My son has moderate autism and at almost 7, we haven't gotten very far. I have a feeling similar shenanigans are at play at his school. Every time I try, he wants to rip up the book 😭

My daughter is 4 and is trying to read as much as she can despite not really being able to on her own. Because of that, I try to help her out as much as possible, which isn't a ton because of time. Maybe 15 minutes a night, similar to you.

She has a better time with her other language, Japanese, as that's easier phonetically and she doesn't have to grapple with kanji yet. All letters are come with vowel sounds, with only one exception. I can't help her much on that though, and her mother (the native speaker) also barely has time.

As much as they want. I'm my experiencing nothing makes my kids hate doing something more than making them do it

My son is still too young to read on his own, but it never even occured to me that I would make him. He loves books, as do I. I would be very surprised if he would’t voluntarily read a lot, for fun, when he gets older. I think reading a lot to your kids when they’re young is key. Then reading is just going to come natural to them.

For a 6 year old, 10-20 mins a day is great.

Make sure to explore different books at the library with them and let them pick to keep them excited about reading.

If you let them have screen time then watching shows like the reading rainbow can be helpful.

There are also some video and board games that are kid friendly that might encourage them to read that you might want to explore as well.

I read with my 3 year old. Every day the story to go to sleep and often some 10 minutes here and there. He also sees me and my partner reading our own stuff. Remember that example is more important than rules. He would often trade playing with reading if I offer it

No kids here, but growing up by the time I was 6, we would sit down as a family and read a chapter or so of The Hobbit, The (more than complete) Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, or any number of other books, every evening for 30-45 minutes before bed. All children in the room that were capable of reading took a turn. This apparently helped our public speaking skills as well as our reading skills.

I have my four-year-old help me find products in the grocery store, and if he points to something based on how it looks I'll say "let's make sure, sound it out!" If we are out, I'll pretend I have trouble finding a sign or store and tell him to watch out for it for me. "We're looking for the library what letter does that start with? Ok, look for signs with a word starting with L!" I'm hoping to make him aware of the words all around us and get comfortable with the idea that he is perfectly capable of figuring it out, even if he takes a long time. We read before bed every night as well.

I think as far as making your kid read for x amount of time... probably the most important thing at that age is making sure they love reading and find it fun. I would be concerned that a boring book or reading when they have a lot of energy to burn might make it feel like a chore. So sitting down for 20 minutes close to bed time with a good story after a busy day while you read nearby and are available for help sounds lovely. Sitting down to read a reference book for 20 minutes when you just got home from school and you want to play and your parent is hovering over your shoulder and judging you, no thanks!! So I think the "how" is more important than the "how much".

I have 3 and all of them enjoy reading. We always had age appropriate reading materials available and at times (if they were tearing through books super fast) pushed them to read something a little beyond what they could do comfortably.

We picked out books they wanted, let them choose whatever they wanted at the library, we read to them at times in the evenings. I'm sporadically reading Wind in the Willows to my youngest. I also liked to do different voices for characters. And we let them see us reading too. So reading more than just right before bed.

We limit screen time a lot and they have to figure out what they are going to do. Many times that comes down to one of the many books available in the house. Also in the car, instead of bringing a toy we occasionally have them bring a book, or just bring a book in addition to the toy. We also have books out in the house, and we talk about things we are reading.

My wife also followed themes of the month and would take them on trips to the library to find books that fit the theme from a variety of authors. So for example during black history month we would find books by black men and women and many of those contained cultural experiences. We also did activities put on by the library to endear them to it as a fun place beyond books that they just like being at.

And not all books have to be reading books, stuff like iSpy or where's waldo is great too. It's still a book in hand and the more you can put one in their hand the better.

If a kid is struggling to read, we always encourage the reading eggs app. It's really excellent. And once they learn how to read well, they often take to the books naturally.

This can sound like a lot just reading it in a condensed post like this, but this is over a decade of experiences. Make reading a part of your life and encourage them in ways they enjoy to make it part of theirs and they will grow to love books and reading.

As I write this, we are getting ready to leave the house and have a long drive. My wife said "grab a book" and my eldest said, "Ooo that's easy." and picked up a copy of Allegiant that she will likely finish this weekend.

It comes with time and consistent effort. Don't rush, just take it easy and make it fun. If your kid is struggling to read, do ehat you can to help. Supervised reading is great, having them read to you and you to them. And the reading eggs app helped our kids when they were starting out too.

Encouraging reading is never an asshole parent move. Good luck and have fun!

We enjoy reading, and since they were little we did reading, including audio books, to get them into stories. Eventually they wanted more than I was willing to read aloud, and started reading for themselves. The library is a great source.

Bought em a kobo for their 10th birthday. No regrets.

(Well, I have had to tell them to stop reading when I went to bed several times, but that's a good problem to have)

~Proud parent of a bookwyrm

Edit: to answer your question, in 1st and second grade, the teachers wanted the kids to spend some time at home reading, 10-20 minutes was the goal, to practice essentially.

You are supposed to make them reading exciting and something they want to do insted of forcing them. Forcing someone into something is the recepie for them to stop doing it the moment you cannot force them.

Most parents will not even force their kids to read at all. I don't have kids but I think you're doing a great job!

Do you read? I like reading, my children saw that and have periods when they do. One never does.

There’s no blanket answer or a guaranteed outcome based on making them read. It helps, in life but there’s reading for information and work etc, then there’s reading for pleasure. I am not sure it can be ‘installed’ as such.

My 6 y.o. has 15min reading as homework from school every day. They read some in school too, so if you also do this in the weekend I think you are in the right ballpark.

He is one..... so not much.

I have my 10 year old read about 30 minutes a day, give or take depending on activities or whatever we’re doing after school.

I think you’re doing great! Reading is such an important foundation to learning anything, it really can’t hurt to encourage it and have a baseline expectation.

I remember being taught to read at home. And how to write at school, in those flashes back to kindergarten and 1st grade.

Maybe it’s always been that way? Sure there was vocabulary and reading comprehension but that built on an ability to read basic kid books I had at home before grade school.

Good job.