Unschool-ology

Unschool-ology
Unschooling: Living Without School; Living Free Range-Freedom to Learn What One Wants When One Wants

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Samantha is on a new diet!

It is called the "All Book" diet. That girl is tearing it up! It is so awesome watching her go at it! All she has done lately is read. Of course we still read together too...All. The. Time! On our home days we just sit on the couch or the bed and cuddle and read for hours after she wakes up. Sometimes we forget about lunch. My throat gets sore from all the reading and all the effort she puts in on the chapters she reads makes her tired, so she has gone back to napping.

It all started with the Samantha American Girl books that I bought her last Christmas. 10 months went by and we read one of the books, "Meet Samantha." Samantha talked about American Girls and how much she loved it, but she didn't know a whole lot about it. Then one day....We read the rest of the 5 books in week and a half. Of course each book is only like 75 pages, medium sized print, and some pages have pictures. I was about to pull out one of the story collections I had put back for Christmas so that she would have something to read, but then she began to beg for the Samantha Mystery book I had bought her for Christmas last year. We finished a 200 page, small print book in two days. And when I say we, I mean we took turns reading! And she did amazing for a 9 and up book! She has been reading anything and everything she could get her hands on.

We tried to go to the library last week to satiate her thirst, but THEY WERE CLOSED! So we made the trip today, on our usual day-today, and she was more excited than I have ever seen her about a trip to the library. She went straight to the computer and began typing-CORRECTLY! She had her hand placement perfect. And when I asked her if she wanted to start a typing program all she could say was, "YES! YES!" She looked up "Animals" and she we talked about the difference between non-fiction and fiction again. And used the decimal system to find the books. She picked out several, but this time showed a lot of progress because she can read most of the titles and the back description now. So she picked out only the ones she KNEW she wanted to read. Afterward, we headed for the American Girl section and picked up the next Samantha mystery book, "The Stolen Sapphire." Wonder if she will race through it in 2 days also! The last thing she picked out was a Frozen novel version of the movie. I explained to her that we already had more than we would finish in two week-being that Thanksgiving is coming up, so we needed to focus on one at a time. Then she volunteered to start reading it to herself "in her head" before she went to sleep last night. Works for me! My throat needs a break, but I do NOT want to discourage her.

I should have known I would have a reader on my hands. We have been reading to her since before she was born and anytime I get a moment to myself I am either writing or reading. Actions speak volumes about what we value. We have been making weekly/biweekly trips for years and she has always enjoyed getting 40-50 books each visit. (However, this time she only checked out 25 because they are more difficult reads.)

But there were discouraging times where I wasn't sure. She sometimes opted out of visiting the library. And there were days, back when we "officially" started homeschooling that Samantha would whine when we read. I was afraid I had destroyed her love forever. I'm sure it doesn't help lately when she wants to practice reading super late at night and I hurry her along. Yea. We all have faults. And while she is most active at night, I am ready to wind down around 9 lately. But she keeps pushing through and every night it seems lately, as I read to her every night, she is following along to herself and she will suddenly pick up where we are and begin going.

Reading on Her Own at my Brother's School


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