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How do you strengthen your child's reading skills?


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I am looking to increase my child's reading level. She is currently in 4th grade but reading more at a 3rd grade level. She is doing well and has progressed at a slow and steady rate, but her material is only becoming more demanding and she needs to get at least up to grade level.

 

What are some simple (non-curricular) activities, games, ideas I could get her doing that will help her? I don't want to add anything else to our school day so it really needs to be something she can do independently or with her older or younger siblings.

 

Any ideas?

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A friend did this with her dd who was struggling. Her dd listened to the entire Harry Potter series over and over. Then she started reading the series.

 

Just listening to audio books is helpful, kids can increase their vocabulary and attention span with them. But it can also lead to reading other books in a series (We used Artimis Fowl ).

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Reading Eggs has a program for 3rd-5th graders called Reading Eggspress. I've found it very helpful for strengthening reading comprehension. We've always done audiobooks, but this child had problems related to actual reading. He skipped words, substituted similar looking words, and allowed his mind to wander without attending to what he was reading. Essentially all bad habits related to weak eyes and a below-average attention span. Reading Eggspress gave him the practice he needed with built in motivational games, etc to get him over the hard parts. Honestly, I was surprised. I thought it would be hokey, but the instruction was pretty solid. http://readingeggs.com/

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She can watch through my online lessons.

 

Also, if you start slightly below current reading level, she can slowly work her way up on her own by reading through the 1879 McGuffey Readers. The NRRF reading grade level test is based on these books, so that score can easily determine a good starting point. All the difficult words are diacritically marked and defined to help you sound them out and figure out what they mean on your own.

 

Alternately, the things on my how to tutor page can quickly gain reading grade levels and would not add too much time to your day. It is about 4 to 6 hours worth of time, most of my students gain 1 to 2 grade levels after working through the things on that page. So, 15 min a day, 4 days a week, and you should be done in 4 - 6 weeks. You just read and spell a few words of each type that are easy and do the whole section if there are difficulties, and the whole sections of the 9 passages from Webster's Speller. The Webster's Speller passages go from 4th to 12th grade level. You also do all of the syllable division exercises.

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Do you have her read X number of minutes a day? We are doing 30 minutes every day in 2nd grade (that includes weekends). That doesn't include school work reading. So it could include reading below grade level to develop proficiency or at grade level or more advanced if the content interests her. Maybe she can read to an older or younger sibling.

 

Have you had her eyes tested to make sure there is no issues.

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