What books are/were your LO's reading....

[Sugarbeach]

towards the end of Year 1?

Do you sit with them while they read aloud or do you leave them alone to read at that age?

[milkybarkidsgirlfriend]

omg my daughter y3, has just finished the Harry Potter books, and i thought she was a little genius for getting through them! i was obviously very wrong. Her class started reading the first one together at the start of the school year, and they then continued alone.

[WillowFae]

propatria can't help with levels at the end of KS1 as DS is in a prep that doesn't use levels.

[WillowFae]

At the end of Year 1 he was reading things like Magic Treehouse and Jack Stalwart. He had also just started the Harry Potter books. He is now in Year 2 and finished the 7th HP book about 2 months ago.

We had real problems during Year 1 where he just showed no interest in reading and was quite far behind his classmates on the reading levels. Then, as someone else has said, something clicked (HP books were largely responsible) and that was it. He now has the highest reading age in his class. His whole class are on free reading now.

[dragonmother]

Namechanged by the way as I'm more of a dragon than a kitten

[dragonmother]

Interesting as I suspect that is the same then. Which is quite reassuring!

[SE13Mummy]

She's down on the system as a 2B.

[kittenmother]

Thanks SE13 - I am being very nosy but am curious as ds sounds similar in terms of what he reads.

We have that typical issue - at home he reads something like Fantastic Mr Fox fluently with maybe one or two words he needs help with per page - both to understand their meaning and decode. He uses good expression and understands what he's reading. Meanwhile he is on reading books far easier at school (ORT 10 I think). His teacher is super-cautious with moving them up.

To answer the OP's questions, we do have him read to us but not every night due to lack of time and the fact he's a good reader so I don't see the need.
He reads Roald Dahls - sometimes read by us, sometimes he reads them alone, likes Frog and Toad (very easy but he enjoys them so who cares), and some non-fiction books.

[Yellowstone]

Cannot begin to imagine a DC having read the whole HP series by the end of Y1. Language is incredibly advanced, even for a gifted Y1 and much of the content is dark.. Amazed anyhow.

I read their reading scheme books with my first six DC until Y3 or 4 I guess but have been slacker with DC 7 and 8. Their reading ability and vocabulary is pretty much the same as the elder DC. I had to encourage the boys more, with Artemis Fowl and Alex Rider and the other 'boy' books, but once they got interested they were off.

Don't know what the youngest's reading age is (Y4) but she's reading HP atm and picks up all sorts of different level children's books that we've accumulated over the years. I think enjoying a book and understanding its content is more productive than straining to read a book which a DC barely understands. She's read two thin Roald Dahl's today (an inset day) because one of the older DC has made off with HP#3.

[DilysPrice]

DS is the youngest in yr 2, so comparable with the oldest in yr 1 IYSWIM and he's currently reading Horrid Henry, Horrible Science, Captain Underpants, and anything to do with Top Gear.

[SE13Mummy]

I've been found out ... I don't actually know, I have access to her level should I wish to find it. I'll finish my marking and have a look later.

[kittenmother]

So what level was she Se13? Sorry to ask but am curious now!

[SE13Mummy]

DD1 is in Y1 and loves reading. She reads a lot to herself but also enjoys reading picture books to DD2 (aged just 2) and will read chapters of her latest book out loud to us. Her current favourites include Milly Molly Mandy, My Naughty Little Sister, Roald Dahl (Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, George's Marvellous Medicine) and Pippi Longstocking. She also loves books about the solar system, the Victorians and wildlife.

Over half-term she read Heidi (the Puffin classic - lots of old fashioned language) and is now onto The Little Princess (also Puffin classic). She has surprised DH and I with how much she has absorbed and understood but, given her interest in all things 'olden days' perhaps it's less of a surprise.

I'm a teacher at DD1's school and know her reading 'level' because I am the assessment co-ordinator. To be honest, it is of little interest to me except as one data point in an data set of 400 children.

She reads a range of material, can understand it, explain it and process it but also enjoys doing so. That's a reading level I'm happy with.

[letthembe]

There is a huge difference between decoding and comprehending, and that's where the difference in reading levels comes. If children are to love reading they must understand what they are reading, not simply decoding.

[simpson]

DS loves reading (ORT level 9) but he hates the horrid henry books....

ATM he likes Roald Dahl and I have just got some books from the library "Happy Families series (there are 16 althogether) which he is happy to read by himself without help from me, although they are a little easy, he is happy to do it by himself, so I am not going to argue!!

Don't think my DS would be into HP TBH, it would not rock his boat iyswim....

Don't know what level reading he would be assessed at but he is in top set for reading....

[SofaQueen]

Can't answer the level on ks1 question as DS1's school doesn't do SATs. TBH, I don't think that the ability to read HP equals exceptional ability. They are interesting stories, particularly for fantasy action obsessed children and most of the other boys in DS1's class have read some of the books to date (Year 2). I know that DS1 is doing well (top 1 or 2 in his year group), but reading HP is not the thing to me which indicates his current ability.

[propatria]

I was wondering if teachers in their assessments found that reading hp in year 1 had translated into ks1 results.

[exexpat]

Propatria - ability to read Harry Potter at an early doesn't necessarily correlate with Sats scores in my experience.

DS read the first five books of HP when he was six (all that were published then) and understood them pretty well as far as I could tell. We weren't in the UK then, so don't know what his Sat score at the end of yr2 would have been, but when he was in yr6 (age 10) to everyone's surprise he only got a 4 in KS2 Sats for English - despite being an advanced and voracious reader, and having already been accepted into a selective independent secondary school, with a place on their gifted programme (and he's been getting A*s all the way in secondary). But he does have atrocious handwriting (his Sats papers had to be transcribed) and he found the whole sats preparation and testing process mind-blowingly boring....

DD on the other hand was reading Rainbow Fairies, Horrid Henry, Jack Stalwart etc in yr2 - didn't get round to Harry Potter until she was 8 - but scored 3s in everything in her yr2 Sats.

[lljkk]

DD was most certainly NOT up to reading HP in Yr 1. She spent 4 months of y2 reading only Calvin + Hobbes. She got Level 3s in her y2 SATs for literacy things, end of ks1. They don't test higher than L3.

DD still hasn't read HP now (end of y4).

[TheLadyEvenstar]

DS1 had also finished the HP series before the end of yr1.
By the time he was halfway through yr2 he was reading yr6 books and by yr3 there wasn't a book he hadn't read I ended up supplying him with books.

[Saracen]

None, she couldn't read at all at that age. I used to read to her, Swallows and Amazons, E Nesbit, Little Grey Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, and a bit of nonfiction from time to time.

[propatria]

Could those parents whose dcs were reading HP in year one tell me what sat reading level they were given at the end of ks1?

[circular]

Dr Seuss, Rainbow Fairies, Enid Blyton Faraway tree, Road Dahl, Horrid Henry

[DisparityCausesInstability]

My kids loved Horrid Henry, Worst Witch, Flat Stanley, Rainbiow Fairies, picture books, Jerermy Strong, Beast Quest, Astrosaurs....in fact these books are still being appreciated over and over again.

[DisparityCausesInstability]

DS reads Harry Potter - he gets the plot but no doubt misses a lot - at 7 he just doesn't have the life experience to fully appreciate the books. I hope he will read them again when they are more age appropriate but atm I have told him he can't watch the films till he has read the books - bad idea imho.

[SofaQueen]

Toadinthehole - I started reading the first Harry Potter to DS1 at beginning of year 1 but I wasn't reading enough/fast enough so he would take the book after I was finished and read on. I just let him continue at his own pace, on his own. Because he was taking the books into school with him to continue reading there, his teacher let him use the HP books as his reading books. I did try and stop him reading the series after Order of the Phoenix, but he would sneak them under his covers so I let him finish the series.

In all fairness, he was six when he was reading the books, not 5 (he is a November baby). Also, I don't think that his reading is that unusual as most of the boys in his class seem to have read some of the HP series by this point now in Year 2.