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!

The RR is not really for any kind of communication or anything meaningful either. Just boxes ticked for Ofsted.

megletthesecond
Is there a children center in your area? They could give you addresses and places to contact in order to get some support.

Because the parents are lazy. Pure and simple

Told you.

You wouldn't find anything in my child's record. He reads plenty daily (around a couple of books a day on average) plus comics, First News etc but isn't interested in the books he is forced to read from school. I used to write in the books he'd read at home in but apparently they are only allowed to write school books in. I used to make him read the school book but he started to really hate reading so I stopped.
He's in the top group for English so I don't think it's doing him much harm.

Biff, Chip and Kipper and the like are sodding unbearable so we have hardly ever read the school books. There are so many things to do for school, our reading log is mostly forgotten. Ds1 started flying with his reading in year 1, and picks up a book at home to read to a few chapters to himself at least once a day as well as reading out loud to his little brother and us etc. I never at this point leave the boys to trawl through his book bag to find and fill out a log like a flipping timesheet. It's great you help with the reading at school but maybe you should lay off the judging

However i resent having to write in a book about his progress but getting no feedback the other way That is a shame, at the school where I helped we always wrote in the book. It would be teacher/TA in reception year 1 and probably year 2, then it was mainly volunteers or TA by year 4 teacher might hear them once a term. I always gave them lots of praise, say specifically what they had done well with and if there was anything that was a particular struggle. If a child did really well I would also make a point of going into the class and saying to the teacher that x had worked really well and could she maybe have something on the next level. Teacher would probably hear them then and move them up. I always worried about doing it as an untrained volunteer but teacher heard them so rarely in year 4 or 5 that they would never move on if I didn't.

I always read with Dd but I couldn’t even tell you where her reading record is. We don’t always read the school books because they are a bit rubbish but she always reads something to me

I'm clearly just explaining myself really badly today.

I know some kids kick off at home, about reading, because sometimes mine do. So when I go in as a parent helper if I meet a kid that obviously hasn't read since I last did it with them (if we left the book on page 10 and they're now on 11, clearly they have not read their school book) I make an effort to make the book seem fun/interesting.

So that when they go home if their parent asks if they have homework they are hopefully keener to read and slightly less likely to lie/kick off about it with their carer.

I do it this way because sometimes my kids are pita about reading and I know if they are enjoying the book, and they think the adult enjoys the book it makes a massive difference to how keen they are to have a go.

KisstheTeapot14 we did resort to bribery and corruption as well. He had something (can't remember what) when he could do all 100 words without any mistakes.

The other thing to try is to get a book and an unabridged audio book, let them read along with the story. That made an amazing difference, don't know what really but really built his speed up and again stopped it being such a slog. Also having sub titles on TV, I suppose anything that connects with them.

I know it is a slog but it wonderful when they get it and if my GS is typical they are so proud when they realise they can do it.

Any suggestions to help a slow reader improve?
Ideas for school or home.

Dancing Bears
Spelabet resourcs generally but her books lists here
Reading chest especially if school books and library selection are poor
teach your monster how to read a free game.

Graphic novels, huge range these days
Comics, and children’s magazines,

audio books - this was main thing with DD1

read along books - only youngest liked these,
Kindle fires that will read books to them and where you can buy audio readings on top of books
Plus fill house with range of books given as gifts for birthdays and Christmas oftne from The Book people
Read recommendation for series on here - got eldest hooked on one- and then subject matter that interests them.

Plus regular trips to libraries - which the eldest hates.

Done all that. Ds started reading for pleasue about aged 8 and turned into quite the book worm and DD1 started treading for pleasure at 11.

I read every night when ds was in reception. Then the beginning of year 1 it became a battle and I was too poorly in my pregnancy to cope with the battle and stopped. We’re back to reading daily but at that time it was too much for everyone. Good enough excuse for you?

Doesn't the teacher hear them in groups though? Say maybe 4 or 5 groups in total. I'd expect them to be heard at least twice a week. I can't see a bottom reader being heard 9 times during the academic year by their teacher benefiting much from it at all.

Or are you talking about hearing individual readers in addition to group reading? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding the situation.

I'm sure plenty of the adults on here, even if they are keen readers, wouldn't be overly enthusiastic about a book someone else has chosen for them to read that they have absolutely no interest in. It's not surprising that some children are the same.

My youngest dc loved reading last year. I hardly ever wrote in their diary as they read literally every night and I think it's obvious if they do. This year they aren't so keen so it's a real chore to get them to read to me and I'm still rubbish at logging it when they do.

I also listen to kids read at school. I take no notice of their reading diaries because one, I know I'm crap at filling ours in even if they have read and two, it's none of my business and I've no need to sit and study them to see how often they read

I’m not one of the parents who didn’t read with their kids when they were in ks1 - but that’s because I work from Home and when they finish for the day, so do I. However I wonder about how it’s done when both parents work in demanding city careers, don’t pick their kids up from after school childcare until 6.30 and then still have to get home, cook dinner, bath etc. And by this time - little kids are exhausted if not asleep already. I don’t think it’s easy in this situation. As parents we should support our childrens’ learning of course but a child shouldn’t suffer academically because they don’t have parental support.

plenty of the adults on here, even if they are keen readers, wouldn't be overly enthusiastic about a book someone else has chosen for them to read that they have absolutely no interest in

true, but that's part of studying, so it's never too early to get used to it.
Books for younger children are so short anyway, it's not that much of a hardship.

I'm grateful to anyone who volunteers in a school, but I don't understand why anyone would need parents to validate their experience of volunteering by filling in the RR.

Stuff that has helped my reluctant kids to read more:
Reading them really funny books, or fact books if that is their thing every night
Audio books (you can hire them cheaply at our library or from the online library with borrow box)
Fun notebooks and pens
Silly word games like madlibs or consequences.
Finding something, anything that's fun/interesting/silly about the books their set and talking about that. So it's not just 20mins of you pointing out their errors.
Ignoring some of their mistakes when they read, if they're not massively important.
Abandoning it and trying for just one page at bedtime instead, or after breakfast.
Playing word games like scrabble but as one big team not separately.

Reading fiction shouldn't be work though - it should be fun. Kids only hate reading because it's made to be a chore

I felt like this when I started helping out but then I changed my mindset to "at least these children are getting one-to-one reading time with me each week". They are all struggling and behind with their reading, and I can see how much my time is helping them. Some also really crave the attention and get so excited coming to read with me.

So yes, I feel sad for those children but I am glad I can help. What it opened my eyes to is how stretched the teachers are and how an extra pair of hands is so useful. I feel very guilty when I can't go and help even though I am not obliged to, as I know how much it is appreciated and what a difference it makes.

Kids only hate reading because it's made to be a chore

I completely agree with that, but unfortunately some adults do not read books and even see school and "homework" as the enemy. I can't understand how some houses have no books whatsoever, but it's the way some live.

We read pretty much daily with yr 1 did. Read her School book and then bedtime story. Youngest gets numerous bedtime stories!!
DH is often at work during evening / bedtime as he works 12 hour shift.

I work 3 days a week and we don’t get back until 6pm and we are out with some other activities another night a week.

It’s tough and some evenings it is hard to fit it all in - but we do. The thing that slides is housework.

Her teacher can tell we read with her every night. Even if we didn’t update reading record she could tell.

I get people have busy life’s and I think if you have other issues with children not wanting to read then fine, but I think if you have busy life’s, well so do we all and you need to make the time

I didn't find the children at school kicked off about reading, I think that is probably saved for parents. They would try to distract me though, start telling me a story about how they baby sister had done something naughty or granny was coming to stay. I think they genuinely liked a one to one chat with an adult but I also think sometimes it was a strategy.

Definitely a common avoidance strategy. And it’s incredibly common for kids to kick off far more with parents over school work than teachers. My niece was an absolute PITA for this. Given that learning to read didn’t come easily to her, I’m far from convinced that trying to get her to read when she was tired after school was actually helpful really. It didn’t do a lot for her reading and just caused stress.