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!

You don’t need to read the record book to know which child gets attention at home.

Don’t give the bullshit ‘I’ve got to get the nuggets and fries on’.

It’s the parents job to parent and that includes their education.

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.

DH and I are avid readers. We both absolutely love reading.

DD hates it. If we didn’t get her to sit down and attempt it every day, she would literally never do it. The gap between her and her peers is pronounced and widening.

The number of people on this thread who can’t see past their own personal experiences is astounding.

Audio books (you can hire them cheaply at our library or from the online library with borrow box)

Interesting - I wasn't aware borrow book could do that. It's something I keep meaning to set up but apparently need to change something on my account to do so.

www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/genre/dys/Super-readable-Dyslexia-friendly.html - This sites been useful to find books as well.

I'm not sure if every library has borrow box audiobooks, but ours does, you have to go in and get a code to make it work.

Ohh, another one about libraries generally. Let then pick whatever, but also make sure you choose some that are an appropriate reading level. Funny books are good for this, as they are often shorter and simpler language but not boring for an older child.
. Eg drama llama, Dave the pigeon, world book day books.

I don't get the 'we don't have time' excuse. I'm a single mother to 5. I work full time and still fit in time to make sure my kids read to me or I help with homework. Some nights I don't get to sit down til 10 or 11pm, but that's what being a parent means. My 4year old reads to me every night and yes it takes more than 5 minutes.

But I'm putting in the effort because that's what parents should do. Reading is important and helps so much with their future education.

Because life is busy. Get in from work and picking kids up 6.15. Cook dinner (while kids do hw they can). Tea finished and clean up 7/7.30. Then there's football/cubs/swimming. Or mine need to be in bed by 8pm when not at an activity. Then last thing they want to do is read. So do small bit at weekend

I find it so sad all the comments on here about lazy parents and as for the comments about nuggets and fries! I genuinely feel so sorry for these people that they are so wrapped up in their own Little lives they can’t see the difficulties other people have. Let’s hope they are teaching their kids important things like empathy and understanding. It’s unbelievably pathetic that they can’t actually see that not everyone has the same situation as their own. I would warrant that I spend more time overall with my DS helping with speech which has led to reading issues and issues with phonic storage than you do reading bloody big and kipper. We have read to him from birth. But yes you carry on with your judgemental crap. Just remember when you’re hot housing your little darlings to brag to your mummy friends that life isn’t actually simple and kindness is infinitely a more valuable lesson than anything on the national curriculum. On that life lesson my 5 year old is a long way a head of you.

Mine have sen though so it's at least 20mins strop before I can get them near the book or just outright refusal

Learning to read is hard and tiring for kids. I read to mine every night. I want them to enjoy books not feel hammered into reading them

WhirlwindHugs -it's good to know it's a possibility.
I've got to get something switched on my library account anyway to work borrow books so I can ask then.

I love to read to my son we are all enjoying Roald Dahl books together at the minute. But school reading is a pain Year 1 and they change his books 3 times a week to try and catch out the mums who don’t read plus 10 spellings and homework he’s 5. I have a 16 year old who is taking his GCSE’s and a baby. I will and do read with my son but the autonomy of the reading record boils my piss and don’t get me started in cursive writing

I teach 11 year olds with reading ages of 3. Year 7 pupils who can't write their own names. A lot is down to more than laziness, often parents are uneducated themselves, they can't read, they don't see the importance of it etc.

a child shouldn’t suffer academically because they don’t have parental support

Sadly, they do. Not because the school doesn't bother to support them, but because whatever amount of extra support the school can offer is tiny compared to the effects of indifference at home.

Loving many of the suggestions for encouraging reluctant or struggling readers.

Another suggestion: get them to read to a younger sibling - even a baby - or to a family pet. Then their listener knows less than them and will not judge them, it's less daunting for the reader. They could even share a book by explaining the pictures if the text is too challenging.

IMO the most important thing throughout FS/KS1 is not progress in reading, but interest in reading, enthusiasm for reading, and self-belief in your ability to learn. The children know exactly who the better readers are and who the stragglers are, and it can be gutting to see your friend zooming ahead, while you're still plodding through uninspiring books. Especially once you start being given work with written instructions in other subjects.

For the vast majority of children reading will 'click' by the end of Y1.

I never complete the reading record. Also learning to read at 4yrs old is pretty unnecessary imo - I believe current research suggests that it's beneficial for children to delay formal learning till 7-8yrs old. I read to my kids (6 and 3) most nights but no I don't ask my 6yrs old (Y1) to read to me. We read the school book once a week most week but the rest is up to her! She has a magazine she likes reading on her own more and more and I let her get on with that and she loves reading... But not every day! She has plenty of time to improve and there are so many other fun things I want to do with her!

There was a time when ds was very behind in reading but as I felt he wasn't ready to do it in terms of his development I didn't push it. Now we read every day but he never remembers to bring the diary home.

Also learning to read at 4yrs old is pretty unnecessary imo

I completely agree with you but you still provide a reading environment for your child, as I think all parents should.
Once we put them in the traditional school system, we have to help them progress as well as their friends, so there is some pressure to make sure they don't fall behind and get demoralized, or end up in the bottom group because they already know if they are at the bottom of the class.

It's disappointing to see so many posters unable to see past their own limited experience. I have taught children whose parents are completely unable to read and write. I do actually think that they would like to support their children with reading/spellings/homework at home but are completely unable to do so.

MuffinTip
Apart from one post, I think most posters are not putting parents who cannot read and parents who don't bother in the same bag.

I read with my DS every night but I never ever fill in his reading record!

If the kids are only in reception maybe some parents realise that teaching them to read isn’t that important, unless they enjoy it and want to. I didn’t push it with mine, waited until he was ready, and done it when he was in the mood. I read to him every night though. Also forget to write in the reading record a lot at first.

I remember when we were homeless, sleeping on the floor with no hot water or working light fitting. Someone coming into school helping and judging the reading record wouldn’t have a clue about the horrors we were going through. It’s so Much easier to judge isn’t it?

Space penguin
Good post. Couldn't agree more.

Can I just echo other posters and what I said earlier.

I go in and help, I'm really not judging. I never would... I hope that for those kids whose parents aren't able to do reading with them, for whatever reason whatsoever, I can make their session at school enjoyable and get them a little bit excited about reading and take a bit of pressure off their parents.

That's the sum total of my thoughts.

When I was helping I never expected parents to have read 7 times a week with kids and having 4 of my own and working when bringing them up I know it can be hard. I couldn't help noticing that some children who were struggling never read at home, the bookmark never moved from one week to the next and these weren't children who were reading loads of other stuff. If the children are tired at night we can all understand that but even half an hour on a Sunday afternoon would make a difference, but not if it ends up with loads of distress. I don't think parents were unable to read, some of them were friends with my DIL and were in office jobs, one was a school administrator. To be honest with you I judged the teacher not the parents. Two of the years I volunteered they had lovely teachers but one year she wasn't great. Always negative with the children, in my group some of the children only read to her twice in the year. I can remember standing my ground with her about one little girl who had done really well, I had given her some extra time as she was on a roll and I went in and said, "X has read the whole book." Teacher immediately replied, "She needs to read it again, she isn't ready to move on." I said, "No, she was really fluent, understood the story." Eventually she let her have a new book, honestly it was as if she wanted to hold her back and she was already years behind in her reading. I would never normally have done that with a teacher but it was unfair. She retired the next year so maybe she was just burnt out.

I know one family had problems with child reading at home as mother stopped me one day and thanked me and said they just couldn't get him to read at home. I always tried to make sure I had plenty of time with him and would really praise him and say things like, "Your mum will be so proud when she hears how well you are reading that." I hoped it might encourage him to read to her a bit more. He was one of the weakest in the group but he did make the breakthrough and once he found what he liked, sports books and adventure stories, he powered ahead.

I found it really rewarding and loved the kids. I was so proud of how well they did but I always felt sad that for the ones who learn to read at the "right time" in key stage they get lots of teacher/ta time with reading. If you miss that window it seemed like the system was against you, you didn't get to read every day like reception, so you got stuck on books for longer which would put anyone off reading.