Is he being distracted from reading his chapter reading? Such as by the tv or other children talking, or maybe he has a problem trying to focus.
Maybe if you sit and read to him, and make it interesting for him, maybe he will take interest. Even another child reading outloud, sometimes that sparks interest in reading for themselves.

Ah, I suggest you read Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook, available at your local library. Excerpts on his web page: www.trelease-on-reading.com/

75 pages a month is fairly lite; around here they want 20 min/4 days/wk. which works out to be a chapter or two of magic tree house per day by the end of the year.

The secret of hooking a reader is to connect with his interests and make it fun. So....don't read on the drive home unless he wants to - it's his time to relax and reconnect and he needs it after a full day of school. He also needs some exercise after sitting around all afternoon (unless he lucked out and had a long active gym class). Reading time usually is more successful before bed, especially if someone else is reading alongside (good snuggle) or if there is a fun place to go to (tent, closet, cozy spot), or someone to read to (sibling, parent, stuffed animals).

Picking the correct book is also important. Aside from the level, it needs to be interesting to him. We find the local library has a bigger selection than our funding strapped school, so we get an armload each time. Good series suggestions for a kid on grade level: Nate the Great, Young Cam Jansen, Henry and Mudge. I highly recommend partner reading the first Andrew Lost book in J.C.Greenburg's series...start out with him reading Thudd's lines, then work up to alternating paragraphs.http://www.andrewlost.com/ At just 4 pages a night, you can easily get the early chapter book done in the first two weeks, leaving the rest of the month for nonfiction or fiction of his choice.

Next, you need some read-alouds. Read aloud while he's having breakfast and waiting for the bus (or use an audiobook if you drive him in). Roald Dahl is always good for this. My kids recommend George's Marvelous Medicine aside from the more popular ones.

Sounds like a lot of work, but the payoff is great!! And you'll be glad you made time to read for yourself.

My son use to strugle reading and hate to read. I realized that he was not reading the right books. He wanted to read books that he like and checked out from the school libray. These books had colorful pictures and big words, but much too hard for a second grader to pronounce the words. He hated to read after school. I had to recondition him to read books of his level. We started with easy and short chapter books. He finally began to enjoy reading to me and to himself.

I feel your pain, we really struggled with this with my Son for years.....he's now in the 6th grade and FINALLY he will read (well he has to) and doesn't fuss about it any longer, plus he's found some great books he really likes.
At that age I would sit with my son and take turns, he's read one page and I would read the other. We read after bath and when it was time to go to bed. Since I read one page and he read the other....we'd read more so that he got in how many pages he needed to read.
I know it seems like a lot of time to do EVERY night, but it really helped us to do it.
In my house we have a pretty strict routine on School Nights - and reading is one of them.
Now he has a reading lamp next to his bed and he reads in bed then falls asleep after - I don't have to monitor him any longer.
I found that reading at bedtime was much better than right after school, he does do his homework right after school - then he has free time until bedtime which is when we read.
I am sure there is required reading then maybe reading he can pick?
Hope that helps!

Brenshua,
You might want to visit our LeapFrog Parents group. Most of the discussions in that group are about how to inspire a love of reading. Take a look and see if there are any comments you find helpful.
community.greatschools.net/groups/44082

You might want to try compromising with your son about how his time is spent after school. It sounds like he needs to get in the habit of doing his homework first, then relaxing and watching TV. Or give him a half hour to relax and then hit the books. You can help him with the reading by taking turns reading pages or paragraphs out loud to each other, until he feels like he can do it on his own.

Good luck!! Let us know how things progress.

OK buckaroo...I don';t know where to start. I'm seriously exhausted! :)

No, I don't have children with LD but that doesn't mean I'm insensitive to children or parents who have special needs. I do have a child with severe allergies but when someone says he's got a stomach ache after eating ice cream, I don't automatically jump up and look for my Epi-pen! I tell him to go to the bathroom or that maybe ice cream was bad!
Look, I tried to find good statistics on childern with dylexia. You know how many scientific papers I found...one that said 5-10% in children. And no 15% general population includes adults as well not just children!
I generally don't tend to look at statistics provided by foundations because they are biased...they also need your donations!

Sometimes banana is really just a banana and when your child says that his ear is scratchy, a good answer is, "scratch it!!" It's late at night right now and I'm tired. I'll get back to you later. AllReader, if you are reading this, pls. forgive me for whatever I sparked in you. I know you had good intentions (as I have said before!) I just don't agree with the way most people see things! Good night! Cheerio

Update: Tonight we read 5 chapters of James and the Giant Peach (My copy from when I was a kid). I got him to read a couple of paragraphs out loud to me and my younger son. They enjoyed this because we just watched the movie on tv last week. He really got into the story and pointed out the differences between the book and the movie.

They also make junior novels like Spiderman, Shrek, etc.

Yes, my son does have a learning disability, but he has spiked in reading this summer and has a better attitude.

As far as the criminals go, I do believe that a high number of criminals do have some type of LD because and they did not get help with when they were younger. They either went to a horrible school or they had no role models and no parent involvement. It makes a difference. (Just my opinion) I went to school with a lot of now criminals. I remember how they acted in class and how the teachers could not teach because they dealt with misbehavior problems. That is why we have moved to a town that has a great school district (we still had to fight about ieps, but who doesn't).

Hang in there. Second graders are young and still immature. We are in fifth grade and still working on it :) Just keep reading to him if he will not read. He will eventually like it.. We read Captain Underpants for a long while, potty words and all :)

By the way, 15-20% of the GENERAL population = 15-20% of CHILDREN too. That's how percentages work.

And if this is based on numbers of those only DIAGNOSED then you know the numbers are higher.

eccentric,
One web page does not invalidate the statement made earlier about the number of folks that suffer from learning disabilities (the lion's share being dyslexics). I hope the International Dyslexia Associations holds more weight then WebMD.

www.interdys.org/FAQHowCommon.htm

In all the classrooms (regular schools) I've seen, about 20% of the kids inside seriously lag the rest of the class.... some diagnosed with SLDs, but many not.

I'm glad someone takes the time to offer a valid suggestion as many parents (I was one of them) that don't even think that the possibility exists. It was the folks on the old Schwabb site that saved my child making similar suggestons, and I'm so happy that the tradition carries on here.

And as to the correlation to the learing disabilities and prision, it is caused by the failure of the schools to properly educate these kids til eventually they drop out of school. Left without the ability to get a job without a HS diploma, a life of crime is an option. To deny this link is like denying that illegal drug leads to other crimes.

Based your "tired of reading" message, I am guessing none of your children have an LD. Imagine, though if someone submitted a post that looked like it described the symptoms of a food allergy. Would you just let it lie or would you suggest they they might look into it? I think we get sensitized by our own experiences. That's what so great about this forum is that we CAN share our experiences and get from it something that we might not have thought of alone.

To get 75 pages read in a month (assuming 20 days of actual reading.... cause WHO wants to read on a weekend if you don't have to!) would make him have to read 3.75 pages a day.

The best way to get a child to read is for them to read something they like. Second grade boys often enjoy books with lots of humor (sometimes gross humor that involves things like farting and playing practical jokes).

Another method is to have you read one page for every page he reads. Mine loves it when "her" page is the first in the chapter (so it starts midpage) or a page with MOSTLY a picture (if it's ONLY a picture, then it doesn't count). She then thinks she's got one one me.

Reading 75 pages of a book of an appropriate level in a month should not be a big problem. I am, however, surprised that a book report is asked in 2nd grade.

Many good suggestions have been offered to you in this thread:

1/ Check that the book is at an appropriate level for your child, neither too easy or too hard. The teacher should be able to tell you what level to choose.
2/ Find why your child does not read. My kids dislike reading because they have a learning disability. That exists. Other will dislike reading because they have trouble focusing on a book that long. Others think that reading is boring. Find why your child dislike reading and then find an good time for that, for example before going to bed.

Brenshua:
Have you talked to his teacher regarding your concerns? I would agree that reading a 75-page plus book in second grade and preparing a book report is a lot of work. My son didn't start doing book reports on chapter books until 4th grade (he's in 7th grade now). At that time, the general rule for reading was 20 minutes a day. You could start with that time limit, and see how many pages he can read during that time.

Also, when he's finished reading that day, have him explain what he read to you. (If you have time, you may want to read the book he's reading to familiarize yourself with the book so you can ask him questions.)

Sbozarth23: I didn't offer the information about the link between LDs and criminal behavior as an excuse. However, there is a definite link between LDs, lack of job skills and criminal behavior.

Having trouble reading or having a mild learning disorder may be a factor in criminal behavior but I cannot see it as a justifiable excuse. People still know right from wrong, unless they are mentally disabled.

To get back on topic, Brenshua, have you asked your son what he does not like about reading? Is it the specific book or reading in general. It will help people continue to respond with ideas if you respond to their questions sooner rather than later.

Eccentric: Actually, researchers working with the prison population find very high rates of dyslexia and other learning disorders among juvenile and adult offenders. There's a growing body of work in this area.

AllReading,
Well, I got you all emotional big time, didn't I? That wasn't the intent as I had already said in my post. However, I must say that this website is all about peoples' opinions and I shouldn;t have come down on your response with a ton of bricks! Having said that, you may have exaggerated a few facts about dyslexia...
(1) I know you'll correct me if I'm wrong (and there many who know this more than I do so pls. feel free to jump in) but it's NOT 15-20% of all students who have dyslexia, but 15-20% of general population who have dyslexia. Of that is 5% of children have LD with dylexia being the most common

www.webmd.com/parenting/helping-children-with-dyslexia

I had a hard time believing that it was so high!

2) You can't say (or imply!) that that 85% of incarcerated juveniles are the way they are due to their inability to read! Perhaps you meant to say something else!
(3) NO, you won't find very many kindergartners, 1st graders, and 2nd graders with huge motivation to please their teachers! Most children (with the exception of the few of course) couldn';t care less unless told! How many children 5-8 years old have you seen who will come home and say, "mum, I want to finish allmy homework first thing and then my reading before I eat my dinner because I like my teacher!!"
Again, children whose parents are involved do more. I'm not going to go on and on about how my post can change someones life. If I'm a diligent parent, I should know that there is something going on with my child! Most of us stay in denial and look for outlets. Honestly, I respect your opinion and your desire and good intent to help somebody, but I'm shocked as to how many people simply don't use common sense to address most common issues in out daily lives! Cheers.

I don't have any suggestions for you but am in sort of the same boat. My daughter is now in 4th grade, above average intelligence and reads over 1.5 above grade level, yets HATES to read books that bore her to tears. She will do any homework-all the extra she can, yet we have to fight for her to read. They do the AR program here where the students are required to attain their set goal points. She would rather read non-fiction books but very dificult to memorize enough facts to take a 10 quetion quiz. It doesn't seem difficult but it is.

Again, I wish I had some suggestions for you...but we argue and struggle everyday to get my daughter to read books she hates. Even trying different "kinds", ie, mysteries, diary, character books....nothing tricks her trigger.

It could be simply that your child is the same, bored with the books they are forced to read.

Good luck and I hope we both find something that "works" to get our children interested in reading.

I have some of the same issues with my 5th grader. They have to read 15 minutes every night. What I do is save the reading for right before bedtime. We come home from school, have a snack and a little free time and do homework. After we have gotten our day out of the way, I give my son his book to read. I go in the younger son's room and read to him, then it is lights out. So far, so good...

If the book is too hard, it may help to go down a level.

I am honored that Eccentric is such an assiduous reader of my posts.

It is because many new posters do NOT read earlier chains of posts that I feel compelled, for the sake of their children, to repeat information...even at the risk of boring others who have heard it before.

Believe it or not, I and other posters on this subject tire of writing the same thing. It would be more fun to read a book or turn on the TV; however, someone who was undoubtedly tired of repeating himself on the subject of LDs once shared the same information with me, and that information set me on the path that saved my child from academic and life failure. Having seen my child's tears, having learned the statistics (15-20% of ALL students have dyslexia, for example, so the percentage of already-struggling readers who have dyslexia is even higher), and having seen my child go from an inability to read and write his name to a 99th percentile learner, can I really do less for someone else's child?

And those who are informed about LDs know how: (a) very common, and (b) very underdiagnosed, and (c) frequently improperly and ineffectively addressed, LDs are.

Is a learning disability the only reason a child can struggle with reading? Of course not. There could be many reasons. He might need glasses or might be ill. She might be experiencing stress in her life due, for example, to a divorce in progress, family financial problems, family violence, sexual abuse, or some other reason.

But if a child of normal intelligence can't read, there is something wrong. Badly wrong. What child in kindergarten, 1st grade, or 2nd grade doesn't want to please teachers and succeed in school? It's therefore not a "motivation" issue, even though it is often erroneously, and cruelly, suggested to parents of such children that their child who is already working so much HARDER than other kids is "lazy" or "not motivated." I can't tell you how many parents who have accepted that suggestion or implication, and therefore treated their struggling child as if he or she were at fault for his/her own reading failure, later berated themselves when they found out that their child had a LD.

It is equally cruel for anyone to suggest to a caring parent who is investing countless hours working with a struggling child that he or she is inadequate. The moms who post on this board are not the parents who cavalierly miss parent-teacher conferences or ignore homework. Quite the contrary. They are the parents who are at their wits' end after having tried everything they know to try. They need expert help, not condemnation.

If a young child in K, 1st grade, or 2nd grade isn't reading, there's a problem. And band-aids won't fix what's wrong. When reading is such a key life skill, why would anyone GUESS what's wrong? A good evaluation is needed. More, and more reliable, information is always a good thing.

I have seen too many children struggle through the well-meaning but uninformed efforts of caring and dedicated parents and teachers, when every symptom the child displays screams, "I have a learning disability! Don't keep putting me through what you THINK works. Don't ask your neighbor, your friend, or even the nice person on the chat board what they found worked with one child or even a number of children. I don't have much time, and I'm in pain. Find the right expert, find out what my problem is, and do your research so what you do for me actually helps me. I'm your responsibility, and you owe me that much!"

I had no learning disabilities in my family. I was an excellent student who loved reading. As a young parent, however, I was ignorant about LDs, and assumed, wrongly, that they couldn't co-exist with high intelligence, and that they occurred in other people's families, not my high-achieving one. Had someone not cured me of my ignorance and arrogance on this subject, I would have unintentionally destroyed my bright son's life. I thank God every day for each of the many people who have educated me about dyslexia. In my view, I will always have a moral obligation to "pay it forward."

And, by the way, speaking of the nation we all love, how much greater would America's productivity be if every child with an LD were diagnosed early and provided effective intervention? How much safer would we be if the 85% (US Dept. of Education statistic) of incarcerated juveniles, many of whom are of average or better intelligence, but who have reading problems, had never broken the law by using drugs or by harming persons or property, and had instead enjoyed school success, graduated, and gotten a decent job?

You'll have to forgive me if I continue to repeat myself for the sake of the one parent and the one child who may hear the message for the first time.

I think that it's important to figure out why he doesn't want to do it. If it's too hard for hem, or if he just thinks it's boring, or if he's just trying to push your buttons.

I suggest sitting with him and having him read aloud. You might offer a deal where you read a sentence, then he reads the next. Or he reads a paragraph and you read the next. You can probably figure out from this what the problem is. He may be a bit behind in his skills, or just need some attention from Mom to help him through an unpleasant chore.

If reading is such a horrible thing for him to do, then I agree with some other posters, that some reward be tied to it. The more immediate the better. Late bed-time might be good, but only if he's reading in the late evening. Perhaps a cookie, or time on his game. Whatever motivates him.

Brenshua: A couple more comments.

Reading in a moving car can be difficult -- the words jump around. Some people can do it, others can't. He just sounds like he's a member of the latter group.

Did he get to pick the chapter book? Or was it assigned? Have you read this book? I made it a habit to read all of the chapter books my daughter was reading so that I could talk with her about them -- it kept up her interest. She's now 13 and I still do this. The advantage is that it gives me a leg up in editing her book reports as well.

Another issue is that does your son see you reading every day? If you don't read every day, he won't. He needs to see you model the behavior. In the short term, try sharing the book with him, you read a paragraph out loud to him and then he reads a paragraph out loud to you. Down the road, you can switch this to family reading time -- everyone picks up their daily reading for a set length of time.

You know I'm getting really tired of reading on this blog possibilities of having some kind of learning disability the moment a child does something different! If American children have as much dylexia, ADHD, or so many other LDs as we percieve to have, then God help American kids. Can we not just live with the possibility that there may be other reasons why a child is not interested??! How about be persistant as a parent? How about finding that strength in your child and work with that? How about sit down and do the work with him for a few days and see if that makes a difference?

I know that AllReading has all good intention and I apologise if it seems like I'm coming on too strong, but understand that most of these "standards" are just that...standards! What's the norm for your child?

Brenshua, read with your child everyday. Have him write down the words he finds hard to understand. Have him look up the meaning of those words. Find him books he really likes to read even if they are character books. The speech I made above is not to offend you at all but nobody said parenting was easy! Good luck!

Be alert to the possibility that your son's avoidance of reading may be because: (a) he has dyslexia, a reading learning disability; (b) he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which makes it difficult for children to focus on, and sustain attention for, low-interest tasks, or (c) both.

One in every 5 children, including my child, has some degree of dyslexia. You can be very smart and still have dyslexia. Intelligence and dyslexia are not related. The non-profit International Dyslexia Association, www.interdys.org, advises that 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade students may have a learning disability if several of the following are true:

The student has trouble:

Remembering simple sequences such as counting to 20, naming the days of the week, or reciting the alphabet.

Understanding rhyming words, such as knowing that fat rhymes with cat.

Recognizing words that begin with the same sound (for example, that bird, baby, and big all start with b).

Easily clapping hands to the rhythm of a song.

Easily remembering spoken directions.

Remembering names of places and people.

Understanding right-left, up-down, front-back.

Sitting still for a reasonable period of time.

Making and keeping friends easily.

Using specific words to name objects , instead using general words like “stuff” and “that thing."

Early identification (age 5 is ideal) and effective, science-based intervention are important to a good outcome for a child with a learning disability. The best evaluations are typically ones done not by the public schools but by a private-practice neuropsychologist (Ph.D.) or a private-practice "school psychologist" (a type of psychologist who limits his or her practice to educational issues) with a Ph.D. Ask your pediatrician to suggest names to you. Or e-mail the IDA at info@interdys.org, and it will try to locate an appropriate, knowledgeable professional in your area for you.

For more about ADHD, read kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/adhd.html (very parent-friendly); www.chadd.org; www.help4adhd.org; or Mayo Clinic at www.mayoclinic.com/health/adhd/DS00275.

If symptoms exist, please don't delay. A learning disability won't go away. Any educational problems will only get worse, and the schools may (bad idea, but they do it all the time) suggest grade retention if problems continue. If you have any index of suspicion, you owe it to your son to at least have a meaningful evaluation by an expert.

Brenshua,

To get to 75 pages, if he reads every day of the month it's not even three pages a day. Assuming you only do homework Mon-Thurs, then it's four pages a day. My daughter is in second grade, and the 10-20 minutes per day has been normal since kindergarten.

Like other posters have suggested, there's a lot of things the kids just don't want to do, and they have to, so my suggestion is to make it a choice he *wants* to make.

One thing I found with my son when he was younger, was he was most willing to do ANYTHING to stay up 10-15 minutes later. So if you tell him he can stay up an extra 15 minutes if he's reading, you might be able to get him to read rather than lights out.

If the extra 15 minutes at night turns into goof off time, then I'm totally with the other posters, there is no TV, no computer games, nothing until homework is done.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

Check out this web site and see if this type of reading on the computer would encourage his love of reading:

www.readionetwork.com/welcomeFromIndex.do

My daughter really liked it.

I agree with eccentric there is nothing else until that work is completed if he does not like that, that's ts for him.

A suggestion I do have is reading his book with him. That might make it more interesting for him and not only do you know he read and understood the material it is also a great way to spend time together.

I think that depends on how old your son is. My son is in 3rd grade and is supposed to read atleast 20 min (or longer) without any page limit. He usually reads a few chapters. My 1st grader reads more than my 3rd grader simply because I sit with him and he likes that! In my house, the rule is no TV, no Wii, and no play until the boys get all their homework done including any reading. If they won't read, they won't get to do things they like to do. It's NOT their choice...any school work is mandatory, everyhting else is a privilege!