How long should an 8-year-old read daily?
The more a child reads, the more confident they will become. However, how long they should read will depend on their reading level and how much they enjoy reading.
Ideally, an eight-year-old should be reading for around 20 minutes a day, both out loud and independently. If they are reading a more challenging book, this will take longer and they may not read as many pages. Try to focus on making it run rather than a chore.
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What should an 8-year-old be reading?
While most children will have learnt to read by now, each child progresses at a different rate. At this age, they will be building up their confidence and developing as a fluent reader.
An eight-year-old should expect to reach the following milestones:
Comprehension – understanding text and being able to summarise what they have read. This includes recognising humour in the story.
Reading independently – an eight-year-old will now be moving on to longer books, such as chapter books, with less illustrations.
Reading together – while they can read alone, it’s still important to read out loud, making sure they recognise different expressions.
Extend vocabulary – this means having a good understanding of spelling and using phonics, context and pictures to identify new words.
Understanding paragraphs – this includes recognising formatting, punctuation and the concept of paragraphs, and applying this knowledge in their own writing.
What is the best book for 8-year-olds?
Written by bestselling author David Walliams, Slime tells the tale of poor Ned who lives on a miserable island with his tormenting sister and awful adults, especially his Aunt Greta Greed.
What are the most popular authors for 8-year-olds?
It depends on your eight-year-old - some will love the light-hearted silliness of David Walliams and Jeff Kinney, others will prefer the more traditional storytelling vibes of E.B. White, Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton. And, of course, there are plenty of eight-year-olds who love to read non-fiction - which is where authors such as Adam Kay shine.
How we chose our recommendations
Most of our recommendations for books came from Mumsnet users themselves. We searched the Mumsnet forums for posts about which books Mumsnetters really rated. We also researched various review sites to find out which books performed well across the board.
About the author
Mum-of-two Gemma Wilcock has over 15 years of experience writing for print and online publications covering issues surrounding parenting, health and lifestyle, as well as researching and writing in-depth product reviews for Mumsnet.
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