Boys & Reading

Karrie · 28 July 2007 at 4:36PM

My ds in 11 and he's always had problems with reading and writing. However, he has improved greatly over the last year but he just won't read a book. We always used to read at bedtimes when he was younger and he would love it. I love reading and just want him to enjoy it too but he hates it. I don't push it at all. I know he has no confidence with his reading and writing ability even though he has got better. He finished Toe by Toe a few months ago too. Has anyone else had this problem?

bonar · 28 July 2007 at 4:54PM

I have two boys, and went through the same experience as yourself. the key was to find an author the boys loved, my oldest (he's 22 now) liked adventures and willard price books were best for him , and although not keen once he started I got to the stage where I couldn't keep up with him (eventually he was going through two in a week) he's recently gained a law degree in scotland (lots and lots of reading involved there)

now my youngest is 9 he likes laughing and fooling around , so horrid henry was the key to his problems, he has now progressed, slowly mind and has just started reading harry potter.(recently assessed as having a reading age well above 9) my nephew is 7 doesn't like reading but I have just bought him "captain underpants and the wrath of the wedgie woman" he loves it.

just keep persevering and it will all work out, I do feel that girls have so much more choice though

Karrie · 28 July 2007 at 7:08PM

Thank you. I bought mine Captain Underpants last year which he read so I bought him another one. He started it but never finished it and hasn't picked up a book since. He can manage Match magazine though :rolleyes: It's as though he gets bored early on and just can't be bothered to stick with it. He has all the Harry Potter books but would rather sit through the films than make the effort to read the book.

FZwanab · 28 July 2007 at 7:35PM

Could you bribe him with something if he reads x amount of books??? I am trying this at the moment and so far so good. Don't know if it is such a good idea though.

abbecer · 28 July 2007 at 7:40PM

Why books? Could he not chose a magazine each week that ties in with any of his other interests, ie football? Tell him if he reads it he can have one the following week. This obviously will depend on your budget.

Rebecca x

Savvy_Sue · 29 July 2007 at 12:27AM

I agree, many boys don't actually enjoy fiction, and many men don't read 'books', but will read a newspaper or magazine. And does it matter if he doesn't read books, as long as he can read what he needs to read?

Getting non-fiction books from the library which match his interests may also work for him.

Nenen · 29 July 2007 at 12:56AM

Despite both me and dh being avid readers and our home being stuffed to the brim with books

as a child our oldest son was never interested in reading (much to my dismay at the time). He was reasonably bright and learnt to read steadily but only ever did the bare minimum required by the school, to the point where when they asked parents to sign a diary each week to say that ds had read for a total of 60 minutes over the week he would time his 60 minutes using a stopwatch and stop on the exact second the alarm went, even if he was in the middle of a sentence!:eek: :eek:

We tried all sorts of authors (youngest son went for Alex Rider spy stories in a big way) but nothing really motivated oldest son. We did find that all through primary school he (very stereotypically) much prefered reading non-fiction but even that was fairly erratic and never seemed to give him the great pleasure dh, dd and youngest ds got from books.

I felt a real failure, especially as I'm a teacher myself and pride myself on engendering a love of books in children I teach! :eek:

By the time ds was ten years old, I decided that, as he could read adequately for everything he wanted/needed to do, putting any more pressure on him was only likely to have the opposite effect to what I wanted so I gave up completely and resigned myself to the 'fact' that he would never want to read for pleasure. I consoled myself with the thought that we are all different and just because dh and I love reading doesn't mean ds has to love it too! He did have plenty of other interests and I thought that was that.

Fast forward a few years... Whilst in the 6th form at school, oldest ds suddenly developed an interest in reading history books for pleasure (History wasn't even one of his 'A' level subjects so don't understand why really)! Then we 'caught' him reading a few autobigraphies of people who intetested him and then he gradually started to read the odd fiction book.:j :j

He has just graduated from Nottingham university with a good honours degree (not English though... :rotfl: science) and is never without a book to read... in fact we often swap books! So, the moral of this story is... never lose hope... there's plenty of time for your ds to develop a love of books!

Nenen · 29 July 2007 at 1:01AM

Just another thought... a little boy I taught recently has really taken off with the 'Horrible Histories' and 'Horrible Science' series of books so maybe they'd be worth a try.

Karrie · 29 July 2007 at 8:57AM

Nenen wrote: »

Despite both me and dh being avid readers and our home being stuffed to the brim with books as a child our oldest son was never interested in reading (much to my dismay at the time). He was reasonably bright and learnt to read steadily but only ever did the bare minimum required by the school, to the point where when they asked parents to sign a diary each week to say that ds had read for a total of 60 minutes over the week he would time his 60 minutes using a stopwatch and stop on the exact second the alarm went, even if he was in the middle of a sentence!:eek: :eek:

We tried all sorts of authors (youngest son went for Alex Rider spy stories in a big way) but nothing really motivated oldest son. We did find that all through primary school he (very stereotypically) much prefered reading non-fiction but even that was fairly erratic and never seemed to give him the great pleasure dh, dd and youngest ds got from books.

I felt a real failure, especially as I'm a teacher myself and pride myself on engendering a love of books in children I teach! :eek:

By the time ds was ten years old, I decided that, as he could read adequately for everything he wanted/needed to do, putting any more pressure on him was only likely to have the opposite effect to what I wanted so I gave up completely and resigned myself to the 'fact' that he would never want to read for pleasure. I consoled myself with the thought that we are all different and just because dh and I love reading doesn't mean ds has to love it too! He did have plenty of other interests and I thought that was that.

Fast forward a few years... Whilst in the 6th form at school, oldest ds suddenly developed an interest in reading history books for pleasure (History wasn't even one of his 'A' level subjects so don't understand why really)! Then we 'caught' him reading a few autobigraphies of people who intetested him and then he gradually started to read the odd fiction book.:j :j

He has just graduated from Nottingham university with a good honours degree (not English though... :rotfl: science) and is never without a book to read... in fact we often swap books! So, the moral of this story is... never lose hope... there's plenty of time for your ds to develop a love of books!

Great story! He's done well. I just needed to know that I wasn't doing anything wrong. It appears it is a boy thing. :rolleyes:

Karrie · 29 July 2007 at 8:58AM

Thanks everyone

He does read Match magazine every week and will tell me which footballer is doing what etc etc. I guess I am worrying about nothing and will just let him go at his own pace.

ceewash · 29 July 2007 at 9:18AM

keep reading to him. This way he will still have an interest in stories.

Boys & Reading

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