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Reading amount for ages 10/11
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I was wondering how much time, on average, should a 10/11 yr old spend on assigned, independent reading per day? I would say her reading is on grade level or higher. Also, should she be giving narrations on multiple, independent, assigned reading books every day?
I feel I need to raise the expectations for her in this area but I do not want to overwhelm her with unreasonable requirements for her age and reading level. I need to be especially careful in this area with her because she has some anxiety issues. I have done this in the past, unknowingly, as she is my oldest and I often seem to not know what the appropriate expectations are. However, if I don’t set some sort of firm guideline or goal, she tends to do the bare minimum.
Good grief – you just described us to a tee! My dd9 is the culprit, again the oldest, and I seem to have to tiptoe around her feelings.
I have no suggestions, but I am eager to hear responses. Thanks for asking this!
Jenni
I am not an expert by any means, but this is what I do with my 9yo (turning 10 at Thanksgiving).
Daily she reads independently for 30 minutes from the following (15 min each, not back-to-back; separated by math or something of a more disciplined subject) ~
Monday: history literature; Heroes or English Fairy Tale
Tuesday: assigned literature; Elson or American Tall Tale
Wednesday: biography reading (no second reading … she does a written narration in place that day)
Thursday: nature reading; My Book House
Every afternoon she reads for an hour (our quiet hour), more or less, from a free reading list. She narrates everything to me aside from free reading.
She’s also my first-born of four and she fits your daughters’ descriptions exactly.
So, erin.kate, your 9dd reads from one book a day, each day being a different book, for a total of about 30 min.? So, she would also narrate for one independent, assigned reading per day? Just wanting to make sure I am completely understanding your description. Thank you for telling me what you do, it helps to know how others handle the same things at times.
I like the variety in the type of books that you assign and that is one of the areas that I am wanting to “up the ante” on, so to speak. Right now she mostly does history living books with a few historical biography type books here and there. I don’t think the variety of subjects are enough nor how much time spent reading assigned books in a day.
For my dd’s age right now (11) would you ladies say 45 min to 1 hour of total reading in a day (on assigned books) is right on, not enough or to much?
I would love some more thoughts on this. Are there any specific CM guidelines on reading amount per day relating to age of the child? I don’t remember reading anything specifically on this. Charlotte must have had her students follow some sort of guideline for time spent reading independently per day. Would it have followed the 20-30 mins per lesson for this age group? And do you think that would apply to total amount of independent reading in a day or amount of reading per book in a day? In which case, how many different books a day did she assign? No idea if that was clearly stated or not! ; ). I would LOVE some more thoughts on this, though. Or maybe someone has the answer and knows exactly what Charlotte herself assigned in ind. reading per book, per age?
Glad others would like to know as well! Sometimes it seems as though I get stumped on the things that should be “easy”!
-Miranda
I have her narrate from everything she reads (not always immediately after her reading, depending on what I’m doing with my other three children). She chooses one reading for a written narration a week, as well (well, she will starting in August … we’ve not yet done written narration … we’ll be easing into this soon).
The only thing she doesn’t narrate from is her free reading and our family read alouds.
I do try to vary her readings quite a lot during the week to keep her fresh and to stretch her attention … she must remember what she read this week for next week. If that makes sense.
I’m sure Charlotte had very effective methods to this, likely far more efficient than I do … I’ve only gleaned some of how I approach things through smatterings of her writings and from this forum as well as the AO forum. 🙂 Always learning …
We have never done time limits or expectations – we assign chapters. So my 10yo son is required to read a chapter from, say, George Washington’s World, and a chapter from his literature book each day. Usually he gets interested and moves on independently from there.
I second what erin.kate says about the seminars. I have absolutely never regretted purchasing those and I come back to the All Day Seminar again and again. It is amazing how we can take things that are so simple and convolute them…I love how SCM cuts out the ‘white noise’ in my kids’ education.
Also, regarding the original post…
We could scramble around to see what Charlotte recommended, but I really don’t think she was a proponent of ‘assigning’ a reading time. She wanted children to learn to love reading and form the habit of reading for pleasure and information.
When you do something habitually and for pleasure, you don’t really need to be reminded and scheduled, right? I generally have to set limits on how long my kids CAN read. Like, “Go outside and get some fresh air!! Stop all that reading!!”
Just a thought…
Just wanted to say, also, that I find our days flow best when I do assign times for reading–as in set the timer for xx minutes and read from Mabie’s Heroes Every Child Should Know (not as in at 9:15a start reading xyz). It is during those times that I can work one-on-one with another child on math or reading, for instance. It also ensures, for *my* family, that all of these beautiful books are being read deeply and well. I prefer for my kids to read some then let it marinate for a few days before revisiting that book. I think go with what speaks most to your family. Let Charlotte Mason be your guide, not your master, and remember that she was never a mother tending a house full of children of her own, 24 hours a day. 🙂
Alright, thanks. I will try to get my hands on the seminar soon. I live in Canada and it can take awhile for shipping, though.
I do agree that reading the assigned books for a year should be enjoyable and the kids should WANT to read them (that does not always happen, though, and sometimes you need to read a book that is not your favourite) and my dd USUALLY likes the books she is assigned but she is not at the point yet where I would need to tell her to stop reading them and do something else because she is enjoying it so much. It has happened with one book, though. I don’t think her reading endurance (for lack of a better word) is quite there yet. Hence, the reason for my asking what a reasonable amount of time for her age and reading ability would be. If I asked her to do to much (which is one of the things that I was unsure of…what would be a lot?) she would VERY easily get overwhelmed, not be able to concentrate and start panicking that she could not do this well enough…etc. she has come a long way through different anxiety problems and we are starting to see the light at the end but we still need to be careful with, well, everything it seems.
Thank you again for the input, always appreciated!
-Miranda
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