Phonics

This will be the Zimmerer family’s fifth year to homeschool. One of our sons graduated last spring so I will only have the two youngest boys to teach: our fifteen-year-old sophomore and the junior who will be seventeen-next-month.

Teaching two sounds like it ought to be easier than three… why, then, do I suddenly find myself so nervous?

The reason stems from a July conversation with Ryan and Joshua.

While I’m going to attempt to keep this Zimmerer Tale short and to the point, first, it’s important that you know a bit of background to this story. For the entire time we have been homeschooling, the pair of testosterone laden teens have struggled in reading and language arts. I’ve purchased three different English programs, attempted to teach vocabulary, and ended up totally exasperated trying to teach them to write. I felt like I was butting my head up against a brick wall.

Last year, in a move born out of complete desperation, I decided to take a bold step. I would unschool the boys in Language Arts.

We chunked traditional English and focused strictly on reading literature the boys liked. I also ditched grammar and writing programs in exchange for working in a journal on a daily basis.

I knew that some of their intense dislike of the subject stemmed from a required reading program at their former public school. While the intention and outcome of the Accelerated Reading program is without equal for those kids who like to read, the amount of material that has to be digested during the school year ends up being like a millstone around the neck of those who either don’t like to read, or who don’t read well.

Guess which crowd my youngest two sons fit in?

For the entire 2003-04 school year I gritted my teeth, suppressed my desire to beat Language Arts into their thick heads and stuck to the reading/writing program I started.

The result? Did they learn lots of English? Nope. Did they learn to love good literature? Nope. But would I do it again? Definitely, yes! While Ryan and Joshua still profess not to like to read, as I sit here this morning my youngest is on the couch with a magazine in hand. Both boys’ writing ability has significantly improved. And the year’s primary goal, a time of decompression, was accomplished.

My biggest epiphany during the year of unschooling in Language Arts was that the boys evidently had some deficits in their language arts background that occurred before they started homeschooling. They sincerely didn’t understand some of their curriculum…but until this last summer I didn’t have any idea what to do about the situation.

After many a mental wrestling match, I finally decided to find foundational grammar instruction materials and together we would fill in the gaps. I have to admit that part of me is worried that, with the boys’ ages, they are running out of time. Another part is concerned that my best won’t be good enough, that I won’t have the patience. But there’s also a newly-found, hard-won, more-rational-than-ever part inside me that has decided whatever the stumbling block, it is more important that we face it head on. They are better off with a firm grasp of the basics than a tenuous grasp of grade-level materials. If they can read well and write with proficiency, my boys can do anything.

The remedial grammar thing may not be easy…or pleasant…and the thought of the rolled eyes and complaints of two testosterone-laden teenagers trying to grasp parts of speech, sentence structure and punctuation makes me very nervous. But another, seasoned-homeschool-Mom part of me has made a rational decision. It’s not what I want to do, but it’s the best I can think of.

Okay, I know what you are thinking…what does the fact that I’m going to be teaching my boys a remedial language arts program have to do with the conversation back in July? Heh heh…okay…it is finally time for that part of this Zimmerer Tale.

I don’t remember how we got on the subject of reading that fateful day, but I do recall discussing the fact that a student I am tutoring is extremely good at phonics, but poor at comprehension. In short, she recognizes words but doesn’t necessarily know what they mean. As the conversation went on, suddenly I heard nearly incomprehensible words from my nearly-seventeen-year-old son. “Mom, I told you, we didn’t study phonics in school.”

I felt as Ryan’s statement was uttered in some sort of alien language…and at the same time I felt as if I’d been punched in the stomach. I’ve been their teacher since 2000! How is it that I didn’t know they never studied phonics?

As the statement began to sink in, my husband looked at me and said that he realized they never studied that particular subject. As I sit here now, retelling of the moment of devastating epiphany, I realize my mom knew. I even recall conversations with a friend who has children the same age as our two oldest about “whole language.”

Looking back, I keep thinking that some part of me had to know that the whole language approach didn’t include phonics…or maybe this is another instance of me choosing to stick my head in the sand. But the fact remains that I felt (feel?) devastated. How could I have not known that phonics weren’t taught in the early grades when my boys were in public school? (And yes, I have checked…it was replaced, at the time, by the “whole language” approach and sight-reading. As a matter of fact, spelling wasn’t even emphasized at the time.)

But <gulp>, the buck stops with me. I have been their teacher since 2000. In my heart I feel I should have known.

All the signs were there…the boys had repeatedly tried to tell me that they didn’t understand what I was doing when I sounded out words. Two serious deficiencies in one subject! How was I ever going to make up for the wasted years?

For weeks afterward, I found myself wrestling with tumultuous emotions. As I write this, I still fight that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, but as the days have worn on I also found something else inside…something wonderful…the sheer determination to teach them what they needed to know.

As I sit here retelling my story, I have acknowledged that even though my oldest two boys are poor spellers, they are prolific readers. Evidently not knowing phonics hasn’t hurt them significantly. But for the youngest two, the fact remains that reading is tedious and, even after a year of decompression; they still tend to view it more as punishment than pleasure.

Which leaves me to realize that the real issue isn’t what happened in the past, it’s what I’m going to do in the present. I can’t know what I don’t know. But I can change what I acknowledge.

The day after Labor Day, in addition to remedial grammar, I’m going to teach phonics. I’m still not sure how I’m going to handle it. Although I haven’t found an affordable remedial program in phonics, I have found one relatively expensive curriculum that addresses individuals who can read but don’t know how to sound words out. While I don’t have an extra hundred and a half dollars lying around, that’s probably what I’m going to do.

My kids are worth the effort. They are worth the money, the time, and the struggle. They are also worth the additional gray hair that may be involved. Learning the foundations of grammar, sentence structure, punctuation AND phonics is better late than never!

This year ought to be one to remember.

Jackie

Copyright 2004 by Jackie Zimmerer


 

 

A Mother's Rule Of Life