What are our goals in homeschool? Are we trying to read a certain number of books each year? Are we looking for deep understanding of the information we read?

Could the idea of progress actually be keeping our kids from making progress? 

Homeschoolers like to make progress. We like to get things done. We like to check the boxes, complete all the lessons, and move on to the next year’s curriculum.  Finish reading the book, get the worksheet done, always move ahead to what’s next!  These are recognized as hallmarks of “progress” in our homeschool.

 But we need to be careful with this approach, because one of the fundamental ways a child learns is through repeated exposure to the same learning activity. Reading the same story several times over is better at building vocabulary and comprehension than reading several different books only once.

 Every time we reread a story to our kids, their comprehension and ownership of the material increases. We are modeling a much-needed skill, the skill of rereading.  When our children reach the older grades where they must be able to independently learn new information from what they read, the ability to reread a passage will be extremely valuable.

I have noticed that sometimes, when children have not become used to the concept of reading a book more than once, it is very hard to convince them to read a passage again. Complaints of “But I already read it!” and long sighs are typical. This resistance is revealing an attitude that believes reading something is like a eating dinner on a disposable paper plate. When the reading passage or paper plate has been used once, you don’t use it again. This belief is fantastically harmful to our children’s learning.

But how do we build the culture of rereading in our homeschool? There are just too many books to read, how can we “waste” time reading a book more than once? Is it better to read more books or to more fully understand the books we’ve read?

 While our curriculums may give room to read three different books, we must consider whether it is wiser to read 3 different books once, or to read the same book 3 times. Which will result in fuller understanding of the vocabulary presented? Or mastery of the material covered? Especially with young children, those under the age of 7, rereading a book or passage several times over several different days greatly increases retention and understanding of the material.

 For young children, consider having a “main” picture book of the week. Reread the same book each day of the week. After they are quite familiar with the story, you can pause and have them fill in what happens next. Have them tell you the story in their own words or better yet, have them tell the story to another adult. Have conversations about what the characters are thinking and feeling based on their actions and words in the story. Chat about the moral implications of the choices characters make. Deep immersion in a single story will greatly increase comprehension and build a expectation that a story is better the second, third, or fourth time around. 

 As students mature, they should be able to comprehend what they read more easily. One of steps that helps that happen is having the experience of thoroughly understanding what is read to them.

If a child’s experience is often that they can’t really follow what is happening in a story or they don’t really understand what is being read to them…that becomes their expected way of experiencing the written word. But when a student knows that they can understand a story inside and out, an entirely different relationship begins.

Through repetition, young children are able to grasp all the nuances that are missed with a quick once-over. When children are exposed to repeated readings and the opportunity to thoroughly understand the books that are read to them, thorough understanding becomes their expectation. We want our students to know that reading a book is not like using a disposable cup or plate. We can read the same thing again and again, and with each reading, our depth of understanding increases

 With older students, sometimes we realized as parents that they didn’t really understand their reading passage, but the schedule says we must move on, there is more to read and learn! Let’s try reorganizing our thoughts and priorities. A history chapter fully understood with the key facts retained in memory is far better than multiple chapters skimmed. Try and find natural ways to allow students to re-read the same material. For instance, at the end of a history chapter, before the test, have your student read parts of the chapter to a another family member as practice and review. Reading aloud to others helps the student focus and stay on task. It also allows for conversation on the topic!

In our homeschool routines, lets try to move from hearing, “But I already read that!” to  “I’ve only read it once, and I need to read it again to really understand what the author is saying.” Let’s remind ourselves and our students that although books are made of paper, they are not paper plates, and reading is not a once-and-done sort of activity.

If you’re looking for a preschool curriculum that encourages natural learning through repetition, check out our English-language preschool and our Spanish-language preschool, too! Both of these programs heavily rely on this concept of repetition to encourage deep understanding and comprehension in preschool-aged children.