Comprehension

I blame and thanks my mother for this. Because I have always been able to understand and remember what books, movies and bible passages are about, I assume that everybody can automatically do the same. Last night I was thinking about it though and maybe it was not just a natural thing for me.

When I was little, mum used to read the bible with the four of us at the beginning of each day as part of our home education. The pattern was simple, read the passage, select a child to tell in their own words what the passage was about, then ask the others if there was anything to add. Then memory verse learning and remembering, then reading You Can Change the World, then prayer. This did me many favours for later in life. Firstly it helps me to retain things I hear and read, I am an auditory learner so this is perhaps easier for me. Secondly I still remember some of the memory verses and I still remember the books of the bible. Thirdly it helped me at bible study later on to remember what the passage said and to work out what it means. I am still better at story passages then at poetry but it is a start.

Now it is my happy job to help a 5 yr old to comprehend what he is hearing when we read a book. Ask him any question and the answer is "I don't know". For homework we need to read the same book every day for a week then he needs to draw pictures about what happens in the book. He needs to draw the beginning, middle and end. This is like pulling crocodile teeth and it is hard to get him to do anything. I am also finding that the enjoyment of reading is leaving me when we need to do this. I am going to try something else and read a different book every day and ask him what is one thing that happened in the book. I will try it for 2 weeks and see if he gets more brave about it. It will need to be at bedtime reading because his brother and sister but in and "help". Will let you know how it goes.