Reading workbooks vs. readers

[Anonymous]

My third grader HATES to read, it is a struggle for us. I also have to supervise each word, and I am tired. BTW, she is at grade level.
Anyway, I noticed that if I give a her a workbook like Kumon, she reads the section, then answers the questions and does not argue. I do not have to supervise as much, and there is the occasional challenge that she can not get through, so it is not a breeze for her.
Does this type of activity count towards her "nightly" half hour of reading?

[Anonymous]

I think you need to check with a teacher if there are reading requirements, but I would suspect that any reading would count. But I wonder if you could mix up the medium on other reading too. If your kid will read instructions, how about having her read a kids cookbook and pick out recipes to try this weekend ( but don't tell her it's part of required reading ).
How about newspapers, comic books, science books of experiments, letters from family, blogs, craft instructions, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to check with a teacher if there are reading requirements, but I would suspect that any reading would count. But I wonder if you could mix up the medium on other reading too. If your kid will read instructions, how about having her read a kids cookbook and pick out recipes to try this weekend ( but don't tell her it's part of required reading ).
How about newspapers, comic books, science books of experiments, letters from family, blogs, craft instructions, etc.

Very good idea. I like the cook books and craft instructions, she would do that

[Anonymous]

Any type of reading qualifies at my son's school. He loves to read but gets bored of the same old, same old. So I asked his teacher if he can get credit for reading comics and she said yes. She said that some kids are such reluctant readers that that is almost all they read. Magazines count too.

[Anonymous]

What are you reading? She might prefer Kumon because the reading does not seem to be as much in a general book. Plus it is purposeful, you might have to read to answer a question. I think the suggestions that PPs gave would work but you might be able to try short stories as well. She might be willing to read more stories but of shorter length. If she truly does not enjoy reading, the task of a long story may seem overwhelming to her. If she is not doing homework, what does she do? Find reading on that subject. I know kids who hate to read but given them a book on there favorite PS3 or XBOX game and they will read all about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you reading? She might prefer Kumon because the reading does not seem to be as much in a general book. Plus it is purposeful, you might have to read to answer a question. I think the suggestions that PPs gave would work but you might be able to try short stories as well. She might be willing to read more stories but of shorter length. If she truly does not enjoy reading, the task of a long story may seem overwhelming to her. If she is not doing homework, what does she do? Find reading on that subject. I know kids who hate to read but given them a book on there favorite PS3 or XBOX game and they will read all about it.

We have tried all kinds of readers, story books, chapter books, she is a lot like I was at that age, just plain old hates to read.

[Anonymous]

Try magazines, fact books like Guinness records, read to her or have her listen to it on cd or ipod. I have a kid who is on grade level, but hates to read because she is very slow so her comprehension suffers. Reading is a bit like a muscle it gets flabby if not regularly so don't lose this fight. One other thing that worked in our house is everyone read for a period of time-tv, radio, computer all off.

[Anonymous]

How about getting one of those books that answer questions or weird things kids always want to know or How do they make things book. I have one somewhere in my disorganized house I can look for if you don't find one on Amazon.

[Anonymous]

Our daughter was like this - I thought it was laziness, but when her spelling also wasn't improving we had her tested. Sure enough, she's dyslexic. She can read pretty well, but the way she reads is inefficient. She sounds out each word phonetically (she has a terrible memory for irregular words). Also she generally reads only the first few letters at the beginning and end of each word. So, she'll confuse fried for friend, cloud for could, tried for tired, stared for started, etc. She would just gloss over very irregular words like dough or unique.

To motivate her (and also to see how she was reading), we started reading aloud round robin. She reads a page, then I read a page. That way I can catch her if she's misreading or glossing over a word. Also, it models fluency for her. This approach has been very helpful to get
over her reluctance to read, and she will read chapter books on her own now.

If understanding spellings is an issue, you can get a Franklin Speller, a little handheld device for confirming spellings, and it will vocalize the word so the child can hear how it's pronounced. This has been great for making DD more independent.

[Anonymous]

PP again. I should add that we've also has to do a lot of work to remediate the dyslexia. We've studied letter patterns and dolch word lists, and generally just made her aware of where the trouble spots are so that she can anticipate and employ strategies to get over them (the spell check is one of them). This is really what's helped her to become a more independent and empowered reader.

I'm not in any way suggesting this is your DDs issue. But if this (or attentional or similar issue) happens to be, its good to know this info. Given that your daughter is at grade level, the school is unlikely to help. We had to work through it on our own.