Losing my patience with reading books yr1 son brings home

[Haystack]

ds has found the whole learning to read experience a real struggle, however, earlier this year he just got it and leapt up from stumbling on ORT level 2 to fluently reading level 5 in a couple of months.

Filled with confidence he started on level 6 and it has been nightmare, some books he can read with ease,others, some fiction, some non-fiction and poetry are way beyond his ability/focus levels and attempting to read them has knocked his hard won, shiny, new confidence to the point he is now refusing to read at all. Teacher's response is that those are the books available at the level the are no others and when he has read the last ones (only a few left apparently) he will be moved up a level!!!! Up until now I have been persevering with them despite it taking over an hour to grind through each one and he gets one every night. Now I am thinking of changing tack and choosing ones from the library/charity shop that he is able to read to build his confidence back up and just ignore the ones from school. Feeling so disheartened for him and at the end of my patience and worried that is not helping either.

Any advice appreciated or serene words of wisdom that this will pass.

[Dilligaf81]

Hi will the school let you go back a stage and read these along with the new books so he can build his confidence whilst still moving on ?

My DD (YR 2) has no trouble with reading but DS in reception hates reading with me but is better with DH.

We do read other fun books as well to try and build his interest.

[winnybella]

Just get them from library or shop. I think if you want to encourage him he should have a liitle library of his own at home, surely? Don't you buy him books?

[PoppetUK]

Hi ya, Doesn't sound like you or him are enjoying the experience so definitely something needs to change.

Does he have to read the whole book? I was doing something similar until I realised I could just write in the record book, Read to page x. You can then pick it up the next night. 1 hour reading is too long in my opinion.

Is this level the one where it goes up to about 24 pages??? If it is I do recall my daughter all of a sudden getting a bit stuck with it and it took a few weeks just to come out the the other side.

Not sure I'm helping much. Good luck.

Poppet

[Haystack]

Thank you for your replies.

That is a great idea Poppet it is the stage where there is a lot of words on c.28 pages. He is expected to do the whole book, but reading what he can manage before becoming too frustrated and leaving it at that sounds good idea for now.

Winnbella he does have acres of books at home, whole family are book mad! He loves looking at many different types of books and loves being read to. He just doesn't have any school type learning to read books (at his level) eg. Have earlier ORT books which are now too easy, and Horrid Henry early readers which are too advanced.

Actually asked if he could go back a stage as he had jumped some of the books but was told a flat no.

[2BoysTooLoud]

I had the same experience with poetry books which seemed a much harder level than other books on alleged same level. I read the hard poems in a 'poetry voice' so he could understand rhythm etc. On some we did a line each and if utterly ridiculous content we skipped poem.
My ds loves silly rhymes and poems now and reads them in a sing song way. [Just 6 in year 1].

[MrsBrollyhook]

I definitely agree that you should stop part way through if it's becoming a struggle. My DD likes reading usually, but now (yr1 too) the books are getting longer I can see the concentration going and we agree to put the book mark in and leave to the next day. (We get 2 books and a week to read them, which I think is plenty when the books are 25-30 pages.)

I'd also consider going to the library and chosing books that are the equivalent of a level down, but perhaps a different reading scheme so it isn't obvious to you DS. Also books with a different style might suit him better and give him confidence.

[FaultyGoods]

I think at that age, 15-20 minutes is long enough. If they don't finish the book by then, hold it over to the next day and just write in the book 'read to p.x'. Making it into a battlefield isn't helping your DS or you. The focus should be on enjoying and understanding the book, not battling through to the end. I've been where you are and have now changed my approach, it makes for a much less stressful experience all round.

[2BoysTooLoud]

Absolutely agree that you shouldn't make a child read whole book in one night.
Quite nice to save bit til tomorrow anyway if book good. Some times take a week now with longer books.

[mistlethrush]

Ds is just 6, yr 1. We don't get a book a night ([phew]) but he does choose library books and class library books as well as having reading books sent home. We also have home books.

I often find that he doesn't want to go much further wiht the reading book - we read some pages and write down the page no. but then he will choose to read something else which is not his reading book - and he's happpy to do that because its not his reading book so is not 'school work' We've got some Walker Books at home with proper chapters etc - fewer picutres - and we quite often read a page each to keep the story flowing a bit more quickly - he gets a real sense of satisfaction from that and is encouraged (and not so distracted by the pictures either!)

[toughdecisions]

I would say no to trying to get through one school text per night. Are they being replaced daily because they have been read not because you have to do one per day? Seems ridiculous amount for yr1. DS in yr2 gets 2 books per week as homework. If we have only managed one then only one gets changed & this is not a problem. We only read non-school books at bedtime.

[Insomnia11]

10 minutes a night is enough. Just get him to read ten minutes worth and write in the reading record book how he found it. If he finds the level too difficult you should write this in too, and ask for him to go back to the previous level.

As with being at work and so on we end up doing the reading at bedtime, sometimes DD1 is too tired. I write in the book "J was too tired to read tonight so mummy read the book to her".

She's on colour puffins/hippos now, last night she read the whole lot which took about half an hour, 5 chapters, but some nights she only wants to read a few pages or not at all. It should be fun not forced.

[betterwhenthesunshines]

DD also yr 1 and has taken ages with her reading. (It has driven me up the wall sometimes, but different thread....!) Stage 6 is a tricky one as the books do get much longer, but 1 hr and a whole book each night is counterproductive, and i would think the teacher should realise that.

Spend time looking first at the pictures all the way through the book. Then you read 3-4 pages, pointing as you go. Then it's his turn. If he gets stuck, help him sound out the word, or just say it so he can repeat it. Or take turns - you read a page, he reads a page. They are so repetitive that it will be the same words anyway. Let the teacher know you are doing a regular 20mins and it might stop being a battle ground.

I have been doing this after realising it was ME that was making reading time really stressy ( WHY can't you see that word is truck???!!! again!!!) . DD has taken a bit of jump forward and now happier and findng it easier. (Oh no, my fault again then!) Remember from son that it's often like that - they go up in steps and then level out, sometimes for a loooong time, rather a gradual improvement.

Would also recommend Reading Chest - the basic membership level is fine, but you can ask for easier books than he gets from school to help build his confidence and they are more varied than just doing ORT.

[Hulababy]

I work in a Y1 class. IMO there is no need for him to read the whole book every night, especially if he is fining it harder going.

This is what I would do if he was my child.

School books - 10 minutes max. Guide him with his phonics and his blending. If he is really struggling do it with him. You sound it out - a bit loke robot talk - can he hear the word? Lots of encouragement for having a go, even if he gets the word wrong. Then after 10 minutes stop. Record where up to in reading diary or whatever you have for school, with any comments. Then put it away til the next day.

Home books - buy or get library book at a level he is reading reasonably well. Let him chose. Chose a range of books including lots of non scheme books. And read them together. If they are longer books, share them - a page each. Let him look at them alone and with you. Lots of praise and encouragement and focus on reading for fun and pleasure.

[MuddlingMackem]

What I did with ds was mix up his library book and his own books with his school reading book, so that as long as he read something I could write up it didn't matter what it was. In fact one day I wrote up his reading of the price signs for the various fruit and veg in the local greengrocer! He's always been a keen reader and the most important thing to me was to keep it that way, so a bit of variety helped.

By ORT 6 it should be possible to manage fairly well with quite a range of picture books. My ds loved being able to read his picture books from his shelf on his own, and off his own bat would sometimes read them to his little sister. If he did that I would write that up as his reading for the day. And far from being huffy about it, his teachers have always been pleased by the variety. It also seems to be good for their confidence to know that they can pick up something other than their school book and read it just for fun.

[Haystack]

Thanks for all the great advice, I definitely feel it is time to try and bring in some fun to the experience. Will choose some easier books from other schemes at the library and do those alongside school books, and just set a limit as to how long we will read for each night.

[sevenseas]

Could you perhaps try taking it in turns, reading a page each - first you, then him? Especially if it is a story he is interested in/would like to know how it ends.

[blackeyedsusan]

don't push it. if the book is a little hard, write that in the reading diary, go to the library and get some books out or read through your own books to find suitable ones. keeping his confidence is important...

try the leapfrog books published by franklin watts... they have some in tescos

[Michaelahpurple]

Hulababy is spot on. There are a series of big jumps in the ORT in terms of length, and it simply isn't practical to get through them all in one night, certainly at first, and esp if hard going. I agree that 20 mins reading aloud is enough at any level - you don't want them exhausted, and still need time to read to them.