From: Esme Raji Codell <esme>
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 14:24:37 -0500

The greatest reading motivator for my nine year old son seems to be unscheduled time. He always did fine at school according to his teachers and he loved being read aloud to, and he always said he loved books, but I never really saw him read of his own volition, or ?get lost in a book,? that wonderful spell where you don?t know where you are or hear your mother calling you. After school, he was busy with homework (non-reading related, or textbooks with worksheets attached) and classes and teams to fill in the lack of programming at his school. At night, he would just konk out. It wasn?t until we started homeschooling that suddenly it seemed he had the time and attention span to read and read and read, and started to ask for particular books that reflected more of his own tastes. I?m not saying that homeschooling is necessarily better, only that I think part of what makes reading fun is having the time to do it, in a cozy place uninterrupted by bells or annoying questions or thoughts of tests.

I loved comic books as a child, and picture books that were still way below my ?grade level? because I thought they were so beautiful and funny. Now I?m a grown-up who still reads picture books. I would have stunk at AR.

Esme Raji Codell Site Director

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Received on Wed 13 Oct 2004 02:24:37 PM CDT