dd1 has just started reception. she can't read, but she knows all the letter sounds and can sound out simple words.
When reading to her at night, if it was a simple book, sometimes she will read a few sentences. Usually of course she looks at the pictures and interprets the story that way (as presumably all children do, that is what the pictures are for) - this is what she does when she "reads" to herself alone (ignoring the words usually, not always)
From school, she is being sent books with no words at all and series of illustrated spreads that tell the story. We are supposed to be "reading" these in the evenings and I am supposed to make notes about it in a book.
She did it a couple of times (interpreted the pictures to tell the story) but last night point-blank refused. She said she "doesn't like guessing books with no words". Admittedly the one we had last night was pathetic as there was no actual story - a sequence of pictures showing various scenes of a person at a beach but no narrative arc. She didn't know this though when she refused - she just didn't want to do it because there were no words. I made a half-arsed attempt to persuade her but gave up because:
- she has a great relationship with books and I don't want to fuck with it
- it was late, she was tired, so was I
- honestly, I fail to see what purpose this serves. I know she can look at illustrated spreads and interpret them, that is surely what all children do with books before they can read. I also know she is trying to read and is interested in words. So what purpose is served by going backwards and providing her a book which can give her no even accidental brush with literacy, eg, even casually recognising "cat"?
I know her teacher has seen her sounding out simple words, she has written it down somewhere on something or other.
Please tell me what I am missing?
and should I be forcing her to go through this exercise?
