Any advice for helping 6 year old to read for pleasure ??

[recall]

My daughter is doing ok with her reading. She is now able to read chapter books out loud, but does not seem to be interested in the content.
She is really into My Little Pony cartoons, I have tried to encourage her to read books about them, but she still sees it as a task/chore. Am I expecting too much ? Does it happen when she is ready? Or is it something I need to engineer ?

[learnandsay]

What happens in bookshops, secondhand book stores, libraries and the like?

[motherinferior]

At her age, reading is hard work. It only becomes a pleasure when it's effortless. What you can do, however, is keep reading to her and reading in front of her, and generally showing how potentially pleasurable it is. But she needs to be able to read fluently before she enjoys it.

[learnandsay]

I had a similar thing with my daughter about six months ago. She would look at a dense page of a story book and say "that's way too hard." Sometimes we'd read a bit of it and sometimes we'd read something easier looking.

At some point we invented a game about reading really long words, the longer and harder the better and clowning around when she got the words right. Now she reads pretty much anything.

[Jux]

Read to her lots. Let her see you reading.

My cousin recommended getting the Rainbow Fairy books (aaaaaaargh!) and reading one page then encouraging dd to read the next and so on. Much as I loathe those books, it worked. But I am so happy that I will never have to know another thing about the adventures of Kirsty and what's-her-name.

[quip]

1. Read to her every day
   
2. Wait a year
   
3. Give her 20 minutes silent reading time in bed before you go in to read to her.
   

But waiting may be the key. My 7yo is currently ploughing through the thick harry potter books but I didn't manage to get him hooked on books until this year. His 5yo brother was much easier as he likes Horrid Henry.

[learnandsay]

Isn't the downside of waiting a year: what happens if it's the same next year?

[quip]

Yes, but the child is 6. She can read chapter books out loud now, and another year of schooling should improve her reading enough so it's no longer such hard work to read for fun. If this was an 8yo I wouldn't have given the same answer.

[HarrietSchulenberg]

Keep reading to her with her at your side so she can see the words.

Use familiar books and every now and then stop and let her fill in the missing word. Mr Men books are good for this, at least ds3 thinks so and he was a very reluctant reader until about 8 months ago.

Try reading in unusual places - shop signs, posters in windows etc. Pick easy to read ones (most are fairly simple) and sound out the longer words.

Read in front of her whenever you can and if you're, for example, reading the paper, let her help you with it.

[HarrietSchulenberg]

Oh, just read that she's already reading chapter books. OK, so ignore the Mr Men stuff.
Basically it's just about making sure that she sees reading as pleasurable. Sharing a magazine or newspaper makes them feel a bit more grown up. Waiting for the joy of reading to arrive is like waiting for a lightbulb moment, and not everyone gets it. Some people just plain don't like reading.

[freetrait]

First read to her every day and really enjoy it. Perhaps get her to choose some books for you to read to her as well as you choose some.

Then can you give her free reign in the library re books to read, and also pick a variety of books for her that you think she would like? Sorry if you already do this. Some are more keen to read than others, but sometimes it's about finding something they are in to. Don't put any pressure on, but make sure you try a variety of things. I think you need the girls equivalent of Horrid Henry (Rainbow Fairies?)

Sometimes it is a question of time as others say, reading gets easier as you get better. Perhaps get some easier books from the library, that would still interest her? Do you give her reading time after bedtime. We do this with DS and he is always keen to use it, only doesn't if he is absolutely shattered.

[Tigglettchic]

hi, read a line each, encourage funny voices, read a word each or pretend to be struggling and ask for her help.

also try less obvious things like getting her write a menu or reading the shopping list.

their school books and 'chore' books will be of little interest to her but try magazines