1st grader only wants to read dogman

[Anonymous]

You could try the Bad Guys series or the Narwhal series. i'd suggest Baby Mouse, but that might be more "girlie".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my experience, the best thing is to make the books you want your kids to read be read-aloud books (or, lacking time on your part, a runner-up is to use audiobooks). You can either use a few chapters to get a kid interested in a book, which totally works sometimes, or simply read the more complicated books as read-alouds so that he still gets more complicated stories.

So he reads Dogman 1,000 times while you read Mr. Popper's Penguins, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Henry Huggins, Charlotte's Web, whatever. Sometimes maybe he gets into it and you turn the read-aloud over. Sometimes he just wants you to read, and that's fine. Sometimes Audible reads, and that's fine too.

This.

Let him read what he wants but try introducing new stuff.

Read to him or do audio books so he learns more vocabulary, sentence structure, and writing styles. And can follow a chapter book plot day over day with decent reading comprehension. It’s not reading or phonics but can help it all come together later.

[Anonymous]

I heard a reading specialist say that eventually, kids grow out of phases like this. That was true of me and baby sitter's club. For my friends it was goosebumps.

DS's teacher is also a reading specialist and she has this thing where books to challenge you to improve your reading skills are the main course and books that are at or below your reading level are dessert, so she makes sure the kids get some of both. But...she's a really good teacher. She makes any book exciting, even if it's not dog man. I don't have the same training so dog man ad infinitum it is.

Also, Dog Man is really good! They get a bad reputation because of the potty humor, the misspellings (which do bug me), and the fact that the have a lot of pictures, but the stories have much good messages, the characters are compelling, they are funny, and they teach visual literacy (which in our day and age is very important).

[Anonymous]

My son is 7, in 2nd grade this year. His teacher assessed his reading level as several grades above 2nd (not sure how much stock I put in it, but there you go). Anyway, he went through a long phase this past year of reading only diary of a wimpy kid and big Nate and a couple of other graphic novels and rejecting any suggestion to read a non graphic novel.

It ended and for 2-3 months he’s been back to normal books. I stopped resisting at some point, he read all the books in the series he liked and that was it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like my kids when he was in first grade. He is 10 now and just finished the Harry Potter series so their preferences do change.

Hmmm. I agree with Harold Bloom. The Rowling books are poorly-written.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't make this a thing unless you want to incite him to rebel against your reading suggestions. Let his reading be a personal choice just like yours is.

Exactly. I’m an elementary teacher and my son also only read Dog Man in 1st grade. Now in 2nd he keeps rereading the Diary of a Wimpy kid series over and over. He has access to a lot more books, but chooses those. I really don’t care because—he’s reading and he enjoys it. That’s the goal.

Different approaches for different people. I don't believe that my children's pleasure in reading is paramount just as I don't believe that the fun they have while folding clothes should be the focus. In my house certain chores must be done, certain books must be read. My kids do not speak 4 languages by coincidence. I compelled them to learn. I believe firmly that children do not know what is best for them in terms of their intellectual development and will thus often reject beneficial and challenging projects and books out of sheer ignorance. Case in point: When I began reading Animal Farm to my daughters this summer they complained. Within two days they were begging me to read more. Had I allowed them to read all the Dogman or Wimpy Kid books they wanted they would never have discovered other, deeper reading pleasures. I don't allow my kids to eat whatever they want, watch whatever programs they want, socialize with whomever they want, or spend their leisure time as they would want so why would I let them have the free choice of which books they read? I have my youngest, who is eight years old, reading Le Petit Prins, now. When she whines I just laugh and assign her a written response. My kids do not get any screen time until they have done 300 jump rope reps and a high-intensity fitness video. Adults do not know what is best for them and even when we do know we resist doing it, to our detriment. How could children ever be expected to make wise choices for their future? I have said in other threads that our generation's permissiveness as parents is the cause of our children's substandard performance in many areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't make this a thing unless you want to incite him to rebel against your reading suggestions. Let his reading be a personal choice just like yours is.

Exactly. I’m an elementary teacher and my son also only read Dog Man in 1st grade. Now in 2nd he keeps rereading the Diary of a Wimpy kid series over and over. He has access to a lot more books, but chooses those. I really don’t care because—he’s reading and he enjoys it. That’s the goal.

Different approaches for different people. I don't believe that my children's pleasure in reading is paramount just as I don't believe that the fun they have while folding clothes should be the focus. In my house certain chores must be done, certain books must be read. My kids do not speak 4 languages by coincidence. I compelled them to learn. I believe firmly that children do not know what is best for them in terms of their intellectual development and will thus often reject beneficial and challenging projects and books out of sheer ignorance. Case in point: When I began reading Animal Farm to my daughters this summer they complained. Within two days they were begging me to read more. Had I allowed them to read all the Dogman or Wimpy Kid books they wanted they would never have discovered other, deeper reading pleasures. I don't allow my kids to eat whatever they want, watch whatever programs they want, socialize with whomever they want, or spend their leisure time as they would want so why would I let them have the free choice of which books they read? I have my youngest, who is eight years old, reading Le Petit Prins, now. When she whines I just laugh and assign her a written response. My kids do not get any screen time until they have done 300 jump rope reps and a high-intensity fitness video. Adults do not know what is best for them and even when we do know we resist doing it, to our detriment. How could children ever be expected to make wise choices for their future? I have said in other threads that our generation's permissiveness as parents is the cause of our children's substandard performance in many areas.

I bow down to your superior parenting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:6yr old DS is stuck on rereading dogman books over and over. He is a very strong reader(3rd grade reading level) but he insists other books are not interesting to him. He has read all the bad guys books as well, but dogman is his favorite. He will read magic tree house, A-Z mysteries, flat Stanley etc if I insist but I obviously do not want to force him to read. I feel like he still really wants a book with lots of pictures and is intimated by books that are less visually appealing.

What about some well written picture books? They often have elevated vocabulary meant for parents to read, and some are wonderful literature.

[Anonymous]

Op, ds was only dog man from K-1st and 2nd started Captain underpants and the wimpy kid books. He is an amazing reader though! Recently he loved Mac B. Now in quarantine he is reading more chapter books with no pictures. He still has the other books around his room like a security blanket but at some point he just picked up the picture-less chapter books and can finish them in a day or two (as opposed to previous perusing).

I never minded Dogman or Mac B but I bite my tongue with the Captain Underpants and wimpy kid because its his brand of humor and he loves it. I am thankful for all the series that get the kids engaged.

[Anonymous]

Visual literacy. Hahaha.

Meanwhile poor numerical literacy and poor actual literacy.

[Anonymous]

He's reading the same books over and over, because he loves them. Let him enjoy reading!

[Anonymous]

Our reading for fun level is always going to be below our educational reading level. Just because a first grader can read a higher level book, doesn’t make it fun. Just like I can read a college textbook or a research paper but for fun, I prefer to read light and easy fiction.

My first grader is In the same exact boat. She has access to tons of different books but loves dogman and bad guys. She easily reads a full book in a day and so does her second grade brother. They love to have discussions about them so I find lots of value in that.

[Anonymous]

This phase shall pass too...speaking from experience

[Anonymous]

This post made me laugh because my 13 year old DS with HFA still gets "stuck" and wants to read the same books over and over and over and over and... well, you get the idea. He has gone through several different phases. Luckily, he has passed through the Diary of a Wimpy Kid phase (almost, he still crams them sometimes) and is into the Harry Potter phase. Here are some books that he loved in early elementary:
- The Gilbert Series by Diane deGroat
- Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
- Horrible Harry books
- The Magic Finger, the Enormous Crocodile, and Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl (his shorter books)
- The Irving and Muktuk Series by Daniel Pinkwater
- Chocolate Fever by Robert Smith and The Chocolate Tough by Patrick Catling

Don't be worried about letting him read picture books. There are some wonderful ones written at a higher level. Has he read these?
- Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
- You Don't Know How Lucky You Are
- The Velveteen Rabbit
- The Ugly Duckling
- Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears
- The Story About Ping
- The Little Match Girl
- Sarah's Story

[Anonymous]

Have him write his own Dog Man stories.
Have him draw Dogman.
Have him read Ricky Ricotta or Captain Underpants.

What’s the problem if he like a reading just because he doesn’t like reading what you want him to like?