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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

reception readers and reading at home

51 replies

calmseeker · 02/04/2015 19:37

What do others think? I obviously want my child to learn to read. He is doing well enough - painstakingly using phonics to decode words. I am trying to get him to using the context and pictures but his major strategy is phonics. Nightly or morning reading of his reader is proving quite torturous. I try to make it fun. I have an education background so know what to do but sometimes I think is this really so very important when he is so young and wants to go outside and play and explore and make things.
I am an avid reader and a bedtime story has been a nightly ritual from the word go. The librarians nearby know us so books and reading are a huge part of our lives.

OP posts:

Sirzy · 02/04/2015 19:39

We have made reading part of our nightly routine. It takes 10 mins so hardly a big thing and certainly helps him

Griphook · 02/04/2015 19:43

I think it's too much too soon, my ds (reception) reads for 5 mins a day most nights but if we miss it or don't have time then it's ok.

ItsAllKickingOffPru · 02/04/2015 19:46

With books an important part of his routine and life already I'd give phonics 5 mins on a weekday.

Purplepoodle · 02/04/2015 19:50

Our school doesn't give reading books until they know all the letters and all the sounds. We mainly do his phonics letter of the week - drawing in chalk, in sand ect. Then using his own books to find the letter.

Even when they are given a book the the first few books are pictures with one or two words where they are encouraged to make a story up from the picture. Could you just read one or two pages a night?

MsShellShocked · 02/04/2015 19:51

Please don't get him to use context or pictures!

How will he know if the picture is of 'house' or 'home'?

You are working against what he's been taught at school. Which is to read every word.

baddyfreckleface · 02/04/2015 20:06

My dd made very slow progress with her reading in reception and was not motivated to read at home at all.

I didn't want to make reading a thing to dread so I spoke to the teacher. She was so lovely and basically said not to worry. Do some reading if she wanted to but that it wasn't as important as dd enjoying books.

We looked at interesting books together (she especially liked factual books) but she didn't want to struggle though the boring reading books from school.

Once the pressure was off and we went back to just enjoying books together it was such a relief. We did point out words when out and about etc and that got her more interested in being able to sound things out herself.

Dd is now in Y1 and has suddenly made a lot of progress with her reading. It just suddenly clicked for her. I would say she is now about in the middle of her class reading wise. She enjoys picking up a book of her choice to read. She still doesn't love the school books but we do them around 3 times a week.

They have so much to learn in reception i do think that it's too much for some to carry on at home. Reading shouldn't be a chore at 4/5.

987flowers · 02/04/2015 20:11

Please please carry on doing what you are and using the context as well as phonics. Reading is an experience and needs to be nurtured, if children at the age of 4/5 were just being given words to decode the level of reading would fall dramatically. Phonics are to be used with pictures etc so that reading is fun!

julietbat · 02/04/2015 20:14

I completely disagree, MsShellShocked - using the context or the pictures are important tools for children to make sense of the words, particularly those words that don't follow the phonetic rules. In fact, most teachers would encourage a quick discussion about what's going on in the picture before trying to read the page so the child has some idea of the context.

Original poster

calmseeker · 02/04/2015 20:25

Yes the teacher has told me to discuss the story line and encourage him to use the context and pictures. I am a teacher and appreciate the need to use all these strategies.

OP posts:

wigglesrock · 02/04/2015 20:28

Yup, my daughters teachers told us to do the story walk through the pictures, it helped the kids form an idea of a story, follow it up with what might happen, think out different ideas to the ending. It worked really well with my daughters - I have a 9, 7 year old. The 7 year old in particular is a really strong reader - had been since she was in nursery school and I've a 4 year old who'll be starting P1 in September and I intend on doing the same with her.

HumphreyCobbler · 02/04/2015 20:29

if he has the phonic knowledge to decode the word he won't need to guess from the context will he? The context and the pictures then enrich his understanding of the story. Using phonics is the best strategy but it doesn't mean reading in a vacuum.

Happy36 · 02/04/2015 20:33

As long as he enjoys reading do it as often as possible. Remember reading to him too as that will grow his love of books and increase his curiosity and desire to read for himself. I think you are definitely right to be getting into the habit of visiting the library.

PeachyPants · 02/04/2015 20:51

I think sharing your love of reading and your mutual enjoyment of books (even if you read them) are the most important things and it seems like that's all going well for you. Children are different and learn at their own pace, I really believe in teaching a child when they're ready and letting them learn at their own pace. If you're finding it tortuous maybe your DC is too so could you cut back on the time spent on phonics and spend a bit more time talking about the stories (or whatever he enjoys about reading)?

nobodyknowswheremyjonnyhasgone · 02/04/2015 20:54

I know you said he's doing well so this is at a bit of a tangent, more responding to the tortuous reference in your op.

I posted on here(under a different name) re my very unmotivated dc2. Halfway through reception he knew a handful of sounds (less than half) and could read one word! Sometimes it would take 45 mins to get through a simple 4 word line with all the messing around, giggling or moaning so we certainly didn't do it every day as I had 2 other DC to deal with.

Every poster told me to chill it would click in Year 1, they were SO right. Two terms into year 1 he is racing through the book levels and his teacher told me he is now comfortably in the top group for reading. He now zips through his school reading with no complaints.

I don't think reading independently will be a real pleasure for him until he can speed read because with most things he likes the destination, not the journey.

So my conclusion is that reception is a year to go at their own pace and make sure they are enjoying learning on their own level. Looking forward to a more relaxed time with DC3!

KeturahLee · 02/04/2015 21:03

Don't worry about the painstaking decoding at this point - the more he reads the more automatic it will become.

Babymamamama · 02/04/2015 21:09

I am always surprised how many other parents don't track under the words with a finger when they are reading to their children. Otherwise what is the point? Right from the beginning I read to my daughter like this. It gave her a focus when i was reading to her and trained her eye to move over the page sentence by sentence. We were very very lucky that she started reading before she started reception but I truly believe this helped immeasurably. She's now onto Charlie and the chocolate factory and we take turns to read out bits. Whoever feels like it. She's five. I'm not convinced by the phonics method. I don't honestly think that's how my dd learnt.

KeturahLee · 02/04/2015 21:13

The point of reading to your child is surely just that they enjoy the story? It wouldn't occur to be to track the words (or to get my child reading before school age tbh).

VolumniaDedlock · 02/04/2015 21:14

i think if they're uninterested or finding things slow going then taking turns can help.

you do a page, modelling a little bit of sounding out and tracking the words with your finger as you go, then they do a page. I think being read to is at least as important as decoding etc at this stage.

Nanny0gg · 02/04/2015 21:17

I think being read to is at least as important as decoding etc at this stage.

^^ This

hiccupgirl · 02/04/2015 21:20

It's more important that you share your love of reading than spend ages painstakingly getting him to read words himself. The reading skills will come as he does more at school but it's vital that reading is a fun activity at home not a chore IMO.

My Reception age DS can decode words using phonics but is much more a sight reader and has an amazing memory for words he has previously read. I completely understand that this is against the current fashion for phonics above everything else and doesn't help him with spelling or decoding words he doesn't know but I can see where he's coming from because I was the same as a child. When we read together I get him to read words I know he can tackle using phonics or I read a sentence and then he repeats it. I also make sure he gets lots of stories read to him so his reading skills isn't holding back his enjoyment of reading.

HumphreyCobbler · 02/04/2015 21:25

being read to is vital! Loving stories is vital. Neither of those things contradict the use of phonics for decoding.

"I'm not convinced by the phonics method. I don't honestly think that's how my dd learnt." Your daughter will have cleverly worked out the phonic code for herself, or she would never be able to read a word she had not already encountered.

grannytomine · 02/04/2015 21:47

My GS was really slow at starting to read. He didn't like it and it took ages. He would have a book with a word repeated on every page and by the end of the book he still couldn't work out what it was.

We made a game, two sets of cards with words from the reading scheme, kept getting bigger as he moved through the scheme. We played snap with them, we laid them all out (one set) and called out words and he would find them. We would time how long it took to find them all and then he would try to do it faster next time. We only did it regularly for a couple of months and he really moved on. I don't know why but he just enjoyed it much more than reading the books. He occasionally asks to play it now even though he is a good reader and loves his books.

Babymamamama · 02/04/2015 22:13

Actually, I think children learn to read in a variety of ways; and nobody truly understands how it happens. Certain things help certain children. Like learning a musical instrument, it can be done by ear, or reading music, or making up your own tunes.....It's not one size fits all.

I really don't think my daughter spells out words phonically in her head before saying them out loud. She will look at the whole (new) word and come out with an approximation of it as a whole which sometimes will be very close, sometimes not so much. It tends to be names (Humphrey or whatever) that will stump her if she hasn't come across it before.
But certainly she is more of a "sight reader" using a term from another poster and tends to remember new words once she's encountered them so doesn't need to read them phonically- at least that's how it appears to me.

ihatelego · 02/04/2015 22:19

this has got me thinking if we push our DS too hard with his reading! We do his school book on average every other night unless he wants to do it more or doesn't, flash cards we're doing about 4 times a day this holidays but we use treats as an incentive which gets him really keen to do it and if he's struggling we take it as slowly as he wants.

I think it is definitely most important that he enjoys it and doesn't get worked up about it, maybe try setting a small goal with a reward and seeing if that gets him more interested in it that's all i can really suggest but ultimately as long as the teacher's concerned then i wouldn't worry.

HumphreyCobbler · 02/04/2015 22:20

But we do have a language with a grapheme/phoneme correspondence. So if your dd wasn't using phonics to read the new word she would have no idea how to read it at all, would she?

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