What age were your DC when they started to read for pleasure?

[sleepfortheweek]

DD is 5 (6 in a month's time). She's a fairly confident reader and is mastering the art of reading in her head instead of out loud.

I have said that when she is ready, she can read proper books with chapters by herself before she goes to sleep.

What age were your DC when they started to do this? We do read together every night, and I read her books with chapters, but I'm wondering when she'll really 'get into' a book herself like I fondly remember when I was young.

Any recommendations of books to start her off would also be most appreciated :)

It really depends on the child- my DD13 started going to the library to pick books for herself from 7 years old (it is a minute walk from our house), whereas my DD9 has only just started reading to herself at bedtime in the past few months. DS14 never read to himself!

About 7 I think

It's really very child dependent. Some do it at 5, some at 10 and some never. Just go with the flow

Thank you. She's maybe a bit young yet. We'll continue to enjoy books together and I'm sure she'll tell me when she wants to do it on her own

She absolutely will, you've given her a great start with reading and she's very lucky to love it because it's a magical place to go off to.

DD wanted to read to herself tonight, so she chose a book we have already read together (albeit a brill ago) and read for about 30 mins and finished the first chapter. There will be lots of words she won't manage but she managed to tell me what happened so think she understood most of it. It was so lovely to see her propped up with her pillow beside her night light ❤️

*a while

DD1 was 5yo. She wanted to read Rainbow Fairies, but I had dd2 to read first, so she settled down to read them while waiting. The first week there was a lot of calling "mummy what does i n d i g n a n t l y spell?" but after that she moved fairly rapidly onto other books, and was always reading.

Dd2 was younger. I think because she saw dd1 doing it and wanted to be be like big sister. She's a big reader still, and still reads a lot for pleasure.

Ds wasn't interested in fiction. Only fact, preferably about WWII or planes. Or WWII and planes. However I started reading chapter books to him I thought he'd enjoy when he was about 6 or 7yo, rather than just descriptions of the inside of a Spitfire engine.
He never has often sat down and picked up a book just because he wants to read. However there have been numerous occasions where I've found he'd finished the story I'd started to him. I'm not sure I would quite describe it as reading for pleasure-he'd still prefer someone read it to him, but more reading because he can't wait to find out the rest of the story.

But whereas dd2 will finish a book and flip to the beginning and start again Or browse the bookshelves and pick one to read, and dd1 would come home from the library and curl up with her pile of books and read them one after the other, ds would rarely read except at bedtime and normally only I book I'd started reading to him.

My son was 6 when he first started reading to himself. He started off with Horrid Henry and couldn't put it down 🤣 think he's read them all.

He also loved the storey treehouse series at that age which are very popular with both boys and girls.