Ian is a good reader, but he doesn’t enjoy it. Does anyone else have this problem? He does fine with his schoolwork, but he rarely reads for pleasure…and that bothers me. Am I being silly? Should I just be happy that he has good reading skills, and will occasionally read a magazine or a non-fiction book? (That’s all the reading that many adults do, after all.) But I really want him to like stories! Is that selfish of me? Am I just wanting him to be like me?
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Is wanting a good thing for someone else selfishness? We love reading because we know how great it is. When someone else *doesn’t* know it, we wish that they did, so that they could get all the pleasure out of it that we do. I feel the same way with my little sisters, who hardly ever read much more than “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. From my book-loving perspective, they’re totally missing out. But if they don’t get it, I can’t make them. Maybe you can force a skill on a person, but forcing enjoyment just doesn’t happen.
Yeah, I really want him to be able to enjoy reading like I do. I want him to long for adventure in far-off places, and feel as though he’s stepping onto a new planet or into a different era. I sure hope he comes ’round! Right now, it’s my duty to make sure he reads whether he enjoys it or not, but I’m still deciding whether I should make him read stories, or just let him stick with non-fiction, since he tolerates that better.
I don’t know the “why” of it, but I’ve heard of a cure, sort of.
A mom I know had the same thing with her two sons. She would read to them an exciting book, to the most exciting part, then pretend to be too busy to finish. They always picked it up and finished themselves. Did the trick.
Do you think that would work with Ian?
Wow, that’s a realy great idea, Katherine! I’ll have to try it!
Here’s hope it works! 🙂