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This.

DD was another one whose reading level went from The Cat in the Hat to chapter books (not Harry Potter, but 4th grade level or so) in a few short months. When it happened, it happened fast. DS started earlier (he was reading at mid-4, I think? perhaps young 4--it's blurry) but he also took off fast. I don't even know what a typical trajectory is. It seems to me that a lot of kids I know took the sounding out words-just sitting there-got it--KABOOM route.

Some kids go from NOTHING to 90 miles an hour with their reading overnight. Mine were both I can't read today and then a week later could read, blasted through the easy stuff in a month, and were on to reading chapter books and never looked back.

I too have had to say to my younger son that certain books aren't appropriate for right now. Not never. Just second grade and 8 years old you won't appreciated them as much as in a few years. So he waits 6 months and asks again thinking I will have forgotten that in November I said not yet, closer to middle school for Hunger Games.

I offered the BOB books to my son when he was ready for them but they are incredibly boring little books for even 2 and 3 yr olds. My son refused to read those at all. They made him mad. I think it was insultingly simple and lacked a story line he could get in to.

Have you tried books that interest your son? My son loved the "We Both Read" books where child reads one page and adult reads the other. They were sillier and more interesting and great for early reading skills with several levels offered. He also loved the SPOT (you know the dog) set that was like BOB but more fun. The "Tub" book was his very favorite of those. From there he liked Clifford or Bob the Builder readers then somehow we ended up at Magic School Bus and Magic Tree House from there followed by Box Car Children and Hardy Boys. It changes quickly once they get it.

My DD10 could read at about gr 2ish(some 3) level when she was three, but as she got a little bit older she lost interest. In grade two she'd read middle school science texts, but that was all. Meanwhile her classmates were reading for fun - simpler stuff, like Junie B Jones, Judy Moody, that sort of thing, but hey - they were reading for fun. DD just wouldn't, unless it was some kind of science text book. It frustrated me a little.

Then in grade four she discovered fiction. Now she can't put books down, sometimes at the expense of sleep and socializing.

I know how you feel - trying to figure out why they aren't doing something when you know they can - but there's more to it than just ability. I don't really have any answers, other than to just let it be and wait until whatever holds them back has resolved itself.

Let's face it - early books can be dreadfully boring. I would keep reading all sorts of things - easy books, above level, street signs etc. he will take off when he is ready. DS was a perfectionist at that age and wouldn't read if he didn't know ALL the words on a page but was quite clearly reading along. He loved anything from Pamela Allen picture books to Enid Blyton... at 5 he now reads at a 13yo level. I definitely would remove the rewards from reading as it is more likely to turn him off reading. Reading is supposed to be enjoyable on its own

What Happily Mom said. The BOB books were an epic fail in our house, but the I can read series had some Lightning McQueen, Hot Wheels and superheroes books that my oldest found interesting.

Youngest is loving the more simple Dr. Seusses. Go Dog Go is a great one for a beginner. One Fish Two Fish is a little more advanced, but also wonderful.

I think this was part of my DD10's issue - and fiction is filled with names that sometimes don't follow typical phonics rules and are difficult to visualize. For example, she could read "duodenum" or "esophagus" and a) decode it and b) see a picture of it in her head, but a name like "Leah" would cause her to freeze in her tracks.

I still remember her opening books, glancing at a paragraph, and saying "I can't." I'd look, absolutely stunned. Then I'd scan through the text and see, several sentences in, a character's name.

(pfft - oh for Pete's sake)

I'd point to the name, tell her what it was, and then boom - suddenly she could fly through the rest of the text.

I was really bizarre (and a little creepy, lol) how she could spot names buried in text so quickly.

Anyway... that's all behind her, thank heavens.

DS8, meanwhile, could have written the book on visual-spatial. He could read words like "ambulance" and "intersection" when he was somewhat young-ish (6?), but words like "the" and "own" stymied him well into his 7/8th year. He's finally mastered the little non-phonetic and non-visual phoneme-like pieces.


Yes

Our previous school were very specific that when reading with a beginner reader that you start by giving a run through of the book, in particular to cover "this is a book about Lucy and her friend Sammy" while pointing out those names of course. This quick intro gives you a hence to clue them into the names and few other atypical words and helps give them enough context work out for themselves any simpler words that they might not already know.