To stop reading with ds?

[ohmaaaan]

Honestly, I am aware of how important it is. But it is an unbelievably frustrating experience and I am worried it’s putting him off reading more than anything else. Would actually really welcome advice on to how to make it less arduous 😩😩

look at 'letters and sounds' so you know what the sounds are and help him segment the words that he finds difficult. See if he can blend it together if not you do it slowly and see if he can hear the word.

No, don't give up and don't leave it for a year...

I know mornings can be mad, but it is a much better time to try.

I would mix the School's provided Biff & Chip, ( Surely those two should be retired by now!!!) in with easy to read books he enjoyed when he was younger.

& keep reading to him, so that he can see the pages when you are reading & use your finger to underline the word you are reading.

You will get past the stage, even though it feels never-ending at the time!!🤗

We read everywhere we went, everything we saw. Road signs, in shops, suitable graffiti, on clothes, the names of cars, shampoo bottles, you get what i mean. They soon learn. We also did alternate words when they were tired or disinterested. Silly voices, or just describing the pictures. Sometimes looking at the pictures helps comprehension too.

We did the same thing with numbers - count everything you do. Steps, fruit in a pack, scooping food on the plate, teddies in bed. The more they can apply it to their own life the easier learning becomes.

Are you reading the books school set? Blanket seems a really hard word.

They learn sounds first. So cat sat bat.

The school books build on pictures and words into small sentences. It's only a couple of pages every day. Shouldn't be too hard or too long.

If he doesn’t know all of his sounds you definitely need to reinforce these first.
do you know which program the school follows? Jolly phonics or read write inc?
The full set of jolly phonics songs are on YouTube, but if he knows WRI they will confuse him.

with most reading schemes the sounds in blanket are learnt in the first half term of reception so in that sense no it’s not a difficult word. The length of it may pose trouble blending wise but it’s certainly doable for most year 1 children.

Get some flashcards to practise the sounds first.

Get him noticing words out and about, can you see the K like at the start of your name, can you see an M sound?

Read to him and stop stressing about him reading. If he messes up black more than once, read it for him and move on.

Just keep reading to him. If every time you get a book out with him it feels like a test you will put him off. He's 5. Make it cosy, snuggly, funny. There are good books, try to find ones that include things he likes such football, animals, dinosaurs. Read books he likes over again, do the daft voices, let them become favourites. There is little joy in it for either of you at the moment.

Take the pressure off and take a break. Read to him for a bit and also read lots of different sources. Don’t make every trip into town a lesson but casually read shop signs, menu’s, labels in the supermarket, street names, busses etc. Stick the subtitles on the tv.

Then when you’re ready to go back to reading take a breath and try and stay positive. Pick a time when he’s likely to be engaged not hungry or tired and just remain neutral if he makes a mistake.

Try reading labels, signs, put subtitles on the tv programmes he likes, recipes you write out and make together, funny flashcards and make them together, card games... read anything and everything.

How old is he and what are you doing when you read with him?

Bedtimes I’d make it relaxing and enjoyable, so this is when you are reading to him. Show him the words so he can follow what you’re reading.

I’d keep him reading to you separate to bedtimes/reading for pleasure and focus on sounding out words. Find out what scheme they use at school and ask advice on how to support your DS on which sounds he needs to focus on. Keep it positive when he doesn’t get it right - “you tried really hard and didn’t give up, I’m so proud of you” or “I can see this is tricky, shall we work it out together?”

Pictures have no place in learning to read, they are only illustrations, not cues.

Keep it really positive, he's likely super tired from school and if he knows he's behind in his reading, might feel reluctant to try. "I love hearing you read, wow you're trying so hard, you are super smart for learning that new sound". Even if you ask him some sounds and he can tell you the ones he knows, that would be helpful to keep them at the forefront of his mind and introduce him to a new sound a day / as soon as he can remember one sound, show him another. Can he read cereal packets, a magazine, the TV guide around the house to keep things interesting and to see that we need reading in every day life, not just for school

That's one opinion.

IMO pictures are extremely useful in children's books for many reasons.

Just words on a page are boring. Imagine trying to learn to read with no images?

Pictures are a useful aid to discuss the story more than what is written. Later helps with inference with is a key skill.

We found flash cards over breakfast for the sounds as well as magnetic letters. We had a metal board and would add the letters and then smoosh them together to blend them. Rude words were the best. B u m f a c e

Alpha blocks also drips it into them. The monster app is good too.

My 6 year old will guess at words purely because he wants to whizz through a book and get it over with, blanket isn’t a tricky word to segment and blend if he knows his phonics so I don’t think it’s the words causing the problem, rather he spotted some words starting with the same letter and hoped a guess would get it right, rather then trying to work it out.
Another vote for 10 minutes reading in the morning rather than the other end of the day, when they are less tired.

Phoenix comics and in particular the Bunny V Monkey and Looshkin stories by Jamie Smart were amazing for my very reluctant reader. The comic format and crazy humour hooked him, and helped him persevere with the words.

One thing l found helpful was making your own books. Get a copy book and begin on page one with his name in a sentence.
Add in the dog little sister, Dad, etc and on each page add to the story. Write about what they did that day trying to integrate sounds he is learning.
I always found children were interested in books about themselves. Could get him to stick in pictures . It will give you all a break from the tedious books.

This.

At bedtime you should still be reading to him.

I would set aside some time after he is home from school to look at words. He won't be able to read pages until he knows how to sound out words. Just two or three words to start with. Then run them into a sentence. Keep it short. Help him if he struggles. Don't let him get frustrated. Gradually build up his stamina. Get him to read a sentence from one of his bedtime books or a comic.

Just keep reading to him at bedtime and when you’re out and about. Some children can never sound it out or understand phonics. My child ‘failed’ every single phonics test they ever did, but could read by sight. This was because we read and read and read some more together all the time. I read to my child every night until they went to secondary school. We both enjoyed it and because a lot of the time they were watching the story and hearing me say the words, it all clicked.

No reason not to discuss the pictures when talking about the story. Using the pictures to help with the words is utterly pointless - there are 450,000 words in English and a reader needs to be able to decode a good several thousand of those easily to read well. I read lots of stories without illustrations, generally the pictures are better, though lovely picture books for children are, of course, wonderful to share with a child.
Inference is an innate skill which grows with reading. If pictures helped then my (sadly given away by my ex) copy of Tractatus would have had pictures of baked beans on toast.

What does DC do when faced with an unknown word, stromkarl, for example, or 'all mimsy were the borogroves'?

Read the short comics on phonics play. They’re free and tailored exactly to the level. Plus they’re 2 pages. Start with the super easy ones to build confidence

I'd advise finding some chapter books and reading to him in the evening. Find something he finds interesting. You read two pages, then if he wants you to read on, he reads the next sentence. You can then go to reading a paragraph etc as he gets better.

I knew ds was really enjoying a book if I picked it up the next day and found he'd moved on several chapters or had even finished it.