My oldest son is not a huge fan of reading. The material has to 100% captivate him, or he ends up yawning around every other word. That makes for a very LONG reading session. I have been trying to find topics that he is interested in and picking out books at his level of reading that coincide with that. I haven't been too successful. I think I picked one book that he liked (because he asked to read it daily to find out what the score was going to be, not necessarily because of the content -- it was about baseball), but yet there was a lot of yawning involved. I was becoming very discouraged. I knew he needed the practice, but the only books he was interested in reading was Star Wars books. Have you ever read one of those?? I have. All the strange names and cities alone would give a struggling reader the desire to quit reading for the rest of his life! I was constantly correcting him as he was trying to pronounce "Coruscant" or "Separatist Alliance". Even the Easy Readers had difficult names in them. It was discouraging for him and for me.
About a week ago, I had to drive over to the Atlanta area. The day before we left, I went to the library and found some books on CD. My daughter has been an avid reader since she was four. She loves to read! My oldest son, not so much. So I thought, maybe he'll listen to a book being read to him. He listens to me read (most the time). I picked a book on CD from a series that my daughter loves to read and wasn't too girlie. We listened to a couple of the CD's on the way to ATL and I don't think my children even spoke the entire drive. (even my four year old was silent) Every once in a while I would hear them laugh at a funny part, but that was it. I was amazed when we got to our destination. I was kind of wondering if they were still alive back there.
So after that trip, I got a couple more of the books in the same series, and we listened to them on our way to church, the store, where ever. Again, the same result. Complete driving silence with a couple interruptions of laughter. What miracle had I discovered? Was it just a fluke? So again, I got another book on CD in the series. Again, silence and laughter. I had hit the driving jackpot!
Then it hit me. If he loves to listen to it so much, maybe he'd enjoy reading it just as much. And I was right! He does! In fact, as I was just typing this sentence, he asked me if he could read the next chapter of the book. Luckily for me, there are about 20 books in each of the series that this author has written. That at least gives me 40 books to go through, unless of course he gets bored.
My only downside, which isn't really a downside because it's a good lesson, is that in the book some of the characters call other characters "dumbhead" or they say "I hate [so-and-so]". But I look at this as a good teaching opportunity. Actually, my son read one of the sentences about someone being a dumbhead, and he said, "Mommy, that wasn't really nice. We're not supposed to call people names. That's just mean and he's disobeying, right mom?" And when the other sentence came up about hating people, he told me that we are never to say that to anyone and that Jesus loves everybody and we are supposed to too! So while these books have those two no-no's for us written every once in a while throughout them, my kids know better and explain to me why it is wrong.
Now for the upside, my child enjoys reading and asks to read to me everyday, because quote, "I want to be a good reader like my sister. I have been waiting all my life to read books like this!" Just the fact that he is wanting to read, brings great joy to my heart. It's something he has been struggling with his entire school career.
Reading 'Miss Suki is Kooky' by Dan Gutman
So, I think I'm on to something. 1. Listening to books on CD to see if there is an interest, and 2. Borrowing the book for him to read if there is.
My Personal Book Review:
The books are from author Dan Gutman. The series are: My Weird School, My Weird School Daze, and My Weirder School. They are about a 2nd Grade boy (or 3rd grade depending on which series your reading), AJ, whose teachers are a little more than weird, and their methods of teaching are wacky. Even though they think all their teachers have lost it, and the students feel the need to teach them, he and his classmates always end up learning in the end. The Characters: AJ has two buddies, Michael and Ryan who sometimes get him into trouble. And he has two classmates who drive him crazy; Andrea the know-it-all and Emily the crier. The titles are catchy (ie Miss Daisy is Crazy, Ms. Hannah is Bananas, Coach Hyatt is a Riot, etc).
These books, in my opinion, are meant for readers 8+ (although my daughter started reading them at 6). I think as long as your reader knows right from wrong and is grounded in it, and if he/she is able to read chapter books, this series will be a good, fun fit.
Side Note:
[I say for your reader to know right from wrong, because as I said above, there is some name calling (ie dumbhead) and the main character AJ says that he hates Andrea every once in a while throughout the books. Both name calling and saying that you hate someone are big no-no's in our family. But even my 4 & 6 year old have listened to the books and know that it is wrong. They haven't started using those phrases toward each other, but I don't want them exposed to it too often either, so they don't get those phrases stuck in their heads and then later use them in their vocabulary.]
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