Children & reading

[Nquartz]

I volunteer to read with children in DD's class once a week & usually read with the bottom set.

It is very frustrating when I can tell from the children's reading record that they never read at home so once a week with me & possibly once a month with the teacher is all the reading they do.

Why don't parents read with their children at home?? I get that people are busy & have busy lives but reading 2 pages of a Biff, Chip & sodding Kipper book only takes 5 minutes.

And breathe!

Am totally with you on this (used to be a parent reader, now a TA).

At the school my sister teaches in some of the parents can't read. Or certainly not to the level of an average 8-9 year old. Others can't read English.

I agree that it is important, absolutely.
But it doesn't only take 5 minutes and its not necessarily easy. With DS, who had attention problems, reading 2 pages would sometimes take 15-20 minutes and not feel particularly productive!

Yep. Not in the UK, but British school. Often Mum cant read English, and Dad isn't always back from work in time. BUT in KS1,the kids read to an adult at school 2-3 times a week. I don't know what is dropped from a school day yo allowvtgst to happen tho, because 20 kids, 3 times a week, 5 mins each is one whole day a week reading.

A lot of people are going to come on and say yabu because you don't know what Sen issues the children have or what their home life is like which is true you don't but I agree that won't be the case for every child and some parents just can't be bothered.

Bil and sil are like this, "readings for teachers to learn em, should keep it in school". If you say anything about helping their child to progress etc they declare you're picking on them and being stuck up.

We have quite a lot of parents that cant read or have low literacy skills so really lack confidence to do this
we have parents who feel its the schools job
we have parents who are struggling to hold things together and if their child refuses its the battle they have chosen not to fight

Schools I have taught in have had illiterate parents and parents who don’t speak any English. So unfortunately they’re not doing any reading at home. Then there’s the parents who aren’t interested.

Because my (adopted) child will lie on the floor for 40 minutes crying and wailing if I ask him to.

But the TAs and volunteer readers don’t know he’s adopted and has all kinds of emotional and developmental issues.

My child reads every day both to us and to himself and has always had a reading age of multiple years ahead. However I practically never write I the reading record book because it's just always the last thing in the myriad of things to do in a family with additional needs. I always made sure the teachers knew the situation and for the most part they were generally understanding.

We read a lot at home but are appalling at writing it in the reading record so I'd imagine that DD's teacher/TA's think the same.

Saying that, there are a million and one bits of paper to be signed so things do sometimes get missed.

If the school minimised all of the paper, parents might be able to focus on what is needed rather than wading through reams.

But it doesn't only take 5 minutes and its not necessarily easy. With DS, who had attention problems, reading 2 pages would sometimes take 15-20 minutes and not feel particularly productive!

Well maybe in some cases it is a struggle to get the child to sit and read and help them, but surely, as parents, you do this to help your child. Giving up because it doesn't feel productive is a bit crap. if a child is struggling with attention problems, surely this makes it all the more important to stick it out?

At my kids primary school they had to take books out of the library and read them as part of their homework, they had sheet to be signed everynight

Well with DD1 it was huge rows and upset and thought of reading - so I did dancing bears instead to build her reading skills up as teachers kept saying everything was fine and to keep at it . In her case it wasn't be five minutes and was making her dread reading anything.

With Ds and DD2 it's often that the school book were crap - too boring, too easy to hard or not phonic based and encouraging guessing- so we read other things which often don't get logged in reading book.

Mind you only DD1 and Ds were bottom groups for reading and started climbing start of KS2 and are now well above where they should be.

I read very little with my DS in R and Y1. He has suspected ASD and an attempt to get him to read was met with an hour long meltdown. We had enough battles to fight on a daily basis without adding to it.
The R teacher was very sceptical but the y1 teacher was very understanding and he did extra reading with adults at school.

Now in Y2 he reads most days. DD in reception is reading everyday.

I want my kids to see reading as pleasure not a major battleground.

There may of course be other indicators, but nothing on the reading record does not necessarily mean nothing is being read. The parent may read with the child but not bother with the record, or the child may be reading other books, just not the school ones?

I would imagine that teachers can tell which children read regularly at home & which ones do not, and not just by what's written in the record book

In our school the older kids pair up with the younger kids for reading time. It promotes good relations between different age groups, the younger ones look up to the older kids, getting to read to the young kids is considered a bit of a perk as it gets them out of class, and everyone is reading.

I don't sit down and hear our girl read, TBH her reading books are so below her level there Is no point. I would say, though, it would be hard to fit in with everything else we have to do for her and working.

She does read independently and I have always done a bedtime story for her.

I think it is wrong to judge other parents on what they should do. I have a couple of friends who have tried to read to their boys but they just aren't interested in it. My nephew hated to read as he struggled with it and it became such a battle for my sister she stopped trying. The school didn't help either of them much. You don't know their lives and can't possibly say they absolutely must have time to do it.

Perfectly normal family, but i would even help with reading in school

DD hated reading with me at home. Screaming matches everytime. Personally I'd rather reading was a joy not forced. Asked for advice at school : don't force it. So from quite a young age we didn't read at home. She barely reads full stop, a few favourite authors and graphic novels. Shes still top set everything and incredibly bright

I actually taught DS to read from scratch (the school he was at failed him considerably). However as soon as he could read independently similar experience. He does read independently all the time and, despite conserable SN making him significantly academically behind, his reading age is advanced.

I wouldn't judge. Reading to an adult isn't everything.

I got attacked for saying this in a thread. As the children get older they read less with teacher, I also read with the lower group and had children on a book for a whole term, never read with teacher or at home. They were 9 and 10 year olds and some reading ORT level 3 or 4 books. It was hard for them to read a couple of pages, lots of effort, but they loved the 1 to 1 with an adult. I've just been asked if I will go back as a reading helper but not sure if I should.

I got told on here I was judgemental and patronizing and all I had said was it was a shame the parents couldn't help more as the kids were doing so well with regular help. My little group of 8 were lovely and by the end of keystage 2 six of them were at the expected reading level. I think some just aren't ready at 5 or 6 and then get left behind. One of "my" group actually got the highest score for comprehension in his SATS. I'm talking myself into it here.

I read maybe once a week with my DS who is 5- I don't get home til 6 - he needs feeding, one night is swimming (by far the most important lesson), the next night is speech therapy (again much more important he can talk than read), read say Wednesday, Thursday and Friday do the speech sounds practice with him. Saturday do the writing homework, Sunday is spelling (we also have life to fit in). Phonic are difficult because of his speech issues. Hes coming on with his reading - luckily his teacher is less judgey than you

It is very frustrating when I can tell from the children's reading record that they never read at home so once a week with me & possibly once a month with the teacher is all the reading they do

You don't know that. I never signed the thing to say I'd read two pages of Biff and bloody Chip with them, because they were already reading Harry Potter or Tom Gates etc on their own, so it was entirely unnecessary.

I didn't bother with the reading record with DC's 3 and 4. Somedays we would read a lot, some days not at all. And hardly ever the books given by the school as they didn't enjoy them. They were never in the bottom groups though. DC2 was in the bottom group. We read at home but he didn't enjoy it, still doesn't.

We struggled with DS in reception class. He was tired being the last to be picked up from after school club and I was often too tired to battle for him to read before facing returning to my pile of marking for the night. I did however have a background of reading to him over a long time. I want him to enjoy reading and not find it a chore so I am selective about when I'm prepared to battle it, so every few nights if there's been a gap but not every night.

It's increasingly looking like he's dyslexic and has had reading stress identified so we're adjusting to new techniques. He's become more willing with time but there are still some nights where his brain just can't work that hard. So even with supportive parents who value education, it's not been easy for him.

Some parents don't value education or literacy. That can be a defensive attitude against their own struggles or just apathy. There is an anti-education culture in pockets of my county because it wasn't necessary in traditional industry. Society has changed quicker than these attitudes, and these families often don't have the skills or confidence to support their children. If a child also has underlying issues, this will make it take even longer to identify and support.

I think it's far more important to read to your children from babyhood onwards. In any language and at any level - just expose them to books.

Many parents don't understand the benefits of reading bedtime (or any time) stories, and don't make it part of everyday family life. I remember being particularly shocked by a work colleague with a couple of degrees, and who writes for a living who said 'oh, I suppose I should start reading to xxx (3 year old) at some stage'. It made me realise that not even university educated professionals necessarily see the benefits of reading. It was a real eye opener for me!

Reading to children has a profound effect on oral language, comprehension, concentration, storytelling and probably all sorts of other skills.

If families don't read together as a norm, they're naturally going to find it a huge challenge to give their kids reading support as they grow.