Reading

You know? It's really sad that I am a reading teacher and yet two of my three children are poor readers. Is that along the lines of the cobbler's children having no shoes? Is it because I am so tired of listening to little children stumble through passages that the thought of listening to my own children read is more than I can bear?

Nope! There is nothing I love more than reading with kids. Ok, maybe there are a FEW things I love more, like waking up without an alarm clock, or banana cream pie, but that's beside the point.

We spend more than an hour a day reading around these parts. We start out at 7:30 when we all pile onto my bed to read together. I read to them for 30 minutes (usually longer) from whatever our selection currently is. We have recently finished Nim's Island, and The Tale of Despereaux, and are now starting The Sisters Grimm books. So far we have really enjoyed it (Which reminds me, I need to head for the bookstore to pick up book two).

After I read, that is when the trouble sets in. It is really hard for a struggling reader to get into a book. It's hard to be engrossed in a plot when you are trying too hard to sound out words, but the books that are easy for them to read are only 20-50 pages long and are finished too quickly.

The problem is that the books my boys are able to read are "Boring" and they can't get interested enough to stick with it.

I told K that I would buy him a treat every time he finished a book. He finished his very first chapter book about two weeks ago and is now half way through his second. If all else fails resort to bribery right? Which is also why I am allowing my fourth grader to read Twilight. He has BEGGED me to let him read it, but I always said no. Now I figure he can read Stephen King if he will actually sit and READ! I am desperate!