Do reading habits in preK-4th grade tend to stick?
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Anonymous
| I've done a lot over the past 9 years to try to instill a love of reading in eldest DC who is entering 4th grade. It worked! But does this enthusiasm for reading and books tend to last, or do most kids hit middle and high school and get sucked into school Chromebooks and social media? Is there anything more I should be doing now to try to keep this going? |
Anonymous
| Keep them off screens as much as possible and social media entirely through middle school. It’s the only way you don’t lose the war. |
Anonymous
+1, screens replace books... |
Anonymous
| They will bring Chromebooks home from school starting in 5th and all the schoolwork is digital. How can I keep them off of screens at home?? |
Anonymous
| Mine still reads daily, I always said yes to books and do not censor content which I think helped a lot. He started to want to read edgier books around age 12 and I kept my mouth shut. We keep a wide variety of books around the home and buy books from thriftbooks often. We model reading at home, though maybe not as much as we should. I am an elementary school librarian but that career change came after he finished elementary school so I don't think it's related. |
Anonymous
to add: My son spends a lot of time on computers too, both for school and fun |
Anonymous
You know what I mean. The hour on the Chromebook for homework isn’t what we’re talking about. It’s iPad games, YouTube shorts, etc. I’m actually fine with some video games for entertainment, especially when they’re on with friends and talking while they play. But that was a Saturday night special thing for DS, when it worked out. It had a finite amount of time. |
Anonymous
|
No. During Covid, we had an online book club with three kids over Zoom for about 18 months when they were in 4th–5th grade. They read a new book and met with an online tutor/teacher we paid every two weeks to discuss it. They probably read close to 50 books.
Did they benefit? Absolutely. They learned to analyze books, discuss themes, defend opinions, and think critically about what they read. But did they become lifelong kids who voluntarily read constantly after the club ended? Unfortunately, no. Two of the kids were my twins. They are smart kids, and I wish the habit of reading for pleasure had stuck more, but I don’t regret doing it. Even if the reading volume didn’t continue, the vocabulary, reading comprehension, and ability to analyze material stayed with them. |
Anonymous
| No. My son was a huge reader in 4th grade. COVID hit in March of 4th grade and everything moved online. He never again read as much as he did before (although before he aged out of his screen free camp, he read a lot there). |
Anonymous
Could it be it didn’t stick because you took all the fun out of it by doing it this way? Just a thought. |
Anonymous
What kind of edgy material? |
Anonymous
Stephen King type stuff, things that wouldn't be my first choice but they provided plentiful material that I think made him feel cool |
Anonymous
| I teach 9th graders, and I have a 9th grader who has always been a big reader. He has no phone or social media, but his pleasure reading is way down because school is so much more demanding. After all the homework, he's tired and prefers podcasts or watching sports. When he has less work, the reading picks back up. The parents of my students often say how much their kids used to read but don't anymore; they blame the phones, but I think, at this very demanding school at least, that it's phones and homework. |
Anonymous
| For my DS, fiction-reading for fun slowed during teen years but returned in college. |
Anonymous
| So far, so good. But we manage / limit TV time and there are no video games or computer games in our house for anyone, so we might be atypical. |