Reading for fun

[Moodymornings]

What age did your DC start reading independently for fun?

Before they could read independently they looked through favourite books and looked at the pictures and recited the words.

Same. But they very much thought of books as being something they did with dh or me, at first. Once they started reading at school they showed a lot more interest in exploring books independently. One dc became a free reader at the end of Reception, the others all got there at the end of Y1. Once they were free readers there was no stopping them. So my answer to the OP is 5-6yo.

What is your real question, @Moodymornings? A child’s willingness to read is dependent on so many things:

Whether they see their parent(s) reading for leisure.

Whether a parent reads aloud to and with them every day.

Whether they have free access to a variety of exciting looking fiction and non-fiction physical books at home.

Whether reading a wide variety of books is encouraged at their school.

Whether they live in a relatively stress free environment - with enough food, warmth, space, privacy, play, affection to ensure they have the headspace to concentrate on abstract things like stories.

Whether they’re physically and mentally capable of reading for pleasure. For some it may be easy at four years old, others might struggle at fourteen.

So how is your child situated?

Reading to them every night was an important part of them developing a lovely of reading on their own. First board books and picture books, then a chapter a night of a longer story.

We do all those and always have. Very bookish household. Older child reads a fair bit. Dc7 very occasionally does but not that bothered although they love love love being read to and are a pretty fluent reader.

I would say between 5-6. They've always enjoyed looking at books on their own and with us. It was between 5-6 that they developed strong enough reading skills to truly enjoy reading on their own and would disappear into a book for 30 minutes, then an hour, then more. This is early compared to peers though and reading has been a priority for us. I expect many classmates will start reading for pleasure in the coming years and it will all be normal. Some may never enjoy it as not every adult does.

I am an avid reader but none of my three DC love reading for pleasure. I did all the things that @NorWouldTilly suggests. It's a shame but what can you do?

DD1 is dyslexic so was 8/9 before being able to read an appropriate book independently and even then it was tiring. I had to endure many tears if helping her read Rainbow fairies and similar as she wanted to read the. But couldn't do it by herself. (Plus longer chapters books with me reading them to her) However she enjoyed looking through books herself from toddlerhood.

DD2 again liked looking through books and could read to herself at a lot younger age

Have you introduced them to as wide a range as possible? (Including things you might look down on/dislike a bit - no judgement, for me this was Wimpy Kid and Dogman!) They have everything they need except for the spark. My eldest loves certain non-fiction (very specific), fairly heart-wrenching historical fiction and murder mysteries, which took a while to discover (Unsurprisingly, I was a little cautious about introducing these!). Youngest still loves anything of the Dogman-style, which is far from challenging but at least she's reading... I have had some 'hits' with much more challenging novels but haven't managed to figure out the connecting theme that has appealed to her yet - it's a work in progress, and I'll put up with the basic graphic novels in the meantime.

One of my dc would not read stories for fun, despite being a fluent and eager reader. He loved information books where the biggest blocks of text were a couple of paragraphs at a time. He could study such books for hours, and he retained the information. He started reading the Alex Ryder books when he was 8 or 9, and gradually developed a liking for long texts. At the age he was discovering Alex Ryder, another of my dc was finishing The Secret Garden. I couldn’t read anything written before the 20th century until I was late teens.

Some children take longer to develop the reading stamina needed for long texts, factual or fiction.

Yep! Am not fussy at all about that stuff, reading’s reading! They’ve shown a little interest in Wimpy Kid, but it hasn’t really stuck. Nothing much moves the needle, but I live in hope!

It is hard I think having one that doesn't seem to read when you want them to enjoy it (because reading is brilliant!) All you can do is expose them to it, keep reading to them, try introducing audio books and so on. A huge part of the benefit of reading on learning and developing good literacy skills is the exposure to vocabulary and sentence structure which audio books will give them.

Unlike Aparecium my 2 readers didn't seem to see books as something they did with us before they became fluent readers. We read to them every night and at other times but they would sit in bed or next to the book shelves looking at books too. My non reader probably less so. They were pretty early readers, one was fairly fluent before starting school so it just went from there.

Both DH and I read plenty. Out of the 3 DC I have 2 avid readers and one that hasn't picked up a book in years.