Reception children given ebooks

[Santacat]

Our school is issuing reception children with ebooks available via a portal online this year instead of a traditional book. They've changed how they teach phonics and don't have enough reading books.

I'm so sad about this. More screen time, removing the ability to spontaneously pick up a school book to read.

My eldest learnt the traditional way, and whilst it was a battle at the beginning, he now loves a book.

Has anyone else's child learnt to read via an ebook? Looking for some reassurance that it will foster a love of reading!

DD had a mix in Reception... a book sent home and access to more online.

Schools lose lots of books each year... damaged, not returned, just gone walkies to another part of the school... I understand why this is happening

Mine had both as he was in reception when there was the winter lockdown.

People take books and don't bring them back. Can't you go to the library and get some books out?
Parents complain whatever we do it's exhausting.

Monster Phonics by any chance?

Join the PTA and help fundraise for more resources? School budgets get tighter every year - look up your school on the Stop School Cuts budget to see what they're having to deal with:

https://schoolcuts.org.uk/schools/

Surely you can go to a library? Books are dirt cheap. Go onto your local FB area group and ask too. You can get bundles of books for few pounds.

Dd7 learnt through a mixture of books. I’ve had several conversations with her recently about not reading while walking down the stairs, at meal times and while brushing her teeth. You need to make sire your child is exposed to a range of book at home anyway so I don’t think it’s a big deal.

Julia Donaldson’s songbird phonics books are good if you wanted to buy some early readers.

Unfortunately the phonics books we have to buy are not " dirt cheap" , they cost us around £4 per book. Too many go home and are never returned. This means that, when the books are taught in school, we don't have enough and children are sharing, there aren't enough for the next group to have one each sent home and parents complain that their child doesn't have one! We cannot afford to keep replacing them. We have now told parents that, if books are not returned, they will be charged the cost of replacement.

Nope, I can't go to a library as they want us to read the very specific ebook.

I have a lot of phonics I bought for my eldest during lockdown collecting dust that I'm told we can't use because they want us to use this method.

I don’t understand why you cannot supply traditional books to your kids regardless of school policy?

We take the bus to town on alternate Saturday afternoons and get up to 25 books for each kid for entirely zero cost. We reserve books they wish to read next on the library app and they’re waiting in a bundle for us the next time we go. Kids are currently aged nearly 4, and just turned 8.

What? The school had prohibited you from going to your local community library and borrowing books? As in you cannot borrow any random Gruffalo, Picture books whatever dinosaurs planets history book catches your eye?

Books are about more than phonics as you surely know given your love of all things traditional so are school prohibiting you from walking or catching the bus or driving to the local library to take out a free membership for your smalls and letting them loose in it and sit on the library floor of a Saturday to pick their own fancies?

Our school does this but uses a system that isn't compatible with phones ...which is fine if you have other devices in the house but we don't! We just don't engage with that piece of work.

I suspect that the OP means the " practice book" that the children are working on to learn the sounds they cover that week. Our children learn 3/4 new sounds each week and have a reading book they use during the week which practices these sounds and others they have already learnt. At the end of the week, the book goes home to be read a few times so the children can practice their learnt sounds a little more. It seems that the school doesn't have enough books to go home so is using the ebook version instead. The OP isn't talking about books in general!

Thanks to those who have provided me with reassurance that their children have used ebooks at such a young age successfully.

In a world where parents are constantly blasted for their children's use of screens, it's ok for parents to be nervous about even more screens.

My son’s school introduced this last year and I felt really bad as I loved a real book as a child (in spite of undiagnosed dyslexia). I get him 5 library books a week and he reads a mix of online and real books. He loves choosing his own books and we have a real chat about them whereas he seems to rush through the online ones.

No. They're given a whole book online via an app/website that is the only way they can read their reading level book.

I ended up buying the Oxford reading tree sets (not the books the school uses) so we can practice similar style to that taught in school. Between that and normal picture books (and having a child that happily reads the back of a cereal box) they don't seem to be behind their peers.

Don't understand why you need to read the specific book at home either?

We are lucky in that our son is sent home with actual books. They are not changed often though. It's the Little Wandle programme and I suspect his reading level has progressed beyond what he's given. We may read it once. However they are pretty dull and do not capture his imagination at all. Reading school books was always a chore!! Instead we get books out the library and he reads these to us together every night at bed time. We have a fiction and a non-fiction. They are perhaps slightly above his reading level. However we work through together. Because they are on topics he's interested in, he's always keen to try. He'll chose the books from the library. We've been doing this since September and the progress he's made is quite impressive. Literally just reads us four pages a night. Obviously he's doing the foundation stuff at school.

I wouldn't be happy about the screen time either. But completely understand why it's happening. The state of school budgets after years of Tory cuts is depressing. I'd just sack it off and get books from the library. You'll be amazed at the selection for all levels of child reader. Charity shops are good too.

I think the important thing is to sit down and read with and to your child daily.

No, I'm not talking about books in general. Obviously we read those to.

I'm talking about the ebook that the school say I must read with my child every day associated with that weeks phonics lesson.

Anyway, was looking for assurances as my teacher friends have really balked at the idea when I've asked them about it. It's not very common

Which is what I said! It's the reading level book which is their practice book, this is the one that matches their phonics learning. It is a " whole book" and with some phonics schemes it is available as an ebook as well as a real book. Some schools use the real book in school and the ebook at home, it saves books getting lost!

I should add - I also worked out what reading stage my son was at. Then got similar level books from the library. So it was reinforcing learning from school. That was in R and Y1. He wasn't on Little Wandle then, the school just didn't change the books very often. So he wasn't being stretched as he'd just learn / remember and repeat rather than actually read what the book said 😬🤣

@Santacat

When we swapped over to Little Wandle, we considered using ebooks instead to be read at home. It was the cheaper option , having spent nearly £15000 on books and resources for use in school. But, like you, we prefer real books! I can see how some schools would go down the ebook route though!

Could you screen shot it and print it out, if you'd rather avoid extra screens?

We photocopy and send out a stapled copy with the children. It's probably not allowed, but the school can't afford the books, and many of our families don't have furniture let alone apropriate devices for online learning, so needs must... I imagine a screenshot version would work just as well.

I was agreeing with you @spanieleyes :)

I also totally understand the financial drivers. It's little wandle they've just switched over to aswell.

V interested in others experiences of ebooks, is all.

During lockdown we were encouraged by school to use the epic website to read books online and the children would get house points for each book they read. My dc struggled with it though so we just read the normal books we had at home.

We only had ebooks for most of reception and year 1 due to covid.

It’s only their phonics books, you can make sure they have access to plenty of other real life books via the library.