Anything's Better Than Nothing

It has come to my attention that sometimes kids don’t want to read.  With little kids, this is because another toy looks like more fun.  The rule of thumb is that a child’s attention span is equal to their age, so a two year old can focus for two minutes.  A ten year old can focus for ten minutes.  My philosophy is anything is better than nothing.  (I use the same philosophy for going to the gym.)  If your kid can only focus on a book for one minute, read to them for one minute.  If your fifth grader needs to take a break every ten minutes to get his reading homework done, that’s okay too. 

When we look at our adult reading habits, we find that our kids are very similar to us.  We usually have a time we like to read.  My husband reads before he goes to sleep.  I like my Saturday morning coffee on the couch with a book.  Let older kids pick the time that will work best for them.  If your child is young enough, get them in a habit now.  Read every night before bed or right after nap time.  My sister, rather brilliantly, keeps five or six books in her daughter’s toy box, so Bella thinks books are toys.    

When big kids don’t want to read, it’s usually because it’s hard.  The kids I work with have generally struggled in reading for 5 or 6 years; they’ve all but given up.  They hate reading.  I win them over slowly.  I pick books that I think they’ll enjoy, I know they can read easily, and I praise them like crazy for the smallest success.  Again I suggest we look to ourselves, when we think about motivating reluctant readers.  We don’t like to do things, we’re not good at.  The same is true for our kids, so let’s find them easy books that they like.  Comic books and magazines are great.  Graphic novels are hot right now.  My students love Baby Mouse, Daniel Boom and Bone, but there are historical graphic novels, graphic novel versions of the classics and many popular movies.  For kids that like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, not a lot of text on a page and picture support, there’s My Life as a Book by Janet Tashjian.  Derek doesn’t like to read, but he likes to draw pictures, so as he narrates, he illustrates the vocabulary he uses in the margins.  If you aren’t a novel reader, then your kid might not be either.  Try non-fiction like the DK series or magazines like Sport Illustrated for Kids and World.  No matter what you read, it’s important that your child sees you reading.  Point it out whether you’re reading the newspaper, Yahoo! News, or US Weekly. 

Another great option for kids who don’t like reading, are online texts.  Technology can be very motivating, and when a book is on a computer screen or tablet it doesn’t look like a baby book.  I love www.myon.com and www.tumblebooks.com.  Before you subscribe, check with your local school and library.  Many have group subscriptions that can be used at home.  Anyone can use the Children’s Digital Library for free.  It’s a database of hundreds of children’s books, and many have been translated into other languages.  So, besides English, you can read books in Spanish, Farsi or Korean.  I even found a few Romanian books.  Hopefully, they’ll be useful someday (if all these shots and doctor’s appointments work.)

Books for Reluctant Readers

My Life as a Book by Janet Tashjian

Baby Mouse by Jennifer Holm

Bone by Jeff Smith

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

Daniel Boom aka Loud Boy by D.J. Steinberg

The Dodgeball Chronicles by Frank Cammuso

Treasure Island: The Graphic Novel adapted by Hamilton Tim

Redwall: The Graphic Novel by Brian Jacques

The Sons of Liberty by Alexander Lagos

Dear Dumb Diary by Jim Benton
How Things Work by DK Publishing
Animals Nobody Loves by Seymour Simon