I didn't realize until recently what an anomaly I was growing up.  My realization came when someone commented on a fanfic I am writing.  She said that she liked the fic, but she had one critique.  I had written a section where a nine year old writes a report for school and she (the commenter, a teacher) contended that no fourth grader would be able to write the report since the conventions used in the report are not taught until later.  So, I decided to go back and pull out a book series I wrote when I was in fourth grade (yes, I wrote a book series about a cat and swan who fall in love, along with pictures :-D).  I noticed that I wrote using correct grammar and punctuation and that I used some pretty big words.  I concluded that, yes, I could have written the report in my story when I was a fourth grader.

I began to ask myself why it was that I could have written that report in fourth grade when a fourth grade teacher insisted a fourth grader couldn't write like that.  First, I do realize God has gifted me with a love for words and the ability to read and write easily.  However, I also recalled what I read at a young age.  In second grade I read the Little House series.  In third grade, I picked up Sherlock Holmes and started reading it with my dad.  Fourth grade was the Anne of Green Gables series.  When I was in middle school and high school, I started reading classics in the summer for fun.

This summer I went to a teaching conference.  The very first thing the presenter emphasized was that the number one way to develop good writing is an independent reading life.  That is, good writing comes out of reading, not just because someone makes you, but because you choose to read outside of school.  This made sense to me.  When you read, you see good writing modeled for you.  It hit me that I was reading challenging material at a young age.  When I started to write my own stories, since I had been reading good writing, I imitated what I saw on the page.  I learned where punctuation went, how words related to each other and what big words meant.  I wrote out of my reading.

I once heard a man gifted at teaching writing, Andrew Pudewa, say that we need read to our children above their reading level so that they grow in their reading and writing skills.  We tend to keep children at a low reading level, thinking they can't handle harder books.  But how will they grow if they aren't challenged?  I took his advice to heart.  My daughter was quite young at the time, almost a year old.  I put up the books that had only solitary words and pictures and pulled out more advanced board books.  I was surprised that she listened and was so interested.  Now, she's 2 1/2 and I am reading picture books to her that are long and involved, with complex plots.  I thought she might get bored, but she hasn't.  Sometimes I do push her too far and I have to pull back to a simpler book, but it has been amazing to see how she is listening to books way above her level.  Maybe she's like me?

Anyway, all this to say, if we want our children to write well, we'd better read to them and with them now.  Push them to try challenging books.  Encourage them to pick up a book we think is maybe a little too big for their britches.  Help them work through it.  We might find they just rise to the challenge.  And maybe like me, they'll end up writing their own stories out of their love of reading.