How do I encourage my son to read to me at home?

[puddle]

My son is in year one and is really well with his reading but I am having problems getting him to read with me at home. The school sends home a book with him and we are expected to listen to him read. The books are ok, they are from the Rigby scheme so much better than ORT. I read to him a lot, always have, and he's enjoying longer books now (for example we are reading famous five at the moment). But he's very resistant to doing it himself even though he can.

I do try and get him reading other things to make it fun - signs, packets of food etc - but I do think he needs to do the reading scheme books too.

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Do the later Rigby oens have the questions and activities suggestions of the early ones. dd is enjoying both the Rigby and ORT ones in Reception and they are fun becasue we count how many times a particular work crops up etc. Alternatively can you take it in turns to read a page or book so it is a more interactive activity.

Yes Liz they do have some questions in them. We do sometimes alternate reading a page each b ut sometimes that becomes a battle too. I think ikt's too 'schooly' for him iykwim. And I really want him to enjoy reading as much as being read to.

puddle, I'm not sure if it's the same in year 1, but we've been told with our reception children (well in advance, cos they can't read yet!) that even when they can read they'll often be too tired to read and want to be read to at home and that that was okay.

Things they suggested was to ask lots of questions about the story, what they think is going to happen next, etc. Deliberately "misread" words to let them catch you out, and generally make it as fun as possible - even if that means that for a while you're doing the reading and not them.

Georgina has a good point about tiredness. Maybe don't bother at all during the week and just try weekend mornings?

Have you tried fridge words? My ds is in Reception and generally can't get enough reading, but sometimes tiredness or boredom (if his book hasn't been changed yet) gets the better of him and he becomes totally uncooperative. However fridge words always grab his attention. I find it best to have only part of the set out, about 20 words or so, and mixed in with other fridge magnets, so that it doesn't stand out as a reading task. This way he gets to practice the same words as in the reading schemes, and can even recreate sentences from them.

PC: are there some good "starting reading" fridge magnets with basic words? Most of the ones I've seen have been aimed at the older reader with fairly long words mixed in...

Georgina A - have a look at these

Thanks - they're fab!

I believe there are, but ds started off all by himself with some freebies that my parents had on their fridge (from BT and OneTell, I think) ! As a result, we have just dug out the poetry magnets that we had when we were DINKYs and had put away for fear of the babies eating them.

5 mins a day really does make a big difference, even if they are tired. Personally, I always made 5 mins reading aloud non-negotiable ... because my boys function best with simple, consistent rules. In practice we've often spent much, much longer sharing books together.

If you want to make a new start on this, how about putting a little sticker in his school reading record every time he reads without making a fuss, then giving him a little reward when he's read every day for a week.

Once you get into a routine you will find he will sit down and read straight away with no problem at all.

Thanks everyone for these useful suggestions - Roisin that was my gut feeling too, that I needed to be a bit firmer about it and establish it as a routine thing. We have just read together before bed and he quite happily did alternate pages with me and then we had a long chat about the story and tried to spot tricky words on a few pages. Then I read to him

That's great Puddle

Glad you have sorted it puddle. My ds goes in phases, we don't often read his school books because they are very boring, and school doesn't seem to care very much, to be honest (his current book he has had since the beginning of term!). So we just read things he likes, like Dr Suess, or I get him to read bits of the books that we are reading together. He seems to have suddenly got going on reading, and now loves to read long chunks of books, but otherwise I just try to catch good moments with him, and make sure that he enjoys reading, and is read to frequently. The only regret I have is that his little sister refuses to let him read to her, which would be great. I don't want to make reading feel like a chore, because it is very important to me that he enjoys it (I am an extreme bookworm). Also what he really enjoys is non fiction, and I haven't found any interesting ranges suitable for a 6 year old to read to himself, with the level of detail he wants (which is everything!). Finally as we have dyslexia very strongly in the family, I don't want to put any pressure on him. I think you just have to try and see what works best.