Silent Reading

[SJ.]

I am curious when your dcs began reading to themselves, both for pleasure and assigned. What grade level and reading level were they? Did you have to encourage it? If so, what did you do to encourage it?

 

DS1 is now at a reading level where he can read books from the Magic Treehouse series. I have been trying to encourage silent reading with these books. Now that he is excited about these books he will read to himself when I ask him to but he still prefers to read out loud to me. While I love it that he wants to read to me I would like him to also discover the joy of reading to yourself.

[KristenR]

I don't know if it is an actual "age" where kids can do this or more dependent of their level of confidence and practice. My oldest dd started reading at a young age. She loved reading aloud. Still does and will happily read to anyone that will listen.

 

I used to ask her if she could read silentlly and she was all :001_huh:

I tried telling her its like thinking in your head. But she was still :confused:

Then one day we were in the library and she was flipping through a book on birds (her latest interest) and she was silently reading it. Without realizing it. :D

I made the mistake of mentioning it to her and that threw her off for a little bit. :glare:

 

But since then she has been doing it more and more frequently. I also leave books in the car so that she has it as an option.

[ErinE]

First grade. At night, I allow 30 minutes of reading time before lights out and that helped him read silently. When he's quiet, I have a tendency to forget when the 30 minutes are up. He still wants to share his books with me.

[threedogfarm]

Why don't you have you designate a "reading buddy" for your son like a stuffed animal, the dog, the cat, etc.? My daughter loves reading to her dog--she even purposely picks out books at the library that she thinks he will like.

[SJ.]

Why don't you have you designate a "reading buddy" for your son like a stuffed animal, the dog, the cat, etc.? My daughter loves reading to her dog--she even purposely picks out books at the library that she thinks he will like.

 

That is such a great idea! I don't know why I didn't think of it. He has many soft friends some of which are most definitely "real" according to ds. :001_smile:

[lisamarie]

DD6 just started reading to herself. When I say it's time for quiet reading during the school day, she gets in her bed and will read for an hour or more (just within the past few weeks). But her favorite thing to do is to read books to her little sister. I often find them in one of their beds, heads together, with DD6 reading to her sister using silly voices and all.

 

She has found a love of reading thanks to the Burgess books. She hated reading and whined about having to read until recently. You should have heard her carrying on last week when I told her to read a book with out color pictures!:001_huh: But she loved the Burgess book, "Meadow Mouse," and after finishing it, told me she needed to read "Grandfather Frog" because it's the next book in the series. Yesterday she told me that she loves to read. I thought this day would never come.:D

[MrsBanjoClown]

My oldest is also 7 and he is doing the same thing. I try to get him to read silently, and he just whispers.

[Dustybug]

DD6 just started reading to herself. When I say it's time for quiet reading during the school day, she gets in her bed and will read for an hour or more (just within the past few weeks). But her favorite thing to do is to read books to her little sister. I often find them in one of their beds, heads together, with DD6 reading to her sister using silly voices and all.

 

She has found a love of reading thanks to the Burgess books. She hated reading and whined about having to read until recently. You should have heard her carrying on last week when I told her to read a book with out color pictures!:001_huh: But she loved the Burgess book, "Meadow Mouse," and after finishing it, told me she needed to read "Grandfather Frog" because it's the next book in the series. Yesterday she told me that she loves to read. I thought this day would never come.:D

 

My DD loves the Burgess books as well. We are reading Danny Meadow Mouse right now. :001_smile:

 

I don't know if it is an actual "age" where kids can do this or more dependent of their level of confidence and practice. My oldest dd started reading at a young age. She loved reading aloud. Still does and will happily read to anyone that will listen.

 

I used to ask her if she could read silentlly and she was all :001_huh:

I tried telling her its like thinking in your head. But she was still :confused:

Then one day we were in the library and she was flipping through a book on birds (her latest interest) and she was silently reading it. Without realizing it. :D

I made the mistake of mentioning it to her and that threw her off for a little bit. :glare:

 

But since then she has been doing it more and more frequently. I also leave books in the car so that she has it as an option.

 

This sounds exactly like my DD. I don't think she really "gets" HOW to read silently.

[ThreeBlessings]

When my children were 7-8 I extended bedtime by 30 minutes so long as they were reading quietly in their rooms. I eventually extended that to an hour, now at 10 and 12 there is no time limit. So long as they are reading quietly they can stay awake. They don't abuse it and still get plenty of rest. They both read for school and for pleasure every school day, and read every day for pleasure. It really helped them start reading alone daily. Now they both read tons because they love reading.

 

Also I let them both read whatever they want, outside of school time. For ds reading Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and Bunnicula really got him hooked, when I never would have picked those books. For dd it was the Junie B. books. Now they both read a wide variety of literature on their own. Ds recently started Robinson Crusoe and dd recently read The Secret Garden, both of their own volition! They still read plenty of twaddle, but I'm fine with that. They LOVE to read. :)