How much reading do you do with your infant school age children?

[emkana]

I was talking to two friends (separately) about how much reading they do with their children - one of them has just started in Year 3, one of them has just started Year 1. My dd has just started Reception and she certainly cannot read yet, but I'm beginning to wonder what I'm going to do! The Year 3 mum said she often didn't do any reading in a day with her child, just let him read by herself while she sort of listened while doing the chores. The other mum said that she wasn't too bothered about reading at home either, IHO they do enough reading in school. Do they?
How much do you do/should you do?
So far we have just made sure that dd has at least one story to her read a day (at bedtime), but on most days it's far more than that.

I think everyone differs - we are all big readers in this house. I read a bedtime story every night to both mine (together). Dd (in yr1) gets a reading book twice (sometimes 3 times) a week - she reads that to me and as the books are very long, sometimes she'll read the whole thing, sometimes just half. Mine will also both look and read books independently before school or in their rooms. I never force them to read, even for their homework but luckily they both enjoying reading and being read to so we haven't had a problem yet (although I'm sure we will with writing as dd hates that!).

DS is year one. He brings a book home every day and we read it together. he also brings home a couple of reading scheme books a week and he reads this to me. We have stories with dd too at bedtime - generally 3-4.

We have always read to him a lot and I don't make a distinction at the moment at home between him reading and being read to. It's more imporatant he enjoys it so I don't push it if he doesn't want to read at the moment.

I think there must be a huge range of what's OK - maybe be guided by school, and also by how much they enjoy it? I think our school says get them to read to/with you every night, for 10 mins for reception/year 1, up to 30 for year 2.

I'm the same as binkie, chloe has just started yr 1 and she fetches home books and word cards every night of which i do with her every night, as although people say the teachers are there to do these things, there are too many kids to be able to do to best of their time and ability as a teacher.
I think if you have the time, then it is worth doing for your childs educational needs and knowing that you support them with learning.

dd1 is in Year 1, she has an ORT/other schemes book every night to read + a library book once a week. I read to them every night and again at the weekend in the day.

DD is in Year 2. She brings a book to read which we tend generally every night or every other is she's tired. The books have just started getting longer though so she doesn't finish them in one go. I read a bedtime story to her everynight. She has been through phases though when she didn't want to read to me, so I left that alone until she wanted to again.

my little boy is in reception (4 1/2yrs) and has just started getting reading books (ORT). he also has letter sounds to learn. We spend 15-20 mins every night on them.....

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Just 5 minutes a night, every night, makes a HUGE difference to children's reading. Many of them will get little or no one-to-one time at school. Parents can make a big impact here.

With my boys anything negotiable causes stress! So we've always had reading as a 'non-negotiable' part of the evening, 5 mins minimum. Though usually they choose to read for much much longer than that!

My daughter is in P1 and she has a words box and wordwall everynight plus 2 ORT books from school per week.
She has 2 bedtime stories every night unless very tired plus she will look at books on her own

ds1 (yr2) loves reading but often doesnt read his school reading book because he classes it as dull (which it is!). im not going to stop him reading roald dahl books so he can read about jane and jim going to the park, unfortunately school say they have to keep on with the standard reading books so it looks like i do almost none with him.

ds2 (yr1) dislikes reading so we usually just do a few pages of his book a couple of times a week. he does love being read to tho and we always have bedtime stories which i think helps them develop a love for books. i think he dislikes it because he knows he isnt as good at it as me and ds1. he gets loads of praise when he gets it right tho and is getting to enjoy it more as he learns more words.

ds3 is 16 months and always asks to be read to! often i let him point out the pictures rather than me doing it. that was the first thing they taught the older ones to do at school so he is getting a head start

year one and year two:probably only on Sundays!!!However, first daughter has just started in YEAR 3 and she brings home a book every night to read to me. To be honest, I probably didn't spend enough time with her in the beginning yet younger son and daughter seem to have picked reading up really quickly! So it's not all our fault Mums....it depends on the kids aswell!!!

Gigglinggoblin - do you have a reading diary/reading record to write in? Our school ask parents to write in it every time they hear their child read: whether it's a school book, a book from home, a library book, or The Beano! Then they have an idea how much reading the children are doing, and what sort of materials they're reading.

Now that DS1 has moved into Juniors I still hear him read a few pages most nights, mainly for vocabulary discussion - and I still read to him every night too, though now we usually 'share' the book.
We used to read every night pretty much, though not always at weekends - 5 minutes every day is really helpful for reinforcement. DS2 in Reception now reads to me every day even though he hasn't brought home any books from school yet.

we have a diary for school books but have never thought of putting home books in it! might do that in future am really proud of the way he has been reading such long books

we also have a reading diary but only for the books that come home from school. We are quite lucky in that dd's school lets her pick her own book as long as it is in the right colour band (although they do ORT, I think they have other schemes for extension reading and all books seem to have a colour sticker on) so we get some exciting books as well as the standard ORT ones.

emkana - I would try and spend about 10 minutes a day. The more often your child can read at home the better. It's better to do a little and often. If your child is in a class of 30 imagine how much time it will take the teacher to listen to all 30 children read: 10 minutes each = 6 per hour = 5 hours! That doesn't even allow time for writing notes and changing books. Most teachers can only listen to each child once per week in reception. This alone isn't enough.

I read at least one book everyday to my children, DD is in Year 2 and DS has just started Nursery. They both love books and DS knows he can't read (he is always telling me!) but he likes to look at the pictures.

emkana, I do apologise - I have not read the thread, but just wanted to say if you want advice on reading do a search on "Catflap". She has posted loads of useful information on here about teaching children to read. I followed her advice and taught my son to read when he was in Reception last year - he is still learning, of course, but I just used Jolly Phonics, like she suggested, and he is one of the best readers in his class now. The Jolly Phonics steps are on the JP website (www.jollylearning.co.uk - go to the messageboard, back to May 2003, a post called "JP Steps" and that will tell you pretty much everything you need to know).

Best of luck!