Mornings during the school year are a little slice of chaos, wouldn’t you agree? Even though the school bell doesn’t ring until 9 a.m., there’s always a flurry of activity to get the kids out the door on time. This morning was no exception. I had to drag my younger son, the family champion of late rising, out of bed just 10 minutes before departure. This resulted in him inhaling an Eggo and frantically brushing his teeth.
And then there was the dreaded reading log, the one thing I truly can’t stand—no, I absolutely loathe—reading logs.
Now, neither of my kids is what you’d call a bookworm, but they do read. They pick up books in fits and starts after school while waiting for their friends to finish their homework, during car rides to church on Sundays, and in bed before they drift off to sleep.
The catch? We’re all terrible at keeping track of their reading time. Who honestly sits there with a timer while flipping through pages? Not us, that’s for sure!
What should be a fun and enriching experience quickly turns into a tedious chore filled with my nagging and their tears. Instead of diving into a captivating story, they’re anxiously watching the clock, waiting for their reading time to end. Instead of reading for joy, it becomes a school assignment to check off. And instead of enjoying those moments lost in a good book, I find myself reminding them to jot down their reading time or fretting over the fact that we forgot the log entirely.
I get it—teachers have good intentions with these homework assignments. They aim to cultivate solid reading habits by setting daily reading goals. However, more often than not, these good intentions backfire, transforming what should be a joyful learning experience into a burdensome task.
And it’s not just my household feeling this way. Research indicates that external controls—like reading logs—can dampen intrinsic interest in reading. A study mentioned in The Atlantic notes that logs may negatively impact students’ enthusiasm for reading.
That certainly rings true in my home.
“When reading is framed as something that must be forced,” the researchers pointed out, “students may conclude it’s not an activity they want to pursue in their free time.” Last year, we kept up with the monthly reading logs through sheer persistence—until my patience ran out halfway through the school year. Since my kids often read in bed, actual reading time would go unrecorded, and before we knew it, days would pass without us completing the chart.
In a bid to keep pace with expectations, we started guessing how many days they read and for how long. Let’s be real; this was hardly accurate.
Eventually, I felt like these efforts were promoting dishonesty. If I was allowing them to “fudge” details just to submit an assignment, what message was I sending? It felt wrong, so we ditched the whole idea.
Interestingly, neither of my sons’ teachers seemed to notice the missing reading logs, which makes me think they might not be so keen on them either. In fact, a growing number of educators are opting out of using reading logs altogether.
As for this school year? Time will tell. We’re just a week into the reading logs, and I’m trying to keep an optimistic outlook. Who knows, maybe they’ll actually motivate my kids to read more? Maybe this will be the spark they need.
Oh, who am I kidding?
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In summary, while reading logs are intended to promote good habits, they often transform the joy of reading into an obligation, resulting in frustration for both kids and parents.