What age would you expect a child to read...

[Xuli]

By themselves, with little assistance (as in, what a word means) something like The Lorax or George's Marvellous Medicine?

Just curious as this is our first DC and I have no experience of reading bands or reading expectations, interested to see vaguely whether they are reading at vaguely the right level

[Passthecake30]

7-8 in my house

[ElizabethShaw]

7ish, year 3.

[RavingRoo]

Dn is reading Charlie and the chocolate factory independantly and is almost 6. So I think 6-7 is ok.

[Catalufa]

I think 8-9 would be more usual.

[NewtsSuitcase]

Year 2ish (although obviously could be earlier depending on the child). Mine both did George's marvellous Medicine and the Twits as class texts in Year 2.

[OSETmum]

Year 2 so 6-7.

[Pythonesque]

Mine both year 1 - but eldest is now on an academic scholarship in senior school and younger one headed that way.

[RhinestoneCowgirl]

Summer born DS suddenly took off with reading at end of yr 1, so nearly 6. We didn't really believe he was reading at first (was reading in silence)

[NotCitrus]

Ds was 8 - he could read the vocabulary before that but just didn't want to read long books. Suddenly he did.

[Xuli]

Interesting, thanks! DC is Y1 and not yet 6. They've really taken to reading and seem to have suddenly come on in leaps and bounds. Vocabulary wise they don't 100% get the content but can read it all. I knew they were at the higher end but was interested in a rough age. School have them on quite a high colour band but as they don't have chapter books in her class I don't know if I should be asking for them to see an example of DC reading at home as it seems higher than their reading level. But equally they just love reading so may be I should just leave them to enjoy it separately at home?

[Xuli]

Rhinestone, yes, exactly that!

[NewtsSuitcase]

Basically though children read different things at different ages and it means very little. DS1 would have been reading those to himself in year 1 because he always was a complete bookworm. DS2 was capable of reading them in Year 1 but wasn't particularly interested in reading to himself until he was 8 and a half when he suddenly devoured a load of David Walliams books and moved straight onto the whole Percy Jackson set which he read back to back. He's barely stopped reading since.

[Anotheroneishere]

We have left our early readers generally to enjoy books at home, and we have expressly asked the school not to rush the boys through the reading levels. My four-year-old in reception can read texts with the complexity of The Lorax for example, but he gets level 5 sent home.

The books in higher levels start to cover themes that are challenging or inappropriate for younger readers, so finding books becomes difficult. If you are able to offer reading material at a higher level at home, there's no need for the school to push the child through the levels. Picture books (like the Lorax) are excellent for developing vocabulary without overwhelming younger readers with pages of text.

I will say that I don't comment on low reading levels until my child asks for harder books. In Year 1, my older boy got tired of the books he was on (he stayed on level 10 for a while), and when I asked, he was immediately moved up a level. He's still on level 11 but reads voraciously at home, with no regard to book level.

As long as your child is enjoying the school books, I'd leave it be. The advantage of easy school books is that official school reading is done quickly and the child can then spend more time reading books of their own choosing.

[Iwasjustabouttosaythat]

Another, I'd love to hear what else your 4 year old is reading. I'm finding it a challenge to find appropriate books for my 4yo. He is very sensitive and the Lorax makes him cry. You're right about the more challenging themes. It's hard to find more challenging words without possibly upsetting content.

Also why don't you want school to push them? Kindergarten isn't challenging DS at all. The other kids are still learning letters so he finds it a bit pointless.

[Want2bSupermum]

DS loves to read and is 4. We found some Disney bedtime stories in Costco which are perfect for him. He also likes James and the giant peach.

My elder two both read and are 6 and 4. I won't let them read independently because I'm not confident that they understand what they are reading. My eldest also doesn't get the pronunciation correct sometimes. She referred to tornado as tomato (said the American way). Until I'm confident they are reading properly I will have them read aloud to me.

[Anotheroneishere]

Mr. Men books are brilliant for complex sentence structure and vocabulary. He loves Star Wars and very happily reads every DK Eyewitness reader we have. In general, I let him pick out picture books from the library, and he picks a book to read to me. For anything that's really challenging or too long, I'll read a page and he reads a page. He spends a lot of time reading to himself (often in his big brother's room), so for us, we just offer lots of books and go to the library a lot. My older one was in Year 1 when he started teaching us things from what he had been reading.

Why not push the school? We have a very good school that works to challenge the top-end, so I don't need to push to get some upper level work. Yes, they could do more, but both boys are extremely happy at school, can focus on relative weaknesses (handwriting!), and get lots of time to play.

It'll depend on your school and how they handle things. Neither of my kids complain about being bored, and they each have had to learn letters many times. Either our school makes this very interesting or my kids have a high tolerance for relearning. I suspect our school makes the learning interesting and engaging, even for kids who are beyond that.

In general, if your child is unhappy at school, it's worth looking into whether or not the challenge is sufficient. With a happy child who is putting in good effort, you'll need to evaluate what you hope to accomplish with additional challenge and how you expect your school to provide that.

[sirfredfredgeorge]

Banding books is obviously a controversial and difficult thing anyway, but the Lorax and Roald Dahl are not particularly complex books, they would probably only be turquoise or so. Also if the child is used to reading or being read to that particular author/genre then they are more likely to be able to read at a higher "level".

The books are just longer, so would be very boring if not engaged with, so hence book band books tend to be shorter.

[Xuli]

Thanks all. They're very happy at school, and realistically their writing and story telling in not at the same level as their reading, hence why I'm not overly inclined to say anything too much. They are on turquoise books so that sounds right. Interesting to hear what people have to say though! I'll leave them to just enjoy reading at home.

[user789653241]

Top reading group in my ds's yr1 class was purple+ at the begginning of the year. So, I don't think turquoise is particularly advanced for that particular class in yr1.
But I disagree with sir, Roald Dhal is more like lime rather than turquoise imo.
So if your dc is happily reading RD at home, I would ask if the child is at the right level or not. It felt like only difference between books at orange+ level school books were the length, imo.

[sirfredfredgeorge]

irvineoneohone probably with RD yep, Lorax though is quite a bit simpler, and I do think the familiarity of format makes a big difference, so you can easily access the text. DD would've probably been on green book band when she read Georges Marvellous Medicine at good speed with full understanding, and vocabulary there...

However, from your other point I suspect our school is considerably slower at moving through the bands, only a few of the two form year were on turquoise (or above) by the end of year 1.

[BzyB]

My dd was reading Harry Potter and the hobbit at 7, but at school wasn't at the top group. Later turned out it was because she wasn't reading at the speed they wanted ( too fast?!) and mumbling. She didn't complain to me about school books - just glad she could speed though them with me and curl up with her "good" books after!

[Xuli]

That's the same as us, BzyB. They read in their head and mumble a lot - I know they are taking it all in, but the teacher prefers the kids to read aloud.

[whoareyou123]

DS's school also wanted him to read aloud fluently and with expression. I assume it's part of the KS1 curriculum.

We tried to keep DS reading aloud to us as long as possible to practise this, though he finally got frustrated around his 7th birthday as it was taking too long to get through books (was reading David Walliams and similar at the time).

[sirfredfredgeorge]

I think reading fast enough, with enough left over processing to understand and put expression and fluency into speaking it is surely required to say you're actually fluent reading. And it's also a skill in itself of course, but it's a skill that requires fluent automatic reading.

I can understand why teachers encourage it! It's also why DD generally picks poetry and plays for her books, as she gets to do the performance side of things, and then reads novels for her own interest.