My 5 year old son doesn't want to learn to read...

[earwig1]

He loves books and being read too, his favourite author is Roald Dahl and I think he has a great attention span and comprehension, but he hates doing homework and says that learning to read "takes too long". My instinct tells me that he will love reading in the future and he'll be fine, but he is just not ready. There are some children in his class who are fluent readers, girls mainly, and he thinks he's just not as good as them. He loves spending hours drawing and making up stories. The problem is that he has homework everyday, and it's hard to make him do it, it doesn't feel right to force him... Anyone else with experience here?

Chill out :-)

Seriously, my dd happens to have been an early reader, but I was stressing that she didn't seem to be progressing, then suddenly...she could read fluently.

Something just clicked in her head. If he is getting plenty of chances, lots of books around him, chatting about letters, being read to, etc etc, it will click eventually.

Stressing about it just makes it a chore or him. Keep it fun and eventually he will see the point and start reading. :-)

Has he had an eye check?

i should chill out, yes... his eyes are fine, he had an eye check a year ago, and he loves drawing. He is just not ready and the education system says he should be! I know he'll be fine, but all they emphasise at school is levels now...

You are definitely not alone!

My 5 year old is v similar and in year one. But recently, he's finding it a bit easier, he's taking pride in being able to read a bit to his brothers for the first time, and the low-key group work is finally paying off. I live in hope...!

My ds was the same, we now know he's dyslexic, and now he uses a coloured overlay he reads fantastically !

I would talk to the teacher, tell them that you are not going to force him to read at home and that you are happy for him to progress at his own level. That you will do what you can to encourage him, but that there won't be any pressure to read at home.

Talk to DS, tell him that you understand that reading is hard when you are learning - but as he knows, it's great to be able to read a story, but that you will do that until he's a 'Big Boy' and wants to be able to do it himself - then you will help him to learn how to do it. Make it seem like a fun 'Big Boy' thing to do.

Keep reading to him as much as he wants/you can manage - having a love of books and an appreciation for them is more important. Reading will come.

In the meantime find any 'fun' ways you can, to do what you can - my friends DS LOVES flashcards of any kind, he loves to guess what the next one is, sort them into types, sort animals from cars and will play for ages with them, he's learning to recognise words and sounds etc from them. OK it's not ideal - but it's better than putting them off reading for life and once he wants to learn, he'll come on quickly.

Don't worry I'd say. They will be drumming into him the phonics at school hopefully. One day he'll just take off with it. For my DD that was after Easter of reception year.

If he's in reception I'd probably just read the book to him for now - maybe at bedtime.

If he's in year 1 I'd be slightly more worried. I'd probably try and get him to read by stealth. The Alphablocks game on cbeebies website is a good one.

It just clicks at different times for different dc. When it does many just take off.

This is probably one of those things that will resolve itself - lots of things seem to in young children. I didn't talk at all (other than single words) until I was 2.5. I was dragged off to various specialists, had hearing tested etc. And then, one day, totally out of the blue, I just came out with a paragraph, and haven't stopped talking since.