There is one goal that I have as a homeschooling parent that rises above all others. Okay, I mean, as a PARENT, I have lots of other goals that I think are more important….that they become empathetic adults, that they know how to work hard, that they visit me on holidays….However, as a HOMESCHOOLING parent, there is only one goal that I really strive hard to achieve. Do I care if they remember Julius Caesar? Not really. Do they need to become experts of trigonometry? No. Is it crucial that they know about the Krebs cycle? Absolutely not. But do they enjoy reading? That’s the big one. If I’ve achieved the goal of turning my kids into people who read for pleasure, then I’ve succeeded.
If a kid enjoys reading, then I feel like they are pretty much guaranteed to get a better education than a child who attends school for 6 to 7 hours a day and does NOT enjoy reading. Kids forget 95% of the facts they learn anyway. (I just made that statistic up, but it feels right, doesn’t it?) But stories? Those last. Someone who reads confidently and comfortably can learn anything. As a bonus, reading about characters and storylines that authors have taken the time to carefully construct get lessons on life and character and morality. It is a rare day when I stop one of my children from reading a book for pleasure. Though, to be fair, this also true of when they are drawing, building, playing fantasy games, etc. Some parents never wake a sleeping baby. I never interrupt a happily playing child that is using their imagination.
Now, my first two children became readers fairly naturally. This may have a lot to do with the fact that I had a lot more time to practice with them when they were young. See this adorable reading log train I used with them. My third child was diagnosed with dyslexia in third grade. Getting him to be comfortable reading took a lot more work, but now he is going into 6th grade and reads ALL the time. He was literally bugging me just a few minutes about when the libray books I requested for him are coming in. (Answer, sometime between Tuesday and December. You never can tell.) My fourth child though…oh my poor fourth child. I went back to college to become a teacher when he was 6. I finished my degree, got my teachers license and am not working full time. The end result? He is going into fourth grade and was still reading at about a first grade level in January.
This needed to be fixed. In my opinion, the best way to teach a kid to read is to facilitate practice. I started by going back to basics. I learned from my dyslexic child the importance of decodable texts for building reading skills so I went back and redid my kindergarten and first grade suggestions on my Book Series for Kids page. Then I told him the plan. We were goign to make a reading chain, because who has time for a train in this busy world, and I was going to sit with him every day so we could read books (easy books) to add to his chain. His reward was that once he chain was as long as our hallway, he would get to pick a flavor of ice cream that we would have for dessert.
We used many of the books on the Kindergarten and First Grade series pages, though I’m realizing now that I forgot to add the ones in the picture above. Those are from Julia Donaldson’s Songbirds series (affiliate link) which is a bit expensive, but quite lovely. I will be saving them for any future potential grandkids.
What I was even more pleased by though was that when we finished our chain, my then third grade son did not want to stop. He kept going on his own. He made little rocketships and would add them as he read his easy readers by himself. At first, he was not adding the titles, but when I told him he should, he started doing it.
Even my 5th grade dyslexic child didn’t want to miss out on the action. He made his own reading chain too. At this point, he is obsessed with the Wings of Fire books and read one every 3 days or so, but for his reading challenge, he went back and read some books that were easy for him like Dragon Masters. It does not matter to me what they read, as long as they are reading.
Overall, I am very pleased with how this went. We are using different strategy over the summer, to ensure my youngest makes the most progress possible in this downtime. I’m hoping to share this with results at the end of summer. However, the reading chains were a very successful strategy during the busy school year time. It took some diligence when I was the one reading with him every day and helping him make his chain, but it was worth it. I did not even expect him to take over and keep doing it on his own. That was just a bonus. I would say he progressed about a full grade level during the 5 months of so that he was doing it, which still leaves him about a grade level behind his age and about a grade level from the really fun books.
All kids develop at their own pace, so I never want my kids to feel pressured. However, if we can use this summer to turn him into someone who really enjoys reading, I am all for it!
Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Practically free
Materials:
- paper (preferably colored construction paper for visual appeal)
- scissors or paper cutter
- tape
Instructions:
- Cut the paper into strips.
- Acquire some easy books. Check your local library or my book series suggestions.
- Everytime the child reads a book, either alone or with your help, write the title and add it to the chain!
That’s it! Happy reading!
Click here for more Starting to Read activities for kids.
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Michelle has a PhD in Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor's Degree from the California Institute of Technology. 
Hi Michelle, thanks for this post. I am exactly in your boots some time ago. No dyslexia here for my youngest, just lack of love or interest to read. Even audiobooks are boring to her, possibly some story podcasts she agrees to listen to. What do you think was a secret to success? motivational track record keeping system? Small prizes along the way? Consistency? Do you put a timer or amount of pages to be read? Do you o with readers that are just below the reading level? I will take all the tips there as I am desperate. With older kids dynamics I don’t end up doing a lot read aloud but we all lead by example however that doesn’t seem to make a dent!
Hi Alexandra! I feel your pain! Especially with older kids, life is so busy! I am fortunate in that ALL of my kids love listening to podcasts and audiobooks in the car. If your kiddo struggles with listening, maybe try something shorter and fast-paced to hold their attention. My kids really like the Greeking Out and Grim, Grimmer, Grimmest podcasts. If you can get her to like podcasts or audiobooks, then she will at least be able to appreciate the story form, which I think helps in the long run with motivating them to want to learn to read. When it comes to books, I definitely start with readers that are easy-ish for them even if that’s grade levels below their age. I don’t want them to get discouraged and would rather them practice just slightly above their comfort level when I’m there to help and at or below their comfort level when reading alone. We’ve been doing “family reading time” about 4 nights per week this summer. Everyone grabs a book and I set a timer for 15 minutes right before bed. Sometimes we even stay up late to squeeze it in. It seems like that’s really helping, because I can tell his independent reading level has improved by more than a grade level in the past month. Another thing I did this summer alongside family reading was “incentives” (aka bribery). I knew I needed help with him due to how busy we are, so I went to the 99 cent store when summer started and bought like $30 worth of prizes, a mix of toys and snacks they wouldn’t normally get to eat. I also put in coupons for 10 minutes of video games that they can save up. I put it all in a cheap basket and made a sticker chart for EACH of my older kids. They are called the Read-With- Chart. Each time an older kid lets him read to them 3 times (a book, a chapter, or 10 minutes) then they both get to pick a prize out of the bin. We started that a little over a month ago and they’ve basically stopped using it at this point, but I’m looking at their charts and I can see that all 3 of my older kids read with him between 18 and 24 times this summer, which isn’t bad! All that practice that makes a big difference. I know it’s hard, because it’s so painful to listen when they can’t read well. I usually do it with my kiddo in the evenings and I have a hard time staying awake, LOL. I think at least for this kid, outsourcing his practice time has really helped. Now that I’m thinking about it, I might spice up the bin to see if we can get another burst of reading energy before summer ends! Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for the suggestions. Yes grim grimmer I already know by heart, listened several times each by now! She also likes circle around which we also listened on repeat. But that’s pretty much where it ends. Her choices for books are pinkalicious which is very little value when it comes to reading but maybe I stick to it for now and read something else myself. She doesn’t mind me reading something to her but when I ask her to read something this is a torture for both of us. But I will try your suggestion and make this a priority as it is very important to me as well!
My kids like Circle Round too! We haven’t listened in a while, because we’ve mostly moved on to full audiobooks in the car, and always do Grim or Greeking Out if we have a friend in the car, but the Circle Round stories are very sweet. Honestly, I don’t care at all WHAT my kids read. My 11 year old right now is obsessed with the Wings of Fire series. Before that, it was Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I know these are not high quality literature by any stretch of the imagination, but that doesn’t matter to me. Mainly, I just want them to view themselves as “readers.” With all the practice they get through these books, if they ever want to attempt somethign more challenging, I’m hoping they’ll have a solid foundation of decipheing words. I know what you mean by torture though. My only suggestion is to drop the reading level a bit so it’s not frustrating for her and grab some coffee for you! 😂 Good luck!