By Leah McDermott, M.Ed.
One of the questions I hear over and over again (and I bet this is one that you’ve had streaming through your head a time or two) is “But what about the ABCs?” Or, in other words, if I don’t TEACH them, how will my child ever learn to read or write?!
This is something that starts to freak parents out BIG TIME the second they get excited about child-led learning. That fear kicks in and a lot of times, they run away from the unstructured, free and flexible learning experiences for the rigid, “sit at a desk and learn stuff on paper” way of learning that they’re used to.
But you don’t have to do that.
Just like they learned how to walk, talk, and eat with a spoon, they will learn to read and write as well.
You see, learning to read and write is actually a very natural process, and one that children will pick up on when they are developmentally ready. Just like they learned how to walk, talk, and eat with a spoon, they will learn to read and write as well.
And yes, there are things that you can do to facilitate this learning and make it a meaningful and enjoyable experience for everyone! And I’m going to share some of those with you right now. But first, you have to let go of that fear that it’s never going to happen. It will. I promise.
