What age did your DCs start to read independently for fun?

[ironrooster]

DD5 is coming up to the end of reception now.

She's an able reader - on green books (ORT level 5 although she did bring home a level 7 turquoise book recently, I assume it was a mistake but she could read that fine too) and was given exceeding on her report for reading. Sorry, I know this sounds like a stealth boast but just wanting to show that she can read well.

We read her school books that she gets 3 times a week and I read to her every night. She reads things in her environment but is yet to pick up a book and start reading to herself, whether aloud or silently.

What age do children start doing this? Should I be encouraging her or just wait until she naturally starts herself?

Take her to the library. Let her browse and choose books there.

My daughter is a very able reader and 7 (yr 3), she has read independently from yr 1. I think sometimes it just depends on the books - she loves non-fiction and is an avid library member. When she still read banded books we had a subscription to the reading chest (online library) and they have a great and varied range of banded books, made a change from Biff, Chip and Kipper!

Mine have all been hugely different -

DD1 age 6
DS1 still refused to read anything at 14yrs
DD2 age 5
DD3 age 3 (fluently reading and now G&T)

I've found that kids will enjoy books when they aren't forced and gently encouraged. Take them to book shops /libraries and just let them read whatever takes their fancy (as long as suitable for age d comprehension etc). My son has never been into books much, the school would force reading onto him and I think it completely turned him off reading for pleasure :(

all 3 of mine started sometime in reception/year 1 but they were all very able readers, and now it is hard to get there noses out of books (Aged 7, 9 and 14). I never really pushed it, they read independently for pleasure when they were ready. I remember with DS3 going up one evening and finding him hidden under the covers finishing off the giraffe the pelly and me that I had started reading to him that evening, and from then on he was away.

My ds refused to be read bed time story when he was 2 and started to read(or pretend) to himself. He demanded I read my book next to him.
But I assume he was more looking at the pictures.

Dd always "read" for fun, even before she could read. Have a video of her carefully going through an alphabet book at 16 months or so trying to name all the pictures. She is quite omnivorous as far as books go, so phonics books were her fun reading, then picture books. At 4 she'll pick up and read the next chapter of a bedtime story, but just as happily read a baby board book with one word per page.
DS it was more when he caught up his reading with his interest level. So while he did enjoy phonics books, he wouldn't just pick them up and read them to himself. He really got launched in the summer after reception with some piratey books and project X alien adventures.
They're both strong readers, DD is exceptional. These threads often pick up the extremes!
Op, if you can, get to a library and join in the summer reading challenge this holiday. Ideal opportunity to find out what she reads for fun and get her launched.

DS was 5 and coming to the end of reception when he started reading for pleasure.

We were given a few Captain Underpants books by a family member. He loved them and we bought the set. Then he progressed onto Diary of a Wimpy kid IIRC.

He also enjoyed factual books and choosing library books.

I always shell out for comics too...to me anything with the printed word is positive.

Dd1 (10) beginning of year 2
dd2 (9) year 3
ds (6) probably not for a very long while yet!

For DD, it really took off when she got a bed time light for her birthday, and was allowed to read a bit before she went to sleep. She was stage 11 at that point. But she was read for pleasure before then.

For DS I'm guessing he will be older. He is November birthday (YR at the moment), and so although he is doing pretty well at school (same reading level as your dd), he still finds reading a lot of effort, and he is a lot less motivated (and with less stamina) than dd.

DD loved (and still loves) a challenge ds likes things to be easy.

I think sometime in Y1. We did the reading challenge at the library during summer and this kick-started it.

We also offered her to finish the page/chaper of whatever book we read to her and bit by bit she would pick it up herself in the morning or during the day.

Ds1 as a teen
Ds2 never
Dd1 aged 9
Ds 3 aged 12
Dd1 aged 5

They are all bright high achievers, ds2 even has a Masters but will tell anyone who asks the only book he has ever read outside of school reading scheme books is The Twits by Roald Dahl. He passed GCSE English lit by reading other people's reviews of the texts, he passed his Degree and Masters by reading the references he used rather than the suggested texts. Such is his hatred of reading, he neither purchased nor read a single book.

My DD is just like yours, 5 and at end of Reception, book band green but can read higher level stuff. She started reading for fun a couple of months ago. I get a big pile of Usborne First Books out of the library for her.

DD left reception a free reader with a voracious appetite for reading. She has spent 70% of her waking hours reading since then. She is 9 now and reads 3-4 novels a week at least. Her brother is v different. He's 4 and can read but prefers me to read to him. He will listen to audio books constantly though.

Older than that.

We came to it via shared books though - we read easier books TO them then gradually got them to read a sentence, paragraph then page. There is still a place for familiar picture books in this. I swear DC2 did large portions of his learning to read by watching me read to him, with pointy finger, while he only had to read the main character's name.

DC1 wanted to read Rainbow Magic so we shared reading them until she decided one day that she could read them without help.
DC2 started sneakily reading ahead. We were suitably impressed by his amazing predictive powers about would happen in the story. Then we gave him special big boy reading time to read ahead by himself, before lights out.

Some children are more motivated to read nonfiction than fiction. Usborne See Inside are good for having both information and flaps.

11. Perfectly capable reader, reading age about 3 years above chronological, level 5 SATs ... just not interested in reading to herself until the summer between primary and secondary school. She's 12 now, only a year on, will zip through books she's bought or borrowed, but doesn't bother me for more once she's done.

Odd child.

(I am huge bookworm )

Ds1 only started choosing to read (as opposed to reading because he was told that he had to) when he got to secondary school. He liked their library and started bringing books home.

Ds2 was 7yrs old. He started with non-fiction about his favourite interest of the time and then moved on to fiction.

Dd1 was 9yrs old when she suddenly became interested in reading non-school books.

They were all able to read from Reception or Yr1 but had no interest in picking up a book unless it was for school. Trips to the library and bookshop made no difference.

For them I think it was something that had to happen naturally.

Thanks all. Certainly sounds like she's not alone then for not doing it yet.

We do visit the library regularly but she just wants me to read her whatever she's chosen!

I was a bookworm as a child but I don't know whether I was reading independently at that age or not really.

10 but she has dyslexia. She is now an avid reader.

My OH is a highly intelligent professional with obscene amounts of post grad qualifications and freely admits to never reading for pleasure - I have known him 19 years. In that time he has read 3 pages of one book ! My dd is taking after him - she was ORT 10 by end of reception with excellent comprehension but still aged 7 has yet to pick up a book because she wants to. I would be worried if I didn't know her daddy. No point in forcing it. She can read to find stuff out and instructions, homework etc.

DD1 is same as yours. End of reception, ort level 5 but reads 6 on Oxford owl if she picks them.
Around easter this year she started reading to herself at bedtime - just 10 mins or so. Tbh I thought she just wanted to Stay up longer but she now does it most nights & really seems to enjoy it
She's not reading chapter books though, just Mr Men, Alfie etc

very good thread....how to change reading for school for reading for pleasure, tips would be awesome!

I think giving permission to read silently helped both mine to read faster and so enjoy it more. Weirdly, both of them started reading for pleasure at the exactly the same age (though different points in the school year, due to different months).

My just turned 5 DS has been 'reading' for pleasure long before he could actually read. Now that he's a fairly able reader, he's doing it even more. I think it's because he copied his older brother (who is a real bookworm) and generally we are a very book loving family and read lots together.
DS usually picks up non-fiction books to read to himself, just have plenty of books at home that you know will interest her, and lead by example

DS started reading on his own "for fun" in Yr2 (so I think he was 6). I'd bought him the first Harry Potter for Christmas and he was off like a rocket and hasn't looked back. He is a real bookworm. DD(9) is not interested in reading whatsoever and only a few months ago became a free reader, simply because she can't be arsed to read (school library is atrocious and in need of a complete do over). We have lots of books at home and I'm hoping if she ever does just "click" then she has lots of her brother's books that she can pick and choose from.

In the summer after reception, DS would occasionally pick up a book to read to himself. But mostly he would still ask the books to be read to him, even if he'd read it to himself perfectly well already.

It was recently, May half-term (Y1) that he has really caught the reading bug. Now he will wake up early and ask if he may go and read until everyone else gets up. Make us late because he 'just wants to finish this chapter'. Be thrilled when they have 'independent reading' at school, as he can read his own books then.

The key was finding the right books. For us it was the Magic Treehouse series that did it. It's a long series a bit like ORT magic key stories, as in, the children are transported to a different place/time where they have an adventure. There is a Magic Treehouse book on just about every topic you can imagine. I found one on DS' current obsession, we read it together (alternating chapters), and he wanted more - also because though each book works as a standalone, they are also organised in series of four books with an over-arching storyline.
(Magic Treehouse is roughly purple level, but chapter books, and a bit longer than purple reading scheme books.)

Some children like a challenge. DS doesn't - he was capable of reading books like the Magic Treehouse ones for nearly a year, but it would have been a bit of work. For him the books that started him off were always going to be 'easy' books, a few levels below his ability. It was when he was reading at about white level, that the 'purple' Treehouse books were just easy enough for him to whizz through full of enjoyment.

But be careful what you wish for ... 6 weeks later, and he has worked his way through about 30 chapter books ... Once he'd caught the reading bug, he soon moved on to other books/series, mostly harder ones. It's a challenge to keep up, and keep him well stocked with appropriate books!