"It takes a village to raise a child" Can you help me?

[Guest]

 

[MathGirl]

Every child should be given a subscription to "Shotgun News" when they are about nine.
MG
Ps. I doubt that anyone on here knows what "SN" is.

 

[Guest]

 

[Chicklet]

Harry Potter books definitely - might be easier to get him to read these since they're so popular right now, too.

The Narnia books by C.S. Lewis

I always liked The Boxcar Children books...

Goose Bumps series by R.L. Stein was a favorite of mine = )

Anything by Roald Dahl is so much fun.

Suggestions on reading...My Dad used to read to me, and what we'd do was he'd read a chapter out loud, and then I'd read a chapter out loud. Make it a family experience.

-Chicklet

 

[OldnotDead]

Mostly an echo

There is an old published series that I am not sure is still around of Children's Classics. Larger type and some illustrations, but not a lot, and it has a variety of things like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Little Women and Little Men, Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson etc. It was originally a book club type of thing and my parents subscribed and my brother and I would often fight over who got to open and who got to read first. If you can find a series, my guess today would be Time-Life or Grolier, that would appeal, the anticipation of getting something in the mail is quite fun.

At least two have mention C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia - I have very fond memories of being introduced to these as my parents took turns reading aloud to us. His reading aloud to his sister is HUGE! Giving books 'life' is what I thinks makes reading fun. Your reading a book out loud with feeling will make him want to learn more of the story and before you know it, he will be sneaking it off to 'get ahead' so he can find out what happens.

And some have mentioned the tie in between movies and books. If he has any interest in any of the specialty cable channels, almost all of them now have web sites where you can find bibliographies, or just plain pages with additional information. I think another part of liking to read can be satisying a hunger for information.

OldnotDead

 

[ffreak]

Speaking of Children's Classics - if he likes comic books, go ahead and let him read them. Our oldest was a comic collector - he amassed over 1200 of them while in school.

He also aced every mythology test ever given in his classes without a problem - seems the comics writers base most of their character traits on mythical characters and keep the same or a similar name.

 

[Guest]

Good point, Eff. Kids love mythology and even have less trouble pronouncing the names than adults do. There are plenty of fine books at various reading levels on Greek, Russian, Aztec, etc. mythologies, makes for good referencing skills too.

Perdita

 

[destinie21]

You could always get the kid a copy of the real fairy tales. Not the dolled up disney or kiddie version. The ones with lessons that will stick. Where Hansel and Gretel get eaten for being greedy little children and trusting a witch.

I was a pretty strange kid. I won't think on it overmuch though. Like everyone I blame my parents. and the media. And rap.
Oh yeah and gay marriage. all of the above corrupted me

 

[destinie21]

Justwanted to add the Giver to this list.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

Hello, I need some help with my 10 year old step son who has recently come to live with us! He is in 4th grade now and was held back in first. He is behind in his reading skills and I have given him the incentive he needs to improve. He is enthusiastic about trying! What I need is captivating reading material for him. We are reading aloud everyday for 30 min. I am an avid reader and I hope to make him one too. Do any of you have any reading suggestion? Tom Sawyer? Treasure Island? suggestions from early childhood instructors welcome..Thanks and kisses T

If he's behind in 4th, don't push stuff like Tom Sawyer and Treasure Island...even in advanced classes those aren't touched until 5th grade minimum...the Giver is usually a 6th grade book.

I teach 3rd grade and have had kids who read on a 2nd grade -5th grade levels. Here's some of what I've been told to make sure are in my classroom library

My 3rd graders like
Harry Potter (duh) Rowling
Goosebumps are big
Arthur by marc brown
Junie B Jones
Some of the Narnia Books
Magic Treehouse Series (Mary Pope Osborne) are huge
Secrets of Droon
Matt Christopher titles
Beverly Cleary
Holes was big last year
Wayside Schools Books (Louis Sachar)
Roald Dahl
The Day my Butt Went Psycho (also huge among my 3rd graders)
Scooby Doo Books


The important thing is to mix easy, "just right" and challenging books.

Easy books...books where the child can read every word easily and comprehend easily as well

Just Right books...books where the child knows "most" of the words, and has to stretch a bit, but isn't so busy trying to decode text that they can't comprehend the text.

Challenging...for many of my 3rd graders the Harry Potter books fall into this category. They don't know all the words, they have to look up some of them or ask for help ocassionally. However, they aren't going to get so frustrated that they're going to feel defeated.

To determine a just right book, have him use the following strategy called the "five finger test." Have him read the first page of the book. Every time he comes across a word he doesn't know or understand, he puts down a finger. If he uses up all 5 fingers, it's probably too challenging at this point.

The important thing is to keep him motivated. Make sure he has successes. "Easy" books are important. Even if you roll your eyes at the Arthur books, it's very important for him to feel successful. If he's only reading challenging books, he's going to feel "stupid" or defeated. That's no way to improve his reading.

We require that our kids read 30 minutes a day minimum in school and ask them to read 30 minutes at home (some do, some don't). It's a good idea to have a reading feedback notebook. He can keep track of the books he's read, what his interests are and to respond to what he's reading.

The important thing to keep in mind though is that decoding isn't reading. Just because a child can pronounce a word, that doesn't mean that s/he understands the meaning of that word. I had 3rd graders last year who could spell words like "invincible" but didn't have a clue what it meant. Reading requires comprehension.

Read the same book as your child, and think up a few questions for him to respond to. Or ask him to think up questions for you to respond to.

Make sure he's reading things that he finds fun. I personally can't stand the Droon books, but my kids (especially my boys) loved them. As long as he enjoys it, that's the important thing. Instilling a love of reading is more important right now. Once he understands that reading is important and fun, begin to introduce the more "literary" stuff...but again...forcing anything is a mistake.

It's very easy to change a moderate interest in reading to a hate of reading and I've seen a few teachers and parents do it by pushing "quality" literature. If the way to make them love reading is comic books let them have their comic books. Ask them to read one other type of book for every 10 comics (then shrink it to 7, 5, 3, whatever over a SLOW period of time).

Feel free to pm me if you'd like some other suggestions.

 

[sweet T]

This is one of the very reasons, among the obvious of course, that I love this site! Special thanks to deliciously_naughty for your help, it was very insightful. We have discussed alot of the titles that were suggested in this thread, he was familiar with some, and we decided to check out the library. I think small steps at first. Thanks again to everyone who has made such helpful suggestions. But that is why we are here in the first place to be of help to one another, in one way or another..hehe! Seriously though, I still welcome any input on this subject and I may be back to ask more questions...Love ya all !