"School reading" versus "free reading"

[Halcyon]

I am having a dilemma about my son and his reading. I assign certain books, and he also reads certain books on his own. Right now, for example, he's reading HP and the Chamber of Secrets. I am assigning Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Both books are reasonably challenging, and I wonder if anyone else's child ever has difficulty juggling more than one long-ish book at once. I know some people enjoy reading multiple books simultaneously, and some don't (me, for one). I suspect my son will not enjoy reading more than one book at a time, and wonder what others have done in this case?

[sewpeaceful]

I have both kinds of readers in my house: a voracious 6yo who just read HP book 1 and is currently reading the Sign of the Beaver and my 8yo who prefers to only read what is "suggested" or assigned. With both kids, I have found they have no trouble keeping 2 books going at once, regardless of difficulty level. I will make the following suggestions that seem to keep it "under control" at our house:

 

1. Explain to him that you LOVE he is enjoying reading so much BUT he must get his daily class reading complete first.

 

2. Only allow 1 class book and 1 free book at a time.

 

Between those two guidelines, we have never had a problem.

 

I hope that helps! :)

[regentrude]

The way I deal with this is to designate one book a school assignment: this he is allowed to read during school hours (just plan time accordingly). He then reads his self selected book after school hours.

[LauraKay28]

My dd7 seems to enjoy having several books going at the same time. She will read a few chapters in one, then put it down and pick up a different one! I think I will need to lay down those 2 rules, as well, so we can actually get through the school reading that I plan on!

[Guest TheBugsMom]

Usually the school reading is in small bites, while the fun reading is as much as they want. Also school reading usually has discussion after, either oral or written, so this keeps the school reading organized in their heads. Personal reading, I don't talk to them about unless they came to me to tell me all about it.

[lionfamily1999]

I used to worry about this until I realized how many story lines they were able to hold in their head for television.

 

If you can remember the soap operaesque stories behind half the cartoons on tv today, then you can read two books at once.

[sewpeaceful]

I used to worry about this until I realized how many story lines they were able to hold in their head for television.

 

If you can remember the soap operaesque stories behind half the cartoons on tv today, then you can read two books at once.

 

:lol: I love it! So true, so true! :D

[NanceXToo]

I used to worry about this until I realized how many story lines they were able to hold in their head for television.

 

If you can remember the soap operaesque stories behind half the cartoons on tv today, then you can read two books at once.

 

lol! Good point.

 

My 10 y/o right now is reading:

 

The Witch Of Blackbird Pond (aloud with me; it's the Oak Meadow assigned reading right now).

 

I Am Regina (independently). It was one of the books Oak Meadow suggested as optional/supplemental reading.

 

She's really enjoying both of those books.

 

And when we have time, we're still working our way through the Little House series together; we've been in the middle of "On The Banks Of Plum Creek" for some time now.

 

She seems to be able to manage to keep it all straight.

 

I guess I'd just leave it up to your son- you can tell him "You have to read 1 chapter (or two or however many he has to read at a time to finish the book in the time period you want him to) of X and then you can go read Y if you want to."

[robsiew]

I am having a dilemma about my son and his reading. I assign certain books, and he also reads certain books on his own. Right now, for example, he's reading HP and the Chamber of Secrets. I am assigning Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Both books are reasonably challenging, and I wonder if anyone else's child ever has difficulty juggling more than one long-ish book at once. I know some people enjoy reading multiple books simultaneously, and some don't (me, for one). I suspect my son will not enjoy reading more than one book at a time, and wonder what others have done in this case?

 

My kids have never complained so maybe I'm not the best to give feedback, but we do "school reading" during "school" time, then evening reading is on their own. I think there's enough time that passes for them not to get confused. They enjoy their independent reading at night.

[Sasharowan]

My kids are required to get the assigned reading done. Once that is done they are free to read as they wish. Ds14 has read 5 chapters in Tale of Two Cities, 3-4 from the Epic of Gilgamesh, and read 2-3 books of his own choice, all this week.

[1Togo]

School reading is from a list that I choose. They work up to one hour plus for school reading at the high school level, beginning with 15 minutes or so. The goal is sustained reading daily from a list that builds in complexity. Pleasure reading is (and has been) anything they want for any length of time they want. Usually the pleasure reading is below the school reading in difficulty. Sometimes they read lots outside of school and other times less because of commitments. I don't discuss pleasure reading, and I don't discuss every book for school reading either. Also, we always have a book going for family read aloud.

[truebluexf]

I have yet to really delve into "school" reading. I have a box of books that are the read-alones for our curriculum, but I haven't gotten into really discussing them. I probably should. DS enjoys reading so much though, I have just been letting him go at them. We are also getting through a lot of read alouds together as a family, more than we ever did before, which I am loving. I like the ideas of reading school books during school time. I'm trying to work in an official 'quiet time' during which he can do some of this reading. I guess I just haven't really committed to having his book list being for any kind of assignments yet. I'm just so happy he enjoys reading so much!!! He read Farmer Boy in less than two weeks on his own, then read Ramona the Pest in 3 nights. I'm still at the point of just trying to give him great literature to read.

[AppleGreen]

We have several books going at any given time. My oldest has a bucket of books he may choose from for school time reading and then anything goes during his free reading. We also have a read aloud going that ties into our history that we read during the day (currently The Pioneer Sampler) and he and I are reading HP and the Order of the Phoenix as his bedtime story. And then there are the picture books for his sisters and whatever audio he is currently listening to (right now it is Treasure Island!) He manages to keep it all straight. If you feel he can handle it, I say it's fine. Will he let you know if it is too much?

[mommaduck]

Usually the school reading is in small bites, while the fun reading is as much as they want. Also school reading usually has discussion after, either oral or written, so this keeps the school reading organized in their heads. Personal reading, I don't talk to them about unless they came to me to tell me all about it.

:iagree: Personal reading goes onto the "books read" list in their portfolios along with required reading.

[silliness7]

My kids have an assigned book (chapter book) to be read during school time. When it is finished we will summarize it and draw an illustration for their notebook. We also have a read-aloud going at the same time which we will summarize and illustrate at the end. We also read a couple of picture books each day...one from my own personal 5-in-a-row plan and one from our history/science book basket. (This is for my 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders, though the 1st grader is not assigned a chapter book to read on her own.)

 

After school, they read all kinds of crazy things. I don't even attempt to keep up. I know my 3rd grader was reading Magic of Oz tonight because she showed me the snippet that had been in her WWE earlier in the year. And at least 2 of them are reading Harry Potter because I heard some sort of tussle which ended with "I guess I need to buy my OWN copy of Harry Potter." We have all 7 in the series, but apparently 1 copy for a family of 9 is not enough. :001_smile:

[jahkamakura]

Mine usually have at least 4 books going at the same time -an English school reader, a Japanese school reader, an English book for fun and Japanese book for fun. They also usually have a few non-fiction books they read and then those, "I just thought I'd read my favorite parts again" books. As long as they are completing their school reading and understanding it I let them read whatever they want.

 

Juli in Japan

[jenL]

My son and I do the school reading together (taking turns reading aloud). He and I discuss characters, plot, and basic literary ideas; then he gives me a 2-3 sentence narration that I write for him (usually) and he illustrates.

 

For his fun reading, he often has a non-fiction book and a fiction book going at the same time. He does fine with keeping everything straight.