What age to start chapter books?

omurray

I've seen a couple posts recently about chapter books and it has me wondering what age is typical for beginning these? 

whitedress11

if you are talking about the step chapters books, maybe step one could be read by K.

Ciarrai

I think it depends on your LO.  DD#1 start them right around age 4 (or maybe a little before).  DD#2 has always been around while we read them but is just now starting to pay attention to them and be able to follow the plot from day to day.  I think she's still very young for them, but she wants to do whatever DD#1 does...

ETA - We started with the Magic TreeHouse series and have pretty much only read those.  I'm thinking about getting the Tinkerbell ones since the girls are big into that lately and looking into other ones just for something different, but we haven't branched out yet.

AnnapolisLari

I don't plan to start them any time soon. He's not even 4.

Lisa102304

My DD will be 5 in January, and is in Pre-K at public school this year. We do not do chapter books, not even the beginner ones. We love regular old picture books. We read a few a night.

You can do reading comprehension activities (plot, characters, setting, etc) with anything. Ireading skills can be developed just fine by using picture books. I don't see a reason to push a chapter book yet. (FWIW, I am a 1st grade teacher.)

Carol*Brady

My girls really didn't like them until DD#1 was 5 (she is definitely the one w/ the short attention span & need to move constantly) & DD#2 was 3.  DD#3 will listen to them too & she's only 1.  DD#1 would NEVER have listened/sat there at 1 nor 3yrs old.

jnicks19

I have a real early reader (been reading chapter books herself since she turned 4), but my younger one at 3.5 doesn't follow the story and only wants to see the pics.  Definitely varies from kid to kid.

I want to read Charlotte's web with them (me reading not DD) but am waiting a little longer for #2 to have the patience to follow along.