How much time do you spend reading etc with you Rec. DC?

[SparklyStream]

I'm finding it hard to decipher what's expected, vs what's healthy (ie not pushing too hard). How much time you you spend daily / weekly helping your DC with reading / writing etc?

[SparklyStream]

In case it's not clear, it's a Reception child I'm interested in. Thanks dear Mumsnetters!

[missmapp]

I read with my rec child every night, do writing at the weekend when older ds is doing homework ( I work full time so it is harder to do this in the week) and he plays reading eggs.

We do a fair bit of baking together, so do number talk then- thats enough for my ds, but every child is different

[mrz]

I always tell parents that 10 mins a day

[N0tinmylife]

We do reading every night at bed time, probably about 10 to 15 minutes depending on how keen he is feeling. I can't say we do a lot of writing with him at home. I try to encourage him to write where I can, but he is not as keen on writing, and I don't want to push it.

I am absolutely no expert, but I think in Reception it is best to be guided by the child, and do as much as they enjoy doing. We do a lot of maths in our house because that is what DS really seems to love.

[FiveHoursSleep]

We read either DS's reading book or another book to him most nights for 10 minutes or so. He does a lot of reading words himself during the day though.

[SilveryMoon]

I have 2 ds's. ds1 is year 1 and ds2 is nursery.
I have always done whatever they have been happy with.
Ds1, when he was in reception used to bring home a sheet of homework a night! You know like practicing writing letters from alphabet. I felt that this was far too much (especially as handwriting is a 7yo skill) so I'd ask ds1 if he wanted to do it. If he said "no" we wouldn't do it.
Reading, I have always read to them every night since they were a few weeks old. Ds1 went through a stage where he didn't want to read himself or tell the story through pictures, so I just gave some gentle encouragement and helped him through it.
Ds1 is now a whole year behind and I know his teacher thinks that's my fault for not pushing him last year.
His attitude has changed massively now and he wants to do extra work, so I bought a literacy and numeracy book that I photocopy and he happily completes worksheets and plays games etc with me about words and numbers.
I think that it's quite important for your ds to see you reading and writing. Model the behaviour you want to see, show him that you get joy from reading and writing.
Numeracy is also the favoured subject with both my ds's.

[sunnyday123]

Dd reads 10 mins about 5 times a week. Most schools i know recommend 3 times per week. My dds school builds up homework over the years which I'm glad about. Dd who is age 7 is keen on homework and I think its largely because its still fairly new. I'd try not to do too much as reception is busy enough for most kids!

[sunnyday123]

Dd1 is in reception dd2 in year 2 if that's unclear!

[Iamnotminterested]

Dd3 is in reception. DH reads to her before bed almost every night. We read at least one school book or library book every day (favouring library books at the mo as she's had a sudden leap in her ability and reading stamina and school need to re assess her), we practice her spellings in the week and either play on bitesize, play a board game, a couple of pages in a workbook, counting etc every day but i let her choose, sometimes she wants to do loads, other days she doesn't and that is fine.

[lljkk]

Older DC: just reading most nights, felt no other need.

DC4.
Term time:

• 1-3 worksheets every Friday, traces some letters, copies a word or phrase (I have the weirdo leftie 5yo boy who excels at writing and copies letters and writes things out just for fun).
  
• Reading: A little reading exercise most nights, from reading book or key words.
  
• Math (is terrible at math, doesn't get it at all): Few numberline exercises most nights and he has a small list of suggested math tasks given out every week, things like counting in 5s or writing out the numbers 1:20.
  
  Holiday: Daily number work for screen time along with 5 minutes or so of reading exercises at bedtime. Plus does own writing just because he likes it.

[LifeIsBetterInFlipFlops]

DS is now Yr2, but in reception we did 10 mins a day.

The other thing we did was to get him to read the first line of the bedtime reading book we were reading to him (Enid Blyton etc). It worked really well, some of the words were too advanced but because it was only the first line it didn't put him under pressure.

[Karoleann]

We probably do about 10 minutes a day DS2 gets bored if its much longer.
We don't always do a book, sometimes its just learning words, sometimes its doing a work book.

[hels71]

DD reads her book to me for about 15-20 mins every day. I read to her for about the same at bedtime. She reads on her own for a similar amount of time at weekends and school holidays and schooldays when there is time...

[Periwinkle007]

my daughter's school says 10-20 mins reading at least 3 times a week. We read TO the kids every night and generally they each do some reading every day. On the days DD1 (reception) has a reading book from school (3 times a week) she will read that which can be anything from 10 mins to 20 mins depending how interested she is (non fiction can prompt a lot of discussion, equally 32 pages of Biff chip and kipper can prompt a tantrum) and on the other days she will either read a chapter or 2 of a different book or a whole story book like Winnie the Witch or something.

she gets 8-10 spellings once a week.

I like to work on the principle that they should at least do a little bit every day so that they get used to it and build stamina a bit but also that way if they don't want to do it some days it rarely gets to the situation where they haven't read for days on end. DD1's school have a reward scheme for if they read at home at least 3 times a week.

I am lucky they both like reading and have been very keen but if they were less keen then I would probably try reading it to them and just getting them to read the odd line or read alongside me or something.

[Sommink]

DD is in reception, she reads her school book when she gets in from school. I then read a bedtime story to her and encourage her to join in if she wants to and recognises the words. She will read her school book again in the morning before school so she gets chance to repeat any words she struggled with the day before, however I realise I'm lucky as my dd enjoys reading.

With writing I ask her to write 2 things that she has done each day in a diary so she can look at it when she's older and see if she remembers all the things she did. We date this and she often draws a picture to go with it, I set it up in a similar format to what she does in her free writing time at school.

BUT neither of these things are set in stone...she enjoys it so we do it. When she's not in the mood or is busy doing other things she doesn't have to do either of these things.

With maths the school have asked me to start practising writing sums with her that involve numbers between 10-20 as an extension exercise so she can practise using +/-/= signs as they feel she is ready to have a go and it will help her transition to year !

[Periwinkle007]

Sommink do they not do 10-20 in the class now? my daughter seems to, not all the children but some of them do. I am not sure what format though, we do +-= at home if she wants to do any maths so I know she knows them but I am not sure if at school it is more than and less than or counting on and counting back or whatever words they use.

nice idea about the diary - may adopt that one

[Sommink]

Not in her class...a lot of the children are struggling with 1-10, they have only just started looking at 10-20, she has been since the start of the year. The school are trying to keep her going at her level so they often ask us to do a little at home to help her. Found out recently that other children in her class read with a teacher between 3-5 times a week. My dd is lucky if they read with her once a week.

She's loves the diary, and I thought it would be a lovely thing for her to look back on when she's older

[formicaqueen]

We do 15 or 20 mins a day as a routine. Enough time to do one book steadily and quickly glance at his numbers.

If my children are exhausted, ill, out or run down, we don't bother though.

We are given lots of additional homework but we don't touch it as DS isn't keen on writing practice. The most important thing is reading anyway.

[formicaqueen]

My child seems to do very little reading one to one in school. 10 mins once a week? So I do believe reading at home is important even if it's only 5 mins a day.

[Periwinkle007]

ah ok Sommink - my daughters class have only just started doing it, they spent the first term just on phonics, then started number work after Christmas but very basic and slowly. My daughter had been asking to do maths since starting school but as they weren't going to do it we just did it at home. Now they have quite a few of them working with up to 20 and some including my daughter have moved up to 30 now so they seem to be moving them on quite quickly now they have got them started. in her class I think they all read twice a week to either parent helper or TA, teacher does it more if child struggling I think otherwise my daughter hasn't read to the teacher since January. I don't know if they listen to the ones who are finding it more difficult daily, I expect they do but that makes sense in some ways although I wouldn't be very happy if at this age they didn't hear her read twice a week (they also get 1 other book change if need one)

[cocoplops]

My reception aged dc get 3 short stories read to him and then 5-10 min of reading from his reading books probably 5 times a week.

[Pozzled]

I do quite a lot it seems. At least one reading book a day, but will try to do 2 on weekends and holidays. Also some time on reading eggs at weekends, and I try to do a bit of phonics around once a week - I'm not very impressed with what they're doing in school, so trying to make up for it at home. I've also noticed that she's forming some letters incorrectly, so have been working on that occasionally.

She is also expected to write or draw something in her reading diary at least once a week.

I do try to make it fun for her though, only do 10-15 minutes at a time, and don't push it when she's obviously not up for it.

[Sommink]

The children on the lower book bands seem to get more reading with teachers/TA's, one of the mums said she felt guilty as she never reads to her dd but at least the school does it everyday....

dd's books are changed by the school everyday if shes read them and they are good at checking my comments. They may not like the latest though, she came out with a book on her new book band which was the exact same book she read last week on the other band, she is refusing to read it. [bugrin]

I suppose I don't mind the school trying to catch the others up if they feel dd can cope without the school reading, as long as they keep her interested in school, shes got loads of time to grow over the next few years

[Periwinkle007]

That does make sense Sommink if some of the children are struggling or have less support at home for whatever reason. As long as they are still moving her up levels when she needs to and she is keen then that is what is important. To be honest DD1 would happily do a lot less reading at school as she just wants to read her own books now not theirs.

We have had a couple of occasions where books have been put back in the wrong box and DD has brought home a random one, the only day they gave her one for the second time though she told me in the playground as we left school when she looked in her bag so I went back and asked them to change it. She went up a book band last week so is currently enthusiastic again but once she runs out of non fiction she will start to make a fuss I suspect. She doesn't like many ORT classic stories ones, just the magic key ones and by the time you get to level 8 there aren't an enormous number of other options. We did have one last term about dragons which she refused to read and we have had a few where I have had to write 'lay on her back with her legs in the air shouting the words out and complaining the book is boring and too easy' hmm well at least I am honest.

[Bakingtins]

10-15 mins a day of reading either the school banded book or something of his choice to a similar level. In addition we read to him at bedtime. 10 mins of Komodo maths on the computer before school. One piece of homework at the weekend for about half an hour which often involves writing or maths. He's Y1, did the same in reception except they didn't get the weekend homework and we did Reading Eggs instead of Komodo.