AIBU to have had it with reading diaries?

[cakefanatic]

Wondering which way this one will go - I’ll probably be flamed.

Family life is busy, it’s busy for all of us. But this morning I am totally sick and fed up of filling in the reading diary. I read with/to/listen to my kids read all the time. Every day, in fact, and have done since they were very small. It is totally mandated by school that we have to record in their reading diary every day and it’s the one thing that’s just slipping. With the laundry and the cooking, and the never ending activity drop offs and working full time I just never quite get round to it.

School make a big deal of it, and the kids get stressed, but honestly, unless there is a problem can’t they just ease up on the bloody diary? We’ve been filling it in religiously for years now but just lately I can’t handle it.

It just seems like one of a never ending stream of requests from school, including eleventy billion fancy dress costumes, donations to worthy causes, random pieces of fruit for maths class. I could go on...

YABU - reading diaries are crucial to life on Earth
YANBU - enough already, I read with my kids and that’s what is actually important

[CovoidOfAllHumanity]

Once a week summary is surely a better idea all round isn't it? Read x pages of x book. Good at z struggled with y. I'd do that.

Reading diaries are just the way things have been done since the dawn of time but are they really achieving anything or are they just a traditional activity?

I certainly think all the heavy emphasis and rewards for completing that OP and another poster mentions are crap and counterproductive. That was what it was like at Dsis school. I have never got told off myself for our poor compliance.

[Cheekyweegobshite]

it means we can read with the ones who aren't being read to

Pushy parents might see that as a good thing. Bit of a dilemma for them though - pretend to be rubbish at reading with your child so they get extra attention or make sure the teacher knows what a good parent you are and your child gets less input

[LimeCoconut]

[quote Babycakes39]@LimeCoconut it means we can read with the ones who aren't being read to and also approach the parents who aren't to try and gently remind them to read with their child. I always read any comments and always leave comments for the parent to show they have read in school. The ops school does seem a bit militant about it all though! I'm in foundation so we really try to get the children and parents into that routine of reading every night but sadly many parents don't 😢 xx[/quote]
Ah that’s great, I’m really pleased you’re given the time to read with those kids! It goes some way to right the inequality. There are so many factors that go into whether parents have the ability or motivation to do nightly reading, it’s really tricky isn’t it.

[LimeCoconut]

@Cheekyweegobshite

it means we can read with the ones who aren't being read to

Pushy parents might see that as a good thing. Bit of a dilemma for them though - pretend to be rubbish at reading with your child so they get extra attention or make sure the teacher knows what a good parent you are and your child gets less input

I think 100% of pushy parents would be mortified at the idea of school thinking they weren’t reading with their children tbh!

[cakefanatic]

It’s ok @sadpapercourtesan I appreciated the vehement support

[Midge75]

Ugh, I totally get it! It's so tedious. My daughter writes in it now but for years I struggled to find new ways of saying the same stuff. Fine if it's just writing down page numbers, sticking a sticker in or signing your name, but when you have to write a comment in it, it gets really boring. First we wrote a summary of what happened, then the teachers wanted a bit more about how that made my daughter feel, then what she thought might happen next, then finding particular phrases she liked, etc. etc. I totally get why they want it, but it is tedious. One of those little jobs that just seems to get too much, as you say.

[CornedBeef451]

I hate the reading diary too!

DS finds the school books too easy and often boring but dutifully reads them and does the online quizzes and always does really well.

He is also reading Harry Potter on his kindle and is on book 6. When they were off school I was supposed to report what he'd read every day on the app but it was so pointless I ended up just letting them know when he'd moved onto a new book.

He now fills in the diary himself when one of us remembers but it just seems a waste of time. He's clearly a reader, they know he reads for pleasure, is there any point in writing it down any more?

[cakefanatic]

@Ceara yes! Thank you! That’s exactly it!

[Nith]

Two of my DC would read for pleasure whether I heard them reading or discussed it with them or not - in fact they really didn't want their reading slowed down by my intervention. So I just worked on the basis of trusting them when they said they'd reached page 109 or whatever and signed the reading record. With dyslexic DS the struggle lay in getting him to read when he just wasn't enjoying it, and sometimes I just read to him so we could move forward a bit with the book, and again signed the record off because at least he knew what the book was about. But with him we eventually had a brilliant specialist dyslexia tutor with whom he made much more progress anyway, and spelling pattern practice for her seemed a more valuable way of spending the time.

[YouCantBeSadHoldingACupcake]

My dc fill them out themselves and shove it at me with a pen to sign the day before they hand it in. The high school age ones just fill out the online form (literally no way to tell if it has been filled out by the parent)

[inkyscribbler]

I've never filled it in regularly. Read with them every evening. They also read with and to each other. Rarely read school books though.
I'm a children's author/illustrator so do take books seriously. Just never filled in the book and school never made a fuss over it.

[cakefanatic]

There are so many sensible suggestions on here but alas, either me or friends of mine have experiences with school which pretty much veto many of them.

I’d happily do once a week (in fact I do do once a week) but every day needs a separate entry with book title and page number, and comments using their reading framework.

I also got really ticked off for writing independent reading. It really does need to be attentive listening from the parent (which I am actually fine with).

It’s just very rigid.

[apooagnuandyou]

Since my kids started school, the number of parents I met boasting that they refused to be involved with anything school related because they are "too busy or too important" and teachers are being paid to do their job, not delegate to the parents , it's shocking.

Speaking with friends, it's the same attitude in state school, private schools, grammar...

And I don't think a reading diary is too much effort, it's a boring pain in the arse, but it's 30 seconds of your day.

[inkyscribbler]

Seems ridiculously rigid! I couldn't handle a school like that at all. We've been so lucky that ours just left us be.

[MyCatHatesOtherCats]

You need to try harder, OP. We get regular reminders about the importance of daily reading, which appears to have successfully killed off DC1’s love of books as he now refuses bedtime stories. But never mind - at our school you get a certificate for how many reads you’ve done at home. I was quite annoyed to find this was in my child’s name and not mine. Where’s my certificate?!

[00100001]

@Demelza82

I love doing my son's reading diary but then I don't see supporting my son's education and the work of a school trying to improve themselves as a chore.

🙄

[HowCanYou]

We have to do it on an app since covid. But the app is so difficult to use unless you use a laptop and you can't log in to both DC accounts at the same time so you have to log in and out with a 16 digit code every day. I hate it, drives me mad especially since DS is in year 4, a "free reader" according to his teacher and they never make him bring a book home because he's allowed to chose what he wants to read. Yet they still insist on this bloody diary and it stresses him out if we forget to write in it because they have started a new reward system for reading every day.

[jillandhersprite]

Just do this the night before it gets handed back in. Sometimes the titles are accurate sometimes they are something I can see on the shelf that I know had been read at some point...
I give it the time and energy it deserves of about 2mins a week, whilst doing daily enjoyable reading with the kids...
Even easier with older child who is now on chapter books - they get pages with the same book title for a couple of weeks!

[cakefanatic]

@jillandhersprite we read Sam’s pot this week too

[00100001]

Its surely fairly obvious if kids are reading or not at home?


And they don't have to read just books - if they're reading subtitles, instructions, recipes, emails, signs, pizza leaflets.... they're reading.


All this "YOU MUST READ FROM BOOKS EVERY DAY NO MATTER WHAT" can drive kids away form reading.

[Hotcuppatea]

I feel your pain. My children went to a lovely primary school and received a great education, but I was so happy when the youngest went to high school and I was felt safe in the knowledge that I wasn't going to be asked to come up with another fucking fancy dress costume, tray of cupcakes for the bake sale, sandwiches for class party, etc, etc. It was never ending. I love the way high school just leaves you alone.

[CovoidOfAllHumanity]

That's pretty much what DS and I do

Night before hand in locate diary, fill in approximately what he's done over the week (I will restrain him from outright lying if I spot any) even scatter a few comments if CBA, sign all at once, job done.

[Meowchickameowmeow]

Unless you're going full Pepys on it why is it taking you so long?

[randomlyLostInWales]

I did try filing in our concerns in our over the years it was never looked at so did tick and read - and always got them to get reading dairy and book.

TBH though the reading books from school was never a great experience - we usually had or got better books at home and better support work generally.

When I went in to volunteer got put in with Y5 class - heard them all over the weeks didn't matter if they read at home or not - I put the page numbers read down in their daires then.

[ConfusedAdultFemale]

Extremely glad DC’s school doesn’t do this. My kids love books but I am not sitting recording their expression etc ffs, if the school want to know how well my children can read they can listen themselves.