Here's what I tried with my ds and DD.1) read a lot with them from the time they were babies so that they had a love for books 2) keep books at strategic places so that they see them and pick them up, more often than not,they end up spending time reading it. 3) As for.classics, I read the initial chapters with them, being a lover of books DD would get hooked carry on without me ; my son was a different kettle of fish ,he would read classics during his work time. The improvement in his comprehension and inference was great ,so I was a happy bunny.Though he still would read only Percy Jackson or diary of the wimpy kid in his free time, he managed to read Treasure island, hound of the Baskerville, lots of other Conan Doyle books, Lord of the flies, Qnimal farm, Dracula, the call of the wild ,The mill on the floss( parts of it), Just William,Swallows and Amazon's, lots of Michael Morpugo, secret garden etc etc etc during his work time in year 5 and year 6. Now in secondary, he excels in English at his grammar school and the teachers had lots of good words to say about his vocabulary and ' the depth in his thinking' during the parent consultation. He says now that it was a slog reading those books but he says it is worth it and says that he enjoyed them though his first choice would always be something light.
My point is, sometimes kids have to have an incentive to try something out of their area of interest. Like my son, other children too would probably consider widening their reading as long as it is included in their work. I did not do tons of comprehensions for their 11 plus, rather, I discussed the books that they read with them. I am glad that I invested time reading with my kids from a very early age and it doesn't matter if your first language is not English , as long as you read with your kids, they will be fine with the language. My dd, who is at home with a sore throat, is immersed in The Mayor of Caster bridge,as I type.
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