Raising a Reader

I've been trying to get my 11-year old to enjoy reading more. I always read to him when he was little. I insist that he gets to bed early enough every night so he can read for at least 1/2 hour. Though he gets good grades in school, he's not the fastest reader, therefore doesn't enjoy reading. I tried to explain to him that it just takes practice, and that books are usually better than the movies. He doesn't believe me.

My oldest loves to read. She's read so much, that she found that there's very few books that she doesn't like. I think the main reason is because I read TONS of books to her when she was little. I had a lot more time back then. We went to the library every week, listened to story time, and got a huge pile of books. Every afternoon we'd sit down and read a stack of them. Every night we'd read between 6-10 books. When she got older, I still read to her. I read lots of the American Girl books. She used to get so excited. I loved them too. I'm proud of her. Right now she has an unofficial "book club" with her friends. They each buy a book, read it, then trade them with each other. Tonight we're meeting her friends at Border's so I can buy the new Grisham book (yea!) and she and her friends can buy their books. I think that's pretty cool for 14-year olds!

With each kid I had, it seems that I read with them less. My husband and I still read to the youngest two, but with boy scouts, basketball practice, and picking up kids from wherever they are, sometimes we're lucky just to read one book. I want my youngest to be a big reader as my oldest is, so I decided I'm going to start reading to her more. I'm going to read books every afternoon, and really try to read more than one book at night.

My 11-year old is reading Swiss Family Robinson now. He told me he only likes funny books. The other night he didn't have anything to read, so we went into my daughter's "library", and I picked out Swiss Family Robinson for him. He said, "Oh, I love that movie!". I told him, "Then read the book! The books are always so much better." He agreed to try it. Later that night, when I was putting my other son to bed, I asked him how his book was. He gave me a thumbs up. I told him, "Now you have another type of book that you like!". He said, "Yeah, adventure books!". Hopefully his enthusiasm will last. I'm not going to give up on this. Does anyone have any ideas for some good books for boys?

Cathy from A Bit of the Blarney gave me this award! This really made my day! Cathy is my newer bloggy friend. I enjoy reading her blog.

The rules:By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, you have to award it to 10 more people whose blogs you find Excellent Award worthy. You can give it to as many people as you want-even those that have received it already, but please award at least 10 people.

I will give it to all my "Amy" friends: Amy, Amy, and Amy, Shellie, Kidzmama, OHMommy, Burgh's Baby Mom, Leah, Bia, and Kimmy. Thank you Cathy!

Dick and Jane

Seven year old son hates school. He's in 1st grade and already hates it. He always did. I tried to send him to preschool when he was three, and he ran screaming out of the classroom, down the hallway, and out the door! I didn't send him back to preschool until he was 5 (a different one). He has a summer birthday and most of the school districts around us have moved back the age you have to be to go to kindergarten (age 5 by May 1st) , so it wasn't a hard decision to hold him back. He did fine and made lots of friends, but his reading skills were lacking a little. He didn't want anything to do with sitting down and working with me on his reading, but I decided I should do something over the summer before he entered 1st grade.

I went to the library and looked for easy readers that were very basic. There were almost none. Most of the easy readers were for children who were already reading, not just starting to learn to read. Then I discovered Dick and Jane. There are new publications of all the old Dick and Jane books. Our library has books from 1-12. Most people know how the first book starts, "Look."They are so simple and gradually add new words to the story and are repeated over and over. Each word then becomes a new sight word (which is how you read when you're older). Each book builds from the last. You can practically do all 12 books in one night and learn to read! After only the first book he was so proud of himself. He showed everyone how he could read. Now our nightly ritual is first he reads to me, then I read a book to him. He loves it! On the nights that I can't read to him, I hear him in his room reading to himself. I'm so proud of him.

When I went to parent teacher conferences this year his teacher told me he's right where he should be for 1st grade. She has no idea how much he learned from those Dick and Jane books over the summer. I even recommended them to a friend of mine who said her son isn't reading very well. I don't know why they don't use them in schools anymore. They're great! My son still hates school, all the rules, no talking, sit still, homework, but at least he doesn't hate it anymore because he's struggling at reading!