How long to do a reading lesson?

[HillbillyJohn]

My DD (age 6) likes Hooked on phonics. The "instructions" say to work on it for 15-30 minutes, which I like. I don't want to pound workbooks into her but she wants to do it all day. The problem I am seeing is that she gets frustrated with herself. I always say we can pick it up later and take a break but she is the kind of person who will persist until perfect. I want her to LOVE reading. Should I just let her keep working at it unitl she can't stand it anymore?

[Satori]

Our reading lessons are 13-20 minutes using Headsprout but if she gets really fustrated we stop and try again the next day. Usually its just a matter of her being tired and not because its to hard.

[Mirzam]

My reading lessons with DS (6) last a maximum of 15 minutes. We use a very traditional phonics program (Turbo Reader), no gimmicks, no songs, no workbooks, just reading. He loves it, but I keep it short so it doesn't become a chore.

[Stevie]

I let Delany choose how long to stay at it... some days she wants to do it for an hour straight; others she wante to stop halfway through a lesson. Either way is fine by me...

[Fieryfly]

I would let her lead the way. She will learn through experience what her frustration level is and that its okay to stop and continue again later. Also, you can control *what* she works on, and if a certain aspect of the lesson is frustrating her, you can switch gears to practice the same concepts in a different way.

We do HOP w/our 6yo and I do change things up a bit instead of doing the lessons word for word. Sometimes I know that a whole page of reading lines are only going to cause frustration, so we only do a few and then move on to reading the books, which she does just fine.

[eilonwy]

For some kids, it's more frustrating to put it away unmastered than it is to just plow through it. I'd let her decide. Reading lessons in our home have been anywhere from 2 minutes to 3 hours (until I have to get up to pee ); as long as your child is still interested in working on it, or feels a need, I'd let her keep going. If you see her getting too frustrated, you can always put it away for a few weeks and bring it out later; better still, let her get it out when she's ready to have another go.

[lilyka]

one of our children is a perfectionist and she refuses to stopp and gets angrier and angrier but refuses to stop but can't concentrate because she is so stressed. we only allow things to go on so long as she has a good pleasent attitude about it. otherwise we put it away.

[annethcz]

I do usually have a minimum amount of work to be done each day. Usually I just ask DS to do 1 page, and if he wants to do more, he's welcome to do so. But like lilyka, if DS has a bad attitude about his work or if he's becoming overly frustrated, I encourage him to put it away for the day.