How much reading do you assign?

[LauraClark]

Do you assign a chapter a day or a time amount of reading or finish the book by this date or something else? I've mostly done a "read for 30 min" approach, but if my oldest ds gets distracted (which happens frequently) books can take forever. Sometimes a chapter will be short and the next one super long, so I'm not sure that's a great method.  Assign a number of pages? This last book we did took FOREVER to get through (and he enjoys reading), so I'm rethinking how I should assign books going forward.

[HomeAgain]

I used to assign two readings:

1 piece from the Elson Reader to be discussed in detail.  This could be anything from a poem to a 3-5 page 'chapter'.

And

A piece from a book.  Usually this would be a chapter or about 20 pages. I went through ahead of time and tabbed out ending spots, so sometimes it would end in the middle of a very long chapter, but the cut off would be at a transition spot where the scene changed.

Some books are just LONG or complicated.  We did a few that honestly, I don't think we finished because the rhythm of our days changed.  It's fine to start a nice long piece in January, but by March nobody wants to be sitting longer than necessary.  We want to be out in the sunshine.  So the book, which wasn't loved anyway, was dropped, and a new one centered around spring and growth would be pulled out.

[ScoutTN]

For my reader, just a set time.

For my good-reader-but-doesn’t-love-reading kid, it varied. Sometimes time, sometimes pages or chapters. Discussion with him had to be more informal and oblique in approach. 
 

First child gobbled up long books, second one not. Some longer and more challenging works we did as RA or audiobooks.

 

 

Edited February 19 by ScoutTN

[8filltheheart]

For any argumentative child, I always assign pages.  I try to assign by pgs typically, anyway.  But, there are times when life takes over and for my happy to do reading kids, I say go read for an hr.

[Brittany1116]

For the middle school years, I have picked a book a month. He typically counts the school days and pages and divides accordingly. If he gets into it, he finishes faster. 

[wendyroo]

For my high schooler, I tell him when a book needs to be finished and let him do the math.
(As a side note, I have found ChatGPT can give me a pretty good guide to how long various books will take to read.)

For my younger kids, it tends to be "read until...". Read until we have to leave. Read until I'm done getting dinner in the oven. Read until I'm done doing math with your sister. My kids like to read, but also have severe anxiety. Giving a number, any number, can make their brains rebel that "That is too LONG! What if I get bored? What if I can't read that long? What if, what if, what if?!?!" It is way better to not give them any number to fixate on.

With my youngest who is pretty sneaky and untrustworthy, I include reading goals/challenges. So, "It is reading time until we have to leave, but come tell me as soon as you find a similarity between you and Pippi Longstocking." When she comes back and reports something like, "We are both active", I will ask what makes her think that Pippi is active. If she has a persuasive answer from the text, then I often have a sticker or M+M or promise that she can choose the radio station in the car that day.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

I typically assign a chapter - or multiple, if chapters are short. In the rare event of a super long chapter I might split one across two days. 

Something that really helps here is to have DS read in the car en route to extracurricular activities; may as well get it done then while you’d otherwise be bored! He enjoys reading, though. 

[Ellie]

I never assigned reading.

[SilverMoon]

When they were little we read until they seemed spent, either tired of reading or not able to focus.

As they grew out of learning to read and into reading to learn, I started assigning pages or chapters for science, history, and often the literature book too. 

By middle school I could hand them a literature book with "aim for a week" and let them pace it. I was scheduling specific chapters and pages for history and science. It's basically still this way for my highschooler. He's perfectly capable of spreading out a history chapter but prefers it if I assign chapter 7 to Wednesday. 

[Classically Minded]

We do it similar to the way The Well Trained Mind suggested - DS11 is now reading 40 minutes in the morning from a book from the history list and then fun literature reading in the evening that is easy for 1 hour and this is only 5 days a week, not weekends.  I've followed this morning/evening reading from the beginning and works great.  My husband also does a family read-aloud in the evening before bed usually for about 20 minutes.

 

[Megbo]

My younger boys aren't enthusiastic readers, so I flip through their books and write out reasonable page/chapter goals for each school day. Could be one long chapter, 2-4 short chapters, or occasionally just half a chapter. I usually aim for 30 minutes, but throw in a shorter day every once in a while to help them stay motivated.