Reading, Reading and More Reading

My grandson, Drew, goes to a good school. He's worked very hard to catch up with his reading. He finished first grade reading at the level that is expected of him for entry into second grade. 
We read books for 15 minutes everyday and now that school is out I am trying my best to continue with our reading program.

That being said, I think Drew reads well for his age. However, he has not reached a point that he will pick up a book and read it for the pleasure of it. So, I try to encourage him to read every chance I get. 

I expose him to as many books as I can but I've also found that he is very receptive to reading signs, directions, notes that I leave for him and emails. He loves waking up in the morning to a note that I leave for him such as "Good Morning! I am out in the garden. There is a cup of chocolate milk in the refrigerator for you." We once did a scavenger hunt in the house with little notes everywhere and a dollar store prize at the end of the scavenger hunt. That was a lot of fun and I think I will do another one (or two) but have it outside this time. Maybe I can incorporate a little exercise with reading!

Of course, I still read to him and it's nice to find a book that he really enjoys. Sometimes the books are titles that have been around a long time (tried and true) and some of them are more "modern" such as Castle Under Attack (DK Lego Readers, Level 2) which is a Lego character book or Spider-Man: Spider-Man versus the Green Goblin (I Can Read Book 2) . Then there are the Poppleton series that he started reading during his reading class at school and really enjoys. Pictures are still really important to him and his interest in chapter books is still not where I would like it to be but we are working on it! I picked up a copy of The Ugly Truth (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 5) which he has been reading in bits. It has a lot of "boy humor" with some cartoon type stick figure illustrations in it that keeps him interested enough to read a few pages at a time. As I said though, he still does not pick up a book on his own so reading a chapter book is designated to "quiet reading time" (about 15 minutes in the evening or out on the deck in the afternoon). I just know that if I keep reading to him and keep insisting on reading times, he will come across a book that will get him hooked on reading. I got hooked on reading a loooong time ago when I found the Nancy Drew mystery series...wait, did I just date myself? 
Oh well, I would love a lot more "quiet reading" time. 

One of the best presents I ever I got was a Kindle Touch. I love this thing! I have borrowed books online from the library and read books that I can purchase online and download in seconds. I can have a library of books in one little device that I can carry with me wherever I go (this way I can take advantage of a few of those elusive moments of "quiet reading time" like waiting for Drew's swim class to finish or waiting at the doctor's office). It is no bigger than a paperback book and it even "bookmarks" my pages for me so when I touch the title I want to read, it "opens" to the page I left off. Some of the books also will allow you to turn on "text-to-speech"...very handy when I want to keep reading but I have dinner to prepare. 

 

There are a lot of children's books too and while the Kindle Touch is not in color, Drew never seems to mind when I read a book to him that I downloaded to the Kindle. There is the added bonus of being able to download some games to the Kindle also. I am hooked on "Thread Words" which is a free game if you have an activated Kindle account. I even downloaded BATTLESHIP for Drew and all of us have had a great time playing this game! 


Still, I have to say that I love opening a new book and paging through it. I believe I will always have shelves of books in my life. But technology can make life easier and sooo much fun at times. And since technology certainly appeals to kids today, it's a good thing when I find a device that gets him reading a little bit more!