What if Your Child Doesn't Like to Read?

Turning a reluctant reader into someone with a passion for literature can take some effort. Cindy asked a question about her son, looking for suggestions to turn his passion into a love for literature.

I have been receiving your HomeScholar emails and wanted to ask you a question. My youngest son, who is 15, is basically a non-reader. He doesn’t read for enjoyment, unless it’s about the latest scores for his favorite baseball/football teams. I know, I know, this is STILL reading – but I need some help coming up with finding books to interest him. He used to be interested in birds of prey and he really enjoyed My Side of the Mountain. Not anymore. He LOVES to sit and memorize sports statistics. He can tell you ANYTHING/EVERYTHING about any Super Bowl game ever played. What year the game was played, where they were played, the score of it, the MVP of the game, highest scorer, etc…………. He has even made up posters for each Super Bowl game ever played and has them lining the walls of his room. (weird right???) But that’s what he likes and he’s fascinated with it. He can “spit out” all kinds of sports info like one of those sportscasters on TV (Bob Costas). During the Olympics, he sat and watched every sport they showed every day. So, he will read (and memorize) stuff that he’s “into”. HOW can I “channel” this into finding something he will enjoy reading? Or should I just stick with sports “information” type books and be happy with that? I’m not sure how to take this interest and what to do with it. Thanks for “listening”

~ Cindy in New Jersey

Hi Cindy,

It sounds like he may have a future career in statistics, don't you think?. You would be amazed at how much money statisticians and actuaries can make... How is he doing with his math? Have you seen the Teaching
Company Statistics Made Clear.

Sometimes kids who love to listen to sports can be also be encouraged toward a career in Communications - the basis for sports announcing. IMy brother in law taught an English class in a public high school called "Sports Communication" where his students listened to play-by-play, and practiced it on their own.

You're right, It's OK to read technical things, and it's OK to put that on the reading list. Colleges want to know that kids have a broad exposure to a lot of different reading. If they love one thing and read a lot of it, that's fine. At the same time, it should probably have a lot of different kinds of reading as well.

To encourage him to read different genre, you can try to tie each genre to sports or statistics. Here are some examples:

Casey at the Bat for poetry. Look up the author and read more poetry by that author

Baseball Literature - This is taken from a public school class, I think, named Baseball Literature"

Olympics Literature - This is a college course by the same name. Make sure you read reviews on each of these books, by the way, to be certain they don't have offensive content. It seems like most of my searches end with college classes, and you have to be extra careful about using texts recommended by colleges.

Sports Literature reading list - You can tie some of these to movies as well, like The Natural, starring Robert Redford.

Sports in Literature (Paperback) - This is a high school Sports Literature Textbook on Amazon. Buy it used and it's very cheap. That would list a LOT of different literature genre with the concept of sports. I think this might be your best bet. Since I hate textbooks, if it were me I would adapt this book for my own use. I would buy the book, list the books contained, and then check out the individual books from the library.

I hope that helps!

Blessings,
Lee

Article Source: http://www.bizymoms.com/expert-advice

Lee Binz, The HomeScholar, teaches parents about homeschooling high school. Her boys earned full-tuition scholarships at their first choice university. Her Total Transcript Solution will help you create amazing homeschool transcripts that will impress the colleges! Learn how she did it on TheHomeScholar.com.

Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Homeschooling Articles Via RSS!