So, one of my cousins has been having trouble reading

[Comicality]

He's only nine years old, about to be ten next month...and some of my family members have been trying to spend time helping him read past a 3rd grade level. But...ummm...I hate to say it, but they have been going about ALL wrong!

I didn't even know he had trouble reading until last week, and my aunts and uncles have been trying to force him to read for an hour a day, and pronounce words phonetically, and sit him down and stop him from having fun, like..."Time to read now!" I mean...the kid is NINE! Fun is the only thing he knows to a certain extent.

So, when I heard about this, I sat down with him a few times this week, and he's been here almost every day since last Friday. And I don't boss him around, and I don't try to <i>force</i> him to read anything. But we do live in an age where everything is digital media and all, which is what he's used to. So I got on the laptop, and I showed him clips from the X-Men movies. (He has NO idea what the X-Men are! WTF??? Blasphemy!) And I told him that they were always my favorites growing up when I was his age. But I started with the media first. Some fight scenes, some character intros, and I hope to get him started on the 90's cartoon next week. He was AMAZED! LOL! He says Nightcrawler is his favorite. Awwww!

ANYWAY...he knows that I have a huge stash of comic books here at the house, and I gave him some to take home and read on his own. He gobbled them up in a single evening! So today, I gave him five more, and he read some out loud while sitting next to me, and he sounds more interested and more involved than ever before. Sometimes he was racing through some parts because he wanted to hurry up and turn the page. It just made me feel good to see him excited about it, you know?

Sometimes, you just have to inspire a real 'passion' within somebody to get them to evolve. You can't just sit them down with a boring textbook and expect them to get it. Because he's had his eyes tested, and he's been tested for dyslexia, and all, but that was never an issue. When I first heard him reading, I could tell that he could see the words and figure out how to pronounce them and figure out what they meant...but it was all 'technical'. His <i>imagination</i> hadn't been triggered. He was reading it like the instruction on the side of a medicine bottle. That's not what makes reading fun.

So, I'd stop him every page or two and ask him "Ok, so what's happening right now?" And at first, he couldn't tell me. Just flat pictures and hollow words. It's like, "Explain it to me. What does the villain want to do? What are the heroes saying? What are the stakes? Tell me." And in no time at all, his mind started painting the picture it needed to keep him interested. 

Of course, I'm probably going to end up giving him more and more comic books over the next few weeks, and I'm going to have to search my closet to get them all in order, lol! But he's reading now. And I'm glad! Although I have to be careful...because I have mostly mid to late 80's/early 90's comics...and there's a lot of sex and drama and blood and murder in all of them! But, he's doing better with what he's read in the past week than he has with the stuff they've been giving him since the beginning of Summer. So I'll hope for the best.

I'm also teaching my cousin, Christian, how to draw. Hehehe! Don't know how good I'll be at that. He loves Naruto and anime, and my artwork comes from a whole different era, but maybe he'll find a cool hybrid in between!

Anyway, that was just something that made me feel good today. Figured I'd share! No matter what it is...reading, drawing, singing, writing...skill is flat without PASSION! Find the passion first! The rest you'll develop with practice!

Love always! Mwah!

[drpaladin]

When it's fun, the rest takes care of itself.

[Shadow086]

5 hours ago, drpaladin said:

When it's fun, the rest takes care of itself.

Exactly. I don't know what's so hard to understand about this. It's not a skill problem, it's an engagement and motivation problem (remembering my own time in school, what 16 year old wants to read "Wuthering Heights"?). Find the right books, and you'll be having arguments to get him to STOP reading.

[Page Scrawler]

I love Naruto, too, hahaha. Maybe Christian will be a manga artist someday!   😂  And thank you, Comsie, for helping your little cousin get interested in reading. I know it's early days now, but once he finds the right "niche" to sit in, reading will be a life-long relationship for him, and I'm sure he'll always thank you for it.   

[Black Paper]

A "huge stash of Comic Books"? Jee, maybe that's why your COMICality. 😏 Did you see the new Dark Pheonix Movie? I did. Dark Pheonix/ Jean Grey was always my favorite with Storm a close 2nd. And, this scene is just a small bit of proof as to why.🔥👑

Imagine if you showed him one of your stories for reading practice? 😮♥️😛

Edited November 18, 2019 by Black Paper

[CassieQ]

I worked at a bookstore during the release of the sixth Harry Potter book.  And it was amazing to see all those people, crammed into our store, at midnight, waiting for a book to be released.  I don't know if it's something we'll ever see again.  

[drpaladin]

1 hour ago, CassieQ said:

I worked at a bookstore during the release of the sixth Harry Potter book.  And it was amazing to see all those people, crammed into our store, at midnight, waiting for a book to be released.  I don't know if it's something we'll ever see again.  

Until the next hot thing hits. Imagination combined with marketing hype works wonders.

[JeffsFort]

Hey Comet! If you get a chance, watch some Naruto. There is a really great life lesson to be learned from it as the main character has everything against him but is aiming to become the most powerful in the highest position to be had.

"Someday I will be Hokage! Believe it!"

I bet like me it won't take you any time at all to get into it and then you both will really have something to talk about.

[MrM]

That’s so cool, Comsiekins! That’s how I started reading.

Reading for pleasure opens up reading for learning. Reading = Pleasure || Learning = Pleasure < an almost logarithm! 😮

It was the same with math for me. I hated math, but when I started taking science classes and wanting to know more about the incredible things my teesher was showing us, I studied the math so that I could understand the relationships and techniques so I could repeat the phenomena! 

What’s lost in ‘modrine ejmacashun’ is the connection of real skills to real knowledge which creates curiosity which leads to more learning and greater fulfillment. Doing things by rote coz “diss’plin’ is one reason why Americans have done so poorly in education in the last 60 years and why Korean and Japanese kids are starting to lose their Shinola cuz the pressure for getting nowhere has gotten too great. People learn things for a purpose, for the most part. Learning for learning’s sake becomes a passion later when that ‘curiosity engine’ gets turned on and can’t be turned off, IMHO.

~~~~

Anywayz, for good clean fun Comicalitywise, I always stick to Avengers, Fantastic Four, and The Silver Surfer when coaching younger kids. X-Men got a bit raw and so did Batman. Superman and Wonder Woman were ‘kids comics’ to me (13 years old LOL). With the vast popularity of the Avengers, I think there could be plenty of material to cover for your nephew to be reading forever, LOL!

I started reading novels when I could clear a stack of comics in 2 hours. This would be about 25 in one sitting! I then started to clear normal novels in about a day. That’s when I switched to ‘tomes,’ like The Lord Of The Rings, which was a challenge for my 16 year old self, but left the most indelible imprint on my imagination of any story I’d ever read. Like so many others, Tolkien inspired my writing and influenced my style. Anne Rice was a similar deal, though I didn’t read her stuff until my early twenties. She was amazing because she was the first ‘gay’ author I’d ever read! Her stuff further influenced my coverage of the topic and how it could be made ‘romantic’.

Yay for reading! (God, now I sound like an old PSA from 1986!)

 

[MrM]

On 11/9/2019 at 11:33 AM, Black Paper said:

A "huge stash of Comic Books"? Jee, maybe that's why your COMICality. 😏 Duh. Did you see the new Dark Pheonix Movie? I did. Dark Pheonix/ Jean Grey was always my favorite with Storm a close 2nd. And, this scene is just a small bit of proof as to why.🔥👑

Imagine if you showed him one of your stories for reading practice? 😮♥️😛

They got closer to the real one, but no cigar.

I always liked this image. This one is for all the ‘True Believers’ that thought Captain Marvel could beat Dark Phoenix in a contest of strength. (Spoiler Alert) Rogue, basically, stole most of Captain Marvel’s powers (her superwoman ones anyways) and yet . . .

FIGHT ME!

Edited November 12, 2019 by MrM