The one thing I wanted to achieve as a parent is to instill a love of reading in my children - now dd1 (6) tells me she finds reading boring!

[emkana]

I feel genuinely crushed!!!

She turned into a free reader during Yr1, around Christmas last year. At first she read all the time, but then that petered out. During the summer holidays she wouldn't have read at all if I hadn't challenged her too. Since then I have always insisted that she reads to herself at night, but now this morning I said to her that she should only read if she wants to, not to put her off anymore? Is that the right thing to do do you think?

The books she says she likes best are those blooming fairy books (barf), but she has access to a wide range and we go to the library etc etc

I feel really upset about this, any advice?

apologies for wrong spellings btw

I think she probably needs to find books she likes that are a bit different

What about something like Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (showing my age here I know)

Do you still read to her? DS is a fluent reader, but we still read to him a lot, certainly every night at bedtime.

Yes we take it in turns, one night dh reads Harry Potter to her atm, the other night I read something German to her.

Have to go out now, but will hope for more replies when I come back later.
TIA!

Emkana, my ds1 is in the same year at school and I give him plenty of access to books and magazines (he gets to choose one every fortnight) which seems to have done the trick for him. I don't make him read but he will often go to bed with a book (usually dr who or capt underpants etc) and read until he falls asleep. The only time I have had a problem with his lack of reading was when I made him read the school reading books which he does find boring. I tend to leave them alone too and he will read when he chooses. So yes, I think you are doing the right thing although I think the key is to let them decide what they want to read (sympathies on the fairy books, I have a dd who just loves those ).

Em my mum used to be an Early Years teacher and she was very hot on the idea that you let children read whatever they want to. You have to keep them enjoying the medium of reading, rather than worrying too much about exactly what they are reading.

I was an early free reader and read every single Enid Blyton book ever written, much to my parent's huge dismay, who had fond hopes of light chat about the key narrative points of Ivanhoe. But they just gritted their teeth and let me get on with it. They did used to offer me other books as well as, but not instead of my beloved EB.

I would just grit your teeth and get on with the fairy books. Honestly.

What about magazines and comics? Ok it might not be your idea (or mine) of great literature but it is still reading?

Or maybe a trip to the library and let her have as much time browsing and choosing as she wants.

I love reading so I know where you are coming from and at the moment ds loves books and I will be sad if that doesn't continue.

P.S I loved reading Judy Blume!!

does she like cooking ? Maybe you could get her to read recipes.

Or try and find books about other things that might spark her imagination.

Agree with Anchovvy also, let her read whatever she wants.

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this one is close to my heart.
ds1 announced about a year ago that he hates books, He now only reads Top Gear mag.

I love reading and have a degree in English, but sadly ds1 obviously takes after his father. It is sooo not fair

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Is she too tired at night? Could she read at a different time?

Would she prefer to read to someone? To you or a younger sibling?

huh? thats the one thing you wanted to achieve as a parent
good grief emkana theres much worse things that could happen than your dd not liking reading!
i personally have never been a great reader unless its auto biogs and if anyone had "forced" reading onto me it would have felt dreadfull.
let your dd make her own choices fgs.

This is not an issue for me because DS adores reading. But how do they become a free reader? DS is in Y2 and still has reading books, not the ORT stuff, he currently has a Dick King-Smith book, which he reads to me or DH one of two chapters a day. Is this a free reader?

I do enforce these, but also DH and I take turns to read to him at night (DH - the first HP, me - My Naughtly Little sister and bad Harry). Other than that he is often found with his nose in a Mr Man book (he likes the humour in these ), or Horrid Henry, or Capt Underpants, or an old football programme.

Emkana, have you thought of checking her eyesight at all? Could it be a problem with reading the print these days if she was happy enough reading before?

Does she get frustrated because she's reading chapter books and can't finish them in one fell swoop? If so, she might be happier with shorter stories but with appropriate vocabulary.

What I do is have dd read to me in English, either a book from school or the Magic Treehouse ones (2 chapters or so), then I read to her in English, then she has about 30 minutes to read to herself in German before lights out. She is still very happy to do that. I don't think the quantity is really a big issue at this age but I do agree that it is important for her to read a little every day if you can manage it.

Have you asked her why she no longer wants to read?

Emakana, actually it sounds like your DD is somewhat ahead of the curve on 'free reading'. I was told that not many kids really start doing this till yr2 or later.

Dont worry. When she's a bit older theres loads of more interesting books that will probably grab her attention again. Meanwhile sounds like your approach is spot on.

I escaped the fairies... my DD would only contemplate Horrid Henry and Captain underpants. Till very recently (and she's in yr 4 now) the only thing she read really enthusiastically was the Beano

I think 'challenged' is the key word in your OP emkana.

My top tip would be to back right off. It doesn't matter what she reads really, comics, back of the cereal packets, poetry.

If it is something she feels you want her to do, then it automatically stops being a pleasure and becomes an obligation.

I'd say, put books in her room and back out slowly, bit your lip, look the other way, and hey presto I bet she'll pick up a book at some point because SHE wants to.

Find a book you think she might like - even if it's a fairy book - leave on her pillow with a note saying 'This is fab. I wonder if you'll like it?' and leave it at that, don't ask, don't nag, back away.

Does she have cousins she could correspond with? Obviously it would just be occasional reading but better than nothing and there would be a point to it IYSWIM!

You sound very discouraged, don't be, you did a great job getting her this far and you know you have a lot on your plate as it is. I think part of being a mum seems to be recognising that you will always fall short of what you'd like to be. I was thinking last night : "thank goodness I've finally got her subtracting numbers like 256-88". It seemed to take forever and I was so stressed out with it. Then I felt such a failure looking at dd in the bath and thinking , oh no, she is overweight! There's always something which doesn't seem to be going right, isn't there?!

I write a lot of notes actually. DS1 (10) gets v. stuck in his reading habits sometimes, and just reads the same books over and over. This goes on for a while, and then I get him something else and write a note!

My last one said 'Was I right about Lemony Snicket? Was I? Was I right about Anthony Horowitz? Was I? Trust me.'

He had the good grace to laugh! And he read the book . . . .

I agree with ahundred.
has hse read proper, traditional fairy tales? Like charles Perrault?, for instance.

(ahundred, I kept rereading the same books as a child, it gave me confort )

Oh yes Franca, it's a good thing to do I think. I'm giving him gentle nudges really, I know re-reading is important and comforting.

nudge, nudge, nudge.

I'd have loved to receive those notes. I think I might adopt you as my parenting guru ahundred.