How many books do you expect your 8-10ish year old to read per year?

[Enough]

NOT including any books *you* read to *them*- only books they read on their own.

 

Do you have a certain number of books that must be challenging? a certain number that can be 'easy'? Do you have a certain number that must be linked to another subject (i.e. history, science etc) and/or that will be discussed or analyzed in some fashion?

 

How would you describe your child's reading ability?

 

:lurk5:

[NotSoObvious]

Hmmm, this will be an interesting thread to follow. I'm curious to see what everyone does.

 

I have twin girls who are turning 9 next month.

 

One twin is an excellent reader and loves fiction. She reads anything she can get her hands on. We have a lot of books at home and we visit the library weekly. I gently guide her selections. For instance, if it's a book I'm not familiar with, I'll scan it or ask a librarian about it. I don't like her checking books out that are too mature. I will also express interest in certain books I'm dying for her to read. If she reads them, great. If not, she'll usually come back to them later int he year or I'll grab them to read aloud.

 

The other twin struggles with fluency because of a tracking problem, but she, too, is an excellent and avid reader. She LOVES non-fiction. Books with shorter passages, larger print, or small sections on each page are easier for her to read. As soon as her eyes are ready, we'll forge ahead with some meaty fiction.

 

In the past I haven't really required anything as far as reading because they devour books. I am going to try to be better about read alouds and narrations this year. I have a reading journal for them each and I want them to write in it daily.

 

I will try to balance trying to be a bit more academic with their love of reading, though. If they resist, I'm not going to ruin a good thing. :)

 

I like to keep a tentative list of books for the year and cross them off as we go, but I don't force them to read a particular book and a particular time. However, I may assign some specific books this year. I don't know!

 

Hope that helps.

[boscopup]

My son is technically outside the range, but his reading level is slightly above the range, so I'll split the difference. :D My 7 year old has 15 books scheduled for literature, and I have 16 poems selected as well (from Core Knowledge). I went through each book and decided how many chapters per day he'd read, then determined how many weeks that book would take.

 

This is all "literature" (although a couple fit in with our history studies). Books we get from the library to go with history and science are separate, and I have no clue how many that will be. I usually get 2-3 books per SOTW chapter, but sometimes they're picture books. The "literature" books are all good quality literature books, like Detectives in Togas, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Phantom Tollbooth, etc.

[Live2Ride]

I have a ds 12 and dd 13. They are both voracious readers (though ds didn't really get on the reading wagon until he was 8 1/2). Son prefers factual things, but likes fiction. DD loves fiction and some nonfiction ones.

 

We use sonlight so they read a lot of book during the year, but they also read on their own. We don't have cable television (though we do subscribe to Netflix and we like HULU on occasions) so I think that helps in facilitating more reading time. I don't 'require' them to read books because they read for school. I just make sure we have lots of books around, take them frequently to the library or the bookstore (their favorite place!) or let them know of cool books coming out that they might be interested in.

[SailorMom]

About one every other week - depending on length.

[Momling]

For fun reading, my 9 yr old daughter reads about 3-5 books per week I think. I don't really know. I also am very relaxed about letting her read pretty much whatever/whenever/wherever she wants.

 

This fall, however, I'm going to also assign reading... I'm thinking of one book per week (mostly historical fiction - medieval Europe) to complement our history studies. I'm not sure if that's too much or not enough, though!

[EKS]

It depends on the kid. When my older son (who has dyslexia) was 8, he only read the books we were doing for reading instruction. By the time he was 10 he read maybe 10,000 pages per year.

 

My younger son is probably reading 10,000 pages per year now at age 9.

[Mrs Twain]

My 8-year old completed the SonLight advanced readers schedule last year which was 20 books. They were titles like The Whipping Boy, The Children of Noisy Village, Little House on Rocky Ridge, Misty of Chincoteague. It took about 20 minutes per day of reading out loud to get through those.

 

I have a list of about 20 books for my 9-year old this year, but it obviously depends on how long the books are and how high the reading level is on whether we get done with all of those. I think reading aloud for about 20 minutes per day at a challenging level is a good goal. My kids also have their own personal reading which is for fun and at a lower reading level. This helps them develop speed and fluency.

 

I pick the read-aloud books from the SonLight and Veritas Press lists, some of which correlate with our history. Some are classic fiction, too.

 

That is what I do. I don't know what an *official* recommendation is for this age.

[alpidarkomama]

DD8 reads a lot on her own, so I don't worry about a particular amount. The only assigned reading she has is non-fiction related to our history or science studies. She also reads aloud to me 2x/week from the third McGuffey reader.

 

DD5 and DS6 just do OPGTR and then whatever else they feel like reading, but it's completely up to them.

[MelanieM]

My 8yo is a voracious reader, and enjoys quite a variety of classics and contemporary. She's been writing down her titles this year, and so far (since January) she's read around 160 books. This includes everything from the Harry Potter books, to the Anne of Green Gables series, to Shakespeare for Children, to Math Devil, etc. etc. She doesn't typically list picture books (often history or science from the library), but has listed some easier chapter books that she whips through in one sitting.

 

Most of what she reads is based on suggestions made by me. I find things I think she'd enjoy and request them from the library, and then she chooses from the book basket. She also makes some of her own selections from the library, usually from a series/author she's been reading based on my previous suggestions.

[Haiku]

More than 100. I expect a chapter book every week, and some nonfiction books as well. For my son I'd expect 3 books a week. For my daughter ... well, she usually reads 10-12 books a week.

 

Tara

[Meriwether]

Dd8 reads at least 5 chapter books per week in addition to her literature for school. She will read at least 300 chapter books this year. She will have picture books to read as well but I don't count them anymore. She is a very good reader. When Ds is 8 I will expect 50-100 chapter books per year (unless, of course, he just takes off like Dd did).

[twoxcell]

My 8 year old is required to read daily for about 15-20 minutes. He is doing DITHR level 2/3, and I have all of the level 2, and 3 readers that HOD sells(I bought most used). He is part way through the level 2 books and I expect by next summer he will be done with all of level 2, and 3. In addition to the required reading he is welcome to read any other time he wants usually at bed time.

[Mommy22alyns]

I don't have a number in mind. Rebecca always has at least one book going. She'll be going through the SL 4-5 (old 2 Adv.) readers this year, as will Sylvia. They'll also both read books for "fun."

[Halcyon]

 

My son is a good, but slow, reader. He reads for about an hour a day, some days more, some less. In addition to some easier books that he picked up at the library, quite a few science biographies, some magazines, and Asterix and Bone cartoons, he has read the following books over the last year (he was 8, however, so bear that in mind)

 

shiloh

holes by louis sachar

harry potter

bunnicula

charlie and the chocolate factory

the algonquin

dogs don't laugh by louis sachar

ghost's shack

100 dresses

boys rock by Naylor

the black stallion

the fantastic mr. fox

Death watch (½ way; I decided content was too mature)

Hatchet

Bridge to Terabithia read aloud

How to Eat Fried Worms

Hatchet by Gary Paulson

How to Train Your Dragon

Coraline by Neil gaiman

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Di Camillo

Cricket in Times Square

Bud, Not Buddy

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2011 by Halcyon

[Just Robyn]

My son read 32 chapter books plus Classics for Young Readers A (from K12) in 3rd grade (so 8-9 yo). He read books for Science and History in addition to those - about another 40 books - but most of those were picture books. Being a picture books does not necessarily mean a book is easy, though. Many of Diane Stanley books, for example, are an upper 5th grade reading level.

 

Examples of the chapter books he read:

 

Henry Huggins books

The 101 Dalmatians

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Roald Dahl books

The Indian in the Cupboard and a couple more from that series

Bunnicula...

[mamakimberly]

My 8 year old finishes a book every day or 2. Sometimes, if they are shorter, or we're in the car a lot she will finish 2 books in one day. So she's at 300+ books/year I'd think. Not all are hard or challenging or academic, but she reads a variety of types of books.

 

My 7 year old reads 3-4 books a week.

[Mrs Twain]

I was reading in The Core (Bortins) about teaching reading by using three categories of books:

 

First, the parents read books to the children which are above their reading level. This helps improve listening skills and speaking vocabulary (learning hard words).

 

Second, the children are allowed to read fun, easy books below their reading level to help them improve speed and fluency. These are the types of books they can devour in a day or even in one sitting (my kids like the Boxcar Children series or Magic Treehouse.)

 

Third, the children read aloud at their current instructional level which challenges them and helps them slowly advance to higher reading levels. This is the slow-type of reading aloud which we do for about 20 minutes per day. It is helpful to do this aloud so that the parent can catch mistakes and correct if the student is not paying attention to punctuation or unfamiliar words.

 

So far this has been a great plan for teaching reading in our family.

[RootAnn]

I have an 8 & a 9 yr old. They are on very different levels.

 

The 8 yr old still reads at a second grade level. She doesn't have fluency yet and dislikes reading anything with more than a sentence on each page. She has 18 books on her assigned reading for next year. Most are fairly short and easy. I think she's going to be really stretched to read Sarah, Plain & Tall & REALLY stretched for Caddie Woodlawn. She'll be reading to me every day (15-30 min) things that won't include that list. She does very little reading on her own - like maybe a Level 1 or 2 chapter book every couple of weeks.

 

The 9 yr old would be in 4th grade in public schools around here. She's a strong (silent) reader. She's got 51 books on her assigned list. Hers are mostly Core 3/4 Sonlight readers. She reads several 200+ page books a week on her own.

 

I tailor the expectations to the kid.

[Penelope]

From 8-9 ds read 20 of the advanced readers from SL core D. He read other shorter books for history, and several biographies as well as Story of Inventions for science. I required a few other classic books.

 

We didn't keep a complete list, but on his own he read other chapter books, such as most of the Ramona series, the first couple of Harry Potters, Tree in the Trail, Pagoo, then quicker reads like Hardy Boys and the like. Probably a chapter book every two weeks in his free reading, plus lots of shorter books, reading in magazines and children's encyclopedias, things like that. I would not say he was a voracious reader. I encouraged him to sit down a read, quite a bit.

Edited July 27, 2011 by Penelope

[Enough]

These responses are insanely interesting! :) Keep 'em coming!

 

I love all the variety here- certain # of minutes, certain # per year, push them, don't push them too much. So much food for thought for me.

[angela in ohio]

My 9 yo is a strong reader. His assigned history/lit list for the year is 22 books in 38 weeks. That's two more than I had him read last year. He skipped over the classic children's books stage and went straight to Tolkein, Douglas Bond, Twain, etc. So I'm making him read a few each year. He does his book reports over those (the first 11 in the list,) and the other 11 are for history. He will also check books out of the lbirary to read for science, math, etc. On top of this, he will read on his own for free reading and all summer. I would say he reads 2-5 books each week, depending on what our schedule is like and how long the books are.

 

This year:

Pinocchio

The Railway Children

Alice in Wonderland

Charlotte's Web

Homer Price

Peter Pan

Story of the Treasure Seekers

Stuart Little

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Twenty-One Balloons

Beowulf the Warrior

Canterbury Tales (McCaughreadn version)

Door in the Wall

Robin Hood

Adam of the Road

Trumpeter of Krakow

Men of Iron

Otto of the Silver Hand

Ink on His Fingers

Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

 

He'll also read a few over the course of the year: Famous Men of the Middle Ages, etc.

[5Wizards]

My soon to be 10 year old reads constantly. I have no idea how many books she reads on her own. For next year, she has about 20 historical fiction books that will be assigned reading (she's excited and can't wait to get started on them). Other than that, I don't worry about it because she loves to read.

[Embassy]

I don't have a number:tongue_smilie: Not all books are equal. I expect my child to read the selected books for literature which are designed to challenge him, but that is a small part of his reading. A book with 500 pages isn't equal to a book with 100 pages and even within that there are variables in difficulty. I expect him to read the challenging books for a couple hours a week.

[Robyn]

I don't have a number either. Ds 12 reads an hour a day during the week and on the weekend if we are home. That is outside of any subject specific reading, although we are on summer schedule so it's just the hour a day.

 

I have a list saved on my computer, plus some reading lists bookmarked online. Sometimes I pick the books, sometimes he does. His sensei is forever sending books home from karate class about martial arts as well.

 

Depending on what he is reading, it can take him a week, or possibly longer to get through it. Today he finished a Bruce Lee book. He has been alternating martial arts stories with The Odyssey (his pick- I wanted him to hold off but he has a thing for Ancient Greece). I am going to choose his next book because I feel he needs something a little lighter after Homer. I try to break it up a bit.

 

We have a short list of books that we will read in depth with study guides this school year. He chose Robinson Crusoe for the first official book of the school year, and I ordered the Memoria Press guide for it. When he finshes that, he will read a couple of books without a guide and then we'll do something in depth again.

[justamouse]

Apart from what I read them, they read about one a week to one every two weeks.

 

We have a mandatory reading hour. They hated it at first, now they love it.

[Paige]

We have a mandatory reading hour as well and my 9yr old still hates it. He hates that it is mandatory but he doesn't really hate the reading once he starts. He just never wants to start. He'll be 10 soon so he was 9 throughout most of last school year. He had to read a minimum of an hour a day. I split it up so that 30min was his choice and 30min was my choice. I had him alternate fiction and non-fiction for my choices. I didn't keep track of the non fiction books very well but he read about 3-5 of those a week because they were usually shorter. He read fiction books that were my choice at about a pace of 1 every other week. If his choice was a fiction book and not a comics day, he would also read about 1 book a week. He read his choices faster. From what I wrote down off of my list of fiction books, he read about 24 last year in addition to the non fiction books and the books he picked for himself. He does not choose to read on his own and wouldn't have read much at all without the mandatory hour.

 

I made a list at the beginning of the year for books I want him to read and we are just working through that adding and taking things off as I think of them or he reads them. I don't expect him to read everything on the list and he doesn't have a time limit on his reading unless I can tell he has clearly been goofing off and not reading during his hour.

 

I picked a pretty wide variety of books with some being more difficult than others. Some of the books on my list were:

Old Yeller

Matchlock Gun

A Wrinkle in Time

Mrs Piggle Wiggle

Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing

Whipping Boy

Wind in the Willows

Edited July 29, 2011 by Paige

[Hedgehogs4]

my ds10 has read 6 books this month and is on his 7th (for pleasure). I'm sort of amazed, actually. It is as though he has just discovered that he really loves reading this summer.

 

Before now, it has always been a struggle to convince him that reading was a worthwhile pastime. Then he read the Hobbit, and two of the LOTR books, then three of Great Brain series books and the first two Harry Potter. Now he is reading The Mysterious Benedict Society. Until this summer I was lucky if he would finish a book a month.

[Laura Corin]

I used to assign one 'good' book per week, year round. They read much more than that though. They are both excellent readers.

 

Laura

[Joyofsixreboot]

I expect to assign about 15 books for my 10 yo ds to read. He has vision problems and that will be a full load for him. He will likely read some age appropriate graphic novels for fun but that's not " counted".

[guateangel]

DD sets timer for 30 minutes of alone-time reading, daily. Reading is her strength but there's no 'devouring' of books going on around here. It's part of school and I'm crossing my fingers one day she will enjoy it without being prompted.

 

I don't keep track of the books she reads, maybe I will this year. One day I hope to be as organized as you ladies. :)

[Enough]

To answer my own question ;):

 

So far, I haven't placed any expectations on my DS (8). He was an early, very strong reader (no thanks to me! we didn't do any formal reading instruction) and reads constantly. I do severely limit 'junk' books with jerk characters and highly encourage classic/Newbery literature (and this makes up the bulk of what he reads) but that's about it as far as my involvement goes.

 

I would like to start a required reading list for him this year, though, for three reasons: 1) I think I'm going to change our history to completely literature-based, 2) I want to get him on the Good Books---->Great Books track, and 3) I think he would really enjoy book discussions/analysis, and in order to do that I need to plan ahead for what he and I will read.

[Meriwether]

To answer my own question ;):

 

So far, I haven't placed any expectations on my DS (8). He was an early, very strong reader (no thanks to me! we didn't do any formal reading instruction) and reads constantly. I do severely limit 'junk' books with jerk characters and highly encourage classic/Newbery literature (and this makes up the bulk of what he reads) but that's about it as far as my involvement goes.

 

I would like to start a required reading list for him this year, though, for three reasons: 1) I think I'm going to change our history to completely literature-based, 2) I want to get him on the Good Books---->Great Books track, and 3) I think he would really enjoy book discussions/analysis, and in order to do that I need to plan ahead for what he and I will read.

 

Dd8's reading is broken into three groups. She has school books that she reads during school time. These are usually, but not always, books that will stretch her vocabulary and reading skills. She has a book basket with 5 chapter books (140+ pages) plus picture books that she reads in her free time. After she has those books finished, she may read anything we have in the house. All of my kids will read the same books for school. They will all have a book basket. They will all be allowed to read whatever they want after the book basket is finished. The individuality will come from the book baskets. Dd likes mysteries so she gets a lot of those. Sometimes I tie the book basket into the history - she read 15 Roman Mysteries books recently and numberous biographies on Cleopatra, Hannibal, etc. Since we use a literature based history, though, I often pick unrelated books. She always gets to choose at least 1 or 2 books for the basket. If my other children don't read as well or as fast, their book baskets will have shorter or fewer books.

[angela in ohio]

I was reading in The Core (Bortins) about teaching reading by using three categories of books:

 

First, the parents read books to the children which are above their reading level. This helps improve listening skills and speaking vocabulary (learning hard words).

 

Second, the children are allowed to read fun, easy books below their reading level to help them improve speed and fluency. These are the types of books they can devour in a day or even in one sitting (my kids like the Boxcar Children series or Magic Treehouse.)

 

Third, the children read aloud at their current instructional level which challenges them and helps them slowly advance to higher reading levels. This is the slow-type of reading aloud which we do for about 20 minutes per day. It is helpful to do this aloud so that the parent can catch mistakes and correct if the student is not paying attention to punctuation or unfamiliar words.

 

So far this has been a great plan for teaching reading in our family.

 

That's exactly the model Ruth Beechick wrote about many years ago. ;)

[Chloe]

I keep reading logs for my dc from about third grade on. Looking back at our records, my ds read 52 books in 3rd grade and 65 books in 4th grade. My dd read 70 books in 4th grade and 88 in 5th grade. These included books for history, science and literature, but NOT the books I read aloud to them.

 

Now that they are older (going in 7th and 8th grades) and the books are longer/deeper, the volume has decreased.

 

HTH!

 

 

 

 

Edited to add..... I don't assign a certain number of books a year. I just keep a list of books I know I want them to read and hand them off as they finish the one before that. I did have a set amount of time I wanted them to read each day though. I don't remember what it was at those ages, but I've heard a good rule of thumb is 10 minutes per grade level each day.

Edited July 29, 2011 by Chloe
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