Giving our Children a Love for Reading

One of our most common desires for our children is that they would love reading. Don’t we all wish they were able to learn from whatever they read, and that they would have the attention span to get through a whole book?

The problem is, how can they learn to love reading when one of our first worries when they are young is that they first learn how to read? Many a struggling parent ends the day in tears because her little one still can’t read at 4, 5, 6 years old. After all, our social media feeds are full of other parents bragging about how their son or daughter started reading at 4, 3, 2, 1 year old!

Now, you may say, learning to read is of first importance in the preschool years. (This is compounded with conventional school expecting or requiring first graders to know how to read.) After all, they can’t love reading without first learning how to read, right?

Actually, Charlotte Mason begs to differ.

In Vol. 6 Towards a Philosophy of Education, page 30, she says this:

I would have children taught to read before they learn the mechanical arts of reading and writing; and they learn delightfully; they give perfect attention to paragraph or page read to them and are able to relate the matter point by point, in their own words;

How can we teach children to read without teaching them how to read? Isn’t this contradictory?

Let’s separate “reading” from “the mechanical arts of reading and writing.”

The “mechanical” art refers to the actual process of deciphering letters and sounds and forming them into intelligible words. In this passage, CM refers to “reading” as the immersion of oneself in a story, even when a child doesn’t yet know how to sound out the words himself.

The key words would be that they give perfect attention to pages “read to them.” This points to the utmost importance of reading aloud to children, from a young age.

How does reading aloud help students to develop literacy skills?

Research shows that reading aloud to children who cannot read yet helps them form the connection between the printed words and the words that he hears. He may not immediately recognize the words, but in his mind, he knows that what Mommy is reading are those black squiggles on the page.

For Charlotte Mason, we don’t just read anything; instead, even with our kids’ picture books, we select the best, both in terms of the writing and the pictures. Let’s continue what she says about reading aloud to children below 6 years old:

…but they demand classical English and cannot learn to read in this sense upon anything else. They begin their “schooling” in “letters” at six, and begin at the same time to learn mechanical reading and writing. A child does not lose by spending a couple of years in acquiring these because he is meanwhile “reading” the Bible, history, geography, tales, with close attention and a remarkable power of reproduction, or rather, of translation into his own language. (Vol 6, page 30) 

From these, we can see that we are actually able to “give” our children the gift of loving reading, simply by immersing them in enchanting tales from a young age.

Reading with Young Children

With the CM method, we’re able to enjoy endless tales of chivalry, adventure, and love, even when they’re still too young to read these stories themselves. The good news is that as we read aloud to them, we’re sowing seeds of beauty in their hearts, while also forming precious memories together!

What’s your favorite book to read aloud with your children? Share them in the comments below!