I was an avid reader growing up. My son is not.
Though I hesitate to say, it hurts me. I want him to love the Box Car Children, Black Beauty, Where the Red Fern Grows, Old Yeller...
Okay, I'll leave out Little Women and Heidi.
Or should I leave out the rest too? Am I being girly? Because I was such a tomboy (still am.)
Are there other books that might get him to fall in love with reading? Or is he just too young still? (He's 9)
You mothers of boys--help me!
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10 comments:
Hank the Cowdog books are a riot! Both my boys enjoyed them. Even the non-reader.
I hear ya, M! All is not lost though, he's still young enough to fall for reading and good story.
I would invest in some really good audio books. Tolkien is a good place to start. Narnia too. The classics for a boy, so he can loose himself in story without having to read. Check out your library, try to steer clear of abridged.
Have him keep reading every day, but let him listen to the audio books. Let us know how it goes! Don't loose heart!
My almost 9 yr. old boy is just now getting solid with his reading skills. He's crazy for good story. And he's a ticking booklover timebomb waiting to go off! :)
monica
Dianne--noted and on the list of things to check out!
Monica--Wow, I'm having a DUH! moment. I just posted last week about HIS style--he's auditory. And we have Narnia on CD. Why did I not think of that???
Thank you!!!!!!!!
girl, I am here to SERVE.
blessings!
m
I'm not a mom, but my little brother was a reluctant reader. About a year ago (he was 10, 10 1/2, so a little older than your son) I gave him the Door Within trilogy (Wayne Batson) to read and he LOVED it. He gobbled up the books (thick hardcovers) within a week or two. He was assembling his Lego people to match the characters in the series, and acting out scenes from the book, along with his younger sister (who he got to read the series too). He's a fan of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings so it was exactly the sort of adventure story he wanted. He's been more open to reading ever since.
audible.com for kids is great as is of course the library for audio - We're working through all the Harry Potters (we ok - it's just me listening after reading them all). Also - for reading - it doesn't have to be a novel - comics, magazines, short stories, etc are all still READING - we just take it where we can get it.
We've just started the Magic Treehouse series and those are going well.
My oldest read and loved the Little House books, but he hid in is room or at Grandma's while he read them ;)
Kaite--I've not heard of the Door Within trilogy. I'll look that up. We have some Star Wars books that he's been slogging through.
amyde--I just ordered a bunch of Star Wars comics, we'll see how those go.
spooky--the Little House books, huh? I never read them, but I loved watching the TV show.
You???? Have NOT read the little house books???? I almost don't believe it. LOL
I wish I had some advice :/ Jacob naturally started reading at 3 yrs. old and will read whatever I put in front of him. I do make him read at least 1/2 hr. every day. We'll do a few "fun" chapter books and then I'll throw in a classic for kids. He's finishing Frankenstein now and has already read Tom Sawyer. There are days where Jacob doesn't really feel like reading - but I make him do it anyway. I guess I consider those times part of the lesson - "sometimes you have to do things you don't always feel like doing." LOL
Maybe he just has to find his niche with books. I think audio books are wonderful, especially the radio theater ones. We usually listen to those in the car while on field trips or whatever. Though, I have to say that I prefer Jacob "reading" the book as he will naturally learn sentence structure, punctuation and spelling by physically seeing good writing. :)
You have to find the books he likes first, then encourage him to stretch out and try new things. We're just beginning that second part right now. My kiddo (he's 8) liked Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss and any book with big colorful pictures. Right now we're reading Sideways Stories from Wayside School. I'm not sure we'll continue with the series because they are very silly nonlinear stories and he's very literal mined. He doesn't really seem to be into them. He did like Ralph S. Mouse though and I recently bought Bunnicula for us to read together (which is me reading and him reading over my shoulder, correcting me when I mess up) We've also tried comics (from Garfield to Superman, alas comics didn't go over well because one issue just isn't enough "story" to keep him interested. He does "read" the Inyuasha manga books we bought for my daughter to her, which means they look at the pictures and describe them to each other.)
So, start with indulging him in the books/subjects he's interested in, then when reading is a habit you can push him into new territories.
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