I need some ideas on how to get my 6 year old into reading and writing?

Question

He knows how to read and write. He liked it last year in school. We have worked with him over the summer and just here in the last few weeks he has started telling me that he can't and just plan will not do it. Always telling me I don't know, I can't, and he will even cry.

He got 100's on spelling tests but now I can't get him to spell the words for me.

I don't want to force him because thats what happened to me and I hated to learn new stuff and do school work.

Is there anything I can do that will make him like it more or even try harder then what he is? And please give me nice answers.

Answer 1

Try to relax about it. Kids go through phases with this kind of thing. Also, if he has been working at this all summer, he may simply be a little tired ... we all like a vacation from our work ... even from work we like and do well. If he is crying about this, that is a sure sign for you to take a step back and look at the situation from his perspective.

As others have suggested, read to him. Make it fun. Take the pressure off. He is just a little boy and if he can read and write now, he won't forget how in a week or two. Give him fun reasons to write, such as doing a grocery list of his favorite things, etc.

I expect he will be fine. Let him enjoy the rest of his summer without pressure.

Answer 2

Try video games. They don't even have to be educational ones. Just ones with alot of words.
For example:
Harvest Moon: This game is available for many different systems. It's a farming game where you take care of animals. How does that help reading you ask? Well it also requires you to interact with towns people. These towns people speak to you with text, no voices. When I was younger I learned many new words from this game, such as botanist.

Animal Crossing: Another very good game. Your character lives in a town full of animals that you must communicate with. You also have the option of writing letters to them and leaving notices on the bulletin board.

Brain Age: This game is exclusively for the DS. It's an amazing game that has many different challenges that are used to 'Train your brain.' It's got a few reading exercises as well as math ones. Some of the activities in this game might be a little too advanced for six year olds. but most of them are fairly simple.

Trust me, video games can be highly use full. Especially role-playing games with alot of text.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Your 6 year old is very bright and it's understandable what you feel. But a 6 year old is still a child. You are right, dont force him. Why not make it a game. When learning is fun, a child will participate readily. Why not write him a short story and ask him to write the next chapter?

Good Luck

Answer 4

Read to him.

Have fun reading to him and show him how much fun reading can be. Read to him in funny voices. Make the sound effects. Make it better than the movies. Make it come alive!

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. You need the horse to be thirsty.

Read him some:
Roald Dahl
Paul Jennings
Maurice Gleitzman
A A Milne
A B "Banjo" Paterson

I think if you get into it, you'll find this stuff quite fun too.

If you teach him that reading is a fun thing, he'll just want to do it because it's fun! He KNOWS how to, he just needs the motivation. I've always read to my kids before bed. They all love to read now. Of course they love TV and playstation more, but if they get bored of this and that ... they fall back on the old favourite, reading.

My youngest daughter now likes to write stories and she has won a couple of writing competitions locally.

- - - - - - - - 8< - - - - - - -

Okay - this one is an old favourite of my kids. The stuff in curly brackets is the additions.

Do funny accents or something for the voices - make them distinctive. And whenever you say "Dead Man's Creek" make it sound like the evillest voice you've ever heard - Darth Vader or something similar if you can't do evil (You are quasi-evil ... semi-evil ... you are the diet coke of evil)

MULGA BILL'S BICYCLE by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson

'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze;
He turned away the good old horse that served him many days;
He dressed himself in cycling clothes, resplendent to be seen;
He hurried off to town and bought a shining new machine;
{What machine is this? A shiny new machine is a BIKE!}
And as he wheeled it through the door, with air of lordly pride,
The grinning shop assistant said, "Excuse me, can you ride?"


"See here, young man," said Mulga Bill, "from Walgett to the sea,
From Conroy's Gap to Castlereagh, there's none can ride like me.
I'm good all round at everything as everybody knows,
Although I'm not the one to talk - I hate a man that blows.
But riding is my special gift, my chiefest, sole delight;
Just ask a wild duck can it swim {QUACK!}, a wildcat can it fight.
{HSSST! MEOW!}
There's nothing clothed in hair or hide, or built of flesh or steel,
There's nothing walks or jumps, or runs, on axle, hoof, or wheel,
But what I'll sit, while hide will hold and girths and straps are tight:
I'll ride this here two-wheeled concern right straight away at sight."


'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that sought his own abode,
{What's an "abode"? - An abode is a house!}
That perched above {GLOOMY VOICE} the Dead Man's Creek, beside the mountain road.
He turned the cycle down the hill and mounted for the fray,
But 'ere he'd gone a dozen yards it bolted clean away.
{Pretend as if you are on a bicycle bolting away out of control - steer wildly, pull a wheelie or two}
It left the track, and through the trees, just like a silver steak,
It whistled down the awful slope towards the {GLOOMY VOICE}Dead Man's Creek.


It shaved a stump by half an inch, it dodged a big white-box:
The very wallaroos in fright went scrambling up the rocks,
{Wallaroos are like kangaroos so do kangaroo paws and bounce a bit}
The wombats hiding in their caves dug deeper underground,
{Dig underground or under the blankets or something}
As Mulga Bill, as white as chalk, sat tight to every bound.
It struck a stone and gave a spring that cleared a fallen tree,
It raced beside a precipice as close as close could be;
And then as Mulga Bill let out one last despairing shriek
It made a leap of twenty feet
{Wheeeeeeee ... SPLASH!}
{GLOOMY VOICE} into the Dean Man's Creek.


'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that slowly swam ashore:
He said, "I've had some narrer shaves and lively rides before;
I've rode a wild bull round a yard to win a five-pound bet,
But this was the most awful ride that I've encountered yet.
I'll give that two-wheeled outlaw best; it's shaken all my nerve
To feel it whistle through the air and plunge and buck and swerve.
It's safe at rest in Dead Man's Creek, we'll leave it lying still;
A horse's back is good enough henceforth for Mulga Bill."

Answer 5

Maybe take your son to one of those learning bookstores for kids. Make it more like a game that your son enjoys.

Answer 6

Tell your pediatrician about this change. It could be something as simple as needing glasses. Or as troubling as Dyslexia. Maybe kids tease him for being so smart. Kids are cruel.

Answer 7

I myself, read alot and my kids see me reading and most times will go get a book that they either read themselves or I take a break from my reading and will read with them

Answer 8

you kind of have to get him to read books that he will like and you have to make learning fun