Series Books that Will Hook Your DEVELOPING Reader
Not all of our kids become voracious readers on their own. In fact, if your child is a developing reader who hasn’t yet gained fluency, reading is likely far down the list of things he’d like to do with his free time.
We have to remember that those early days of learning to read are difficult. Reading still isn’t easy or enjoyable for a child who has to sound out every third or fourth word, so it’s no wonder they don’t love it.
Here’s how to fix that:
Teach short, daily phonics lessons
Teach short, daily phonics lessons to help your child progress with decoding words. “Short” and “daily” are both operative words here! 10-15 minutes a day is very likely enough, as long as it’s done consistently.
Use something solid and stick to it. (My favorite recommendations are either All About Reading or Logic of English.)
Read aloud every day
Don’t do this becauseyou’re trying to turn your child into an independent reader. Do it for the love of books. Do it for the love of your child. Delight is of utmost importance here.
Help your child fall in love with an easy-to-read series
If you can figure out which series will interest your child, you can ignite the enthusiasm they need in order to break through those hardest days.
Once they bond with a favorite character, they’ve got a bit of skin in the game- they can’t wait to find out what happens next!
Every child is different, and you never really know which series will work for which child. Chances are good that one of these series will do the trick, though.
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How to Use This List to Help Your developing Reader Become a Voracious One
Choose any series from the list that you think may appeal to your young reader, and read the first one aloud.
If the book is received unenthusiastically, then just choose another series, and read aloud the first book from that one. Do this until you find a series that your child really engages with. Let’s say your son really falls in love with Nate the Great.
1) Read the first book aloud
…and when he expresses displeasure at the book coming to an end, deliver the good news: there are more mysteries that Nate the Great solves!
2) Purchase the second book in the series.
By purchasing it, you ensure that library due dates aren’t rushing you or your child through this process.
Hand Nate the Great #2 to your child and tell him that you won’t be reading this one aloud, but he can probably read much of it on his own.
3) Encourage him to read it while you’re nearby
Perhaps cooking dinner or folding the laundry, so that you’re near and available but not hovering.
When he stumbles and needs help with a word, do not ask him to sound it out. You’re allowed to say that during a phonics lesson, but not while you’re attempting to turn your child on to a series. Don’t say, “You read that word yesterday! You know how to read it,” or, “Can you give that word another try?”
Just no. Resist!
When he struggles with a word, just tell him what the word is. Your goal here isn’t to get in extra phonics practice. Your goal is to help your child want to read, so that there is significant intrinsic motivation to propel him through those tough moments of sounding words out!
I promise: in this situation, you are doing your child a better service to just tell him the word than to ask him to sound it out.
If the book is too hard and he gets frustrated, try sitting next to him and read any word that he struggles with. You can even read most of the book to him, and simply encourage him to read shorter sentences or phrases here and there.
You can’t help your child too much…
…so don’t worry about making this too easy on him. You want this to be easy on him. The most important thing is that you don’t ruin the story by trying to turn it into a lesson. Let your child love the story. Let the story love him back. The reading skill will come.
Once he or she is on a roll and has read a couple of these books independently, be sure to keep them stocked up! I bought a zillion Enyclopedia Brown books for my son the year he turned 9 doing exactly this, and he went from reading 1st- and 2nd- grade level readers to Harry Potter in the span of about a month.
It was astounding.
My daughters had similar experiences when they transitioned from struggling through sounding out sentences to fluently cruising through books.
The key is to make sure you’re doing consistent, daily work with phonics at a separate time of day, and then use family read-alouds and this series technique to help your child fall in love with reading.
It takes patience.
And a bit of trust that your kids will fall in love with books if you create the right environment, let it all unfold the way it wants to, and don’t rush the process.
Get the printable booklist right here.
P.S. This is how we can help resistant readers fall in love with books, and the most important part of teaching our kids to read.
I appreciate so much what you said about not making every word into a lesson. I needed that encouragement right now… trudging through phonics currently with my first grader and I can’t see the end. Thank you for all the work you’ve done and so willingly share!
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Any thoughts on Emily Windsnap books? Just found a pretty good deal on Amazon and thinking about getting them for my 10 yr old daughters. We are not interested in books where the girls are are wishy washy and falling for boys. We would like some with some strong female characters. Ideas?
I have a seven year old (turns seven tomorrow) that is entering second grade. I think his reading level is appropriate for his age but it is of course a struggle. Are the books like “encyclopedia brown” going to be way too much? So far I have kept him in short 1-2 day readers. We have read some boxcar children as a family but I’ve never had him try at something that big.
Encyclopedia Brown might be something of a jump. Have you found the Mercy Watson books? Those might be a better step for him!
Another fun way we found to help beginning readers is to let them pick a character and only read what that character says. They really enjoy getting to “be someone”, take part of the reading, and not feel pressured to read it all by themselves.
Sarah, I am in love with all of your lists and ideas and love and enthusiasm for all things book related. I have three kids reading because they love the art of it. We read together, we read independently. Reading we have a handle on. Question: How do you address spelling at your house? The school that my kids go to, doesn’t have a strong spelling program. Consequently I have two 9 year old kids reading above grade level but who struggle with spelling. In keeping journals this summer, am I correcting as they go? (I don’t want to hinder their creative efforts) but I also feel like the issue needs to be addressed. I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this.
Thanks!!
Hi,
My son isn’t a struggling reader, but he refuses to read a novel… He’s only interested in reading
something like owl diaries and other cartoon-ish books..
I don’t know how to help him beyond reading just cartoons..
Thank you!
I would like to see the boys booklist. I was hopeful there would be something to intrest a 13 yo dyslexic student who is headed for 14 and struggling.
Your file of boys books will not open. Thanks.
Michelle, I just emailed the list to you again! Sorry for the hiccup.
This is such a helpful list! And I am halfway through the new book – love it!! I did want to add to keep in mind that certain Calvin and Hobbes comics can contain some very adult themes, so I would recommend prereading those.
Hi there,
I’ve been following your blog and podcast for awhile now. It’s great, by the way!
But, I’m looking for additional help for my daughter with dyslexia. I noticed above that you recommended a reading program, “all about reading.” Can you tell me if the program is easy enough to follow? I looked into a similar program, but it was so complicated it made my head spin!!
I have 6 children, and very little time to research programs! I’m sure you understand! But, would you be able to follow up on your recvomendation a little further?
That would be most helpful!
Thank you!
Thanks for this great list.
My daughter is struggling a bit with decoding words. I’ll check out our public library for these books
Sarah,
Thank you so much for the work you do here on Read-Aloud Revival. I just started homeschooling my 4 boys this year (ages 9, 5, 3, 1) and it is hard and wonderful at the same time. Your website has been such an encouragement to me! I’ve especially appreciated your insights regarding SERIES books, and resources about boys’ brain development.
With many thanks,
Annie Taylor
Calgary, AB
My 4th graders struggle with reading; therefore, I’m trying to find books to assist him.
I love this! I am so grateful you don’t stop at the book recommendations but tell what to do next! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this advice. I have a child that is dyslexic. We are making leaps and bounds with word recognition but she is still weary to read on her own. When you work so hard to teach reading it’s great to get a free pass on teaching to get them to love reading. Great advice.
Love this and all you do. Thank you!
Wow! I’m very encouraged by your suggestions and will be trying this series technique. Thank you for sharing your ideas. I have an eight year old boy that does NOT love to read. It’s hard! I’m hoping this will get thingscrolling for him. Thanks again.
Sarah,
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this advice.
This is our second year homeschooling. My oldest son started out in public school, but that wasn’t working for us (for a variety of reasons), so we pulled him out and started teaching at home. There were a lot of things I enjoyed teaching him, but since he’d spent some time in school, I wasn’t sure where to start with reading, and after months of diligent work, he still hadn’t made any progress. He was eager to read, but would usually only look at the first letter and guess at the word. I was so discouraged.
This year, I decided to try your advice. I was interested in using AAR, but the cost was a little steep for us, so I ended up using a book I’d picked up at a yard sale – The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to teaching reading. We started the daily lessons, and I got the Magic Treehouse books for him from the library.
At first the phonics work was trying, and while he was intrigued by the Magic Treehouse books, he didn’t seem quite hooked. I kept at it, though, encouraging him to read for 10-15 minutes every day while I did a phonics lesson with his brother (we used 100 Easy Lessons for him, but his learning style is a little more straight-forward). After a couple weeks, I started to see improvement in his reading – he was slowing down, trying to sound out the words, and having a lot a more success in decoding them.
And then, something just clicked. He’s plowing through the MTH series voraciously, spending his free time finishing them up, and asking to take with him on car rides (we live in a big city and spend a lot of time in the car).
I was an avid reader as a kid, and have hoped so much that my kids could find wonder and delight in the pages of a book, too, and it pleases me so much to see him captured by these stories.
This has brought so much encouragement to me in my homeschooling, I can’t thank you enough. Now if we could just find a similar magic bullet for math, we’d really be set! :-)
Sarah, THANK YOU! This strategy WORKED with my son, who is able to read, but would much rather be outside “building forts all day,” as Pudewa would say. (Not that that’s bad, but I wanted him to love to read also!) It took only one Encyclopedia Brown read-aloud, and he was hooked. Now he’s reading during free time, and devouring the series! So simple, yet I wouldn’t have thought of this strategy on my own. My first thought was, “Wow- I can’t believe that actually worked!” It was too easy, and its success makes me feel like homeschool-mama-of-the-year! Thank you SO much.
Woot! Thanks for sharing your win, Mandy!
Hi Sarah, It looks like you may have some comments that don’t relate to your post. (June & Nov 2016)
I love that Calvin and Hobbs is on here! My younger brother and I were homeschooled. He struggled to learn to read. I now have a 8 year old struggling reader and I asked my brother what finally got him to reading well when we were kids, and he said, “Calvin and Hobbs”!
Love this post! I went through the placement test with my 5 year old for All About Reading, and she has no problems reading all the words fluently through level 4. But she still dislikes reading. She does like to listen while I read aloud, but should I encourage some reading on her own time? She has been reading since age 3 (taught herself, I had no idea she was interested that young) and I thought by now she would have an interest in attempting some books on her own but she still wants me to read everything out loud, which I’m happy to do most times. I know she’s still so young so I don’t want to push it.
The Will Stover Sports Series is great for reluctant readers! Check it out on Amazon
Hi Sarah! I’m pretty new to read aloud revival. I’ve been reading blog posts and listening to some podcast for about a mouth. I have an 8 year old struggling reader. I wanted to ask you about All About Reading. I’d like to know should I purchase the entire kit? Would one of the smaller kits suffice? I can do either, but didn’t know how deep I should dive before I buy? I have the summer to focus on this. My hope is to make the love of reading a focal point for the summer so it will spill into our school year next year. Thanks Sarah!
First of all, I just finally stumbled on to your wonderful blog and have been so inspired and love your recommendations for books. I would love to suggest the chapter series that I read to my 10 year old son which we love! The Sugar Creek Gang by a Paul Hutchens is so fun, adventurous, pure and innocent, and totally gospel centered!
I read the Sugar Creek Gang when I was a child!
Thank you for this list and encouragement. One of my children is actually a good reader it despite my best efforts she does not enjoy reading. I read aloud regularly and have since my kids were really little. I love reading as does her older sister and younger brother. We’ve tried a variety of topics and series and nothing seems to peak her interest. She will be a fifth grader in the fall. I keep trying and I won’t give up but what would you suggest in a case like this?
Sounds like you’re on the right track! Have you listened to RAR podcast #1 with Andrew Pudewa? Lots of good advice for later readers and a really good defense of audiobooks. https://readaloudrevival.com/1/
Hi Sarah,
I have a 10 year old daughter who is a slow laborious reader. She enjoys being read to but, she just doesn’t like to read by herself. I think if the reading didn’t take quite so long, she would enjoy it much more. Do you have any suggestions on increasing fluency?
Your advice sounds great for the beginning reader who is struggling with grappling the basics, but for the dyslexic student, reading will *always* involve deliberate decoding of words instead of the automatic process that the remaining 80% of the population enjoys. Your story about transitioning from Encyclopedia Brown to Harry Potter within weeks is inspiring, and I’m glad to hear such success, but this is not realistic for the dyslexic child who needs intensive direct instruction in phonemic awareness for several hours a week to gain and maintain fluency in reading–and even then, reading will never have the same ease that non-dyslexics experience.
The older student (4th grade and older) needs great stories, but their understanding of advanced literature will surpass their ability to read it with ease. Remember, when a student must expend a significant portion of his mental energy decoding the words, he doesn’t have much energy left to comprehend and internalize what he’s reading. The story might be enjoyable, engaging, and intellectually stimulation, but the reading will be an exhausting process for the dyslexic reader. In such situations, the older student should use audio books to access great stories. Most classics are available for free online, and libraries lend free contemporary audio books. Sites like bookshare.org and learningally.com offer free or low-cost access to hundreds of thousands of audio titles (including textbooks) to those who have been formally identified as dyslexic by a professional. Reinforcing fluency, learningally.com also has VOICEtext, which highlights the text onscreen while it is spoken so the student can read along and make a direct connection between the pronunciation and the word they see.
Because of the labor involved, some dyslexics may enjoy reading, some may not. But most will enjoy great stories and should be given every tool available to access them.
Wendy, thanks so much for mentioning the wonders of audiobooks–for all readers, struggling or not!
What recommendations do you have for series books for a 14 year old boy into sports; And 12 year old into sports, singing, friends, etc.
This is awesome advice and just what I needed. My 10 year old with mild ADHD struggles to read and rarely finished a book. You mentioned going back to phonics can you help recommend what to use to assist with that at her age?
Thanks so much!
Sarah has used and loved All About Reading. They have excellent diagnostic tools on their website to help you find the right fit. Peace keep you on this journey.
My daughter liked weird school. In every book the characters had the same catch phrases so my daughter didn’t have to stumble over new names and could say each of the catch phrases with feeling. For some it might feel repetitious, but with her difficulties it made comprehending the details of each individual story a lot easier. It did contain phases lie shut up and dumb head, but for a third grader the back and forth banter that came with it did not feel inappropriate.
I found a helpful tip , I’d like to add! we stumbled upon a book on CD kit at our library which included the first grade level chapter book with the CDs. My son was able to read along while listening to the story in the car and I caught him glued to the pages! we are hunting for more kits as well as assembling our own.
My son will be 11 in June. This is my first year homeschooling him. he can read but highly dislikes it. I read aloud to him and he has listened to a couple of audio books. Even when I (or someone on tape) read, he will often tune out or just have other things on his mind. I try to get him to alternate reading pages with me but he often says it gives him a headache (not so sure if thAt’s true). He just often complains of books being boring or he just has no interest…and I have tried many! He has enjoyed my husband reading Lawn Boy to him at night. It is so hard to know what to do because I also don’t wanna force it and have him really hate it. Bottom line is that reading is the last thing he wants to do and he just tolerates it. He doesn’t even wanna read about an area of interest. I did have him read a magic tree house book, just to have that quiet reading time and develop the habit. It was much below his reading level but I figured it was easy and short therefore more likely that he would just do it..which he did. Anyway, I have found your website and reading list helpful but any tips would be much appreciated! Thank you!
Have you listened to Episode 1 of the RAR podcast, Lori? I think there will be some encouragement there for you.
Thank you! If I have it has been awhile so I will definitely check it out!!
Works for precocious four year olds too. One Thomas The Train Book and the offer to “sit with him and help him as much as he needed, but if he wanted to read it he had to do it himself.” I wouldn’t suggest this with all four year olds, but he was so ready to read and just needed a little push. And that did it.
My kiddo isn’t up to chapter book level (not even at a “patience to listen that long” level), but we basically did this with Piggie and Elephant books. Worked like a charm.
I got a thrill when I saw Calvin and Hobbes along with all the loveable old classics. I kept all my old Calvin and Hobbes books from when I was a girl, and they truly did turn my struggling reader into a struggling reader who loves books anyway.
Hi,
When you recommend the parent read the first book aloud (in a series), then have your child read the next one on their own, do you mean have them read aloud also, or have them read silently to themselves?
I appreciate the comments about when it’s time to “just read” not to correct every word or tell my reader to sound things out but to just help. So many good things in your blog and podcasts. Trying to take it all in!
I know it’s December and I’m 12 months late on commenting but it’s true. my now 12 year old taught herself to read with Calvin and Hobbes.
My son has Down syndrome, any suggestions on improving reading skills for children with cognitive disabilities?
I would say give a listen to listen to RAR episode #39 with Cheryl Swope (here: https://readaloudrevival.com/39/) and check out her forums for parents of special needs kids at simplyclassical.com.
Do you have any suggestions for a older boy (13) who doesn’t read well. He has had a lot of issues and he’s just never been a good reader. I finally pulled him from school and started homeschooling last year in 7th grade. We are currently in 8th now and I’m kinda feeling lost this year as to how to help him because the reading curriculum that he probably needs seems to childish. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
We tried all of these and none of them worked. My struggling reader would get part way through and not want to finish but then she found Stick Dog and has read straight through 2 of them in a week! Woohoo! She is 10 and loving this series. I’m hoping this will lead to a renewed interest in one of the abouve series too. 😊
My 8 year old struggler. We’ve begun Charlotte’s Web. I read a paragraph. She reads a paragraph. Back and forth. We got through the first chapter with no tears. She’s my youngest and doesn’t remember when we read it aloud to the oldest ones, so she’s excited by the newness of the story. She can’t wait to see what happens to the baby pig.
Just started with AAR level 1 and in search for books togo along with with.. This is perfect! Thanks so much
Another awesome series for reluctant readers is the Wizard of Oz series. It has 18 books total, most of them can be found on kindle for free and the first few at the library. I also loved how there was a movie we could watch after we read the first book.
For a 10 year girl
How about a struggling 9th grader? Very advanced in math (think trigonometry) and doing great in 10th grade science. Dyslexic and struggles with desire to read, spelling is poor and writing skills are abysmal. Vocabulary is excellent. What book series would you suggest, she loves art and animals. She is homeschooled and still enjoys playing doll babies, she likes fantasy. Anyway, if you think of a series around 6-8th grade reading level, can you email me what you think?
Have you read…and do you recommend The Left Behind Series for kids and the series for the young adults? I would love you feed back on this series!
I have a 5 and 11 year old girls – so would these be better as a family read-a-loud? Or would you say they may be to old for my 5 year old??
As for your 3rd point, I completely agree to have them read nearby while you are doing something else, so you are available to help with out hovering. When my daughter struggled with a word, I had her spell it out loud to me and then I would tell her the word. This helped me be able to continue what I was working on without having to stop what I was doing. More importantly I think it helped her notice the letters. Sometimes she would leave one out or mix them up and I would ask her “Did you mean _-_-_-_?” In the beginning she would spell aloud with so many errors that I still had to look at the book for every 4-5 words, but after a few months many of those errors went away and sometimes she would spell a word to me and then immediately she would say “oh that’s __(the correct word)__ without me even having a chance to tell her the word. There was a snowball effect – the more she read, the better she got, and the more she wanted to read. I now frequently have to temporarily confiscate her books when she refuses to stop reading to do her chores or go to sleep.
I agree with you on so many points, especially the All About Reading. For my daughter it was the American Girl series. We were studying the civil war and I found the Addy books used. I read the first chapter aloud and then we took turns reading the following pages. This stretched out over the week and as soon as we were done on Friday she wanted to start the next book. I told her I had to get some housework done, so I wouldn’t have time until Monday. Saturday she asked again and I told her that she could start on her own or wait until Monday. Sunday afternoon I found her reading the second book. Monday I asked her where she was and she said chapter 3. I said, ” oh! I’ve got a lot of reading to do to catch up. Don’t tell me about it until after I get a chance to read it.” So I read some, but made sure to not catch up until she finished the third book. By then she didn’t even consider waiting for me, she was hooked. Once she finished the Addy books, she asked for more. I showed her what was available, but told her that I wasn’t assigning any of them, so they weren’t school work and would need to be read outside of school time. She continued to read everyday. After she worked her way through about 10 more American girl books she started looking into other series, too.
This is just perfect! I was a late reader in the public schools (1st grade, 6-7 years old, and not reading on my own yet) so I went to a reading specialist each week at the school and she was wonderful. She did exactly what you describe. At first we did some phonics lessons and then we’d sit and she’d let me pick out any book I liked from her overflowing shelves. Then we’d read. I’d read until I got to a word I didn’t know and then she’d tell me the word. Sometimes she’d casually drop in the rule, “Oh, in this one the C says /s/ because there’s an I after it.” but other times she’d simply read the difficult word for me. We got through so many books in this way and by the 2nd grade at age 8 I was able to read and enjoy chapter books. By 3rd grade I could read almost anything put in front of me. It really did just take a bit of extra help and the time spent reading *with* someone’s help to get me fluent enough to enjoy reading on my own.
I have two sons struggling to read and one is moving into Level 2 and the other is close to finishing up level 1. I am struggling to try and figure out how to “Teach from Rest” when I have two struggling learners and a upcoming Kindergartener! I love the concept and so badly want to bring it to my “new homeschool”. This is only my second year. Mind you, my eldest is cognitively delayed (pretty bad) with Autism, ADHD, Language issues, etc…Life can be tough!
Thanks for sharing!
Also have discovered and loved the Geronimo Stilton series for this age. My emerging reader loves learning the “big words” Geronimo sneaks in.
A older set that is not very well known is the set of Ladd Family adventure books by Lee Roddy. Also, Frank Peretti’s series about the Cooper Kids is great.
My son can read very well, and yet never reads for his own pleasure. I read to him, and with him. I did phonics and had him read paragraphs and later for a set amount of time. To date he still will only read the bare minimum. It seems this is true for most but not all children, but I wish everyones child will love to read. He’s now 16.
Can I get the book list? There is not a link.
cohnheiser@aol.com
That’s pretty much what I did with my first child. I read the first Magic Tree House book to her. Then we got the second one and I read one chapter. Evidently I wasn’t reading fast/often enough, and she reeeeallly wanted to know what happened next. The next morning she was up early, curled up on the couch with the book.. on chapter 4!
Thank you so much for the advice!!!
Are any of these series good for an advanced 1st grader?
I would try The Magic Treehouse.
So, after reading this post, I purchased the first 4 ‘Magic Tree House’ books for my 8yo son who is a really good reader but HATES to read to himself. After 2 days of reading to himself (15 minutes a day) he had the book in his hand and I asked him if he liked the book. He replied, “Well, I haven’t really read that far. (looks down at the book) Oh my goodness! I’ve read a lot farther than I thought! Yeah, I DO kinda like it.” I almost did a back flip for joy! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Yes! This is great. That’s pretty much what happened with my struggling reader. He was just turning 11 when he took off with the Box Car Children series. Within a month, he was reading on “grade level”. At 16, he is a voracious reader.
The books that got me reading were the black stallion series. I started reading them when I was in the fourth grade.
Great advice.
This is exactly what I did with my 8 year old and it works.
I didn’t pressure her to read when she was younger. Just took our time and didn’t push it. We didn’t spend much time on reading lessons either. (unlike my first one who still struggles).
Hi Sarah,
Do you go all the way through level 4 of AAR?
Thanks,
Tammy
I only use AAR until my child is reading well. My son got halfway through AAR 3 at about age 9.5, and then he could read Harry Potter, so we stopped AAR. :)
Back in March, I was here asking what books would be good for my 5 year old to practice read…
It’s amazing how quickly things are changing. Now I have 3 recommendations…
Great Series: The Thornton Burgess Adventures of ….. A set of 29 animal adventure books from Grandfather Frog, Jimmy the Skunk, Buster the Bear, etc.
I have been reading aloud this series for about a year to my son who is almost six and is in the first quarter of AAR 3. He has decided, on his own, to read these books Burgess by himself. I help him with the hard words. It’s a nice change to have him come to me and enthusiastically ask if he can read “his” book now.
Another hit for a beginning reader is the big Richard Scarry Best Read It Myself Book Ever. It is a huge book (out of print, but I got it used on Amazon) full of those great characters and lots of stories.
Lastly, Memoria Press offers literature guides using classic children’s picture books as reading practice for first graders on up. I plan to try it soon. For First grade they use books like: Blueberries for Sal, Caps for Sale, Make Way for Ducklings, Miss Rumphius, The Little House, etc.
Also, the Mr Tucker series by Gary Paulsen.
Dang it, autocorrect! :) That’s Mr. TuckeT.
I just want to say: if your child is struggling to read, PLEASE please check them for dyslexia. Susan Barton (Bright Solutions for Dyslexia) has some wonderful check lists that you can use to screen your child. Up to 30% of people have some level of dyslexia, and no amount of extra practice or extra time or phonics will help a dyslexic individual. If someone in your family has it, most likely your struggling reader has it as well. There is help available for them, but it’s not in traditional methods.
Sarah, this is a great blog with several great ideas to encourage reading in children!
I do want to stress what Britta and Tanya W. touched on before. Please let us not overlook an important requirement for reading – vision! One in four children has an undetected vision problem that may interfere with reading and learning. 20/20 eyesight is not perfect vision and is only one of 17 visual skills necessary to read and learn. A quick video to watch can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EkTM1UW9w0&index=6&list=UU8fOlMN0D7NIkVDwlOnIwAw
Learning-related vision problems can masquerade as other things and are often misdiagnosed, such as ADD/AD(H)D, dyslexia, or even laziness. Vision is learned, we are not innately born with optimized visual skills. Thus, children will not outgrow learning-related vision problems.
As Britta has already mentioned, not all eye doctors are the same and not all eye exams are the same. Vision screenings at school or a pediatrician’s office only detect 1 out of 20 children with vision problems. The children flagged during screenings are mainly those who are nearsighted (cannot see far away), but most reading takes place at near, not far!
To find an eye doctor who will exam the skills beyond just 20/20 eyesight, visit http://www.covd.org or http://www.oepf.org to locate a doctor near you.
While a vision problem is certainly not the cause of every child’s reading struggles, it is one of the most common, under-diagnosed, and easily treatable causes.
I see several of these series on similar struggling reader lists, but I think it’s also important to point out that some of them also are great for advance little readers. The Mercy Watson series particularly, because of it’s larger font size and line spacing and short chapters, is great for kids who start reading “chapter books” years before their peers. Our little 4 1/2 yr old who started reading exceptionally early loves reading Mercy Watson on her own because it makes her feel “grown up” to read a chapter book – but the page layout is easy on her little eyes (that can get overwhelmed by page-full after page-full of text) . Curious what other series share similar page layouts… The Adventure in Odyssey series isn’t too bad either. She can’t make it through a whole chapter, but she’ll read a page or two and hand off with mommy…
No Junie B Jones??!
Thank you, Sarah for lists and encouraging “reading culture” I recently got Teaching from rest audio book and i love it! Thank you!
I also wanted to give a feedback on this list. My son 6 y.o. is learning to read in russian and i was trying to find the ones from this list that are translated. Calvin and Hobbs is one of the few. And…Oh my! My son loves this book , but We (the parents) don’t !!!! It has words like “idiot”” stupid”, Calvin is rude and short tempered…This is first time my son came across these kind of words and attitudes. Not sure it is good or bad, though. He sure likes this crazy boy. MAybe it is meant for older children? CAn i ask why this book was included into this reading list? I trust your choices, and i also want to teach my children what is true and beautiful. This book seems to do the opposite :)
Before you ask, my son learned alphabet and is trying to read only because he wants to. He is very logical boy and joining letter that he already knows seem to be natural for him.
Hi Ilona! If Calvin & Hobbes makes you feel uncomfortable, then definitely feel free to ditch it! Calvin was a favorite of my husband’s growing up, and he and I think they are rather funny. But. Everyone has a bit of different taste in humor and such. I’d say: trust your gut! :)
Is the Boxcar Children like The Railroad Children? I started reading aloud The Railroad Children to my children. I have never read either books as a child so these are new ones to me.
Good article; I completely agree with the value of using trade books for learning how to read along with separate short decoding/encoding lessons.
I would insert another step after parent has read aloud the first book of a series that the child enjoys. ECHO READ the first couple chapters (or more, if needed) of book #2. Echo reading is sitting close to your child in a comfy place and reading aloud together. When the sentence or even a word is easy or familiar, you slow your pace a fraction behind your child. When the words are challenging, you take the lead, with your child echo reading right after you. Echo reading is an important (and bonding) step in the transition to becoming an independent and fluent reader.
Hi Sarah, have a quick question for you. You said to teach short phonics lessons daily. We use All About Reading, too. Wonder if you require your kids to read the readers/stories that are included in AAR when you get to those lessons, or if you don’t require them to read any stories at all because you’re wanting to foster a love of reading? Does that make sense? Thanks!
I do! I actually love those readers- I think they are written very well, and my son seemed to enjoy them quite a lot. :) It’s so empowering for them to be able to read all the words, since she only includes those that follow the rules they have mastered as they progress.
What books, if any, do you recommend for independent reading by a child just completing All About Reading Level 2.? My little guy is eager to try some real books on his own, with my help. “Series books” may be above his level. ?
Thanks for the great advice on not turning independent reading into an extra phonics lesson!!! I have done that. ☹️
We’ve tried some I Can Read It Syd Hoff level 1 and Fly Leaf Publishing. He keeps grabbing the ninja turtles and super hero books from Step Into Reading, but they seem sooooo twaddley.
I’m not too picky about twaddle when they’re in this stage- especially if they like it! :) It’s easier to get picky about that after they’ve picked up some fluency. I would suggest Frog and Toad, Little Bear, and Mr. Putter and Tabby. You may need to help with some words here and there, but I bet after level 2 AAR that he could read a good many of them.
Thank you, Sarah! Now I have direction on what to do with my daughter. This was an answer to prayer tonight, thank you!
I grew up with a love of reading. I would constantly go through books and beg my mom to take me to the library – which is why I try to encourage kids to read or become better readers, there is so much joy in it. These are great tips, thanks for sharing!
I have a struggling reader right now. I realized the other day that when this child is reading and can’t get a word, to just say it for them… just like you mentioned. It helps my child to quickly move past it and not have time to get anxious. I think it also helps give the child a sense of relief… like “Oh good! I didn’t have to struggle with that word!” :)
I will refer back to this post. Thank you! :)
Lovely post, and so helpful! I handed my son a book from a series (Imagination Station books) and he struggled but liked them – I wish I had thought to read the first one to him. Thank you!
Thank you for this lovely article. After much frustration my son taught himself to read just after his tenth birthday. Watching as his brain seemed to mature and begin to make the connections so he remembered the sounds and words was (and still is), delightful.
However I still have this concern in my heart as it still takes time ie. he’s not yet reading Harry Potter. I’ve been a little lost knowing where to go now….until I read this. Thanks again.
You know how we feel about Hank around here! He’s been a friend since we first discovered the audio series when my boys were little, little guys.
A great series geared towards boys is Henry Winkler’s “Hank Zipzer”. Winkler, (the Fonz) is dyslexic, and so is his main character. My younger son loved these!
This is excellent advice! All five of my kids were late readers, two were officially diagnosed with dyslexia and I am sure the others had aspects as well. My last two didn’t learn to read until after they’d had months of vision therapy. My earliest reader cracked the code at 8.5 and my latest was almost 10. I never used All About Reading (it wasn’t out yet) but At Last! A Reading Method for Every Child was the program that helped us the most. The beginner series of books that my kids took to were: Bunnicula, The Boxcar Children, Wayside School, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Calvin and Hobbes is wonderful for struggling readers! My kids also loved reading Peanuts.
I am a brand new member of RAR as of yesterday and I have a question. My 10 year old son is a great reader (in his mind) but I notice when he reads aloud that sometimes he skips over words, or changes them to something else that maybe has the same meaning, so he’s not losing content, but is a different word. How strict should I be about him reading EXACTLY what is on the page vs letting it slide and assuming it will fix itself as he matures?
So excited to watch all these master classes! I have found that I love reading aloud with my boys and they love it too. (Reading Circus Mirandous now and it is a great read aloud!) Thanks for this arena!
Hello Lisa! Welcome to membership! :)
I think you should ask Marie at All About Reading. I would completely trust her answer on this. (and actually, I’d LOVE to know what she says, so come back and tell me!) :)
You can ask her right here: http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/contact-us/
Thank you for the great information and list of series! I just now ordered Hank the Cowdog for my daughter on Amazon. We got her a Kindle for Christmas. She is dyslexic, and struggled so much with reading that we thought she would never ever read. However, since getting this Kindle a month or so ago, she has been reading non-stop. She found a horse series of books and read each one. She struggles with some words, but I try not to correct her too much because I want her to love reading, not hate that I sit there and critique her if she’s going to slow or not sounding a word out right. We homeschool, so we have plenty of time to work on sounding words out and I am thrilled that she’s been spending hours each day with her Kindle rather than doing other mindless activities during her free time. The only issue we ran into with her reading so much is that she is so horse focused that she was only searching for horse books. I looked into other series of books for her, but nothing caught my eye as being something she would enjoy and stick with. She’s turning 9 this week, and we recently watched the BBC series Sherlock Holmes and she loved the mystery more than I thought she would. She was understanding what making deductions was all about and making deductions every day to figure things out; something she didn’t grasp when we went over it in Literature last year. Anyway, this series looks like it will be a hit. It combines animals, farming and mystery…whats not to love? Thanks again!
Try the Babysitter’s Club by Ann M. Martin. She also has a horse based book called Me and Katie…The Pest. I love her books still even as an adult
Hank the Cowdog abso-frikkin’-lutely ROCKS!!!! I’d never heard of him until we moved to Texas. I picked up one of the books on a whim and now I have two Hank addicted sons.
My child loves to write and create her own blogs. That help tremendous as well. The spell checked on her tablet helped her with the spelling portion of it. Doing or reading what they love yes, it works. Great advice. This article was exactly correct on all points.
This is related to book list. Very excited to see what you are putting together. Love this website!
I know there are a lot of big families that read this blog. :-) I’m curious about families with a single child. Do you have any of you mammas have any good book recommendations in that area?
I was the only child and I loved horses so Black Beauty, Careers in Horses, Harriet the Spy, Poems from Shel Silverstein, Yes, and the world famous Dr. Suess. My daughter loves graphic novels. Those are eye coordination friendly. Graphic Novel series by Raina Telgemeier are superb! Great for a struggling reader.
I am a recently retired elementary school librarian and I’ve now started a blog about helping kids find the perfect book. These series are the ones that I had on display in my library and they truly did help kids find the perfect book that would lead to a love of reading. In fact I used this method long ago with my son who was a reluctant reader and the Encyclopedia Brown series did the trick. In fact it eventually led him to graduate from college with an English degree!
Thank you, Sarah, for a great blog and a great post!
So I was at the library yesterday and I found out about a program where a therapy dog comes in twice a month and the child gets to read to it. From my understanding the program was created for struggling readers so they dont feel no judgment and can read freely. Check out more information here. I live in the Phoenix area. I’m not sure what other states have this program. It’s called paws for reading.
http://www.pawsforpeople.org/children/paws-for-reading/
We didn’t use a series. We read Dickens Christmas Carol. I read a few pages aloud for story time every day and left them with a cliff- hanger and before I knew it they were sneaking off with the book to get ahead. We did it with The Never Ending Story (though I had to explain about the different colored ink for the difference between Balthazar’s real life and story life) and The Hobbit and the Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe. The kids sought out the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Chronicles of Narnia, Spiderwick and the Series of Unfortunate Events and Pen dragon on their own by the time they were in fifth grade.
Also should mention two of my kids had hearing problems from chronic ear infections so their phonics lessons were more difficult which made reading more difficult. Once, they had tonsils and adnoids out and ear tubes in they could hear all the sounds so reading became easier. My younger son still had to work at reading but we participated in a summer reading program by Marquette University and his reading improved tremendously over the first summer and the second summer their “speed-reading” program accelerated his comprehension so much that he started reading for pleasure and he was off to the races. The Pen dragon Series was his, then he moved on to Eregon, Monster blood Tattoo, and never stopped. He started enjoying his other academic subjects too because it didn’t take hours to complete every assignment.
My children seem to be obsessed with Calvin and Hobbes these days! I guess I should celebrate! Esp. when my 7-y-o attempts to read it. Thanks for the great suggestions! I am not HUGE on Boxcar children EXCEPT for the first book, because the rest feel stiff and forced, and a bit… twaddlish to me, but like you said, “delight is of utmost importance.” So if they love it, … read on. You rock.
This is so helpful. My 8 year old is still struggling, so much that we got her a tutor 3 days a week. We did the first book of all about spelling but are re- doing it because she still struggles with some rules. But I haven’t got all about reading and wasn’t sure if I should because I was told they were so similar. Do you happen to know if this is true? Is if worth the buy if I already have all about spelling??
Thank you Sarah! I am tearing up reading this. I have an 8 year old struggling reader and and this is just what I needed to see today. Having one of those homeschool mama self doubt thoughts kind of day. So thank you from my heart.
Have you ever read “Homeschooling for Excellence”? It will forever put to rest any guilt about not having proficient readers “by a certain age.” All those standards are super arbitrary. You are doing FINE! Blessings!
I didn’t learn to read until I was almost 13. Being I went to public school many years before i learned to read I learned to hate reading. What worked for me was dairy type books. I loved the Dear America series. Dairies have short writings on most days; this made me feel like I was reading more.
Ivy and Bean is decidedly not beautiful content, so maybe skip that series. :) My oldest daughter enjoyed them, but you are probably looking for something different. Try Real Kids, Real Places instead, maybe?
I thought it was just me. It teachers” lesbianism” I don’t like the series.
Sarah,
Totally off topic, but I have seen some of your pics and am wondering where you purchase your bookcases? We desperately need some nice solid bookcases:-)
These ones came with the house we just bought (NOT FAIR, I know! Totally!) :) Before that, we’ve really just purchased bookcases from Fred Meyer/Kroger. Bookcases add up when you need a lot of them ;).
Thank you so much for this list, and the suggestion about separating “phonics lessons” and “learning-to-love-reading lessons”. With a kid that has always loved to be read to, but hates trying to read himself, it is tempting to try to combine the reading and the mechanics of reading in one lesson, because it is such a headache getting him to want to do either! This was definitely a reminder I needed…
Thank you! I’m going to give this a try.
Thanks. I needed to read this today!
I used Alpha-phonics by Samuel Blumenfeld with all my children and it is an amazing reading program. It does not even seem to be work at all, just reading a lesson a day (or break a lesson into smaller parts if it seems difficult for a child), just once and that’s it. After they finish with Alpha-phonics, they can read, they just need practice. One of my sons was really reluctant to pick up any book to read by himself and then I bought him Famous Five series by Enid Blyton and Asterix and Obelix comic books. Thanks for the ideas!
Sorry I forgot to mention – also Dick King Smith books for animal lovers are great!
This is totally working with my son! He’s 9 and a reluctant reader. He finally decided about 2 weeks ago that books like Stink (Judy Moody’s brother) and Captain Underpants weren’t so bad and now the past two days he’s taken off with our Harry Potter read aloud book because he just can’t wait for more of the story!
Trust the process!!
I love that when it happens, it happens FAST, like wildfire. :)
Oh Sarah Mackenzie, how I adore you. :) Your posts are always, always, spot on . . .Confirming the things that I have felt in my heart . . .I have been debating, for a full month or more, on what curriculum to use with my almost-first grader. It was between All About Reading, and the phonics program included in an all-inclusive curriculum I really wanted to use. But I just can’t get away from how wonderful All About Reading is (I used their pre-reading program the year before kindergarten, and it worked very well). You may very well have just settled my decision. Thanks. ;)
Oh man, I hemmed and hawed over AAR for the longest time because it was the pricier option. In the end, I think I would’ve *saved* money by starting with that (sigh). I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Just wanted to add my 10 year old struggling reader loves the “I Survived” series, bonus for me, also teaches some historical content. These are mostly read alouds since he’s not at this level yet, but they have really sparked his interest in books.
LOVE these recommendations. Whole-heartedly agree that phonics and learning to love to read are two separate but necessary “lessons”. Thanks for the “aletheia” lesson.
Is Cam Jansen not a recommended series? My 9-yr-old son has been reading those aloud and enjoying them. He’s doing 4th grade work but doesn’t love reading yet… Should I be encouraging a different/better series?
Cam Jansen is a great series! I should add them to the list, actually.
Thank you for this wonderful post. I would like to add a lovely addition to your list that my struggling reader adores, The Horse Diaries. The illustrations are beautiful and there is a distinct historical setting and conflict in each book. While I haven’t read them, there is a counterpart called The Dog Diaries in case you have dog, rather than horse, lover. Also, my daughter enjoys reading Tintin and Asterix the Gaul which give an illustration to back-up the text.
Thanks so much! Just looked at these on Amazon and my daughter is going to love them!
My son couldn’t read until he was 9 years old because of an undiagnosed eye problem. He had to go to vision therapy to correct it. Hardly anyone knows about vision therapy, but there is a huge need for it. Whenever someone tells me their child isn’t reading, I tell them about it and almost every time it turns out their child also needs vision therapy.
Not all eye doctors know how to diagnose a vision therapy need, that’s what makes it so tricky. If you go to http://www.covd.org/ you can find doctors that know how to do it.
My 9 year old went from preschool reading skills to above grade level in 12 weeks.
Hi Britta, can you give more details about your son’s vision problems and the problems he was having reading? I’m trying to find out if my son’s reading problems may be stemming from an visual processing problem. I did get him an eye exam, which indicated he needed glasses, but that was a few months ago, and I haven’t seen any improvements in his reading. Any help you can give me is appreciated!
I decided to write a blog post about it since it’s something I talk about a lot. No one told me for 3 years that Vision Therapy was a thing, so I want awareness out there! Here is the post: https://brittaspeaks.com/2016/02/03/vision-therapy/
Thank you so much! In Gods providence, I just read a book about this last week and plan to contact a doctor about this. I think this is my son’s issue which has been hindering his reading (he’s 10).
I’m so glad! There IS hope!
Britta~ my now 15yo went for many years with an undiagnosed vision issue as well. He was so despondent over school (we had not started homeschooling yet) and his confidence took a real beating. He started VT at 13 and within a year, we were amazed to see his real struggles with writing and reading almost disappear! It’s been amazing to watch him blossom as a writer over the past few years. So glad you were able to get help for your son 😊
It’s my opinion, based on what I have seen in my kids, and friends’ kids, that a lot of struggling readers really have a vision problem. There are just so many things the eye can do, that it is not supposed to do! And so few people who diagnose them.
I love success stories, thanks for sharing yours!
When you hand your kid one of these books after their interest has been piqued, do you assign them time to read it or is this purely if they’re inspired enough to do it on their own? I already have my emerging/struggling readers reading for 5 or 10 minutes on their own each day, but they can still only do that with phonetic readers like the American Language Series readers. I could just start subbing some of these more enticing books for those.
Nope! Purely interest-led. I’d even get one or ten of these on audio and let them listen during quiet time in order to get them hooked, but I wouldn’t assign them.
Sarah!!! Thank you more than you know!!! This a timely message! You and your team are a blessing from above!!!!
SO glad it was helpful, Dana!
Heartily endorsing your ideas here! Over 20 years of homeschooling, Ive employed these all ideas for my own “emerging” readers (sounds better than ‘struggling’!) with great success. However, I would be sure and add Tintin the series list! Also, for your older nascent reader, you can get chapter books in large print. These are especially good for struggling older studenys who dont want to be associated with reading “baby” books. For some reason the larger print lulls them into THINKING its easier, but the titles and content bely that!
Thank you so much for this post!! I have two just like this and there are so many good ideas here to try. I’m also doing buddy reading with them during our phonics time.
This is exactly how my 9 year old son finally got interested in reading. I was absolutely floored when I walked into my kitchen on a Saturday morning and found him eating a bowl of cereal and reading a book. It was the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. He saw one of the movies and became interested in the books. I still get criticized for telling my younger son the word when he’s doing his reading time, but your advice is spot on. I’m sharing this article with my friends because many of them have struggling readers.
So helpful! Thank you! My son already loves listening to Mercy Watson on CD — he’s only 5 and not quite ready for this transition yet, but I’m saving this list for when he is!
Thank you for this list! I don’t have a struggling reader, but rather an early reader (boy) who I have not been able to find a good, engaging series for him to get into that isn’t too difficult or intense. The early chapter book category can be such junk, and I feel like it’s mostly catered towards girls (fairies, princesses, etc.).
So, I look forward to getting some of this books into his hands! I’ve never heard of some of them. Bonus!
Try the Here’s Hank series by Henry Winkler. My son LOVED those!
Peter and the Star Catcher series is great for the next level.
Thank you! I also love “All About Reading” and am working through Level 1 with my daughter (who, although excited about learning to read and making great progress, seems to be more of a “math kid”). I really appreciate these suggestions. May I ask a question? Is there a beginner series that you would suggest for an emerging reader to try on her own? We have read through most of the Little House books with her aloud, and she loved them! We would like to find something, as per your suggestion, that we could read TO her while also having her try to read. I would imagine something like “Boxcar Children” or “Encyclopedia Brown” would be much too hard for her at this point. Thank you!
I am also curious about this! Thanks for asking!
For my friends, who have younger readers, I always recommend the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems. My recommendation is very similar to what is suggested here; pick up a stack of books from the library and read aloud 1 or 2. Then leave the other books casually laying around the house. These books are HILARIOUS (even to mom!!) and I’ve never seen a kid be able to resist them. It’s like magic! (It’s also fun to take turns being the different characters, one of you reads for Piggie and one of you reads for Gerald the Elephant.)
This series was a breakthrough point for my oldest…first books that he would sit and read on his own and enjoy. Anything Mo Willems is a hit in our house!!!!!
Elephant and Piggie by Mo Willems
Little Bear by Elise Minarek
Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
Mr. Putter and Tabby by Cynthia Rylant
Maybe one of those? Really my favorite readers are the ones that come with AAR! Or you can grab them on their own here: http://bit.ly/aarread
THANK YOU to the people who suggested the “Elephant and Piggie” books! I borrowed 5 from the library today and we have already read 4 of them! When I told my daughter I needed to make dinner, she took all 5 into her room and started re-reading them, calling out when she needed help with a word. She is a struggling reader, and part of the problem seems to be that most of the books she can read are boring. She has a huge love of stories and has listened to entire books on cd in a sitting since she was 3 (including the entire Magic Tree House series), she will put in cd after cd and lay in her bed and listen to Harry Potter, for hours. So after that having to struggle through little baby books that have no point seems to make her not want to bother trying. But these books are funny and engaging and she can read most of the words without to much struggle! Thank you again!!!!
This is so true! The early reading books are limited by the words that can be used so seem very flat and uninteresting. I have been having this conversation with several mums just recently who have boys not wanting to read because the books are so dull (school readers). I have been able to give them some nature/animal readers with gorgeous pictures and that has made a spark. Fingers crossed it continues.
I spy Trixie Beldon on your shelf. I loved, loved, loved those as a girl!
The author of the Trixie Beldon books was my Sunday School teacher growing up and I had no idea that she was an accomplished author until one day she gave me a couple of Trixie Beldon books and told me she wrote them! She was an incredible woman and to this day one of the most influential in my life.
Henry and Mudge books and Mr. Putter and Tabby books are great ones to get a kid going.
Yes!!! We loved those too!
I would totally add “The Time Warp Trio” to this list, for boys especially. This series turned two of my boys into voracious readers.
I haven’t seen that one but I’ll check it out!
holy Moses, the time and patience; not a big fan of the line, but I’ve just received a 20 batch in a mix up a couple days ago, so I’ll be giving them a try (was going to give them away, not now). I thank you and the others in this forum, I may now be on the hunt for some of those infused blends. I’m mainly a Graycliff, Montecristo and Cohiba (embargo) guy.
Loved the expired yogurt look of the pus that came out. Too bad the video ended as the best explosion happenedAs to the patient’s upper back, it reminds me of the images the Mars lander Curiosity is sending back to earth about the red planet.
Put persistence into decorating the lining and exterior on the town. Home progress includes the look of your home, and with regards to decorating the within and not in the home , you intend to give that ample persistence to make sure the concept and design that you’ll be really going for.
love your hair!! that dry shampoo sounds awesome! choosing new hair colors is so fun! i love 1 and 4!!! both would look really pretty on you!!! can't wait to see what you choose :)
That’s a smart answer to a tricky question
Thanks for this tip! I’m going to look into these!
Thank you for this post! It was so timely. While I’ve seen lots of improvement in my 6 year old’s reading ability, he still won’t pick up a book to read by himself. I needed the reminder that it comes with time and patience and love will get him over the hump and turn him into a reader!
I love to encourage young readers. A great suggestion that worked for our family–extend bed time an extra fifteen minutes if they are reading in their bed.
I’ve been using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for a few months with my son, and while he has some work to do, he’s shown so much improvement. I am not kidding when I tell you that I tried for over a year to get him to remember the word “a,” and it just didn’t happen. Since he is only 7, maybe he just wasn’t ready. Regardless, I’ve only been reading picture books to him and my 4- and 6-yr.-olds (together), so I’m going to try some of your suggestions, instead. My older kids have always loved Magic Tree House, so maybe we’ll start there. I have been using this same strategy with my 8-, 10-, and 11-yr.olds for a few weeks now with the Percy Jackson series. They all read fluently but still don’t like to do it, so I was hoping to get them to choose to read the second in the series on their own. The only problem is, we’ll be finishing the first one this week, and I REALLY enjoy it, too, so I’ve given in and will actually be reading the second one aloud, also. Oh, well. Maybe it will work with the third!
My daughter fell behind in a private, small classroom Kindergarten which is why we decided to homeschool her starting first grade. We realized she was dyslexic half way through kindergarten, and realized that the school system did not have the ability to cater to her needs. She became very insecure, admitted to cheating with everything and failed any tests that required her own competence to be tested. First grade was rough, and we barely did any real work because of her attitude. We did a lot of hands on things, and that made me feel like we were possibly making progress, but it was very very difficult and we faced many criticisms for “not doing it the traditional way”. Second grade came around and my husband got her into minecraft. That was the turning point. She was able to do something, create things of her own; she felt capable, and her insecurities went away almost overnight. Fast forward a few months and we started a regular school routine that included the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons book. She had the hardest time with the simplest sounds, but that book did work well. It did not nurture her and create an environment where she wanted to read though. At some point her computer “broke” (we just changed her room around and didn’t plug it back in, lol) and she got shelves in her room for a library that matched our grown-up library downstairs. Then we found her reading..randomly sitting on the floor with a book enjoying it. Even if she didn’t read all the words, she enjoyed it. That’s all that mattered. She’s turning 9 this week, and she is finally at the place where she is reading a Kindle daily, for hours. She reads slow, and it takes her a while to sound out words at times but she enjoys it. I believe that kids, just like adults, come to a place where they are ready for something new and can take it on successfully; we can’t rush that, we can only nurture them and guide them in the things they will need for their future.
My son was the same! We were both in tears of frustration when he couldn’t remember the sound a made after a week. He couldn’t remember it 10 minutes later. I was using 100 easy lessons also.
I gave up and tried 6 months later and gave up again. As we homeschool I had the luxury of time. One day (quite a few years later) he began to read a few signs. I eagerly grabbed 100 lessons and we easily sped through a few lessons that day. The next day he remembered everything we’d done the day before. (To say I was excited was an understatement.). We completed 60 odd lessons in less than a month and he hasn’t looked back. It’s like the wiring in this brain suddenly matured enough and it all made sense to him.
Sarah,
At what level in AAR did you notice your son go from struggling reader to fluent reader?
Thanks for all of your read-aloud encouragement!
Midway through Level 3. He was nearly 10.
Thanks, Sarah!
That is very encouraging! I’ve been frustrated because AAR level 1 was too hard for my kindergartener, so we went back to Pre-Level 1 after Christmas. I know in my heart she will read when she’s ready, but it’s hard for me to watch so many of her friends read early.
We LOVE AAR! So excited to see your recommendation for it. Did you add All About Spelling 1 when you were doing All About Reading 2? I’m about to embark on that combo with my 6 year old.
@Bethany I have found AAR Reading and AAR Spelling really do go hand-in-hand. We are almost done with level 3 reading. Many concepts covered in Reading level 3 were in Spelling levels 2 & 3. So my daughter would study it in Reading first and then see it in Spelling. Very effective!