When my son's reading skills began to develop, we enjoyed reading in tandem. Since he was very tentative at first, I'd read a few lines and then have him take a turn reading the next few. Pretty soon we were alternating pages.
Once he grew more confident, he preferred to read simple books to himself while I read those that were too difficult for him. By the time he started kindergarten, he was able to read simple stories to his class.
Dr Seuss was his favorite author then and he progressed smoothly through the different difficulty levels of those books. It's amazing what effect the things he read had on his little mind. For instance, after reading the Lorax he became a strident critic of nearby land developers who stripped the vegetation and trees off a nearby lot.
That spring, he discovered the Boxcar Children and Magic Tree House books. Those adventures captivated him and he gobbled them up. By this time he was reading effortlessly and we'd regularly spend time at the library. I'd research book lists, trying to get him challenging material appropriate to his level of maturity.
It wasn't always easy and I made some mistakes. Like the time he cried his heart out at the end of Charlotte's Web because the spider died - a bittersweet moment I'll never forget...Bitter because it broke my heart to see him so hurt and sweet because this little sprig of a boy was reading so well in kindergarten.
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