11 Plus Exams Forum

How can I encourage my year 5 son to read? He has so little confidence in his English. His written work is so behind his spoken word. Any ideas welcome.

I have posted about this before as I had the same problem with DC3. His sisters had always loved reading but he would not proceed beyond "Where's Wally"!
I found the answer was boredom.
He was sent to bed early every night (bed was made comfortable with posh bedside light and comfy extra pillows) but no food no drinks no music no tv no gadgets etc etc. Choice for naughty DC of selection of books or staring at the wall all evening!
It took a while and a bit of defiance but he is now a complete bookworm.
Nowadays I would probably try a kindle as well.
Good luck

Try taking him to the library.
They obviously have lots of books and usually have some wonderful displays
of exciting new (and old) books that have proved popular with other children.
If you make him stay there long enough, he will end up browsing and choosing
books as he will have nothing better to do!

The trouble with the kindle is it is a bit of a fad. It is exciting at first but ultimately
children do realise that however much they love their new electronic toy, they are
going to end up reading. They can only be fooled for so long.

With the children I teach, I have noticed that the majority of them rarely use their
devices and end up using books more anyway as they are easier to get hold of:
library, swapping with friends, supermarket! etc However it may work, although
it is expensive and you do have to most of the books and cannot get them from
the library.

Encourage your child to try lots of different books. There are some great titles out
there so go looking together. Get him started on something nice and easy, like the
Wimpy Kid titles and then progress from there.
I read at a library to a class of children each week, and Wimpy always gets a big
laugh. Show your DS reading can be fun and hopefully it will encourage him to
go off and find more titles to enjoy!

Brilliant reply from Elizabeth. My DC's love the library (we even have a library bus which comes to our village) and they 'have' to pick some books, even if they don't really want them, they insist on getting some books. I'm lucky as they both like to read, saying that though they have read for 5/10 mins most days since reception/year 1. But DS is harder work than DD, but if we are going into Town or on a journey, I tell them to pick a book to read on the way, rather than take a gadget. If DS comes to DD's swimming lesson with me, I tell him to bring a book so he isn't bored. Basically any opportunity where he is likely to be bored, I get him to bring a book and 9 times out of 10 he will read it and then as a treat the next time he can take a gadget etc. He loves football, so occasionally I will get him 'shoot' or 'match' and the articles are actually quite good on occasions. He loves history and factual stuff and 'santa' fetched him some usborne - kings/queens/romans books etc and he hasnt put them down. DD prefers stories and sequels, so she cant wait for the next Jacqueline Wilson book etc, but DS prefers a book linked to a film e.g.Tin Tin, but I've recently got him into Roald Dahl. So it really is about finding something which works. Good luck!

Great Expectations wrote:How can I encourage my year 5 son to read?

Read yourself! We sometimes have a reading dinner where we all read at the table so DD, 6, thought she'd better quickly learn so she could join in the fun!

Can you tell my DH? I say can you read in front of the children to show them you like it ....... he invariably says "I read on the train". How does that answer my request I wonder? Need to get a new one that reads at home.

That's so true. DH still regularly does 'bedtime' stories to DD (11) and DS (9) - they read 10 mins each etc, but again pick a book thats 'in' for all of them (DH obsessed with Jennings, which DS loves), advantage with this is he is listening to them read. Our school still demand reading x times a week and also say that on 2 occasions this should be out loud to an adult. We are all busy, work etc, I have a baby too, but quite often get mine to sit in the kitchen and read to mummy, because I like to listen to it etc - not the best time I realise as not 100% attention but it works. Its about finding a routine which works.

mystery wrote:Can you tell my DH? I say can you read in front of the children to show them you like it ....... he invariably says "I read on the train". How does that answer my request I wonder? Need to get a new one that reads at home.

Sometimes I think it's best for these things to be left to us...my DH will either enthusiastically grab all the books from the freebie table at the train station and hand out " Jaws " to DD and a gory picture book depicting war field surgery to the boys and then complain when they look horrified or go to the other extreme and fall asleep after 30 seconds of listening to them read..apparently it's the monotone which sets him off

I've found that reading a variety of books helps your child find something they can really get to grips with..my DS is really into the Michael Morpurgo books at the moment , but that took a lot of experimenting !

Ah, I wasn't counting my DH as he works away!

Magazines, instruction books, non fiction (eg books on his hobbies, Guinness Book of Records, annuals on his favourite television programmes etc) all count too!

Stocky, I am very impressed that you get the baby to sit in the kitchen and read to you while you are doing other things. You definitely get the prize on this site for the earliest 11plus starter.