Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How to get a mathematical kid to read?!?

DS9 is very much an engineer in the making. He has already decided he wants to go to MIT, major in aeronautical engineering, and work for NASA. He builds and takes things apart incessantly. He does pre-algebra for fun. He has an above-average reading level, but the problem is that he HATES reading. His language arts grades are okay, but not great. Because his level is so high, I doubt there is a disability or anything, but he just hates it. His teacher asks that he read thirty minutes per day. He sits there staring at the book, but never turns a page. If I ask him what happened in the book (even the ones HE picks out because they looked interesting to him) he makes something up, and it's so convincing that I believe him unless it's a book that I read as a kid.
I'm not asking for him to be an avid reader, or even volunteer to read. All I'm asking is that he focus on the book for the thirty minutes that he agreed to do for his homework. Any suggestions on how to do this?

Try to find books that will engage him and his mathy and sciencey side.

How about George's Secret Key to the Universe (by Steven Hawking and his daughter combines a story and science stuff) and a sequel George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt?

How about biographies about famous mathematicians and scientists and NASA people? There is a book called Rocket Boys (or alternate title October Sky) that is terrific (a bit of mature stuff so you might want to preread it) but that just depends on how fussy you are about that.

Also, magazines count too...Odyssey, Ask,Kids Discover magazine are so much fun to get in the mail...all science (but then you might want to look for something even higher level).

Then my next suggestion is that you read aloud to him or with him. With my boys I might read the first chapter of a book they aren't sure about and then the next thing I know they are asking me if they can read ahead on their own. Another thing we do is alternate two pages. I read two pages and then my son will read two pages to me. And the third thing is audio books. Get the audio book AND a copy of the book and have him follow along.


The thing is you know he can read, you know he reads above level and his comprehension is fine. What you are working on is finding out how to help him enjoy reading and you need to use whatever strategies will work. I think that is important for boys to see my husband read for pleasure and have him read to them so that they know boys enjoy reading too.

Also check out www.GuysRead.com for ideas for reluctant readers.

And the last thing is my kids know that not every book is a "keeper". You run across duds. So we check out more books than we need and are not afraid to just abandon a book that is drudgery and look for a book that is a better fit (I will say that I have a hard time doing that personally, but I have made it okay with my boys). I understand school libraries rule of 2 books for each kid (to cut down on lost books and to have enough for all) but we always have a huge stack of additional possible books from the public library.

Or you could celebrate his math/engineering gifts and, as long as his reading level is sufficient to get him through the education he needs to get into MIT, you could leave the reading thing alone.

(This is what worked for both my math/science kids). My DD10 and DS8 have always been able to read (English) above grade level, but never wanted to, unless they were reading non-fiction, science/biology/math kind of stuff (for example, in grade 2, DD couldn't get enough of reading about the human digestive system, but do you think I could get her to read fiction? Not on your life).

I finally gave up.

Something happened to DD10 last year (when she was 9 ) and she fell in love with fiction. Now she reads voraciously - joined the reading challenge team at school - and has me scouring the shelves at the local library for more books.

There's been a sort of similar pattern with DS8. Last year we were doing advanced math, and getting him to read was like pulling teeth. This year he can't get enough of graphic novels.

I swear, I didn't do ANYTHING. (Other than give up, lol).

My theory is that their brains developed math/science strengths first, and the love of the written word developed a little later.

I wish I had a strategy or advice...

If he already has the mechanics of reading down and just doesn't enjoy reading yet I would have him read at a level that he will run across new vocabulary on, either an old-fashioned book or poetry, or even a dictionary, and ask him to read it out loud to you and correct him on the words he gets wrong. Yes, a nine year old. My friend does this with her nine year old (just books, not the dictionary) and she says, why are you always correcting me? And she answers, because otherwise you'll always be saying the word wrong. jmo
Also another neighbor who has grown children said her daughter became an avid reader in the seventh grade and she is a smart girl, in AP classes and everything.

Have you tried the Number Devil or Flatland?
I had the opposite problem with DD. She loves reading, but hated math, even though she is very good at it. We got her The Number Devil and read it together as a nighttime story and it got her so interested in mathematical concepts that she started to gain an interest in all things mathematical. Maybe it can work the other way too.

Can you find a local engineer to talk to him about what they do and what skills they need to be successful in engineering?

I agree with CNN re just leaving it alone for now - since you know he's capable of reading at grade level or above. Our math/sciency ds also didn't enjoy reading just for reading's sake when he was in early elementary. He *could* read (way ahead of grade level) and he did read - but it was primarily short bits and pieces randomly picked out of way-upper-level science books. His preferred way of obtaining knowledge was talking and watching videos. He absolutely refused to read fiction. OTOH, we read to him daily and he listened (while he was also making clay models or drawing or looking out the window... but he could answer any questions we asked him so we knew he was listening. When we read to him, we read fiction (classics mostly).

Eventually, half-way through 4th grade, he discovered his love of reading fiction - and it didn't come from us forcing it, from us encouraging it, or from us reading to him. What happened was his class had silent reading time every day, and his best friend loved to read fiction. When his best friend decided to read the first Olympians book (sorry can't remember the full name of the series at the moment!)... ds decided to also read the book at the same time... not because he had any interest in the book... but because he wanted to see if he could read the book faster than his friend. I'm not sure how long it took his friend, but ds was hooked on that book before he finished the first chapter, read the first volume in one day, and devoured the series so quickly you wouldn't believe that just the week before he'd flat out refused to read all fiction. He went on to enjoy a lot of the other series that are aimed at about the same age level (Warriors is one of his all-time favorites)... and then he ran out of books that he was interested in, but he'd gotten far enough into it to realize he really loved having a good book to read, so he was more willing to try books we suggested.

polarbear

Murderous Maths. Also the Number Devil and Penderwick the Mathematical Cat.

I bought our first Murdrous Maths book on Amazon for about $5 ($1 plus $4 shipping). They aren't published in this country, so you have to buy them used from a place like Amazon or you can get them new from horriblebooks.com.

My mathy ds also liked Horrible Histories and Horrible Science, some graphic novels, the Lemony Snicket books, Garfield comics, Calvin and Hobbs comics, parts of Reader's Digest, and Science Illustrated magazine.

Mine detests fiction, but we require some. He recently liked Gordon Korman, Zoobreak. I'm going to try to get him to read A Wrinkle in Time soon.

He loves the Guinness Book of World Records. He will read Muse Magazine or National Geographic. We keep a lot of stuff lying around the house in hopes that something will take, and sometimes something does. We make sure he sees us reading.

He reads a lot of Asterix comic books (which I won't count for school reading but strongly encourage in spare time). Otherwise he really likes reading about science, and we don't discourage it. And we limit screen time so that he'll get bored enough to read.

DeeDee

Yes, I agree with this. We bring home tons of books. DD starts some and doesn't finish. Oh well. On to the next book.

I would say, keep strewing his path with a million different kinds of thing. Graphic novels, high-level nonfiction, magazines. As polarbear points out, also don't underestimate the power of peer pressure. One thing that worked in our house even thugh it wasn't intentional--have a parent visibly enjoy a children's book you think he might like. DD was adamant that she wasn't going to read Harry POtter (it's scary, it's about a BOY, I'm tired of hearing about it)--and then my DH decided to read the series, which he never had. She saw how enthralled he was and couldn't resist. She's about to start book 5.

LOL, ultra, that works at our house too. Especially if it's the dad. He never gets through the first chapter without the kid wanting to pull the book from his hands. :-)

DeeDee