Shocked by son's reading

[Aria2015]

My son is nearly 8. We have been told that he is quite behind with reading (1-2 years behind). We read daily, but he’s a reluctant reader. He complains the books are boring and babyish (I see his point!). Getting him to read with any enthusiasm is almost impossible.

We read daily to him. Chapter books for an older child (10+) to keep him interested in books. He loves us reading to him.

Randomly tonight I challenged him to attempt to read a page of the chapter book. To my astonishment he flew through a chapter with relative ease!! I could not believe this was the same child who had ‘struggled’ to read a book aimed at 6/7 year olds in a monotone and bored voice earlier in the day.

How is it possible he can read a significantly harder book easier than his school books? He wants to continue his reading practice with the chapter book and not read the ‘easy’ books. I’m really confused and unsure what to do. Shall I just let him read the harder books? He seems so enthusiastic for it in comparison to the school reading books.

It feels like a lightbulb moment for him. I don’t want to mess it up!

Name change from original post. But I wanted to update that my son has been reassessed for reading and has not only caught up, but is now reading above his age level! He now reads in bed every night before going to sleep and is a fluent reader! Ditching the school books has been the best thing we ever did!! I wouldn't call him a book worm, but he definitely enjoys books now and I never have to chase him to do his reading. It's become part of his bedtime routine. I'm so proud of him!

Fantastic!! That was me - mum taught me to read very early and the teacher was furious when I got to school because I wasn't following along with the babyish books in class and reading Moomins under the desk. He's bored with what's on offer at school. They aren't in charge of his reading - you and he are! Give him all the books, maybe read things that are a bit too old for him, get him reading more aloud, turn on TV subtitles, have him watch you tube videos with subtitles on ... How exciting 🤗

DS's reading recorded often says things like "couldn't get DS to engage with school book, he read X pages of Y book instead"

His teacher is fine with that and said they would rather he read anything and enjoy it, the not read.

Sounds like he is doing great, you must be so pleased. My eldest discovered David Walliams at the same age and sped through all his books. I know MN doesn't like them but they clearly work at getting children reading (bit like Enid Blyton, another author DD adored when she was young but MN disapproves of).

What colour are the pages he's reading from? Some children find it harder to read black text on a white page because of the contrast but can read text on blue/grey/pale yellow backgrounds with greater ease....

I remember this happening to me really vividly.

They were about to statement me as my reading was so poor, I was in year 3.

We went on holiday and it was the entirety of the twits, fantastic mr fox and Matilda... in 2 weeks. I wasn't managing biff chip and kipper.

My mum was delighted and also confused.

I still doing like being told what to do, I very much prefer doing things on my own terms.

Meant to say, I know we're all suppose to do what we can to support school teaching, and our primary school in particular would send home activity sheets suggesting things we could do at home to support school learning. However I found it more useful to let school get on with the basic stuff the government thought was important while DH and I spend our time with the DC exposing them to things we found interesting. Our enthusiasm for a topic had more of an impact than following the curriculum. Even if it was just 'feel free to love what you love'. Kids get much more out of being told 'I loved this book when I was your age and I'd like us to read it together because I think you will love it too' than being told 'school says we must read this'. Doesn't even matter if they don't love it (although I never had a bad reception to a book I suggested until puberty kicked in).

I'd not make an effort either, those books are designed to bore you shitless. Let him read the more challenging material.

Please read the Nowhere Emporium book it’s brilliant

Try him on the Beast Quest books, they seem to have got a lot of my son's class into reading :) The books they send home from school are dire for capturing a child's imagination, which is a major part of the battle!

Part of this is that schools make reading such a chore. You can't on one hand try and convince kids that reading is a wonderful passtime where they learn fascinating things about the world and have their creativity and imagination stimulated and then simultaniously treat learning to read like it's a chore in the most sterile and 'rote learn' way you can imagine

Does your child understand the more mature books? If so I'd still try and encourage him to read his school books at least a couple of times a week but focus on doing exactly what you're doing. If the understanding and the thirst for knowledge is there then it will click eventually but pushing too hard might just turn him off books completely.

I had a reluctant reader too. The TA in my sons Y1 class (who had been a TA for 30 years and had 3 children of her own, so I'm inclined to believe she knew what she was talking about) said some boys don't fly with reading until Y3 and then it just clicks. Which is exactly what happened.

@KittensSchmittens yes, I think that's what's happened and it's actually what happened to me as a child too. I really struggled and then things just 'clicked'. The difference is, I wasn't subject to any real pressures at school and I wasn't benchmarked (that I or my parents knew of!). My school gave me a bit of extra support but had a 'you'll get there' mentality, which is what happened.

I feel like my son has faced more pressure than I did. Lots of focus on reading levels and where he should be.

I wish I'd been able to be more relaxed about it and had more faith that it would 'click' for him too. I've worried more than I needed to!

I loved Gareth Malone's series where he got boys reading - can't find a workimg link yet, but it was great https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tv/2010/09/gareth-malones-extraordinary-s.shtml

My DD was like that. She was miles behind in her reading books in school, but she was reading Harry Potter at home. She said the school's books were too boring and she didn't like reading them.