transition from reading scheme to 'real' books

[icancancan]

Hope some of you can help.

My ds is on ORT stage 8 (think about to go up to 9). However, he is really reluctant to read any kind of real book that is not on the reading scheme (we have the reading chest so he does get other kinds of books but they are all phonic/other reading schemes). I would love him to be able to read his Winnie the Witch/Horrid Henry/Dr Seuss books and I know he can do this but he keeps saying he wont be able to (without even trying!). We go to the library every week virtually but he doesn't want to pick out any books for himself although he loves me reading to him. It's very frustrating (although I keep that to myself) but I'd be really interested to know how your children made the transition.

[2BoysTooLoud]

Perhaps start with really simple fun books like 'Aliens Love underpants'. About 3 of those! He may need to build up his confidence with 'fun' books. Things like 'Hairy Mclary from Donaldson's dairy' and 'slinky Malinky' and 'The Gruffalo'. Rhythmic books are fun.
Then maybe 'The Enormous crocadile' by Roald Dahl..
Simple Enid Blyton - Wishing chair adventures...

[redskyatnight]

Maybe try red nose readers or the Happy Family books.

[GrimmaTheNome]

How old is your DS? (I've forgotten what the ORT levels are like)

He might prefer some non-fiction - there are oodles of great kids books on all sorts of things, so bound to be something that fits his interest - something which might hook his interest without it being presented as reading

[nickelbabe]

there are loads of "reading scheme" boosk that aren't "reading schemes" iyswim.

like the Usborne first reading, or the I am Reading series.
or the Bananas (red is the easiest)
then you've got all the Ladybird REad-it-yourself ones.
happy families as redsky said, Zig zag
Walker now does a cool series read and discover (more sicence/nature/animal based)

Dr Seuss is now available in a new style reading scheme too."cat in the hat's learning library"

and one of the favourite series in my shop is Ready Steady Read - they're hard backs and have stickers to say "well done" in them, as well as reading comprehension at the back.
one of the most popular is Nobody Laughs at a Lion.

[blackeyedsusan]

no, not aliens love underpants yet... there are some hard words in there (just read it with dd who is a t a similar level.) go for something a lot easier, like jaspers beanstalk. you will have to lure him in with really easy books to get him hooked. he will then feel confident enough to try books that are nearer his level.

[icancancan]

thanks for all of the responses - will try to see if I can lure him in with some easier reading - perhaps re-visit the toddler books.

[blackeyedsusan]

toddler books are fantastic, but you may have a problem with them being too babyish. try going to the library hen you have time to read through lots of books.

sharing the reading can help too. if you fill in the difficult words before he has had chance to worry about them he is more likely to enjoy reading the book. you get him to try more and more gradually. you could ask him to point to any words that are worrying him before you try to read. i always knew if there as a scary word on the page as dd would disappear into my armpit and refuse to even try the page til she had been reassured that mummy would read that word.

[MyFace]

The way I got my (then 6 years old) ds to read is very simple. I read a chapter from a book one day to my ds, (who liked being read to but didn't really understand the concept of reading it all by himself.) I made sure to stop just before a very exciting bit in the book and then just left it and made other excuses not to read it, like not today I'm really busy but I really want to read it too, I wonder what happened next? On and on I made excuses, until a few days later he caved in couldn't stand not knowing anymore and read the rest himself. he is now unstoppable it's like I've opened the floodgates and now before bedtime I have to get told off for not getting enough books for him. He practically reads 24/7 which I am now worried about tbh.
My DD was a very very reluctant reader, but the one book that made her read by herself is reading the magic faraway tree by Enid Blyton now she is a very normal average reader. HTH

[MyFace]

Wow that was quite an essay sorry about that
If children see adults engrossed in something they too will want to find out what is so interesting about what you are doing. Regularly reading books yourself might also encourage children to explore books for themselves.