# we have accomplished book!!



## marvella (Oct 12, 2003)

thanks to all y'alls good advice my boy has read a whole book of his choosing.

angie, your advice was spot on about relenting on the grounding in exchange for more effort on his part. he was very relieved and told me to thank who ever suggested it. so, thanks!

we made a trip to the local library the same day. he beat me in the door. from my perspective the choices available were pretty inadequate. only 10 dvd's of books on tape. almost all movies still on vcr, which are getting more obsolete by the day. as i said before, our local library is always struggling for funds. it's only by the generosity of a few people we have one at all. but books are books after all. they don't have to be the newest release to be enjoyed.

by the time i figured all that out, he had already made his way to the childrens books and picked one out. it was part of a long series of stories about a cow dogs adventures. but it did have actual chapters and very few pictures.

we had a long car trip last week and he read the majority of it in the car. he still lacked about 10 pages this morning so he read those on the way to being dropped off at my son's house for the day. he told me the main character, minor characters, authors name and a short synopsis.

i did as others suggested and just let him find his own level as long as it was actual chapter books. he is trusting me to bring him home another from the series tomorrow.

other people suggested trying various things as each child was different. of all things it seems that riding in the car while reading works for him. must soothe his mind enough to let him concentrate. i'm wondering if i am going to have to ride him around while he reads. lol!!

he chose his reward of an ice cream cone or milk shake at the end of each book and a new video game if he reads a book every 2 weeks until school starts. 

thanks to all who responded. i wanted to get back here and give y'all an update. so far, so good!!

next challenge will be to keep him doing extra reading while in school. first day back will be august 5. i'll be back.


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

Hank the Cow Dog? We love Hank the Cow Dog! Hank is hilarious! Great book for boys! 

Congratulations! Sounds like a huge win for him (even if he doesn't know it yet)! 

Way to go!
Cindyc.


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## marvella (Oct 12, 2003)

cindy-e said:


> Hank the Cow Dog? We love Hank the Cow Dog! Hank is hilarious! Great book for boys!
> 
> Congratulations! Sounds like a huge win for him (even if he doesn't know it yet)!
> 
> ...


 yes, hank the cow dog.  he picked it because he says his best friend (who is an honor student, as are most of his friends) has read them. i got a kick out of it because it's farm-related so maybe i am rubbing off?

any idea about what grade level they are? it looked pretty simple but i am not sure what 7 grade reading ought to be like.


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Hank the Cow Dog! BRILLIANT stories! We love them here, too


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

marvella said:


> yes, hank the cow dog.  he picked it because he says his best friend (who is an honor student, as are most of his friends) has read them. i got a kick out of it because it's farm-related so maybe i am rubbing off?
> 
> any idea about what grade level they are? it looked pretty simple but i am not sure what 7 grade reading ought to be like.


Marvella,
According to the accellerated reader list, as used in public schools, it is at grade level 4.8 There is controversy over they way the accellerated reader program assigns grade level, however. They only list one of the Hank the Cow Dog books, too. If you want to see the list of books and grade level, it is here... http://www.bulloch.k12.ga.us/mles/AR quizzes by titles.pdf. Another place that lists good books by grade level is here...http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html . It focuses on older books, however, so Hank won't be in there. Here is a good blog post about the different ways to determine grade level for books. There are MANY. And each different way to measure the books grade level will give you a slightly different answer to the question... http://www.hoagiesgifted.com/reading_levels.htm.

That site, I believe, also directs you to tools that help you assess a child's reading ability. 

Well, he's reading. And he *likes* reading! That's really important. I will say that it is not uncommon for children to read books below their actual ability level when they read for pleasure. At our house, we usually have two books going at a time with each child. One that they enjoy, and one that pushes their reading level ahead and is a bit more difficult. 

Congratulations again! 

Cindyc.


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

I am so thrilled to hear things are working out so well! Kudos to you for sticking in there and be willing to try a new approach. Keep us posted on how he progresses.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Hot dawg! I'm so glad he's able to find reading fun and enjoyable. He'll build on that as things catch his interest.

Angie


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