We have learned quickly that Ellie is a wiz at math! (even though she is my mini-me, I guess she DOES have some of her daddy in her!). She is beyond her years in math and Greg certainly enjoys teaching her. She sits down and does math for FUN....I.don't.get.that.
Well, we have made it a point to read each night and it is so VERY difficult! She does not enjoy it because it is hard for her. I can see the frustration coming over her after only about 2 minutes of reading.
Tonight was a particularly difficult reading night. She kept bringing me books to read that were MUCH too hard for her. I was reading every other word, she struggled and struggled and was getting more and more frustrated.
THEN my eyes landed on "Horace Mann's Primer Reader".....from 1911. I picked it up somewhere along the line because I just LOVE antique books (amongst other things). Not only did she read it easily, she LOVED it!
We started talking about 1911 (she could not believe it was 100 years old exactly!) and she said "so the little girl who read this book could have played with your baby doll!"
Well OK, not exactly. Some of you know that I have a few antique dolls. Most people think they are creepy. I think they are AMAZING and beautiful. I think of the little girls who held them and loved them. Those little girls are probably not even living now. It fascinates me. Ellie was talking about this doll who is in my upstairs bathroom:
This doll is likely a reproduction of a Bye Lo Grace Putnam doll popular in the 1920's. Even if she isn't as old as that, I still love her....and my husband tolerates her.
But, guess what? My daughter is developing quite the love for all things old fashioned, just like me. So, even if she does like math more.....she is learning to read with a Horace Mann primer. I am happy with that :)
OH my. OH MY. I can only wish that blake will be a readerm as BOTH ihis mother and his father highly prefer tv over reading. I have to force myself to "feel in the mood" when I could just more easily turn on the tv....books just aren't as entertaining to me. Sigh. Maybe he'll surprise us and have some of aunt becky's genes.
ReplyDeleteReading advances with Grace have seem to come in spurts. She goes having trouble with certain things and frustration to suddenly getting it and leaps forward. I'm glad you found something good to work with for her! I think the old primers from the 1800s and early 1900s are great resources for academics, they took things a step at a time and built on each other by mastery not spiral like a lot of school teaching methods currently used.
ReplyDeleteI would wake up to read early before school as well. Crazy. I had forgotten about that.
ReplyDeleteI've found that Kids are imitators along with pursuers of talents they possess from birth. Why I've never "naturally" loved to read, and that consequently hurt my ability to spell, was that I NEVER saw either of my parents read, --- never. In fact, I am so sold on how kids will imitate their parents, I am not surprised when a child will be found "reading" a book upside down. They just want to do what mommy and daddy do. Babe, that's why your mom and dad have always been sticklers on how you and Rachel perceived us in your growing up years. Dad
ReplyDeletefather----so is this why I'm so weird? Becuase I've been immitating you all these years? hahah!
ReplyDeleteI would get up early and read too! and then read when I came home from school, and then read when I was supposed to be sleeping, I can remember pulling almost all nighters because I could not stop reading a book. Love reading!! Good for her! :)
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