Tonight I talked with my 5 year old son about homeschool and what he does and doesn't like about it. He says his least favorite part is reading. This is my biggest fear -- because in my mind if you don't like reading, you have a harder time in school. And I have always heard that boys are more likely to dislike reading. What can I do to make it more fun? Or is it just because it is more challenging for him and he has to work harder at it? He does fine at it, but you can tell he has to really concentrate on it. Plus, we still have the issue of books that don't have much of a story line, so he isn't really enjoying the books he has to read to me. He loves to be read to and plays with his Leap Tag alot, but still says he thinks reading is boring. I'm starting to panic because I really, really want him to be an avid reader and love to read.!!!??!!
Take him to the library and let him pick out books he finds interesting and can read. If he can't read the whole book, you can help him. But let him see that there are many fun books out there.
Ditto! Let you ds pick out what he enjoys reading. The more practice he has reading, the better reader he is, the more he will enjoy reading. My ds' and always LOVED to read and they still do. Join your ds up with a children's book club. My boys still belong to a book club.
I agree with the book club idea. We joined one in our area through a homeschool group and my girls can hardly wait to read the books and go to the meetings.
Since he loves to be read to I would definitely keep doing that A LOT. What about comic books? My best friends son didn't like to read when he was young...until he got into comic books. He's a teenager now and very into reading...especially the graphic novels. Finding books he's interested in is important. Does he have a favorite character/movie? Some of the books based on the tv characters aren't the greatest but as long as he's reading for pleasure thats whats important. And I would take him to the library and help him find books about things that interest him, like maybe dragons or sharks or ninjas and then have lively discussions where you listen intently while he shares fun facts about his topic. Also, I would let him see you enjoy reading often.
We're fighting that with Phillip, too. He's nine, and is a good reader. He reads his "required" book and will read other stuff occasionally, but he doesn't really enjoy reading. I try to keep what I consider "good books" available for him, and encourage him to read ones I think he'll really enjoy. I also try to keep his "required reading" books ones that I think won't bore him to tears! The librarian has also been a help. She has suggested books to him, most notably the "Poppy" books by Avi. He really enjoyed the first one, and wanted to actually own the series (!!!). I am not at all impressed with "graphic" books/comic books, though I will let him get them from the library. But I also restrict how many he can check out. Basically, he'd much rather be running around shooting at things, or building something. What can I say? He's "all boy"!!!
The comic books that I allow my almost-6 yo DS to read are limited to Garfield & Calvin & Hobbes. When he was starting out reading, he would mostly look at the pictures, but then he would start reading. Now he can read words like "transfiguration" (okay, I had to help him with that the first time, but he's got it now, LOL; what every Kindergartener needs to know, right?) and lasagna. I'm not overly excited by the comic book genre itself, but we started out with the Sunday comics and morphed to these, and I think they are more-or-less okay for young kids. (Although Calvin is not the best of influences, sigh.)
I'm not necessarily thrilled with comic books myself but from what I gather (my son is only 2 so we haven't gotten there yet) most boys REALLY like them and if you want to instill a love of reading in boys then you should give them every opportunity to read what they enjoy. I have not checked out any of these myself but here are some suggestions from my friend for comic books appropriate for kids.....the Tin Tin series, Adventures of Raymond Q Wonderful, Richie Rich and Classic Comics which are actually comic books based on classic literature, like Moby Dick. My friend also used to make her own comic books with her son as a fun project and almost 10 years later he still loves creating his own comic book characters and writing out stories.
Buythe book and the audiobook. Guaranteed to increase interest in reading. We've been doing this all year - he listens and reads along and he says reading is now his favorite. We've completed 4 novels, in progress with our fifth, and will do at least 2 more - maybe 3. That's better than we've ever doen before. If there is one available - I buy the movie too. Usually it is different, and so that makes for a nice discussion about how he liked the book better. What is the goal with your reading program - to teach them to read or to increase vocabulary or to increase comprehension... My DS is a good reader and has an excellent vocabulary - our goal is to increase interest in books. So this way works for us.
okay, heres one more thing once you find the right fun sounding books, read them withhim and get annimated! My kids all love reading because we are animated when we read.. do stuff like reaing in different accents, we prefer posh accents here lately but have been known to use an Aussie accent or French as well in our stories just to make it exciting!
Ditto. You've gotten a lot of great advice here. We joined our local book club for boys, and even though we can't attend ALL the time, we can attend SOME of the time. We still read the books, even when we can't go. Now...my son has had a book in his hand since he could read (mind you he still loves tv and computers, so, he's not a total bookworm). We subscribed to a couple of magazines for him, too. He gets Ranger Rick, and he gets the Lego Club Magazine (this one is FREE). He LOVES getting mail, and it encourages him to read b/c they are HIS all his! Also, I relented on the books I had held off on - Capt Underpants (being one). And the other was Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robots. He loves both - they are reading chapters mixed in with comic book style occasionally. As long as the potty humor from Capt Underpants remains IN THE HOUSE he's allowed to read them. And they get taken away if he starts spouting potty words (has only happened once in 2 years). I LOVE the Ricky Riccotta books b/c they have lots of great facts about planets in them, that they don't even realize they're learning anything! Good luck!
lots of good advice here, but I think let them read whatever they want to read... it will help them read. There are alot of good comic books out there for them to read, and what is the differents if the comic book is not bad to read it, no different as long as they enjoy it and wanting to read. I let my little one read into a tape recorder then at nights before bed she listen to herself read the book. She loved it....
Oh, Kris, when I had a classroom, I had one verbal kid and one non-verbal in the same reading group. One day I was busy, so I asked the verbal child to read the story aloud to the non-verbal one, recording it. Next thing I knew, the non-verbal kid was reading (and recording!) it to the verbal one!!! The non-verbal kid would make all these "sounds" (his speech), and when he was done, he'd look at his friend and nod. The other boy would say "DING!", turn the page, and the first boy would continue with his reading! I got the biggest kick out of it!
I so agree Dave Pilkey is an awsome person. He began writing at 11 yrs old btw! Got his first book published and ran with the rest! My oldes was a reluctant reader and he saved his reading! My oldes ds has or has read every book this guy has written and he totally nfluenced his life for hte good! He is a great reader started high school with a college level reading score in testing! Don't let the slangs and the comics make you worry , my son is still reading! He read hamlet last month and really got it!
Wait a minute...Your 5 y/o can read! Not one of my kids learned to read well till they were 8 or 9. My 5 y/o is struggling with teach your kid to read in 100 easy lessons. I would not worry too much. One thing I have done with my ds is play a word matching game. The words are sight words he has problems with, or ones that don't follow the rules. We first review the words and as he says the word he gets to place it up side down. Every time we turn over two words we have to say what they are. I usually let him win. :roll: After we count how many cards he has and I have, then write down the number and compare which is bigger. So now in a reading lesson, he has practiced counting, writing numbers, comparing and reading. The whole thing takes 20 minutes or less. I think that you need to lay off the forced book reading and play more games. I am telling you, from my experience...he will eventually pick up a book and start reading it.
Thanks everyone for your great advice! I have taken a little bit of what everyone said and have tried it. We have had a great time with Reading so far this week. Monday we played games (Happy Phonics) then I also moved on to long vowels. He was absolutely ecstatic that he was reading new words! This may be key -- it is possible that I moved too slowly through the short vowels and he was getting bored with it. Once I taught him the "trick" to reading words with long vowels - he didn't want me to stop!! Today we went to the library and he checked out whatever books looked interesting to him. I clipped and am saving the comics for later in the week too. I think I just get too focused on things and start to panic. Thanks everyone once again for your great advice.
