Summer Reading Woes and Food for Thought

I am having a problem getting Linda to read this summer. Linda reads at a level way below her classmates. The problem is her teachers and I don't know if it is ability, or lack of want to that is the problem. Linda will not do anything she doesn't want to do and nothing will make her. The kids are doing the summer reading program at the local library. James looks forward to getting his books every week and then gets home and devours them in a few days. He is really into the Magic Treehouse chapter books which are at an appropriate level for a second grader. Linda picks books way below a second grade level and has been known to pick a book to read strictly because it had a glittery picture on the cover. I have started making her get at least one age appropriate book every time.

When the babies take their afternoon nap, the kids go to their reading chairs and can either read, or go take a nap themselves. That is the only choices I give most days. A couple of times a week I will let them watch a movie, but they must do some sort of quiet time every day. Linda fights reading so much and to get out of it she will act like she doesn't know the words. She will sound out even the simplest words like "go" just to be aggravating. The problem is that now we can't tell what she knows and what she doesn't. I have heard her on occasion read the box of a new toy and be able to read all of the words just fine. This is very frustrating trying to figure out where she is at.

Another problem we are having is that she has lost weight. She can't afford to lose weight, she is too little to begin with. Now her shoulder blades and collar bone are sticking out like crazy. She goes through phases where she just doesn't want to eat, unless it is candy or something like that. She won't even eat cereal some days. So I had decided I wouldn't force her to eat it and if she didn't want it she could just wait for the next meal, but now she has lost weight. So I guess I am going to have to make her eat again. And by make her I mean have her sit at the table until she is done which can take hours. I am also going to try to push milk instead of water and find other ways to sneak calories in. I also thought about trying Pediasure as well. Maybe since it tastes like a milkshake she will take it. Hmmm, food for thought I guess.