Working with a struggling reader!

I hated learning to read. I don't even really remember even having a basic understanding of reading until I was about 9-10 (2nd or 3rd grade).

Now no real shock my Liam doesn't want to learn to read. He is amazing and has phonics down to an art! But he still doesn't want to read.

After my test on Saturday he and I had an amazing discussion about reading, he asked me why I didn't pass my test. I tried to think of how to explain it to a 7 year old, and came up with. "You know how you don't like to read because it is hard. Well mommy thinks it is hard too."

Wow!!! Never thought that phrase would stop my son dead in his tracks.  I see his precious little eyes in my rear view mirror and the confusion on his face. We talked about comprehension and how learning to read is more then just the words on the page, it is a lot more.  He was floored. He said something like "you don't like to read either, and it's hard for you?"

Who would have thought that me failing a test was exactly what I needed to help him read.

I wish I could say after that he is all ready to push through and read, but nope it is still a battle.
However, with the help of friends family and the world of PINTEREST here are a few ideas that we are working on.

-When reading his simple school books, we would switch off pages and then I would ask questions of him at the end to make sure he is retaining topics discussed.

-Now we are reading chapter books so we stared with ch 1, he would read the first line and I read the page, then ch 2 moved on to another line, now we are to 1 paragraph for every 2 pages.

-Read 100 Easy books! -This one is from my paternal grandmother, as a mother to a extremely dyslexic child (who is my daddy and the smartest most amazing reader on the planet) and a school teacher for her entire career

-Never forgetting to go over comprehension

-Mix it up, read with mom, dad, and sometimes read to brother!

-NEVER NEVER NEVER GIVE UP!!! And motivate like crazy!

-As a parent know that it isn't easy for any of us! We are all in this amazing journey together

What have you done as a parent, friend, family member, teacher to help struggling readers?