Homeschooling: Silent Reading

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I'm going to spend a bit of time explaining some of the aspects of our homeschooling day, and here's the first one I'm tackling - Silent Reading.

If you look at my learning notes, you'll see that the 9yo and the 7yo both do 30 timed minutes of Silent Reading.  So, there's a few reasons for this.

1)  Reading aloud is a child's natural default, and reading in your head is a learned skill.  On par with mental math, as a comparision.  To get better at a skill, you need consistent practice.  After years of reading silently, the 9yo can read, and retain, information without saying it out loud under his breathe.  The 7yo is nearly there.  They are much more confident in this skill than they used to be, but it takes effort.  In our case, daily effort.

2)  I try to put the 30 minutes of timed reading in the middle of the day, or quite close to the end.  It's intentional, actually; my kids are pretty easily overwhelmed and a little introverted, and they need a little break from each other and from talking.  This gives them a breather, or at the end of the day, a simple, timed task that they can finish up the school day with when their brains are tired.

3)  For Silent Timed Reading I don't make any demands at all or even suggestions beyond "Did you want to finish this book?" or "Well, what were you reading before?".  This is essentially a portion of their day that is totally their choice and completely up to them.  All I ask is that they read.  I like to think this feeling of independence and choice is good for them.  Usually they make good decisions, and sometimes they don't, and both of those are fine.  You wanna read cupcake recipes?  Okay then.

4)  Finally, throughout the day I need breaks myself to either prepare the next lesson, or handle a child's questions, or even just take a break and make a cup of tea or return a phone call.  It's not like time stops when school is on.  Scheduling little breaks in the day when I can have a minute to not be teaching is invaluable to me, but if I give the kids a 'recess' then they have a tendency to run off and get involved in an activity that derails the whole day.  Rather than deal with tearing people away from Lego, I just don't stop school, I switch to an independent lesson, like Silent Reading.