My child is 11 (and a half, she would remind me!) years old. I am fortunate that she is a great reader. She is not afraid to pick up books that are older than her age/maturity and read them with a fair amount of understanding. I would love to take credit for this, but I am not sure that is the case. From the time she was able to sit up by herself she loved to hold books in her hands. The condition of her earliest board books attests to her repeated use of them.

We did a lot of things to help her with her reading fluency early in her reading career. We read to her, she listened to audio books, she saw us reading which showed her that we considered reading important. We pointed out words as we read, and we encouraged her to “read” to her pets and stuffed animals even before she could actually read. Books and reading are an important part of our lives and for that I am really grateful.

So, the actual mechanics of reading is not a problem, but sometimes the subject matter is. One of the biggest problems we have is finding books that do not speak of the dynamics of public and/or private schools, but deal with the issues that she faces as a homeschooled student. This is not because we want to isolate her, but because she sees the trials and tribulations of traditional middle school as something that she just doesn’t get. She can’t relate.

She was overjoyed to find out that her favorite trilogy about dragons was written by a homeschooler. It gave her a connection that she thought was important, and maybe it is. We continue to look for books by homeschoolers, and about homeschoolers, because she can relate to them more than to books set in traditional school settings. From the beginning we have done everything we could to encourage her abilities and love in reading, and at this point, finding books that she can relate to is just another step in that encouragement.