Book suggestions please!

[chelseamorning]

We have a very bright, articulate 5.5 yr old DS who has a wide range of interests. He has a fabulous imagination and loves talking. However we're finding it very difficult to get him to read and write at home ? a common problem, I know.

DP and I are great readers and DS gets read to a lot but we're struggling to get him to read to us, no matter how relaxed we are about it and not putting pressure on him.

Does anyone please have any tips on how to encourage him? Can anyone please suggest some suitable books? He's loving us reading Roald Dahl and Dinosaur Cove books and he loves non-fiction. However we'd like to stimulate his imagination and offer books he'd like to read out loud. Also, I've thought about comics or graphic books but I'm loathed to buy the ones that come with a free toy (or the toy that comes with a free comic?!). Can anyone suggest any good ones?

Also, how did you get your DCs to practice their writing? He's keen to start collecting stamps so I thought I could get him to write the country names etc in the book, when I get round to finding one. I've suggested a scrap book as he collects loads of pictures/photos etc but he doesn't like the idea of pasting them into a book!

I've thought about bribing rewarding but he's smart enough to expect it all the time and we really don't want to go down that road.

Hi

I have two quite bright and academic boys, aged 8 and 5, and tbh, I wouldn't worry too much at this age about getting him to read outloud to you, or indeed practice writing. I would keep up with the school reading books, keep reading outloud to him and enjoying books together, and make sure he has lots and lots of free access to books to "read" to himself.

My 5 year old enjoys his school reading books, and we do around 10 mins a day. He sits and reads other books to himself, looks at pictures etc, and reads what he can. We read signs, food labels etc when out and about.

As for writing, he loves drawing, and I always have pens and paper around, but he doesn't write unless he needs to (birthday cards etc).

The reason I say don't worry is that my 8 year old was exactly the same at that age. Now he reads all the time, both fiction and non fiction, for pure pleasure. He also writes stories, football league tables, Rules for clubs he has invented, newspapers etc, just because he wants to. He is also in top groups for all his subjects, working 2-3 years ahead of average.

I take them both to the library, let them chose up to the 12 max books, and just let them read to themselves (if you look in the library, there is often a section for early readers, which are in a scheme with different colours - think pink is first).

Oh, we also have scrap books, but use photo albums, so we can peel back the clear covers and take out things if they want to.

x

I'd firstly say not to worry too much. My DS was exactly like yours at that age. He loved being read to but was reluctant to read so much himself. Although he could read, it was still hard work to make it something he didn't want to pursue for fun. He's now nearly 8 and over the last 6 months is voluntarily reading for the first time - it's easier for him now he's a more experienced reader plus he's seeing the value of being able to access books himself rather than mum or dad alway reading to him.

However, as a suggestion DK readers to some easy reading type books on subjects like Star Wars, transformers ... possbily something that will interest your DS? Don't know how good a reader your DS is, but the Happy Family (Allan Ahlberg) series of books are also good- they are funny and short enough not to be a chore :) DS also liked reading the Lego magazine at this age (there's not a huge amount of reading, but it all counts!) - you can subscribe on-line for free on the Lego site.

Writing is something he still dislikes :)

Ds is a similar age and has been enjoying reading MrMen books to his little brother and us.
He has never been interested in them before.
Have you been to the library to see if he'd like to choose anything?

Ds also likes some Leapfrog Rhyme time books and some others that we chose together.

It's hard though. Not sure how long this Mr Men phase will last. So happy he's actually slightly keen to read something at the moment.

Will watch with interest.

With writing he makes his own mini comics. This is something he's done by himself - he makes up characters, draws the settings and does little stories.. I was very impressed when he first did it, so have been quite encouraging. You could suggest something like that.

He's young yet.

For an age appropriate graphic book I like "Yakari and great eagle".
Also consider joining something like wildlife watch or rspb etc junior section as they send out colourful interesting mags 1/4ly and DC like receiving post addressed to them.

Thanks so much for all your comments. I know this is common and just keen to find out what worked/didn't work for you. He just always seems to have much more interesting things to do with his time than reading/sitting still/eating...!

We've bought the Oxford Reading Tree books as a start for him. He wasn't keen to read the early books as the stories were very basic (compared to the books we read to him) and didn't engage him. However he was keen on the later books as the stories were more interesting but he doesn't have the reading ability yet and so we had to read the to him! Not quite our objective!

I've suggested the library to him. We used to go a lot when he was younger. However he just says that if he sees a book he likes he'll want to own it (reminds me a LOT of my view on books! ). I'll run with that one again. I don't mind buying books if he's going to enjoy them. I think when he chooses books at school, the selection is just not engaging enough for him, plus they only have about 30 seconds to swap books before the register.

He's never been into drawing or colouring in so I'm not surprised he doesn't like writing. He does like 3D stuff like junk modelling though. He's really keen with the idea of writing down all those wonderful stories he tells verbally so we'll keep up with that idea in the vain hope that he'll do something about it.

I like your idea of using photo albums, Sittinginthesun, so I might suggest this. Also like the mini comic idea too, WowOoo. If he won't draw the characters, we could try and cut some out from magazines. I'll also have a look at the DK easy reading books, redskyatnight, as he's very much into Star Wars, super heros etc.

Do any of your DSs read 'comics'?

With the library, if either of my boys absolutely love a book, then we buy it later. You can generally renew up to three times online, and then renew again in the library unless it has been reserved. We have been known to keep books for 6 months!

Magazines - DS2 still likes Cbeebies magazine which has quite a lot of writing in it too. DS1 likes anything football related, National Geographic etc.

I was amazed at the jump when DS1 reached 7 years, and he really got into reading/writing etc.

I can recommend the Captain Underpants books. Full of humour that my 5.5 DS loved and he has been inspired to write his own comics with plots, pictures, and words (the books are about 2 schoolboys who whose headmaster is secretly Captain Underpants and who produce a comic on the side). I too found them funny. A little American - but it very easily translates and I was amazed at how inspired my DS became!

My ds is similar, though he is especially reluctant to write rather than read. I have found many of the suggestions above helpful and would also add the following:

We have made a 'dinosaur encyclopedia' using pictures stuck in as he hates drawing. He was happy to write a sentence or two for each entry.

He is also more eager to write when it is to create a prop for one of his games - he drew and labelled a treasure map when he was playing pirates, a newspaper (with not a lot in it!) when he was playing Bugsy Malone, a papyrus scroll when he was playing ancient Egypt etc etc

None of these have a lot of writing on them but it all helps!

Thanks!

I can see I'm going to have to get more creative with reading/writing opportunities. As you say, it all helps!

Hi, my son is the same age. He's moderately keen on reading and writing but I take his lead on how much to do as I think they're still young and it's best it doesn't become a chore or "something Mummy/Daddy says I have to do".

DS now reads bits of his Cbeebies magazine to himself. He came and told me a joke from one the other day, I was quite proud . We also bought him the Beano which he loved. Not sure how much he read himself- we read quite a bit to him, but he loved having it and took it to bed to "read".

We bought DS some Horrid Henry easy readers which he probably could manage some (they seem to vary quite a lot in standard), but we ended up reading to him as he found them too tricky. However, quite often he can be found reading one after we have read to him.

I don't know how many of the ORT you have read to him but DS here loved the Magic Key ones, stages 6 and 7. We are still going on stage 7 ones, but I am trying to broaden his horizons with other things as well!

As pp have said think it is a tricky age between now and 7 maybe and I think our main job is not to put them off!!

Thanks. Tgger. I entirely agree about not putting them off reading! I don't want this to be a chore for him. Just want to make sure that I give him as many opportunities to read/write so that he has options to chose from.

Tbh, he gets the two books from school each day and we're supposed to write a 'report' in his Record Book about how he reacted to each and how he read. THIS is stressing me out a bit. I don't want the teacher to think we're not reading with him, just because we never have much to say (especially when he hasn't read to us for a few days).

I think I'll have a word with his teacher and ask that he keeps the same two books for a whole week. We'll then substitute library books etc that he actually WANTS to read for these unengaging school books. I hope she agrees!

The Astrosaurs series is good - add that to the pile for reading. Also, National Geographic do a good magazine for kids. My ds is getting too old for it now but he loved it at that age - good blend of factual stuff, silly jokes, great poster type pictures.

My ds and dd were extremely good readers at this age but were daunted by the volume of words in the text that they were more that able to read by themselves.

Therefore, but alternating reading of pages and chapters between them and myself they became more enthused about reading for themselves.

What stage is he on? I think you should keep going with the school books. I know that to adults they are repetitive but they need to work up to the more complex words in stages. Yes dinosaur cove etc are more interesting, but they are stories to read to him ( letting him
Follow the words as you read) so that he gets a feel for how to use expression and punctuation. IMO it is important to keep going with the reading scheme every night, read a couple of chapters of a short chapter book to him every night and then maybe let him read some picture books for younger children to you at the weekends. They are less likely to contain words that are beyond his ability (and which could put him off).

Two books from school each day is a lot at this stage IMO. We get one or two a week and then do a bit of our own on the other days, or have a night off if DS not up for it. He likes to read so mostly it is every day, but I always give him the choice, especially if he seems tired.

It's tricky as the books that give more back to you are also harder for them to tackle either in length, sentence structure, vocabularly etc. I would love for DS to read a page, us read a page (or sentence come to think of that) etc of harder, more enticing books (for both of us), but he prefers to have the two things separate at the moment, ie his reading books that he reads and the books we read to him. So, separate it must be for now until his reading has jumped up a bit and he is more confident. I try to engage with the reading books even if rather simple/mundane and find something to discuss/be inspired by and this often encourages him. His teacher always stresses the comprehension skills re understanding the story etc and the first reading books we did had questions to answer so that helped- although would often make up my own "better" questions!

Good luck!

Thanks for the replies.

At the moment, he's refusing to read ANYTHING at home, especially the books he brings home from school. He just says he's too tired and has already read books at school with the teachers. We're just trying to keep it light and so, okay, perhaps you'll read tomorrow then. Any books that we do read with him, we discuss and I ask questions etc which he loves. He has excellent verbal/communication skills, way beyond his years.

He's always loved us reading to him ? fiction and non-fiction. We've done so since he was tiny. If he had his way, we'd just sit and read a book from cover to cover! We just want to keep encouraging this love of books and information gathering. He has loads of books which he's enjoyed us reading to him over the years which he could now start to read to us ? but he's just not interested.

Ah, well I think you have to play the waiting game then. Remember they don't read until 6 or 7 in a lot of countries so it's early days.

Having less books from school may well take the pressure off him. He'll probably fly when he does want to read given his love of books etc. Can you agree with him a time in the day when he would prefer to read- after breakfast/straight after school/bedtime. Have you tried e books on the computer. That got DS's interest at one point!

Have you got any idea re what level he is at with his reading- what level are the school books coming home?

Two books a day is a lot; two per week here. My DS (5.5) is in Reception and we do 20 mins homework per night. Our routine is that we grab a snack and drink and read one of his school books and other things. It works for us to have a set time to sit together and catch up.

Teacher has asked us to encourage DS to notice and use punctuation. OXford Owl have books and maths games. We play the lollipop game. He reads the book on screen can suck the lollipop if he notices a full stop. He can pick whatever he wants (regardless of level) and enjoys reading on screen rather than a paper book. He has started to prefer non-fiction books - and comics.

He is very reluctant to practise writing and has never been interested in drawing or colouring . He does enjoy making comics and dot to dots. During school holidays we get him to write a list for what he wants for lunch. If we have time we go to the shop and he find items himself. We also get him to write notes to help us remember a game he wants to play the next day.

Tgger said:

Can you agree with him a time in the day when he would prefer to read- after breakfast/straight after school/bedtime.