Teaching a child to read off your phone is rubbish!

[eeliie]

My ds has to read daily and today we gave it a go. We sat together with my phone in my hand and opened up the ebook.

Ds started enthusiastically, then my phone zoomed in and wouldn't zoom back out until I turned it on and off.
We loaded it back up read a few pages then the same thing happened.

Poor ds sat staring at my small screen trying to read the words all the while a bright light was glaring back at him.

Yes I know my phone is crap,
I know we could read a proper book but the teacher specifically wants them to read this book,
I know it's making the best of a bad situation,

But it's still rubbish!

Also, tell school you can't do it on the phone. Ask if you can pop by school and pick up some books - they'll have them as under normal circumstances they'd be dishing them out

@ElliFAntspoo

How many people have real books in their hone? How many people read real books with their kids? Our local library has been closed not for 10 months. We're stuck with the books we got out last March.

Everyone I know has real books at home. I didn’t have any kids books but when my baby was born last year got given some and bought some myself. They are a few pounds on Amazon. Reading to kids is really important from day 1.

We've just picked up a stack of reading books for ds from school. Would that be a possibility?

Books are exceptionally cheap. Second hand for pennies, brand new for a £1. I don’t believe that ‘most people’ don’t have books in their home, my 2 year old has hundreds 😳

My reception age DS’s school is doing a brilliant job overall of remote teaching but they asked us to fill in a survey today and my only piece of negative feedback was the lack of reading resources. They have sent us the link to get free ebooks on the Oxford Owl website but DS dislikes reading off a screen - like you, we found it difficult to zoom in and out and kept jumping onto different pages when we didn’t want to etc. And that was on an iPad, so bigger screen that you’re trying to work with.

We have bought a set of biff chip and kipper reading scheme books like a few others have suggested but I appreciate not everyone can afford to do that. And to people saying just read another book with them, that’s not very helpful because the child is unlikely to be able to read more than a handful of words in a non-reading scheme book.

Of course most kids have books at home

Again, of course most people have books at home. But I don’t think most people have reading scheme books at home, which is what the OP was complaining about. We certainly didn’t, until we bought some recently, because they were supplied by school. Now they’re not.

I got some great books from amazon wrote by Julia Donaldson stage 1 an 2 costs about £6 a book but they have about 6 /7 stories in. My LG wouldn't read from phone or computer so theses books have been great for her.

Have you checked how much this book and similar ones are on Amazon used? You can get bargains on there - and probably lots of other shops if you aren't keen on Amazon. Is money very tight? Your child reading from a phone isn't sustainable. If family buy him gifts for birthday and Christmas, always ask for books.

I hope you can find a solution. I would also say any real book is probably better than your phone.
The library I work at is open (for some things) and doing a roaring trade in first reading books at the moment. It is worth checking your local branch.

OP I have just ordered this from amazon theres quite a few short stories in there to go through. DS school reads a lot of Julia Donaldson books so I'm hoping he's familiar with them. Weve also tried Oxford owl which is OK on the laptop but useless on my phone plus he prefers an actual book too so he can point to the pictures without it turning a page or zooming in

There are a significant number of children who don’t have books at home. There always have been.

OP ask on your local Facebook group if anyone has any of the print books, if I wasn’t using them for my youngest I would happily send you some. Or if you are able I would look online, they tend to be easy to resell after. I don’t like reading on a screen and I don’t think it’s a great way to get little ones into reading.

Of course most kids have books at home

And you’re basing this on what exactly?

We have hundreds of children's books at home, but I am aware that many children don't. DH grew up in a house without books. Also, we have hundreds of books, but last year when DC2 was in Reception we didn't have any Level 1 reading scheme books (I think we have a level 3 and a level 6 Biff, Chip and Kipper that we have been given second hand from somewhere) and I don't think that's unusual. We used Oxford Owl website, but we are lucky enough to have an ipad which worked better than a phone screen would have.
Maybe contact your school and ask if there is a solution. They might be able to lend you a book or might have access to a better device for reading off if you only have your phone.

"Of course most kids have books at home

And you’re basing this on what exactly?"

I'm basing it on the fact that schools give them away, book start or whatever they're called give them away and people buy them as gifts as they're cheap and seen as a good gift.

Do you believe that most children don't have books at home?

I know some very poor and struggling parents. Reliant on foodbanks. They all have books at home for their children though.

Some children in this country start school not knowing what a book is

@ineedaholidaynow

Some children in this country start school not knowing what a book is

The number of children who start school having never gone to any kind of nursery or childminder must be extremely low.

I'm reluctant to purchase a book that ds will ( hopefully) outgrow within a very short time. It is not a book he will be interested in once he's more advanced.

We have lots of picture books and story books, but I want ds to be able to read the whole book by himself.

Unfortunately the local library is closed.

I think I will call the school on Monday and see if they can provide a few books for ds.

I’ve done many years of nursery home visits.
The number of households with a books shelf, that I saw, is in the minority in the area I teach in.
We asked children to bring in their favourite book, only one child in the class brought in a proper story book. Everything else was fairy or digger picture books. When I pull out a Julia Donaldson (surely standard issue) only one or two children recognise them.
The reasons for this are many, but you can’t say that every child has books just because yours does.

I'm basing it on the fact that schools give them away, book start or whatever they're called give them away and people buy them as gifts as they're cheap and seen as a good gift

Book start do give, I think, 2 books on birth. Who knows if they are kept?

Schools do not routinely as far as I know and there are many children out there who never receive books as gifts, as I really shouldn’t need to tell you.

So nice try, but no cigar.

"but you can’t say that every child has books just because yours does."

No, but then I didn't say that did I? I said "most".

Funny that this is a thread about being able to read

"The number of households with a books shelf"

Never heard it called a "books shelf" before but I know lots of households that would keep their books in the bedrooms or the upstairs landing within easy reach.

We've had visits over the years from school staff but none have ventured upstairs before and certainly didn't search the house.

I think most children have some books at home. Most. Not all. But most.

I remember meeting the parents of an ex. They used to get the Mirror newspaper every day & the only books they had in the house were a Gideons Bible & an Atlas. They both left school at 14 & didn't hold much with learning. I'm not entirely sure that the father could write - the mother only wrote in capital letters.
My ex learnt to read at school. Any books he needed were borrowed from the school or library. When I met him, he didn't have any books in his flat - unlike his parents, he didn't get a newspaper, just watched the news or listened to the radio.
Some people just don't read. It doesn't mean they can't, it's just not something they do for pleasure.

I think most children have some books at home. Most. Not all. But most.

You have no evidence for that though, other than ‘you and people you know’ have.

Our local library is closed for browsing but you can call to order and collect.

Depending on your TV could you display the image on it? I know on one of ours I can ping it across from phone to tv.

What about hand writing it and the illustrating it together? Make it into a comic task?