how well can your five year old read?

[Kelly1978]

I'm just wonderign as I think my dd may be quite far behind. She is recognising a few words now and spelling out words, but still can't read much at all. I missed the parents evening and so I'm still waiting to speak to the teacher.

Dear mums, please forgive me for butting in, I was just reading some of your comments about your kids and they sound very intresting. As you can see my english is not that good, but My oldest son read at 3 years old, he was so intrested in books and he loved me reading to him all the time. He liked the funny ones best!
Because he was my only child, I did not know what to expect.
He never really did the sounds, he also love asking question and playing spelling games. There was no press on him!
When he was 5yrs he could read as a 7 year old could. He had expression and he really loved books. he is now 9yrs and he read as a 14yr old. His favourite books are Harry potter books!
You must read your self and read to your children with expression and get them to largh, when you reading to them.
I have now two boys and the both love books. I have two day of after school TV and the rest of the day are spend on playing with toys and reading.

i checked on the oxford reading tree scheme website for the stage that ds is at.he's 5 nearly 6.their reccomended age for that stage is 7.so quite good.

I was wondering if any one could tell me what DS means?
Hi Alexsmum, I was wondering what the website for the oxford reading scheme is? could you tell us please?
My five year old son last school report said he has a reading age of 7yrs. 3 m. I wonder how they work that out?
My son loves Horrid Harry Books and we read them together which is fun.

Oxford Reading Tree is a reading scheme used in many schools which includes the characters of Biff, Chip and Kipper and develops the Magic Key stories , as a core, with other "branches" into different styles, characters and themes at the latter stages - more info here . Other schools may use Rigby Star, Ginn, or any of a number of other publisher's schemes. There are standard tests for working out a reading age based upon the child reading words, out of context, increasing in difficulty, with the teacher counting up to so many mistakes before cutting off at a position which equates to an age. Or there are crude guides for reading age attached to the different levels of each reading scheme.

Thank you very much Lizs, for the infor. Very useful.
My son is reading GINN books at the moment in school and he is on level 5.
At my son school there is a lot of focus on reading, writing and maths and if a child is not doing well or not making progress then they ask you to vist the school for a meeting with the head and teacher. Some parents really get upset when they have been pulled to the school. They think their child is failing. I get worried sometimes myself and I really push my son to do more work at home, like handwriting, maths. Their is so much competiveness in the school, I just want to run away and block my ears.It makes me put press on my son - whos only FIVE! ( elmie is my sons favourite toy )

Update....

We had the parent/teacher meeting and dd isn't doing very well at school Apparently she has been getting special support with literacy and numeracy, and she is having problems with concentration, copying and thinking. the teacher was great, gave me loads of ideas to take home to help her. I do feel that with extra help she can catch up - she has learned lots so far this year. I don't think it has helped her moving primary school for the third time. Plus the last school wasn't very good.

I was a bit shocked that she has been needing all this extra support and nobody had even informed me of how much she as struggling, and part of me thinks they are pushing rather hard. I am a bit worried about the stress it is causing her, five is so young. I'm going to keep a close eye on the situation though and try to talk to the teacher more.

Kelly, so sorry to hear this. However I honestly think that your DD will be FINE. This is how it is now but when SHE is ready I am sure things will come together for her with school.

I know it's hard but try not to make any judgements about it, just accept the help and praise her up to the skies for trying hard, and then forget school! I think at 5 alot of it is just down to 'readiness' for it all, and that will doubtless come with time.

If it helps, my brother hated school, was very late to read but is extremely intelligent and making a living as a writer.....school is just school, so long as she feels happy she is fine x

ds was 6 last November, one of the oldest in Yr1. I'd say at 5+7m (about the age of Muma's dd, and yours too, Kelly?) he could probably read less than Muma listed. Now he's on Ginn Level 3 or 4 (approximately) which I think is pretty average for Yr1.

I bet by the time your DDs are 6+4m they'll read as well as my DS does now, but because your DDs will be in Yr2 that might still be behind; which is ridiculous. The system is so unfair, it should take more account of brain development and the child's actual age. I am totally with all those saying that they start them too early in this country at school, and on reading especially.