Slow-moving train
I have a confession. I have an arrogance problem. Much like a person who has opinions on iPad use for children, yet hasn’t been stuck in an airport for 7+ hours with an impending flight delay. (no offense ;) )
Arrogantly, my oldest was a good reader. She took to it very quickly and truly doesn’t and didn’t have issues. She’s not gifted or a speed reader, but she is typical and does what she needs to do. Like a charm. My second, for no fault of his own, hasn’t taken to it. When I’m famous, my teenage son, I’m sorry for writing this about you, but take it as a testimony that your reading master mom knew what she was talking about, ‘cause surely you know how to read now.
My son didn’t make the progress I thought he would when reading in kindie. He’s not so far behind; it’s not edging on a disability, but it’s behind in my book. I have the scary knowledge of knowing that things move very quickly when students get to first, then second, and God forbid fourth grade, where reading takes a turn for the worse. To catch up, we’ve been practicing a lot now that it’s summer. And woooooeeeeee is it challenging. He won’t listen, he challenges me at every turn, instead of sounding out words he’s say “stupid butt” Which is going to be funny, but right now it’s unhelpful.
This push back, frankly, scares me. Causes me to lose sleep and freak out. This post, then, is for you and also a reminder for me. Reading is a slow-moving train. Cool Jordan, what the heck does that mean? Dissability or not, learning to read is a slow-moving train. This was told to me by my daughter’s Kindie teacher. What does this mean? When children are starting to make the journey to learning how to read, they are gathering lots of information. Letter sounds, shapes, the connection of the two, remembering to put those sounds together and then hear what word those sounds are saying, remembering the words in sequence, and reading smoothly. Take what they heard when reading and then understand the story, the place the story is happening, and the large amount of literary nuance to comprehend the story.
Let’s recognize the gravity of these steps.
Our kids, with challenges for reading or not, are really climbing some hurdles. Some challenging steps. Let’s also think about the fact, our kids just learned how to talk just 4 years prior. Grace is what we should be giving. Let’s now add the complexity of learning with challenges. That’s a whole different delicate ball game. Both instances with reading that patience.
So let’s get back to trains.
What does this mean?
When a giant train engine starts, it moves slowly. duh, right I know, but picture all of the cars that are attached with goods, coal, or people. The weight of that cargo slows the engine down. Until the train pushes through the beginning portion of the journey and gains speed. “I think I can, I think I can.” Once the train gets moving, slowly, the train has a hard time being stopped or slowed down. Picture a train crashing into a semi on the tracks. Nothing is stopping that train.
This is like reading. The train is loaded with the five literacy elements (more on this here), that’s a lot of knowledge. The brain is the engine in this metaphor. Having to struggle through the slow, painful process of remembering all of the car’s worth of knowledge. This is a slow process. BUT when it actually gets going, it’s unstoppable.
Why does this matter?
This should help to give you and me some perspective on why this is taking a very long time. Why your child is pushing back, and to give both of you grace. This is a long, hard process, and it will click one day. It really will.
It will give you both a visual to think back on to make sure you’re remembering how the little work you put in daily will make a difference. When you change your mindset about what you’re learning, or what your child is learning, you’ll be able to work harder for shorter bursts. Or mainly be nice to yourself when you’re learning. The grace and patience with yourself will help you and your child to take a deep breath and try again. The train metaphor is a growth mindset trick. Maybe we’ll get deeper in that in a new post.
*Disclaimer. If your child is truly working hard, and the reading skills you are working on together are not sticking, then there might be something deeper happening. If you have tried everything and they still need extra help, that is perfectly fine. That’s their journey. It will get better, and it will pay off.
What do I do?
Here’s what I did. My son and I practice every day. He reads something to me every single day. We work on sounds. With the help of a summer workbook. If we forget during the day, we practice at night before bed. Practice is like one turn of the wheel, up the reading mountain. Is this easy? HELL NO! I get pushback all the time. It’s tiring.
Something that helped us was to show him a video of a train crashing into a semitruck on YouTube. (Not one where someone gets hurt) and to illustrate with a train toy, the metaphor. This helped take some of the edge off his frustration with the process. Gave him a name for the process and hope for the future. It’s not like they know the end of the road is coming or is there. They just feel dumb. This helps them to know that for their journey, they have an end and a purpose for pushing through.
Happy reading to those LRs
