well, thank you all for the ideas & thoughts!
I have not had him tested, because when I bribe him, he reads just fine! And during our 20 min. he reads like a river, sounds out hard words, ask what more challenging themes mean... just a normal little reader.
I am looking for creative ways to spark his ENTHUSIASM... if it can be done. I believe he could be doing much better given the desire to practice, there's just little motivation.
He began reading Charlie Bones and was very enthusiastic, but the book was just out of his reach. He was very committed to read these harder books for himself but it became clear they weren't a good fit.
After that, we moved down to the Dragon in the Sock Drawer. He loves the adventure, science fiction type books/stories - but is LAZY in reading them.
He'd rather be playing with his friends, engaged in sport, doing math or origami... drawing... pretty much anything other than actually reading the story. Although, will do so on long car trips (which are infrequent as we live in a small town).
I tried getting illustrated books at his lexile level to see if maybe a break from chapter books would do the trick... a little but not to what I had hoped.
I guess I'd like to see him just work to his potential but his lack of desire prevents this, I think.
For math, he'll lay in bed before he goes to sleep and jump up and request to be taught this, that & the other thing and then practices it until mastery (which isn't long).
How do I get anywhere close to this for reading?
