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When it came time to teach my oldest son how to read, I imagined it completely different.
I pictured sitting on the couch together with my one arm wrapped around him and the other holding the book.
I’d look down and see a big grin on his face as he tried sounding out the words.
After reading one book, he would be so eager to learn that he would ask if he could grab a new book.
In no time, he was reading us the bedtime stories.
In reality, this is not how it happened.
When I say, “Come on, let’s try to read a book,” he goes running in the opposite direction crying, “I don’t want to read!”
It’s not that he doesn’t know how to read. If you catch him on a good day, he can do it. He knows all of his sight words and is getting better at sounding out the words.
But most days, he wants no part of reading.
If I’m able to get him to sit down with me, he will often just guess at the words or wiggle the entire time asking when we are done.
This leaves my husband and I very frustrated.
It’s easy for me to throw my hands up in the air and think, ‘He’ll learn how to read in school.’
But it’s my responsibility as a parent, not the school’s. I want to teach my son how to read and I know we have to work at it every day.
The other morning, my husband and I decided we needed to create an incentive program for him.
Make reading books fun and give my son a goal to reach. At the end, it would be something rewarding for him.
We just started using this chart:
As he reads books, we mark them down on his chart.
Together with my son, we came up with a reward system:
- If he reads 5 books, he gets to watch a movie or play a video game.
- If he reads 10 books, we get to go out for ice-cream.
- If he reads 15 books, his reward is a special day – we do anything he wants to do.
I also really love these printable kids charts and printable workbooks and worksheets to help kids learn in a fun and interactive way.
Do your children like to read? What are some of your tips for helping them learn to read?
Disclosure: I am submitting this post to The Search for the Next Kid Pointz Blogger contest and will be compensated for my participation. However, I was planning on sharing this story so it was perfect timing!
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I have three boys, the oldest are going into third and fourth grade this year and both read at a high school level and have since the end of first grade. Neither read before kindergarten. The oldest learned his letter sounds early and would occasionally sound out things on signs and stuff in preschool. But reading an actual book, it didn’t happen until kindergarten. BUT we read to them every single night from about a year old on. Books are everywhere in our house and the variety ranges from ‘baby’ books to Harry Potter. We never pushed them reading, sometimes they’d read a sentence a page and I’d read the rest. Or they’d read the last word of each line. I just pretty much went with whatever they were up for that night. Sometimes they’d ask to read the whole thing. Sometimes they’d pick an insanely easy book and I’d let them. And we’d still get super excited that they’d read a WHOLE book by themselves. Now they love to read. They are active kids who love lots of other stuff so they aren’t the type to be hidden in their room for entire days reading but they will often stay up too late in bed reading or get lost in a book when I send them to their room for some quiet time much longer than they were required to.
I really think its all just about making it a fun part of life rather than a chore. Assuming of course there isn’t a real issue (learning disability or dsylxia or something like that) it will come.
Lisa @ Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy´s last [type] ..Ghost Buddy books from Henry Winkler
Oh I love your ideas! For my son, it’s more out of being lazy – really. He can read & sometimes is willing to but most of the time he just doesn’t want to. We have books all over too – playroom, in their own rooms and read books every night. I’m hoping he’ll start really loving to read this year in 1st grade. He is more of a math kid but I want him to love reading too!
Tina @ Life Without Pink´s last [type] ..Teaching Your Child How To Read
I really hope my daughter loves to read like I did. Maybe I should start reading to her more right now (she’s 11 months) to get her more used to the idea. If not, I do love the idea of a reward system. This is hard for me to accept as a huge reader but obviously kids need to learn how to read but not everyone has to love doing it as a hobby. I hope I can remind myself of that if my daughter doesn’t enjoy it.
Nessa´s last [type] ..Life Isn’t Supposed to Be Perfect
Yes it’s so hard. I have to admit, I’m not a HUGE reader but I’m trying to do it more so the kids see me reading. I have always read to them especially at bed time…but my son just doesn’t have a ton of interest. He would rather solve math problems…& I have to remember all kids are different. Plus, it takes him awhile to warm up to things, so maybe over time he’ll start enjoying it more.
Tina @ Life Without Pink´s last [type] ..Teaching Your Child How To Read
i never felt like i had the time to read to my kids when they were toddlers. i probably did have the time, but with two in diapers it just was too hard most days.
my oldest (the jumpy excited one) was in love with books always. he worked hard to read starting at age 3. fast forward to this summer. he’s 8 and is reading actual novels under the covers until midnight. nice.
my younger flat refused. he told me that it was his teacher’s job to teach him to read. he won’t let me discuss it with him. he can read, but he won’t admit it. when i’m not looking, he reads behind my back. i have no idea how well he reads because he won’t admit that he does.
my kids LOVE listening to books on audio. for years i traveled with a box of books in the car. they’d follow along to the book as the audio played in the back seat.
susan´s last [type] ..What’s the big deal with Lunch Box Notes?
Wow actual novels! That’s amazing! Oh and I never thought about trying audio tapes, what a great idea!
Tina @ Life Without Pink´s last [type] ..Teaching Your Child How To Read
I wonder if it’s something with boys. I have trouble getting Andrew to sit down and let me read an entire book to him. He has gotten better in the last few weeks though so there is progress.
The girls on the other hand seemed much more interested and would let me read all the time and were eager to do it too.
My boys won’t sit down during the day for more than a minute. It’s too challenging for me to read to them during the day…I’ve tried but doesn’t work. We read at night – but I do wish they would chill out so I could read to them more often….boys and their energy!
Tina @ Life Without Pink´s last [type] ..Teaching Your Child How To Read
Rewards (aka bribes) for reading books are the only things that work around here. My boys are 6 and 8 and they’re both good readers…but they just don’t like to read. I enrolled them in the school’s Summer Reading Challenge anyway. And I have to bribe them like crazy to do any reading!
Jen {at} take2mommy´s last [type] ..The Needy Entourage
Oh that’s a great idea! I think next summer they have the reading challenge for my son’s age & I’m going to do that. If he can win something, he will totally want to do it, lol.
Tina @ Life Without Pink´s last [type] ..Teaching Your Child How To Read
My girls were instantly bookworms. I’m not sure how we got so lucky. Ash actually started reading starter books at the age of 4 and was reading to her Pre-K 4 class by the end of the year. Bean was reading by the time she hit Kindergarten.
They are currently reading the Harry Potter books and I have to bribe them to get them to put them down and go play.
I used to use a lot of the Leap Frog DVDs and we read a lot together.
Kristen´s last [type] ..The Hunger Games DVD Release Countdown
Wow that’s amazing! I wish my son had the same interest in reading. Maybe after this year (1st grade), he’ll want to do it more (crossing fingers).
Tina @ Life Without Pink´s last [type] ..Teaching Your Child How To Read
This is a great idea and happy to have link to chart. After 3 grands who love to read finally have a 4th that does not so much. Need all the ideas we can get…
Weekend Cowgirl´s last [type] ..A Kick In The Pants
Hi Tina, I have the same image about my son and I reading together as he gets older, so I can totally understand where you’re coming from
I wonder, does he get to play a big part in choosing the books he reads (or has read to him)? We’ve been doing a couple of things from a very early age. The first is to make a really big deal of books as fun, exciting things – and this involves tactile stuff too (the look, the feel, the smell … I often take a book off the shelf, fan through the pages and say “Mmmm, books smells loooooovely!”), and when we point things out to him in books or read something unexpected we make faces like we are amazed ourselves. On top of this I try as hard as I can to inject that sense of wonder in to my voice. I want Max to feel as if books are wonderful, magical things that could hold a surprise on any page.
I can’t say how this will pan out and I know your children are probably too old for you to start doing this (they would probably give you odd looks!) but my gut feeling says a reward chart may make your son feel that reading is ultimately a chore, like cleaning his room. Even though he may do it for the reward I wonder if he will ever learn to love it?
So I was thinking maybe you should start involving him in other ways – get him to make a list of what stories would really interest him (pirates, cowboys, whatever) and allowing him to go to the shops with you to buy it as a treat, then making some sort of game out of the content (i.e. if it’s fiction perhaps both you and your son both have to guess what will happen on the next page, or at the end of the chapter).
That sounds like a lot of fun could be had by you both. And if he likes brothers, monsters and pudding I have a free-to-read illustrated story you could try him on – I didn’t come here to market it (this is genuinely a topic that interests me) and so I won’t post a link to the book, but if you’re interested let me know and I’ll point you in the right direction. I’d really love to hear if it can get someone uninterested in reading, reading!!)
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