Nudging 8yo boy to read more.....

[knitgrl]

Ds 8, soon to be 9 in a few months, reads fine, but about the only thing he willingly reads are graphic novels. He really likes the Nathan Hale Hazardous Tales. He will also read National Geographic trivia sorts of books. He listens with full attention to read alouds, and can narrate SOTW chapters, picking up on all the main points without too much problem. What are some strategies I could use to get him to read things with fewer pictures?

[Brittany1116]

Has he tried I Survived or Who Was series? Fewer pictures, some similar content, reading level isn't too high. Mine would read 20-25 pages a day at 8. Now if he rereads a title from either series, he is done in 20 minutes. 

[Xahm]

That sounds a lot like my son. He's finding he likes Magic Tree House books, I think because he can read multiple chapters in one sitting and feel accomplished. Books with lots of pictures give that accomplished feeling really well, so maybe look for books with really short chapters?

[Green Bean]

The Ordinary Boy series turned one of my boys into a reader.

[wisdomandtreasures]

What about a few good read-alouds to ease him into it? You could do Charlotte's Web, Wind in the Willows, Chronicles of Narnia, Farmer Boy, The Hobbit, Princess and the Goblin... 

[purpleowl]

I don't know if this will be helpful or not, but just in case: My 8yo son's OT recently suggested that we use a "reading strip" - translucent strip surrounded by an opaque border so he can focus on the specific part of the page he's reading. It has made a HUGE difference in his willingness to read. If you look them up you'll see that they say "for dyslexia," but that is not my son's issue - he just finds it hard to stay focused when there's a lot of text on the page.

I actually need to pick up some more, but the one the OT gave us was something she said she picked up at a dollar store. So it's a cheap thing to try, if you think it might be helpful for your DS as well.

[EKS]

I used to give my kids a pile of books that they could choose from to read in their rooms before bed.  They thought they were getting away with something by staying up to read, which seemed to make it exciting.  Over time, I would gradually increase the reading level of the books in the pile.

[rutheart]

I kept supplying graphic novels for pleasure reading, but also made sure there was a shelf full of interesting novels of various reading difficulties available.

For school time, I would require regular books at the current reading level. To switch from picture books, I started with one page stories. If the kid could see all the print there was to read, it made it seem more doable. Once that was fine, we moved to 2-3 page stories, and then a chapter of Magic Tree House, etc.

Eventually, the kid made the switch on their own with their pleasure reading. The biggest thing is to keep non-school reading fun, so they keep reading.

[HomeAgain]

I wholeheartedly believe that picture filled stories are age appropriate for an 8yo.  They're right at the cusp of leaving behind traditional picture books and chapter books can still be a little scary.  We started introducing a reader at around age 7, just a book with fewer pictures to help get him more interested in reading novels on his own.  Each day he was required to read one selection for schoolwork.  Once we got over that hump, it was easier for him to attack his own bookshelf.

That said, these are books my own kid enjoyed at that age:

The 13-Story Treehouse series (13, 26, 39...)  They're kind of like what would happen if Phineas and Ferb made a treehouse and wrote books about it.

RinTinTin - comics, yeah, but adventurous.

Ken Jennings' Junior Genius guides

Sideways Stories from Wayside School - short, short chapters (one is 1 sentence long), crazy stories.

Jack Prelutsky & Shel Silverstein books - poetry, so non-threatening with a bunch of words, but fabulously entertaining.

 

Also, I'm not sure if your library has one, but it might be worth asking in the fall if they have a book club for kids.  Ours would have the kids read books from a specific list (award nominees) and get together monthly to discuss that book.  It was never too taxing, but the kids really enjoyed the selections.

Mrs. Pigglewiggle (I read the first, he read the rest)

 

[knitgrl]

12 hours ago, Green Bean said:

The Ordinary Boy series turned one of my boys into a reader.

I have never heard of this series; I'll have to look into it. Thanks for the recommendation!

[knitgrl]

10 hours ago, purpleowl said:

I don't know if this will be helpful or not, but just in case: My 8yo son's OT recently suggested that we use a "reading strip" - translucent strip surrounded by an opaque border so he can focus on the specific part of the page he's reading. It has made a HUGE difference in his willingness to read. If you look them up you'll see that they say "for dyslexia," but that is not my son's issue - he just finds it hard to stay focused when there's a lot of text on the page.

I actually need to pick up some more, but the one the OT gave us was something she said she picked up at a dollar store. So it's a cheap thing to try, if you think it might be helpful for your DS as well.

I do have him read about a page a day from a 19th century reader, and he does sometimes skip to the next line before it's time. So that might help.

[knitgrl]

1 hour ago, rutheart said:

I kept supplying graphic novels for pleasure reading, but also made sure there was a shelf full of interesting novels of various reading difficulties available.

For school time, I would require regular books at the current reading level. To switch from picture books, I started with one page stories. If the kid could see all the print there was to read, it made it seem more doable. Once that was fine, we moved to 2-3 page stories, and then a chapter of Magic Tree House, etc.

Eventually, the kid made the switch on their own with their pleasure reading. The biggest thing is to keep non-school reading fun, so they keep reading.

I have been thinking about assigning him reading. I've attempted it at various points this year. I assigned him to read The Sword in the Tree, a chapter a day, but after maybe two or three days, claimed he read the whole thing, and I was skeptical.....So a picture book with denser text seems like a good alternative.

[knitgrl]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

I wholeheartedly believe that picture filled stories are age appropriate for an 8yo.  They're right at the cusp of leaving behind traditional picture books and chapter books can still be a little scary.  We started introducing a reader at around age 7, just a book with fewer pictures to help get him more interested in reading novels on his own.  Each day he was required to read one selection for schoolwork.  Once we got over that hump, it was easier for him to attack his own bookshelf.

That said, these are books my own kid enjoyed at that age:

The 13-Story Treehouse series (13, 26, 39...)  They're kind of like what would happen if Phineas and Ferb made a treehouse and wrote books about it.

RinTinTin - comics, yeah, but adventurous.

Ken Jennings' Junior Genius guides

Sideways Stories from Wayside School - short, short chapters (one is 1 sentence long), crazy stories.

Jack Prelutsky & Shel Silverstein books - poetry, so non-threatening with a bunch of words, but fabulously entertaining.

I totally forgot about the Junior Genius Guides. He might like those.

Everybody at our house reads TinTin. A lot.

[knitgrl]

On a related note -- I am thinking of changing our schedule for next year. Right now, I work with oldest dd with math right after Morning Time, while ds8 and dd7 play. Then the rest of the morning consists of alternating between the two youngest while I sit with them for math and LA. They are both at a point now where they can do copywork and some other things without me watching everything they do. I was thinking of having everyone at the dining room table to do these more independent things all at once.  Perhaps this would be a good point to assign reading to ds? Should I set a time or page limit? Any other suggestions would be welcome.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

My son was similar. Two things that have helped were series with LOTS of books, written at a level he found interesting (Magic School Bus, I Survived, Animorphs) & getting him hooked on a series of graphic novels that were also produced as standard novels (Warriors). He has loved getting a deeper experience of Warrior adventures / characters that are already familiar by reading the novels!

ETA: Also, reserving a block of “school time” for reading. Despite my willingness to define words, explain concepts, & answer questions outside of lessons DS for whatever reason is willing to tackle much more challenging reading during his “school reading” time than when he is independently pleasure-reading. 

Edited May 29, 2022 by Shoes+Ships+SealingWax

[Ting Tang]

On 5/25/2022 at 6:51 AM, HomeAgain said:

I wholeheartedly believe that picture filled stories are age appropriate for an 8yo.  They're right at the cusp of leaving behind traditional picture books and chapter books can still be a little scary.  We started introducing a reader at around age 7, just a book with fewer pictures to help get him more interested in reading novels on his own.  Each day he was required to read one selection for schoolwork.  Once we got over that hump, it was easier for him to attack his own bookshelf.

That said, these are books my own kid enjoyed at that age:

The 13-Story Treehouse series (13, 26, 39...)  They're kind of like what would happen if Phineas and Ferb made a treehouse and wrote books about it.

RinTinTin - comics, yeah, but adventurous.

Ken Jennings' Junior Genius guides

Sideways Stories from Wayside School - short, short chapters (one is 1 sentence long), crazy stories.

Jack Prelutsky & Shel Silverstein books - poetry, so non-threatening with a bunch of words, but fabulously entertaining.

 

Also, I'm not sure if your library has one, but it might be worth asking in the fall if they have a book club for kids.  Ours would have the kids read books from a specific list (award nominees) and get together monthly to discuss that book.  It was never too taxing, but the kids really enjoyed the selections.

Mrs. Pigglewiggle (I read the first, he read the rest)

 

I have an 8 year old son, and he has struggled a bit with reading. I very much agree with picture books being appropriate at this age!  Memoria Press has some great suggestions in the read aloud/picture book series.  And you can look across grade levels.  My rising 5th grader on the other hand went through all the Dog Man books (yeah, I know....lol) but now really, really enjoys Road Dahl books. You can find a lot of them on thriftbooks.  I now learned homeschoolers can fill something out on that site and qualify for free books, which I sometimes get anyway!

[Balletbaker]

Something I’m trying this year is “silent reading time,” where both my son and I (he’s an only child) curl up with our novels and a delicious snack. We’ll aim to read for 20-30 minutes. We’ve tried it twice so far and it’s been a huge success. He can choose what he wants to read in his free time still, but we read chapter books during the silent reading time. I think that having the shared time and a known end time is working well.

[knitgrl]

1 hour ago, Balletbaker said:

Something I’m trying this year is “silent reading time,” where both my son and I (he’s an only child) curl up with our novels and a delicious snack. We’ll aim to read for 20-30 minutes. We’ve tried it twice so far and it’s been a huge success. He can choose what he wants to read in his free time still, but we read chapter books during the silent reading time. I think that having the shared time and a known end time is working well.

Treats can be great motivators. The boy in question is a big fan of hot tea, but doesn't frequently get it. Maybe if he picks out his own box of tea, that could move him. Thanks for sharing!

[PeterPan]

My ds does his best reading with his father. They started with popcorn reading and now ds will just read aloud straight to him. I know silent would be nice, but that's not where my ds functions. He enjoys the National Geographic Reach readers, which pair fiction and nonfiction. 

I think just shake it up and do more of what works, because that is what gives you the springboard to the next thing working.

I also try to weave in a lot of "sneaky reading" or what SWB calls "nibbled to death by ducks." So my ds might not want to sit and read a fiction chapter book (understandable with his ASD2 and language issues), but he can read 20-30 pages of worksheets in a day doing his math, LA, science, etc. I take what I can get! This summer I'm hoping to try immersion reading using paired audio books and texts. He does tons of audiobooks, but he hasn't been successful yet doing them together. Many people get reading gains when the dc begins immersion reading or reading along with audiobooks. My dd did it with the Little House series around that age (8-9) and she was an amazing reader. 

I'm constantly reading books on reading to see if there's some "magic thing" I could do that would somehow make something happen for my ds. It's more around 6th grade that the teachers are like ok, let's just try to get this to happen. Before then, I'd be extra extra flexible, using graphic novels, paired audiobooks and texts, nibbled to death by ducks, anything that works. They're still building their narrative language (ability to follow the stories and engage in the drama), behavioral regulation, etc. 

Edited June 4, 2022 by PeterPan

[knitgrl]

So I let the kids each choose one book from a used book sale this weekend. Ds chose the Great Illustrated Classics version of Sherlock Holmes and so far is thoroughly enjoying it. Part of the appeal may be that he got to choose, but I also think the large font is less intimidating for him, which is something I had not previously considered. Hoping that he will find other titles just as appealing. 🤞