I've spent a lot of time building reading materials for homeschool parents, and the same three mistakes show up again and again once kids hit the 10-14 range:

1. Comprehension gets dropped once decoding is 'solved.'

By age 10, most kids can read the words on the page. Parents assume that means reading is handled. But decoding and comprehension are different skills — a kid can read every word in a paragraph and still not tell you what it meant. Comprehension needs its own deliberate practice, every week, not just 'read more books.'

2. Questions are too literal.

'What happened first?' only tests memory. Comprehension is inference, cause-and-effect, and predicting — 'Why do you think the character did that?' Kids need repeated practice answering why and what if, not just what.

3. No feedback loop.

A kid reads a chapter, closes the book, moves on. Without checking understanding in the moment (a quick worksheet, a 2-minute retell), gaps compound silently for months before a parent notices their kid is 'behind.'

If you're homeschooling a 10-14 year old and want a structured way to fix this, I put together a free 5-day reading comprehension jumpstart — happy to share it if useful. Curious what's worked for other homeschool parents here too.