Tween Halloween Reading List

Now that I have a Tween on my hands, 

I thought I would update our reading lists, first one being Halloween. 

There are a few yearly favourites but a few new ones this year.

For Reference/Non Fiction reading, we love and I recommend:

• Witches and Wizards by Paul Dowswell.

• Horrible Histories: Witches, by Terry Deary 

• The Wizards Handbook by Dr Robert Curran

For Fiction and Fun Reading we have used these this year:

• Late For Halloween by Camilla Fegan

• The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

• The 'You Choose...' series titles:  

         Night of the Creepy Carnival 

         The Haunting of Spook House 

         Mayhem at Magic School 

         (these are all 'Choose you own adventure' style books) 

Favourites we re read include:

The Familiars Series 

The Harry Potter Series

So that's our little update. It's often tricky finding books on Halloween that aren't picture books aimed at the younger kids and aren't too scary (and are aimed at older teens and adults) so hope this might have given you a few ideas if you are after something for that in between age range. 

For previous blog posts on Halloween Reading Lists, just click on this link: 

10 Halloween Books to Read

Happy Halloween and a Blessed Samhain to you all!

Reading Rewards

Over the Holidays I had some shopping rewards points that weren't being used.  I could just let them sit there and accrue to one day be able to redeem for an appliance of some sort that I'd hardly use and take up room in a cupboard - or I could redeem them now for some extra reading material for my son. 

I was able to redeem for some beautiful travel books and an atlas as well as a magazine subscription to a kids gaming magazine.

The travel books he liked and received a month ago and we will use them in our studies, but the most rewarding (pardon the pun LOL) has been the magazine subscription.  Today the mailman delivered this months issue and my son has sat for the last two hours reading it from cover to cover.  While the contents is not exactly educational, the fact he is reading is a great thing.  

I have a child who was never a good reader and that had a big domino effect in the area of spelling and writing.  He hated them because it was all too hard.  In the last year, he has gained a love of reading and become really good at it.  It has in turn meant he is able to spell more words (and attempt to spell words!) and has less anxiety over writing. The more I get him to read, the better his overall English skills become.  So I try to fit reading into as many aspects of our day to day routine, often by stealth.  I find the key is to find things that are essential to the days activities OR to peak interest, or both if you can manage it! 

So my 10 year old, who loves gaming, cartoons, comics, lego, superheros and all things geek, is very excited about getting his K-Zone magazine today :)  When I told him he will get one each month this year he was very impressed.  I think there was even a happy dance or two LOL. 

One added bonus to this monthly reading reward, is that there is a jokes page.  My son loves jokes and puns.  He has Aspergers so can often find them tricky and sometimes misses the meaning, so practicing with jokes is good.  Luckily for me, the jokes in this magazine are easy to understand and actually very funny for a set of kids jokes.  

So from now on, when I collect my 'rewards points' from buying our weekly groceries, I am going to save them up and redeem them for more reading materials. Given that we are on a very tight, very limited budget and dealing with a child who has aversions to library materials (his ASD/OCD issues mean he hates the germ factor he associated with library books), this is a good way to add to our library without spending more money. 

The Magic Age For Us Was 10.

When you have a child who struggles to read, who has learning disorders, who is behind all his peers .... well you do what everyone tells you to do.

You try every 'learn to read' method there is.

You push reading at every opportunity.

You encourage.

You praise.

You live and breathe phonics. 

and you don't get very far.

You end up with a child who HATES reading and to be very honest, you end up hating it yourself.

At 7 years old, when we first started homeschooling and I realised how far behind my son was and how bad his reading skills were, I was adamant that my son would learn with my help. 

At 8 years old we were not much further along in our progress.

At 9 I think he was worse as he'd developed such a hate for reading.

I honestly thought we would never get there.  I remember a few mothers (the minority) had said just to relax and leave it. That at around age 10, particularly for boys, something clicks and they will start to read on their own.  I remember reading their comments and thinking no, I can't wait, what if he gets to high school age and still can't read because I waited.  I remember thinking I knew best as my son had learning disorders and surely if that was dealt with then reading would flow.  It didn't.

I should have waited.

I ignored the best piece of advice given to me.  

The one I am going to give now to all those mothers out there who are pushing and rushing to get their kids to read. 

Just wait.

Wait till they are ready.  It does happen!  

Age 10 this year for my boy.  He matured.  He mellowed a little and something clicked. He actually had an interest in a series and wanted to learn to read it.  And wow did he pick it up fast and get into reading in a big way!  In the first 5 months he read 10 chapter books.  That for us was HUGE.  Then he had been given a series of 60 books and decided to read them (or I was giving them away).  Between Mid-July and early November he read ALL 60 BOOKS!  All chapter books with 10 chapters each.  I am still blown away.  In just this past week he has read 6 large novels.  

It happened!  When he was ready.

I look back and think OMG the stress I put on myself and on my poor boy for all those years when we could have been having fun with our school work.  So what if I needed to read every question to him.  I was sitting right next to him anyway.  No teacher is sitting there to see.  No peers are there to notice.  Why was I so pressured into keeping up with others.  I regret not listening to those mothers.  

In the last month, I have seen other mothers of children aged 10-12 who have all of a sudden started reading.  It was so exciting to read of their interest and success.  I realised that just because some of our children take longer to start reading, doesn't mean they will forever be behind. 

So to the mothers of children who are young, who hate reading, who struggle with reading and who you think will never get there ..... chill out.  Stop pushing the reading issue, stop making life all about reading and putting pressure on yourself or your child.  Just step back, let go of the control and make alternative plans (and supports) with your child's learning path until they reach the point where it all just clicks one day.   

Most of you won't, you will do what I did, and then look back and think aaahhhhh yeah! 

I look forward to reading your blog posts when it happens LOL.

 I wonder how many of you find that 10 is the magic age for your child too.