“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”
I hate that my son hates reading.
I grew up with a book in my hands. My parents are huge readers so reading came naturally to me. When I was younger, we would have to commute an hour and a half each way to school and work and reading was the easiest way to pass the time. A lot of people can’t read in the car, it makes them sick, but I’ve never had that problem. I love the library and book stores are like foreplay. I can waste hours in either.
My son? Not so much. He rolls his eyes when I try to take him to the library. We’ve spent too much time trolling the kids section of the book store, looking for a series he might like. He goes straight for the books with big pictures and few words. He has followed in his dad’s footsteps.
His dad used to mock me when he saw me with a book in my hands. He never “got it”, how I could sit for hours and just read. To give him some credit, he is a very smart man. He excels in science and math in ways I never could.
My son is following in his dads footsteps. Which makes me proud, don’t get me wrong. He is top of his class in math and he LOVES science. He struggles where I excel and that is really hard for me to deal with. I know he’s smart, he’s just not interested in reading, language arts, comprehension, none of it.
It’s starting to effect his grades. He rushes through the assignments just to get them over with. When he slows down, he aces his work but most of the time, he’s rushing and getting it wrong.
So we’re working on it at home and one of the biggest things I want him to take an interest in is reading.
Enter J.K. Rowling.
We are starting from the beginning. Every night before bed, we lay down and read. He reads a page and I read a page. At first he was resistant, rolling his eyes, heavy sighs. He had to see how long the book was and OMG that is waaaaaaay too long mom! I told him to suck it up and give it a try. The first night we read half the chapter. He attempted to divert attention away from the book, all the usual tactics. I was worried this would be an every night thing.
On the second night, he surprised me. The Dodger game was on and I was tempted to let the reading slide. (I KNOW, BAD MOM. But… my Dodgers were on! anyways.) I told him to start getting ready for bed and he asked if we would be reading. I asked him if he wanted to and he said yes.
I know, I was surprised too.
On the second day he read much better, fumbled over less words, and read a lot faster and with more feeling. I know the Harry Potter series is HUGE but its a jumping off point. I don’t care how long it takes to finish. My goal is to get him reading the books on his own and, if I’m lucky, loving them as much as I do.
This may be premature, but I think the reading situation might be looking up.
Quote by Emilie Buchwald.
I SO did not take a picture of her stuck. I’m not pure evil. But this is where it happened.
Did I mention my mom held the hamster in that tupperwear there? 
Not dead. She was actually in this position cleaning her little wound. Poor dear.
