I have six boy approved books today. Also, look at my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter for more tips.
Not wanting my boys to be among the boys-who-hate-to-read statistics, it was a challenge in the beginning to keep my boys’ enjoying reading.
I had a LOT to learn about how boys learn.
Sharing these 6 boy approved books which spark the love of learning, I’m hoping that one or more of them will flame that ember to read in your boys.
3 Boy Mom Reading Tips
Now that I have lifelong adult son readers, I know you’ll benefit from these three simple, easy, and tried and true reading tips.
1. Quit thinking like female teachers.
I know, it sounds crazy because homeschool stats reveal that a majority of the teaching is done by moms.
It’s hard to not think like a woman when you are one.
Where am I going with this?
The point is we add to our son’s dislike for reading when we try to use the books we loved as a girl to spark a boy’s interest.
My boys didn’t connect with a lot of the books I loved as a girl.
When I started homeschooling, I felt like I had a diversified reading diet growing up, but it didn’t include a lot of topics boys liked.
Sure, some of the books were the same ones I loved like Where the Red Fern Grows and The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
But I had to expand what I thought were appropriate topics to read about.
2. The Hero or Heroine Matters.
Although boys love to get lost in a world of fiction too, relating to the hero matters.
It’s hard for boys who are struggling to read to relate to a sentimental girl.
At the time my first son was struggling with a love of reading, unless the girl was mischievous or a tomboy, it wasn’t easy for my boys to understand the sentiment.
Too, a lot of boys, including mine, develop slower.
Their maturity rate is different than girls.
They don’t necessarily see themselves in a place through the eyes of the character, so you have to be sure they do.
Instead of trying to read between the lines, my boys needed to understand the why of a point directly.
Finding a solution to the problem was more paramount than understanding exactly how a character felt.
A story line with male role models no matter the age was a good starting point in helping my sons identify with people who are like them.
3. Boys LOVE Pictures.
Boys are not ready to move away from pictures as fast as girls may be.
Realizing that significant fact, I was so grateful for the Great Illustrated Classics series.
True, some of the pictures are not like the comic books that boys love, but pictures are still pictures to boys.
The size of the print mattered to my first reader too.
The bigger the better in the beginning.
Until he felt comfortable and was hooked on reading, we just kept on reading most of the books from the Great Illustrated Classics series.
I never worried whether the books were abridged or unabridged until I hooked my reader.
Out of all the books I used for my boys to hook them on reading they narrowed down their favorites to these 6 choices to nurture a love for reading.
- Where the Red Fern Grows
- The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Great Illustrated Classics)
- Invisible Man (Great Illustrated Classics)
- Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
- Shiloh
- Stone Fox
One or more of these books or series should give your boys a taste of boy approved books, but more important they’ll nurture a love of reading.
A book list doesn’t have to be long to work; the book list needs to be focused on what boys can relate to.
I’ll be sharing more book lists that have worked for us through the years.
Does your son have a favorite book or series that worked to fan that tiny ember to a raging love for reading?
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