To rebel against reading diary

[Stirling84]

I think I am being unreasonable - but I've cracked.

DS is meant to record pages read. He reads every night but rarely logs more than one session a week. So we have about ten pages of nearly empty grids and 'sad face' comments from teacher.

sigh

[PurpleDaisies]

The obvious question is why isn't he reading? Is it a lack of interesting material? Is he struggling?

[PurpleDaisies]

Oh sorry I've misread your post. I hang my head in shame.

[lalalonglegs]

He's reading but not logging it? Just log it or ignore sad faces. If he is reading a good amount, the teacher will soon be aware that he is keeping up.

[NickNacks]

Did you read the op purple ?

[NickNacks]

X post!

[cornflakegirl]

How old is he?

[PurpleDaisies]

Why isn't he filling it in?

[Scarydinosaurs]

How hard is it to log? Could he not approximately guess? Use post it notes and mark the pages and then fill it in at the end of the week?

[BastardGoDarkly]

Is he reading to you or on his own?

[laffymeal]

Teachers aren't all seeing mind readers. They see a blank log and assume no reading with parental supervision. Take a tenth of a second to sign it.

[Stirling84]

He's 8.

[NorksAreMessy]

I used to draw pictures in ours. Little cartoons, copies of pictures in the book, just to encourage D a. To look at it as something fun to do.

[ProcrastinatorGeneral]

I gave the reading log back at the beginning of term and told them it was pointless as he does nothing but read. There's no way I was going to stalk my child demanding to know what he's read on a given day. They took it with good grace and haven't tried to give me another one :)

[Husbanddoestheironing]

It is irritating. We just write stuff in regularly. On the basis that DS is a voracious reader and would need 10 diaries a year if we did it properly. This way the teacher is reassured he's reading. It is important for the teacher for evidence I'm afraid in this crazy inspection-driven world. DS' teacher is great, so I'm keen to do this to help her.

[Stirling84]

He doesn't fill it in because I keep book bags by the door and ask him to not come downstairs after 8pm. Deviating from this ends up with the reading diary getting lost - or with disruption to sleep. By the morning he either forgets about it entirely or he gets in a tizz about being accurate on page numbers.

I tried last week sticking in mums smiley face to show he'd read - but he said I was defacing it with writing it wrong

[SaucyJack]

Does she have genuine cause for concern about his reading skills?

If not, either ignore it or make a PA comment back about encouraging independent reading.

[MrsKCastle]

Can your DS write a sort of weekly 'summary' e.g. 'I have read 5 days this week, from p16- p27' or whatever. It's worth clarifying the reasoning behind the reading diary- is it purely to check that they're reading or is it more about getting into the habit of doing homewor? Also, how old is your DS?

[PurpleDaisies]

Could you get him a notebook to keep by his bed? Then he can just transfer it across?

[BeverlyGoldberg]

He sounds adorable. If he's using words like 'defacing' at 8 then the teacher needs to start drawing happy faces that his vocabulary is so good.

[Stirling84]

The week before he wrote just a title and 'completed' - but that still got a sad face because it was not sufficient separate reading instances.

Anyway - not to drip feed - i wrote the teacher a letter. I feel like that parent - and in principle I can see why they want to track - but I can't see how to do it without weighing down his reading with these superfluous chores.

[profbadbride]

Logging pages?? FGS. A marvellous way to kill a child's love of reading stone dead. No wonder you want to rebel, OP.

I suggest your rebellion takes the form of introducing your son to the concept of Bullshit Bingo, a game he will need to play at many points in his life, from reading diaries to completing job applications in the civil service.

Just fill in the boxes with some plausible (or ridiculous, depending on your mood) numbers as and when you feel like it. As long as your son is reading, it's not lying. It's being creative

[ToddlerTantrums]

I don't know about the should/shouldn't you fill it in part my DD is much younger...
But IF you are going to, can't he just have a bookmark? Then he knows what page he's up to each night and can take the 'starting' page number from the night befores note?

[redskybynight]

In our house it works like this:

On a Friday DD writes in her diary something along the lines of
Monday - 15 pages
Tuesday - 50 pages
Wednesday - to end of book
Thursday - 35 pages

She then waves the diary under my nose, I sign it and everyone is happy.
Would suggest something similar which gets across the idea of the sort of reading your DC is doing, without dwelling on the minutiae.

[Nanny0gg]

The idea of logging pages is useful with early readers whose books are too long for them to read in one 'go', so the school will pick up where they left off at home.

Once they are competent readers, if they are reading the same book to the teacher, they are more than capable of finding their place without looking at the diary.

All the diary then needs to be is a list of books read, which can be written in when he changes them.

[HoneysuckleAndJasmine]

Why don't you just explain this to the teacher? Not in a letter, just face to face.

Just say exactly what you've said here, that he's reading every day and that you're trying to rectify the non-recording thing but without much success yet.