kids who don't finish books

[Farrar]

What do you do for a kid who just doesn't finish books?

 

Ds, who is newly 8 yo, just doesn't finish the vast majority of books he starts. I don't think it's comprehension - he often talks to me about the plot and seems to have a good understanding of what he reads. I don't think it's lack of interest - he often seems very interested, for a time. I don't think it's phonics - he reads pretty well aloud and while he does sometimes make some errors, he seems to be able to sound out new words decently. He is a bit more likely to finish an easy book than a long one, but even with something easy he'll do it sometimes.

 

He reads between half to three quarters of a book and then just stops. In the last few months, he read half of Ribsy, all but the last chapter of Runaway Ralph, half of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, half of Poppy, just under half of Ramona the Pest, and just under half of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Oh, and all but the last few pages of two separate Tintin books. And I think there was another light book or two in there somewhere that got started and never finished.

 

He has finished some things... including a book on our required reading for third grade and many shorter things and graphic novels. I tried putting up a reading tree to celebrate finishing books. Eh. His brother seems to care a lot more than him. Even when he finishes something, it's like he tears through the first half and then slogs through the second. He'll read the first half of something in a fraction of the time that it takes him to read the rest.

 

What is up with this? Does anyone else have a kid who does this? Do you force them to finish? I know that finishing things can be a stress/anxiety thing when you feel a lack of confidence about something, but I don't get what the anxiety is in this case so I'm having trouble understanding it. Any strategies to help him?

[happypamama]

This is so so so much like my daughter. I don't get it. I always want to find out how a book ends -- why doesn't she?

 

I think one, she gets bored. This child is very much a thrill-seeker, always wanting something new and different. She does get bored easily.

 

Two, I think she guesses how books are going to end, and so they lose their appeal.

 

Three, I think her mind wanders, so she loses her place, even in a good book. If she gets distracted by a noise, a curtain blowing, anything, she loses her place -- and often her interest.

 

Four, she's sensitive to too many words on a page and small print. Those turn her off quickly.

 

And then she does totally odd things sometimes that surprise me. Like, at 7, she plowed through Anne of Green Gables in a long weekend. And then she read the entire Fellowship of the Ring to herself in a short amount of time. So I know she *can* read and comprehend very well.

 

For problem one above, I make her read a certain amount every day until the book is finished. I think this is a bit of a character issue -- learning to finish something you've started, even if part of it is uninteresting -- so I do enforce this.

 

For problem two, I can't always do anything about that. Sometimes that's just the way it is.

 

For problem three and four, we choose books based on their print, whether it looks okay to her or not. She also sometimes puts an index card under the line she's reading, and that helps her keep from becoming distracted. I've also recently started letting her listen to classical music with earbuds while reading; I think that lets part of her mind be occupied with the music, so that it's not wandering and distracting her. She really does seem to read much faster when she's listening to music. (Works for math too.) I also let her use audio books a lot, though I do make her read print books too.

 

Mostly, I just have stopped worrying about it. Other than the assigned amount for schoolwork, what she does or does not read on her own time is up to her.

 

Oh, we're going to try reading a book together, just her and me -- each of us read a chapter and then discuss it. I'm hoping it will be a bonding time between mom and her only daughter, and I hope it will encourage her to finish a book.

[tammieb]

I was going to say maybe he was getting bored, but the books you rattled off are ones most kids love! My dd just checked out Ramona & Beezus for the FOURTH TIME in a row at the library :lol:

 

At 8 I wouldn't be too awful concerned, especially with it being a boy! Boys typically have to have something that keeps their attention to finish it. But, I'm a long term thinker...... you also don't want him to develop a pattern of not finishing what he starts.

 

Have you thought of using a book tracker, kind of like what the Book It Program has?? Maybe some sort of SMALL (I'm not big on too many incentives for things kids should be doing anyway!) incentive for finishing say 2 books in a month?? Each kid's different, so you'll have to figure out what interests him. It could just be a phase. Boys have LOTS of them :banghead:

[kwg]

I am trying to remember what age it was- but I know when my son was becoming a reader he *could* read very well. But he found it satisfying to sit down and read a book. He did not like books that took days to read. He enjoyed A to Z Mysteries, Andrew Lost, Winnie the Pooh (we have this series where each chapter is a separate book), Beatrix Potter (same thing), Thornton Burgess, Calvin and Hobbes, and Eloise. Maybe pick some books that are shorter and see if that helps?

[stripe]

Yes! My son did this! He insisted on keeping one book out of the library for like six months without reading the last chapter, because he didn't want it to end.

 

He read half of "Knock Three Times!," claimed it was one of the best books he ever read, and then dropped it yesterday to re-read a Hardy Boys mystery he'd gotten as a gift.

 

He does finish books, but there are a lot of half-read books around.

 

He also saves candy. Like lollipops from the doctor. He doesn't like to actually eat it. I feel like these are related.

[ladydusk]

I have a daughter like this ... but I'm kinda like this too. I always have several books going at once and sometimes never get back to one I like. Of course, I read a great deal more non-fiction where the "end" isn't usually as exciting as a plot resolution ...

 

I'm discouraging M-girl from following in her mother's footsteps ... but it's hard. At this point, I require assigned books to be completed and I encourage finishing recreational read books. I would like to get back to her using her GoodReads account because logging it is a definite "reward" to finishing a book.

[Farrar]

Well, at least I'm not alone!

 

For problem one above, I make her read a certain amount every day until the book is finished. I think this is a bit of a character issue -- learning to finish something you've started, even if part of it is uninteresting -- so I do enforce this.

 

For every book? See, I don't know if I could do that. I feel like when I do push him to finish something, it's often at the expense of something else. But then, if I don't... Ack. I also see it as a character issue or a bad habit that's forming. I don't finish everything I read, but I do make a commitment to a book, you know?

 

Have you thought of using a book tracker, kind of like what the Book It Program has?? Maybe some sort of SMALL (I'm not big on too many incentives for things kids should be doing anyway!) incentive for finishing say 2 books in a month?? Each kid's different, so you'll have to figure out what interests him. It could just be a phase. Boys have LOTS of them :banghead:

 

If it's a phase, it's been going on awhile. :tongue_smilie: I just looked at the book tracker... I cannot imagine doing that though. It just seems like extra work to me. And I'm sure it would to him too. Sigh. Summer reading for the library did help boost him a bit, but only so much and he burned out on it quickly (though he won the summer reading prize for our library branch).

 

I am trying to remember what age it was- but I know when my son was becoming a reader he *could* read very well. But he found it satisfying to sit down and read a book. He did not like books that took days to read. He enjoyed A to Z Mysteries, Andrew Lost, Winnie the Pooh (we have this series where each chapter is a separate book), Beatrix Potter (same thing), Thornton Burgess, Calvin and Hobbes, and Eloise. Maybe pick some books that are shorter and see if that helps?

 

He does pick his own books, so while I strew things of different lengths, he's picking the longer things. He does finish things he can read in a single sitting, so picture books, graphic novels, etc. He got the new Squish the other day and read it lickety split at bedtime and was very satisfied. But he's always refused those series chapter books. I do think they'd be good for building his reading stamina but he thinks they're boring, I think. He never went through a Magic Treehouse phase really.

 

Yes! My son did this! He insisted on keeping one book out of the library for like six months without reading the last chapter, because he didn't want it to end.

 

He read half of "Knock Three Times!," claimed it was one of the best books he ever read, and then dropped it yesterday to re-read a Hardy Boys mystery he'd gotten as a gift.

 

He does finish books, but there are a lot of half-read books around.

 

He also saves candy. Like lollipops from the doctor. He doesn't like to actually eat it. I feel like these are related.

 

We have a couple of books out that we've had out since before summer for this reason. :glare: Thank goodness our library has no fines on children's materials.

 

Ds doesn't do the candy thing (hmm), but he is my kid who has to hold onto something all the time. That's why he has to wear jewelry and carry around bits of things and little toys. When he was three, he carried around the same spatula for nearly a full year. He was never without it. And lately he's been really lamenting change in all forms.

[Satori]

We have a lot of half read books lying around. However, I do the same myself, so I suppose I'm not setting the best example. She sees all the books I read at once, some take years to finish, hehe.

 

I'm not too worried, because she actually will pick them most back up and read them now and then. Also, the percentage of books actually finished is higher than the half read books.

[stripe]

I think it's sometimes avoiding transitions and sometimes delaying gratification until he stops caring. He has a younger sibling who raided his stash of half-eaten treats (!) and that helped a little. ;) But I think the idea of a lollipop is more appealing to him somehow than the reality. Maybe one can enjoy it in the abstract and dream about it for longer than it would take to eat it.

 

I also have a huge stack of books that I cycle through, and I don't finish everything.

[Farrar]

I think it's sometimes avoiding transitions and sometimes delaying gratification until he stops caring. He has a younger sibling who raided his stash of half-eaten treats (!) and that helped a little. ;) But I think the idea of a lollipop is more appealing to him somehow than the reality.

 

:lol: That's just funny to me. What's also funny is that for most things, this is my kid who never delays gratification. It's his twin who is like, "I'm going to save this and eat it later." The idea being better than the reality though. Oh, so true.

[happypamama]

For every book? See, I don't know if I could do that. I feel like when I do push him to finish something, it's often at the expense of something else. But then, if I don't... Ack. I also see it as a character issue or a bad habit that's forming. I don't finish everything I read, but I do make a commitment to a book, you know?

 

 

Oh, no, not for every book. Just any one at a time. She picks (or occasionally I assign) one book that is her "school reading book," and she has to read some from that book every day until it's done. What she does or doesn't read in her free time is up to her. She generally has several other half-read books lying around, but she's at least finishing more of them since I started enforcing it as part of her schoolwork. (I did set some limits on what she can choose for her schoolwork -- it has to be a decent reading level for her, and it can't be pure "junk food" -- no Jedi books, for instance.)

[kiwik]

I usually have several books on the go. Even a good book can become tiresome after a while (like eating a whole container of ice cream) so I take a break with something else. Also some books start of well then peter out. Then there're books like "call of the wild" which don't deserve to be finished.

 

I have a no more than 3 fiction and 2 non fiction at once rule.

[Zoo Keeper]

Farrar,

 

My second son sounds like your son...he rarely finishes a *fiction* book, even if he is the one who chose it. I do make him finish any books I assign for school; I also have a time when they just read whatever they choose. He almost always chooses non-fiction. Lego books, science books (like Eyewitness), soccer books.

 

I figure even if he doesn't finish all this lovely lit I keep throwing at him, at least he is getting exposure to good laguage patterns, etc. There is some benefit, even if he never completes a story arc...;)

[stripe]

I also see it as a character issue or a bad habit that's forming. I don't finish everything I read, but I do make a commitment to a book, you know?

 

I am not sure I agree. But I do think a lot of non-fiction fits more easily into the browsing style of reading, or starting in the middle rather than the beginning.

 

I don't think one has to make a commitment to a book. I encourage my son to finish his books, but I think forcing it would be...bizarre. I have books I don't want to finish, or are just boring. My son has said that almost all books have boring beginnings. I know it took me YEARS as a kid to get beyond the first few pages of Anne of Avonlea.

 

I have dropped boring or weird books that I was reading aloud, as well.

 

Besides, if reading a book is a commitment, doesn't the book have an obligation to be worth reading? I think if it's a relatioship, both partners must be held accountable. So if the book is boring/scary/ too advanced/ not as good as something else, I think it's okay to come back to it later. Or not!

 

I like the idea of being a bit more passionate about reading. I don't think I am concerned about overlaying relationship metaphors and their accompanying moral implications to reading -- be it lifelong monogamy, serial momogamy, polygamy, an "open marriage," one night stands, leaving your beloved for a hot young thing, or any other to reading. I think "promiscuity" in this realm is fine!

 

I hope he gets life lessons about "sticking to" things and making personal commitments from other realms.

[Ellie]

I wouldn't feel compelled to do anything.

[guateangel]

This sounds like my dd with some of her books. When I asked her what was going on, she said "I read the last chapter, so now I know how it ends." HAHA!

 

It's like waiting to open a present, she wants to peek. :)

 

Other books, she said are just plain boring. If they are assigned reading (we use SL), then she has to finish. But if it's a 'free reading' book, I don't care. Who wants to read a boring book?

 

I encourage her to finish but I don't want it to cause issues with her love of reading (not much love there but...), so I don't push it much.

[Hunter]

I'm seeing some strange things going on with my adult students :001_huh: Well, strange to ME, anyway, but maybe I am the problem. I'll leave what THEY are doing here, so they have privacy.

 

But how "I" am reacting is to assign a very small number of very carefully chosen books, and those are expected to be finished. And I'm trying to read aloud more. I bake cookies (sometimes bread or other things), offer the neighbor/friend/student a cookie and encourage them to let me continue the story WE have started, saying I don't want to read ahead without them, and am anxious to SHARE the next chapter.

 

For young people born into a world that is so much faster, and for students with LDs and mental illnesses, things are so choppy and shallow. It's hard to settle down and focus on one thing when surrounded by a constant buffet of blinking choices.

 

I think the best thing is to MODEL what we want to see from them, and to carve out a less stimulating slot of time to SHARE with them. Let them FEEL the CONTRAST of joining you, and then running back out into the blinking buffet.

 

And seriously the phrase, "Here have a cookie, and let's ..." works wonders. Okay, maybe I'm teaching them some bad eating habits, but no one is overweight, and the cookies are homemade, so...I think it's okay. :tongue_smilie: The cookie is just a transition device to get them to hop worlds, and it really is hopping worlds, sometimes. A member here PMd me saying she pictured my apartment as the old lady's house in The Matrix. :lol: I'm going to have to watch the series again, because I barely remember her. Someone else here IRL recently said I remind her of the Girl With the Dragon Tatoo. It's quite a feat to be like both at the same time, I think. :lol:

 

Anyway my suggestion is to offer a transitional grounding item and YOU read and FINISH a book, and let them experience that WITH you.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Hunter

[Farrar]

I am not sure I agree. But I do think a lot of non-fiction fits more easily into the browsing style of reading, or starting in the middle rather than the beginning.

 

I don't think one has to make a commitment to a book. I encourage my son to finish his books, but I think forcing it would be...bizarre. I have books I don't want to finish, or are just boring. My son has said that almost all books have boring beginnings. I know it took me YEARS as a kid to get beyond the first few pages of Anne of Avonlea.

 

I have dropped boring or weird books that I was reading aloud, as well.

 

Besides, if reading a book is a commitment, doesn't the book have an obligation to be worth reading? I think if it's a relatioship, both partners must be held accountable. So if the book is boring/scary/ too advanced/ not as good as something else, I think it's okay to come back to it later. Or not!

 

I like the idea of being a bit more passionate about reading. I don't think I am concerned about overlaying relationship metaphors and their accompanying moral implications to reading -- be it lifelong monogamy, serial momogamy, polygamy, an "open marriage," one night stands, leaving your beloved for a hot young thing, or any other to reading. I think "promiscuity" in this realm is fine!

 

I hope he gets life lessons about "sticking to" things and making personal commitments from other realms.

 

Thanks for that... I like your promiscuity metaphor. I think I'm not going to change anything really... They have to finish one book off our required reading list per month. Beyond that, I'm going to keep casually encouraging, but not forcing. Sigh. I know some people read the first chapter aloud to get kids into a book. That really works for Mushroom. Maybe BalletBoy needs me to promise to read the last chapter aloud for him instead.:tongue_smilie:

[stripe]

Thanks for that... I like your promiscuity metaphor. I think I'm not going to change anything really... They have to finish one book off our required reading list per month. Beyond that, I'm going to keep casually encouraging, but not forcing. Sigh. I know some people read the first chapter aloud to get kids into a book. That really works for Mushroom. Maybe BalletBoy needs me to promise to read the last chapter aloud for him instead.:tongue_smilie:

There have been several books that my kids were sure would be soooo boring that they actually adored, once I read them aloud. I honestly don't know what the solution is, but maybe it's a problem that has none, or it will solve itself, or ... ? But I continue reading aloud to my kids...we keep going until we finish, unless we all can't stand the book (and especially if I can't!) -- I do have some books that elicit groans, but they tend to get into them anyway. I tried to get my son to read The 21 Balloons, but he only got a few chapters in some months back. I may turn it into a read aloud. I try not to make a big deal about it, though.

[Critterfixer]

Maybe it is something about how the boy brain approaches reading. The last chapter/chapters of a book are often the winding down, the what-happened-to-everyone-after-all-the-fun-stopped kind of chapters. In short, you don't miss the story by skipping the end of the book. And frankly, that's what matters. I don't think "they lived happily ever after" really matters so much to little boys. It's the adventure that counts.

 

It may not be just boys. I never liked the end of books myself. To me, I wanted to go on living with the characters and sailing off into adventure after adventure with them. If I stuck to the end of a book (and I often did because I could always hope that the adventure went on and on!) I was often let down, because I had to go rejoin society and something wonderful vanished away like smoke.

 

I don't know if that is the reason your son bails out on books before they end. Maybe it is boredom. But I thought I might just go at it from another point of view.

 

(And I'll give him major points for having the smarts to bail out on Poppy well before the end! Is there an icon for gagging?)

Edited September 30, 2012 by Critterfixer

[Farrar]

Maybe it is something about how the boy brain approaches reading. The last chapter/chapters of a book are often the winding down, the what-happened-to-everyone-after-all-the-fun-stopped kind of chapters. In short, you don't miss the story by skipping the end of the book. And frankly, that's what matters. I don't think "they lived happily ever after" really matters so much to little boys. It's the adventure that counts.

 

It may not be just boys. I never liked the end of books myself. To me, I wanted to go on living with the characters and sailing off into adventure after adventure with them. If I stuck to the end of a book (and I often did because I could always hope that the adventure went on and on!) I was often let down, because I had to go rejoin society and something wonderful vanished away like smoke.

 

I don't know if that is the reason your son bails out on books before they end. Maybe it is boredom. But I thought I might just go at it from another point of view.

 

Ooh. I like that. I could totally see that. You don't want the fun part to end so... you don't let it. :tongue_smilie: That's such 8 yo logic.

[Dmmetler]

Is it possible that he doesn't want the story to end? I know that there have been a lot of books that I really didn't want to finish, because I didn't want to leave the characters/setting and my imagination hadn't finished filling in the gaps yet-so sometimes I WOULD leave a book partially read and go to something else so I could continue "Reading" it in my mind. I especially will do that with mysteries that have a lot of red herrings and false trails, because it's so much fun to puzzle them out mentally and then go back and see if I'm right later.

 

(should have read critterfixer's post before responding-we basically said the same thing!)

[CatholicMom]

One of my kids (just turned 8) was doing this and driving me crazy. For him, I think it was partly that he just wasn't getting into it, partly because he would often lose his book because he never put it back :glare:, and partly because he's just a little boy and had no stick-to-it-iveness or a habit of finishing one book before he starts a new one. Kind of like eating a bite of every chocolate in the box instead of picking one and finishing it before you bite a new one:tongue_smilie: .

 

What I did was number all our books I wanted him to read with stickers on the front and put them all in our special "book box" which was for Readers. I also kept a list of the books that was all numbered so that if we were missing "#7" we knew what book we were looking for. It has worked very well so far and he knows he must finish one book before he gets the next one. This has helped give him some direction and guidance and I think he is actually liking books a bit more now that he is finishing them and not skipping around like crazy. If he really hates a book I have told him that he can talk to me about it and he doesn't have to finish it, but that will be the exception and he is not to just drop a book and start a new one constantly. I think it's helping. Maybe you could try something like this?

[JessReplanted]

I call 'school' and make him finish. ;)

 

(I tell my son to read a chapter or two during Quiet Time and then let him read something of his choice. Eventually he gets through the book.)

[LaughingCat]

DD9 was jumping from book to book and never finishing. So I made a rule that she must finish one book per week or lose all electronics time until a book is finished. She doesn't have to pick which book ahead of time or anything like that -so she can still drop a book or read multiple books at a time.