No reading...please!

One of Masons least favorite things to do is read. He struggles with comprehension and just reading in general so it makes it hard and boring for him. Needless to say, he has to read!! Its something he can't not do. So I went out and bought some cool Nate the Great detective books and threw a little incentive in with them. Mason LOVES comic books!! There is a store on 4th street that him and his dad go to all the time. I'm still not sold on the fact that he actually reads them, but he loves them...so...I told him that for every reading book he finished I would take him down to the store and I would buy him a comic book of his chioce. Great plan, right? Uh, no! I put no specifications on the deal. Good going Mom! :)

We started off the week good, as in good I mean getting our reading time in, but not good as in no fighting, which would be the reason for my title. So I offered him the chioce to read in his room while I was getting ready one morning. He did great and when I checked on him he really was reading because he told me what he just read. Sounds great right? When I proposed this plan I did not specify that he had to comprehend the story too. So when he came to me and told me he finished the book today I was very excited, that was until he couldn't tell me what the boys name was in the story.

So, on one hand its great that he finished the book and he felt so good about himself!! On the other hand, he couldn't tell me much about the book. After some prompting he did figure out the name (which by the way was Nate, see why I'm torn), but he couldn't remember much. So he then asked me if we could go down to get a comic book as I had promised. When I made the deal I did not tell him he had to report to me about the book, but the comprehension is very important. It doesn't do much good if he doesn't understand what he read. Thats not really reading, is it. I told him that I would like us to reread it together so that he can understand it before he gets the comic book. When I told him this he was crushed. It was like I just took his accomplishment and through it down the drain. I felt awful!

So here's my choices.

1) Buy him the comic book for finishing the book and talk about and set some new guidelines.
or
2) Make him reread the book with me in the next couple days, so that I know he comprehends it, and then go and buy him the comic book.

Thoughts or suggestions anyone??