intrest in reading

As often as possible, when my daughter and/or my students lost interest in something or resisted it, I tried backing off for a while (sometimes not possible in public school, and of course impossible when physical helath and safety are concerned.)

The stewed prunes story: I was working as a camp counsellor when I was 16. I’ve always been quite fond of my food.(We’ll discuss the weight problem later, OK?) One day a bowl arrived at the breakfast table full of something brown floating in liquid. I took out a spoonful, said “Oh, prunes” and dished myself out a bunch, then passed it around. All but one or two of the kids at the table followed suit. Later the other counsellors were all moaning about how hard it was to force the kids to eat prunes and how they insisted that everybody sit at the table for an hour until they ate but some kids still resisted … My family being all fond of our food, I had never heard of the whole issue of forcing kids to eat prunes as a laxative, I just thought they were food so I ate them — and the kids followed.

Not that I’m perfect, and I’ve goofed on this a number of times; however raising a daughter with the character of a small mule reminded me often enough. When she fought me about naps at age 3 I let her stay up all day and you know what, she didn’t really need naps - sleeps 20% less than the books say. When she wanted to stay up late I let her, and you know what, she went to bed every night at 10 until university because she felt tired, and we never had a fight about it. When her hands were tremendously underdeveloped (this is the one who at age 17 bought shoes and hats in the men’s department and gloves in the children’s) I gave up trying to force her to write - at all - and just let her read The Lord of The Rings. I fought to long and quit too late, and it took her a while, like two years, to get off her stubborn. Try explaining to a teacher a kid who reads Tolkien and prints half an inch high, laboriously, without capitals … The writing has come, finally, although she still isn’t happy with it — OK, I didn’t master mine until my twenties either.

If your daughter is resisting reading, first try backing off completely, no reading demands for a while. Or at least only the minimal demands of school assignments. Then after a cool-down period, try talking about what’s missing, what is bothering her. Does she need help with something in particular? Is she frustrated and exhausted?

Will this work? Heaven only knows. And if it does work it may take years. But it has a better track record than drawing lines in the sand.

I know the feeling! What kinds of books has she read in the past? Maybe if you could find some books similar to those she’s enjoyed before, she’ll start enjoying reading again.

My daughter gets started on a series and wants to read the entire series. However, with Goosebumps books that did not happen. She read Goosebumps books for at least a year and then a few weeks ago she announced, “I’m not interested in Goosebumps anymore.” Since then she’s been reading The Littles books and also thoroughly enjoying the books she’s been reading for literature circle in her class. Her teacher is very excited about the change in her attitude toward reading. For the first time in a few years, she’s getting a “B” in reading! I care more about the fact that she’s enjoying reading than I care about the grade, however. I also believe that the raised grade is due to the fact that my daughter seems to be comprehending what she is reading at a deeper level.

There are lots of other series that girls generally enjoy like such as the Babysitter and Little Sister books. Some children like Boxcar Children and my younger daughter loves Magic Tree House books. We still have to coerce both girls to read because they’d rather watch t.v.

This is all assuming that your daughter is not having difficulty with decoding. That is another issue altogether.

Good luck!

MargoPatty wrote:
>
> my 11 year old has lost all intrest in reading she is an LD
> student and has been doing very well up till a couple of
> weeks ago. We have tryed everything with her she just
> refuses to do the work and has an I don’t care attitude.
> could this be partly because of her age or is there something
> else I should be worried about. any one else out there with
> this problem?

Hi Patty,

One other possibility you might consider. You say she was doing quite well and then there was an abrupt change. At that age kids can be pretty mean to each other. Teachers can also say some pretty stupid things to a kid in front of other kids, often unintentionally. Or a teacher who she may respect may have had a bad day and made a comment that the teacher’s already forgotten, but that hit your daughter like a ton of bricks.

Given the abrupt change, I would sit down with her and see if you can find out if something happened recently to turn her off. Avoidance is a natural reaction to an unpleasant experience.

Might not be anything along this line, but I’d sure try and find out…..Rod

Thanks for all the suggjestions I will try them. It is very possible that something did happen at school. thanks again