As a librarian this is always on my mind, lol! I would love my kids to read more chapter books but they will really only read them if I read TO them. Otherwise they are happy with graphic novels, but this has also become the summer of MANGA--I am not kidding when I say there are about 80 mangas lying around my house. Thank goodness for wonderful public libraries because otherwise I would be broke trying to get my kids to read!!! (I also read one for the first time on my daughter's recommendation and it was actually pretty strange and good?!)
I also try to cut myself some slack, because I work at a college and I can see how people's reading habits change over time. I've met plenty of students who always felt too busy to read for fun, but then as they are getting ready to graduate will get into it! Or maybe they finally read the one book/author that sparks joy in them and makes them a reader. Some people might only get into reading when they're retired and that's also okay! Life is long, etc :)
I love manga and some of the summaries are so strange yet they work!? I read a lot of teenage rom com nowadays though so I can believe in the power of love 😂
Manga sales have blown up in the last 20 years I could barely find it as a teen and now b&n has an entire section for manga and anime pop culture. Pretty sure it eclipses comic book sales.
I’m convinced summer school reading just ruins the fun of reading for kids. At least, that was my experience growing up. I would read everything EXCEPT what I was required to read.
Agree on the love of reading being somewhat innate. I grew up a reader and I don’t remember anyone around me reading. My mom and my grandmother would let me loose in the kids section of B&N and choose whatever books I wanted, nothing was off limits (except for the amount of books I was allowed to bring home)
I hate that I feel responsible for my kid’s education over the summer. I’m trying to channel 80s summers and just let it go but maybe I’m contributing to the brain drain? My almost 1st grader isn’t reading. Should I be worried? A friend recommended I get a tutor. Is that reasonable for a 5 year old?! Tell me when to worry wise older kid parents.
When I was a kid a million years ago they didn’t even start teaching reading until 1st grade and I found this move to reading in kindergarten frustrating with my son. A lot of kids just developmentally aren’t ready at that age but there’s so much pressure to increase literacy scores that it feels like kids should start reading earlier. Please don’t sweat your sweet 5 yo not reading yet. Reading to them will serve them much better than hiring a tutor (at this stage at least). My son had ADHD, but also couldn’t be accurately diagnosed until 1st grade, which increased our concern about his early reading struggles (his mom and I are both big readers and always have been so we assumed this wouldn’t be an issue). Once he got on meds, it was a huge change for the better. He became a pretty good reader, even if his reading books for pleasure dropped off in middle school and high school. So I wouldn’t stress quite yet.
no! 1st grade is not for worrying. You are absolved.
I could even be convinced that my kid's reading goals are too stringent even for 6th grade but it's a new school so I don't want to come out of the gate questioning their requirements.
As long as basic pre-reading skills are "emerging" at that age, I wouldn't worry. Two of my four could read then, and two couldn't. I think their timing differences had more to do with motivation. Early readers are really boring. So the two that read later seemed to jump straight to chapter books. And I'm with you on "trying to channel 80s summers."
i believe, maybe wrong, that the stats show all kids basically on the same level (with caveats of course) by third grade. i was an early reader so i was so stressed when my oldest wasn’t reading by kindergarten...or first grade, can’t remember now...he just graduated top of his class and buys books on his own now...i wouldn’t stress
I have a rising first grader, fourth grader and am a public librarian and new reading tutor. If she can sound out simple words, even if she’s not reading books herself, I wouldn’t be worried. Many easy reader books aren’t actually that decodable.
I hate forcing my kids to read. My son actually loves to read, but only graphic novels and he reads the same Big Nate Books over and over again. Getting him to read an honest-to-God chapter book is impossible, and it's honestly impossible to get him to go beyond Big Nate. He's going in to fifth grade and he's been reading those books for three years at this point.
I know I should be happy he's reading, but I was such a nose-in-a-book kid for years that it doesn't make sense to me.
Also it's really fun when your kid rejects the books you loved as a child. Boxcar Children? Boring. My Side of the Mountain? Boring. Little House on the Prairie? Boring. The Indian in the Cupboard? Boring. Rascal? Boring.
My kid (rising 6th grader) will read graphic novels all day every day over and over again. And anytime she picks up a chapter book, 90% of the time she LOVES it (and her reading ability is off the charts, nothing is actually too hard for her). But she talks herself out of books that aren't graphic novels all the time for some reason. She adored the Wings of Fire graphic novels and whined for 3 years how she wanted to know what happened next and even though all 15 of the novels were staring her in the face at the library with the answer to that question, she wouldn't read them for years. And then she finally did this year and devoured them all in like 2 months. I alternate between reminding myself that any reading is good reading and after all as a kid I drove my mother crazy by reading nothing but Nancy Drew books for 4 years straight and I turned out great AND trying to find ways, ANY WAY, to make her pick up a chapter book that I KNOW she will absolutely adore. Sigh. It's not that I'm worried about her ability to read or understand complex material, it's that I'm mad at all the AMAZING books there are out there that's she's missing out on!
Have had some success with a mother/daughter book club or situations where I read the book she recommends for me and she reads a book I rec for her! Plus, reading picnics, wildly supporting any and all series she gets into, we still read a book out loud together nightly, etc. So, work in progress.
Same with my rising 4th grader. Sometimes it works when I’m reading a chapter book to him at night that he likes so much he’ll finish it and/or read the second in the series (It’s the End of the World and I’m In My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds and Legends of Lotus Island by Christina Soontornvat are 2 recent examples of this).
My rising 6th grader devours any assigned books in school, but is completely uninterested in reading at home (save for Class Trip, and that is because he read New Kid in school.) We do listen to a lot of audiobooks in the car, but they are mostly non fiction (A Taste For Poison was so greatly enjoyed he requested a hard copy of the book 'for reference.') He listens to enough podcasts and watches enough non-fiction content that I am not stressed. My almost 16 year old was a voracious reader until about 6th grade, when he suddenly stopped - a visit to our pediatric ophthalmologist uncovered an eye problem that required vision therapy to make reading tolerable.
Here to agree with the 'read before screens' and 'morning routine poster' moms, because that's what I did. The key for us was setting the rule before we bought the device (my kids are older, the device was a Nintendo DS, given as we set out on a long car trip). Their school had the standard of reading 20 minutes a day for reading logs, so that's what we went with.
The routine was: homework done, 20 minutes of reading done, go on your DS or the shared family computer. On the weekends, still 20 minutes of reading. And during summer vacation, yes, about 15 minutes of workbook work depending on the day, 20 minutes of reading, then screens.
Both kids started out as readers (my son taught himself to read in pre school to be like his sister, his kindergarten teacher was like yeah right until he read for her) my daughter continued easily, my son reached those middle school years where it was pulling teeth. As they are college students, I can no longer tell them to read, and they don't. But I hold out hope for the future!
i have to say i hated the reading logs....talk about making reading a hated thing. and like i said above, my third would literally stop in the middle of word when 20 min was up. i know they need to have some kind of documentation or something but i’ll tell you i signed those suckers whether the kids read or not 😂 but then again i am one of those people who thinks they shouldn’t have homework until middle school...it’s not for the kids if the parents have to do it....
thank you for this! I keep wanting to be chill and have my kids just love reading naturally (one is a reader, the other one not so much, but they'd still always always pick any kind of screen over a book) so it's actually really helpful to be reminded that it's okay to be a bit more authoritarian about it.
I also want to gripe very quickly about the summer work they were given--in summers past, it was a workbook, it was kind of rote and boring, but it was very clear. this year, they're supposed to be writing--but what? how much? in what kind of thing? will it be collected? who knows. it's all incredibly vague. as a writer and writing teacher, I can probably figure out, but the total lack of structure and direction is annoying.
There are so many things in life from eating to socializing to reading where it's both convenient and gratifying if your kid can just do it naturally but people need to own up more that it's often a lucky break when it happens (and not the result of superior parenting/genes) and admit even the most ethereal and creative and loving high minded mamas gotta say listen I'll give you a shit-ton of candy if you stop playing Roblox and read just one chapter of Hatchet. Or something.
My rising seventh graders has to do TWO writing assignments, one for a fiction book and one for a nonfiction book. The fiction one is 8 questions, and each answer has to be 6-8 sentences long! The nonfiction one is supposed to be a script between "your favorite talk show host" and someone from the book. I'm like, do seventh graders watch talk shows? I think my kid is going to make it Krusty the Clown. It's too much!
that's definitely too much! (I also feel like . . . will the teacher read that? When my kids used to do the workbooks, I'm sure their teachers took the *quickest* flip through, which is totally fine with me, but if you're asking someone to do that much writing, you should respond to at least some of it.) Krusty the Clown is amazing choice for talk show host, though!
Assigned summer reading isn't a thing in Canada (or maybe it is but not in my part? big country). I wasn't going to post until something happened yesterday.
I got excited my son had chapter books out but then found out from Dad that he was trying to use them to hold down a space bar to keep Roblox from logging him out on the laptop while he did other stuff.
My son's a great reader, but hates almost everything, maybe one day he will write the books he wants to see in the world. Until then, he needs to quit figuring out crossword clues before me, it's EMBARASSING.
My kids like to read but they don't want to do the reports--and who would? It's summer! I wish schools would assign the books and leave the writing for when the semester starts! A friend told me it's actually ILLEGAL (lol) for schools to require work over the summer so if you're truly free maybe let the kid decide if they want to do it. I am too much of a goody goody for that.
i’m the one with older kids...i LOVE to read...like the stay up all night with a good book, read three books easily in a week on vacation type of reader. one of my favorite things was to read to my kids...n of 4 here. oldest, liked to be read to, reads what he needs to but now at 18 all the sudden buying books on his own! with his own money!! second, loved to be read to, still read to him, but doesn’t read on his own the way i wish he would but i have faith...ahhh the third...this kid when he had to read for school would literally stop in the middle of a word when the 20 min was up...i have tried everything, i read to him, tried every genre, etc, etc., he is just not a reader...he does fine in school so i just gave up honestly (he is 14 yo)...the girl, who is 11 yo wants to read books way above her maturity level and i’m not sure what to do with that...want her to read but 😬😬😬...i’ll keep you posted
As a librarian this is always on my mind, lol! I would love my kids to read more chapter books but they will really only read them if I read TO them. Otherwise they are happy with graphic novels, but this has also become the summer of MANGA--I am not kidding when I say there are about 80 mangas lying around my house. Thank goodness for wonderful public libraries because otherwise I would be broke trying to get my kids to read!!! (I also read one for the first time on my daughter's recommendation and it was actually pretty strange and good?!)
I also try to cut myself some slack, because I work at a college and I can see how people's reading habits change over time. I've met plenty of students who always felt too busy to read for fun, but then as they are getting ready to graduate will get into it! Or maybe they finally read the one book/author that sparks joy in them and makes them a reader. Some people might only get into reading when they're retired and that's also okay! Life is long, etc :)
I love manga and some of the summaries are so strange yet they work!? I read a lot of teenage rom com nowadays though so I can believe in the power of love 😂
Manga sales have blown up in the last 20 years I could barely find it as a teen and now b&n has an entire section for manga and anime pop culture. Pretty sure it eclipses comic book sales.
The summaries are wild! And yes, the popularity is definitely through the roof, they're pretty much mainstream at this point.
FWIW, those homemade goldfish crackers look like shit
I’m convinced summer school reading just ruins the fun of reading for kids. At least, that was my experience growing up. I would read everything EXCEPT what I was required to read.
Agree on the love of reading being somewhat innate. I grew up a reader and I don’t remember anyone around me reading. My mom and my grandmother would let me loose in the kids section of B&N and choose whatever books I wanted, nothing was off limits (except for the amount of books I was allowed to bring home)
I hate that I feel responsible for my kid’s education over the summer. I’m trying to channel 80s summers and just let it go but maybe I’m contributing to the brain drain? My almost 1st grader isn’t reading. Should I be worried? A friend recommended I get a tutor. Is that reasonable for a 5 year old?! Tell me when to worry wise older kid parents.
No, you should not be worried. No, you should not get a tutor. (No, that's not reasonable for a 5yo.) Hell yes to 80s summers.
When I was a kid a million years ago they didn’t even start teaching reading until 1st grade and I found this move to reading in kindergarten frustrating with my son. A lot of kids just developmentally aren’t ready at that age but there’s so much pressure to increase literacy scores that it feels like kids should start reading earlier. Please don’t sweat your sweet 5 yo not reading yet. Reading to them will serve them much better than hiring a tutor (at this stage at least). My son had ADHD, but also couldn’t be accurately diagnosed until 1st grade, which increased our concern about his early reading struggles (his mom and I are both big readers and always have been so we assumed this wouldn’t be an issue). Once he got on meds, it was a huge change for the better. He became a pretty good reader, even if his reading books for pleasure dropped off in middle school and high school. So I wouldn’t stress quite yet.
no! 1st grade is not for worrying. You are absolved.
I could even be convinced that my kid's reading goals are too stringent even for 6th grade but it's a new school so I don't want to come out of the gate questioning their requirements.
Kindergarten is not too young to be screened for dyslexia - especially if relatives have it. There are other signs to look for, as well. https://dyslexia.yale.edu/dyslexia/signs-of-dyslexia/
As long as basic pre-reading skills are "emerging" at that age, I wouldn't worry. Two of my four could read then, and two couldn't. I think their timing differences had more to do with motivation. Early readers are really boring. So the two that read later seemed to jump straight to chapter books. And I'm with you on "trying to channel 80s summers."
I wouldn’t worry at this point. As she gets older her love of reading could grow.
i believe, maybe wrong, that the stats show all kids basically on the same level (with caveats of course) by third grade. i was an early reader so i was so stressed when my oldest wasn’t reading by kindergarten...or first grade, can’t remember now...he just graduated top of his class and buys books on his own now...i wouldn’t stress
My daughter could read but barely did it on her own the summer going into 1st grade. They should be working on it much more in grade 1.
I have a rising first grader, fourth grader and am a public librarian and new reading tutor. If she can sound out simple words, even if she’s not reading books herself, I wouldn’t be worried. Many easy reader books aren’t actually that decodable.
I hate forcing my kids to read. My son actually loves to read, but only graphic novels and he reads the same Big Nate Books over and over again. Getting him to read an honest-to-God chapter book is impossible, and it's honestly impossible to get him to go beyond Big Nate. He's going in to fifth grade and he's been reading those books for three years at this point.
I know I should be happy he's reading, but I was such a nose-in-a-book kid for years that it doesn't make sense to me.
Also it's really fun when your kid rejects the books you loved as a child. Boxcar Children? Boring. My Side of the Mountain? Boring. Little House on the Prairie? Boring. The Indian in the Cupboard? Boring. Rascal? Boring.
Bunnicula--boring AND scary 🙄
The summer of 1996 was pretty awesome, I have to say
My kid (rising 6th grader) will read graphic novels all day every day over and over again. And anytime she picks up a chapter book, 90% of the time she LOVES it (and her reading ability is off the charts, nothing is actually too hard for her). But she talks herself out of books that aren't graphic novels all the time for some reason. She adored the Wings of Fire graphic novels and whined for 3 years how she wanted to know what happened next and even though all 15 of the novels were staring her in the face at the library with the answer to that question, she wouldn't read them for years. And then she finally did this year and devoured them all in like 2 months. I alternate between reminding myself that any reading is good reading and after all as a kid I drove my mother crazy by reading nothing but Nancy Drew books for 4 years straight and I turned out great AND trying to find ways, ANY WAY, to make her pick up a chapter book that I KNOW she will absolutely adore. Sigh. It's not that I'm worried about her ability to read or understand complex material, it's that I'm mad at all the AMAZING books there are out there that's she's missing out on!
Have had some success with a mother/daughter book club or situations where I read the book she recommends for me and she reads a book I rec for her! Plus, reading picnics, wildly supporting any and all series she gets into, we still read a book out loud together nightly, etc. So, work in progress.
Same with my rising 4th grader. Sometimes it works when I’m reading a chapter book to him at night that he likes so much he’ll finish it and/or read the second in the series (It’s the End of the World and I’m In My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds and Legends of Lotus Island by Christina Soontornvat are 2 recent examples of this).
My rising 6th grader devours any assigned books in school, but is completely uninterested in reading at home (save for Class Trip, and that is because he read New Kid in school.) We do listen to a lot of audiobooks in the car, but they are mostly non fiction (A Taste For Poison was so greatly enjoyed he requested a hard copy of the book 'for reference.') He listens to enough podcasts and watches enough non-fiction content that I am not stressed. My almost 16 year old was a voracious reader until about 6th grade, when he suddenly stopped - a visit to our pediatric ophthalmologist uncovered an eye problem that required vision therapy to make reading tolerable.
Here to agree with the 'read before screens' and 'morning routine poster' moms, because that's what I did. The key for us was setting the rule before we bought the device (my kids are older, the device was a Nintendo DS, given as we set out on a long car trip). Their school had the standard of reading 20 minutes a day for reading logs, so that's what we went with.
The routine was: homework done, 20 minutes of reading done, go on your DS or the shared family computer. On the weekends, still 20 minutes of reading. And during summer vacation, yes, about 15 minutes of workbook work depending on the day, 20 minutes of reading, then screens.
Both kids started out as readers (my son taught himself to read in pre school to be like his sister, his kindergarten teacher was like yeah right until he read for her) my daughter continued easily, my son reached those middle school years where it was pulling teeth. As they are college students, I can no longer tell them to read, and they don't. But I hold out hope for the future!
i have to say i hated the reading logs....talk about making reading a hated thing. and like i said above, my third would literally stop in the middle of word when 20 min was up. i know they need to have some kind of documentation or something but i’ll tell you i signed those suckers whether the kids read or not 😂 but then again i am one of those people who thinks they shouldn’t have homework until middle school...it’s not for the kids if the parents have to do it....
and for the record i think kids should just have the summer off...no need to torture anyone....
thank you for this! I keep wanting to be chill and have my kids just love reading naturally (one is a reader, the other one not so much, but they'd still always always pick any kind of screen over a book) so it's actually really helpful to be reminded that it's okay to be a bit more authoritarian about it.
I also want to gripe very quickly about the summer work they were given--in summers past, it was a workbook, it was kind of rote and boring, but it was very clear. this year, they're supposed to be writing--but what? how much? in what kind of thing? will it be collected? who knows. it's all incredibly vague. as a writer and writing teacher, I can probably figure out, but the total lack of structure and direction is annoying.
There are so many things in life from eating to socializing to reading where it's both convenient and gratifying if your kid can just do it naturally but people need to own up more that it's often a lucky break when it happens (and not the result of superior parenting/genes) and admit even the most ethereal and creative and loving high minded mamas gotta say listen I'll give you a shit-ton of candy if you stop playing Roblox and read just one chapter of Hatchet. Or something.
My rising seventh graders has to do TWO writing assignments, one for a fiction book and one for a nonfiction book. The fiction one is 8 questions, and each answer has to be 6-8 sentences long! The nonfiction one is supposed to be a script between "your favorite talk show host" and someone from the book. I'm like, do seventh graders watch talk shows? I think my kid is going to make it Krusty the Clown. It's too much!
EDAN!!! You got such a great shoutout in People magazine! Everyone go check out her book Time's Mouth!
Ahh thank you!
that's definitely too much! (I also feel like . . . will the teacher read that? When my kids used to do the workbooks, I'm sure their teachers took the *quickest* flip through, which is totally fine with me, but if you're asking someone to do that much writing, you should respond to at least some of it.) Krusty the Clown is amazing choice for talk show host, though!
Two years ago my oldest had a big essay that he worked on a lot (and I was there whipping him, lol), and the teacher gave ZERO feedback. I was pissed.
And once again I realized I am waaay too invested in other people's homework. :)
Assigned summer reading isn't a thing in Canada (or maybe it is but not in my part? big country). I wasn't going to post until something happened yesterday.
I got excited my son had chapter books out but then found out from Dad that he was trying to use them to hold down a space bar to keep Roblox from logging him out on the laptop while he did other stuff.
that's hilarious. resourceful kid!
My son's a great reader, but hates almost everything, maybe one day he will write the books he wants to see in the world. Until then, he needs to quit figuring out crossword clues before me, it's EMBARASSING.
I know it's good when my son helps me with my Xword but it's MINE
My kids like to read but they don't want to do the reports--and who would? It's summer! I wish schools would assign the books and leave the writing for when the semester starts! A friend told me it's actually ILLEGAL (lol) for schools to require work over the summer so if you're truly free maybe let the kid decide if they want to do it. I am too much of a goody goody for that.
Serious question: what happens of your kid doesnt do the summer reading and reports?
Nothing! I've noticed that the teacher doesn't grade the summer assignments...and someone told me they can't anyway.
Thanks for making me sound so much better (saner, calmer, less salty) than I actually am, Claire 😂 I appreciate this, and of course, you!
you are perfect.
i’m the one with older kids...i LOVE to read...like the stay up all night with a good book, read three books easily in a week on vacation type of reader. one of my favorite things was to read to my kids...n of 4 here. oldest, liked to be read to, reads what he needs to but now at 18 all the sudden buying books on his own! with his own money!! second, loved to be read to, still read to him, but doesn’t read on his own the way i wish he would but i have faith...ahhh the third...this kid when he had to read for school would literally stop in the middle of a word when the 20 min was up...i have tried everything, i read to him, tried every genre, etc, etc., he is just not a reader...he does fine in school so i just gave up honestly (he is 14 yo)...the girl, who is 11 yo wants to read books way above her maturity level and i’m not sure what to do with that...want her to read but 😬😬😬...i’ll keep you posted