Looking for Ideas to Motivate a Reluctant Reader

We are dealing with this with our 7 year-old daughter. I was taken by surprise by her reluctance to read because I have always loved to read. She loves to be read to, and comprehends books way above typical 2nd grade level; we have hundreds of books at home, regularly go to the library, she sees me read all the time, etc., etc. (She LOVES Math BTW and will ask to do math problems for fun. I'm beginning to doubt what I thought I knew about genetics :-)

Her teacher this year has been sending home monthly calendars with a reading minutes goal for the month. We record her reading minutes each day. This doesn't necessarily mean it's easier to convince her to read each day, but she does like to exceed the goal for the month (and she seems motivated to compete against her classmates).

I wish I had the answer for this, but I do believe it is important not to force reading. If she starts to hate to read because I push too hard, we'll have a bigger problem.

(I actually think I will try the payment method that another responder described, that could work for us ;-)

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Comic books! Both my sons learned how to read at 4, but the older one then took off with his reading, and the younger one moved verrrrry slowly. He was pretty reluctant to read, even though he could. He didn't start reading chapter books for fun until this year, at 9 1/2.

In the meantime, I had him read comic books, and he loved them. Still does, actually. You can get online with your library, search for them, request them, and just go pick them up when they arrive at your local branch.

There are new comic books that are also easy readers -- ask at Borders or Barnes & Noble -- and that may be a good place to start.

I also have a 1st grade son who was reluctant to read aloud at home. He was also struggling at school and they are working with him. Right before winter break I went to the library and got several 'Dick and Jane' early readers. I learned to read on them in the '70s so I figured he could too. Each story adds a couple new words and there is so much repetition that he learned very quickly. His confidence soared after just a few minutes. He took the books with him in the car, in restaurants, etc. He struggled with the sight words and now he knows most of them just from these books!
Good luck!

We had that problem with my oldest last year. He was/is very advanced but would also get easily discouraged when he saw words he didn't know and wouldn't even try. Luckily, he is very motivated by money, so we paid him a nickel for every book he could read to us. He earned $1.20 in the first week. Later, he didn't have to read TO us, but we would quiz him on the story line to make sure he actually read the whole thing. =)
Now that he has confidence, he only gets paid for reading books at his reading level- not the easy ones. He also gets a nickel for reading to his little brother. It's good practice for our 7-year-old and it makes the 3-year-old happy.

I've heard of a program where kids read out loud to dogs. If you have a family pet, you could have him read to your dog, cat, bird, etc... or even to his stuffed animals. They are all eager listeners and will not judge him. good luck.

What's he reading (or what are you reading to him)? Sometimes you have to get some really silly books (sometimes they even seem stupid or almost offensive) to appeal to boys. A popular (and surprisingly clever) choice for this age group is the "Captain Underpants" series. I agree with someone else's suggestion about comic books. My boys really like Calvin and Hobbes and one likes Garfield also. Peanuts has sometimes been popular. Has he read the Flat Stanley books? Does he like mysteries? Cam Jansen and Enclycopedia Brown are both fun. Scooby Doo? I would just keep trying different genres of books until you find something that appeals to him. I have one son who will read only sports books and comic books (other than what's assigned at school) and another one who likes mysteries, action adventure, science fiction and comic books. Maybe talk to a librarian or his teacher about what boys his age like these days. I have found that boys definitely are interested in different types of books than girls are. I was initially a little taken aback by some of the books my boys brought home from school (ex.--Walter the Farting Dog), but boys love that kind of stuff and now my boys are good readers. Happy reading!