Bookworm in training

Jack has been reading quite a lot lately, which I think has contributed to his growing vocabulary.  Before anyone hands me the Mother of the Year award, I fully disclose that the only reason he does so is to earn minutes to play his video game.  He is obsessed with this Legos Star Wars video game that he got for his birthday.  I let him play one minute for every minute he reads, provided that he reads a minimum of 20 minutes.

It's a constant source of sorrow and consternation to me that a child of mine doesn't absolutely love reading.  I'm not sure why he doesn't like it.  He tells me that he doesn't think he's a good reader, but his teacher told me that he was assessed at a fourth grade reading level.  I think he just has unrealistic expectations about how well a child his age should be able to read at this point.  At any rate, I scour the library for books that I think he'll like.  These are primarily Star Wars books, of course.

He is bopping back and forth between the "I Can Read" series of Star Wars books and the movie story books of the various episodes.  The movie storybooks are pretty detailed descriptions of the events of each of the six movies, and Jack loves them.  In fact, he loves it so much that he's been reading them whenever he has a spare few minutes.  I posted on Facebook on Mother's Day: "My favorite moment this Mother's Day: when Jack couldn't tear himself away from his book even after his dad told him dessert was ready."

I've asked his teacher if he can read his books whenever he is finished with his classwork, and she agreed.  Otherwise, his only option when he completes his in-class assignments is to draw in these little journals.  I have so many journals of drawings of Star Wars, Star Wars Angry Birds, and Pokemon from the last several months.  Although I appreciate that he has the opportunity to draw and be creative, he's not really learning anything from drawing what ends up being variations of the same type of picture over and over again.  Even though the Star Wars books aren't super educational, I like that he has another option to pass his time and is able to practice his reading and hopefully develop a love for it that is not tied to incentives.