Reading - school says they should enjoy it but its more like torture

[Bugsy2]

We are expected to supervise our children reading every night and then write the progress up in a reading progress book - this is a state primary btw.
DS is in Year 2 & it is nothing short of torture trying to get him to read. He hates it.
School say, that you should make the reading a pleasurable experience.
Can someone please tell me how???????

Dull sound of Bugsy hitting her head against a brick wall.

It is never pleasurable. I used to fall asleep listening to them. I got a local teen in and she used to fall asleep listening to them. Now I make them listen to each other.... then pop them into bed if they fall asleep. lol

Y2... what you need are some fun books. Roisin has a whole list of good books. What level is his reading at?

Agree with Mars that it's all very well the school saying it's fun when they send them home with trite nonsense with no guns or bombs or fart jokes in (according to ds). How is he actually doing bugsy? Does he hate it because he is struggling or because his reading books are loathesome?

Didn't mean for me Marslady
No chance of me falling asleep, as I am having to point at every word and help him sound words out. He does Oxford Reading Tree - he has made it past the golden key lot & we now seem to be on random tales about "The Long Car Journey" and utter pants crap like that. There are four-six lines of text per page.
He hates it soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much, it is utter misery.

When you say supervise , there are different ways of doing it so it is less "work" - taking turns with pages or sentences, talking about the illustrations, characters, what might happen next, recapping the story so far - so he doesn't actually "read" the whole time.

Marina, think he is struggling a bit. Finds sounding out ridiculously hard. Just makes random guesses at the word & then loses his temper because he doesn't get it right.
My patience & calmness are stretched to the absolute limit of my endurance in an effort to keep it light & him willing to do it.

I went to a presentation about reading in year 1 at ds's school, and it was made very clear that we should not be FORCING our children to do anything. I was afraid I'd come across as a complete slacker, but they were very nice about it. Sometimes we don't finish our weekly quota, and that's fine. They said they do loads of reading practice at school, and reading at home is supposed to be enthusing them, so if they don't want to read the set books, then they can read something else, or be read to. Anything that makes them love books, not groan any time they see one. I found this very refreshing.

Thing is Liz, he can't actually read a sentence - unless it is easy - on his own. If I am not sitting beside him, he just makes it up.

Ok, things that do make it better and also can help them make real progress if they find reading hard. My year 2 ds does, is about to be tested for possible dyslexia, so I know where you are coming from

Read with them. You read a line, they read a line or they read a page, you read a page. This way they can get a sense of the 'story' (and I know that the story can sometimes be a dire ) while not getting bogged down in decoding the text. Sometimes read the words at the same time as them....sounds daft but it does help them to get a feeling of fluency.

Read 'better, more fun' books that are beyond them, but point out the words they can read.

Get books that have text for the kids and text for the adults to read....the apple tree farm books do.

Set aside a short time to do this. When this time is up, finish, don't let it drag out endlessly.

Carrot and stick.....stickers etc for reading without whinging etc

All of these things make reading less awful with my ds and bless him he really finds it hard. Key is making them realise that you read for the story, not just plodding through the words....so whatever you can do to improve the 'flow' of the text helps.

In that case it sounds as if he is at the wrong level, perhaps they have moved him upwarsd too quickly or tried to keep his level age appropriate iwth others in the class, and that will put him off. He shouldn't really be struggling with sentences perhaps just the odd word per line or two. He might benefit from more consolidation at an easier level. Can you speak to his teacher ?

This is what we were told BeckyBS, but in actual fact the reality is very different. The school expect us to do reading every night, but don't offer me any help.
DD is of course keen as mustard & would read with me until her eyes fell out - so it can't be all my fault.

What a shame. Fortunately ds's school really means it. They're lovely. I was swimming against the tide of other parents though, who all seemed to want far MORE reading to come home from school. Perhaps they're fonder of Biff and Chip than I am.

Change the books he's reading. Give him Horrid Henrys. They are fab. Then he can move up to Captain Underpants and things like that.

I found with DS1 the key to keeping him reading was to provide good books. The school books are dullsville! DS1 was into football so I found football stories. Before I knew it he was into Alex Rider books and now reads a wide variety of books. It's a case of sourcing good books for boys. There are plenty out there for girls (if you can stop them from falling into the Jacqueline Wilson trap).

It's a right pain when school tell you what you should be doing but give you no help in achieving it. Grrr

can you just read his favourite books at home for a while - ones where he knows the story and the rythmn, and then say get him to pick out every time you see a certain word - maybe have a race to see who can find the most.

Ie make it fun and not "work".

Bugsy, is he getting any extra help at school for his reading at present?
There are some lovely Usborne Early Readers that he might enjoy btw. Will look at them tonight and see if I can suss out if they are going to be too hard for him just at present though.
Greek Myths, robot stories etc...

I was just talking about this very subject to a friend. My DD when in year 2 hated reading with a passion. She would tell me her Reading book was at school and then tell the techer her book was left at home. This went on for ages until I went into school. On the occassions when DD brought her book home she would stumble over every word(even ones that I knew she knew) When I discusse this with the teachers they said she was fine at school (sorry but I dont beleive them)

This year DD went into yr3 and is starting to enjoy reading and has even asked if she can read to me during the weekend.

I would suggest that you dont read the books he isnt enjoying for a while and try to find something he does enjoy reading, a comic, a letter, anything that he will enjoy its all still reading after all.

ORT arent to everyones liking. If the school insist on him reading them Perhaps you could read a few pages to him first. In the Reading Record simply put "DS and I enjoyed sharing(or reading) this book together".) Remember he doesnt have to read a whole book every night, a few pages will be enough.

Mars, we have horrid Henry's that I read to him & that he really enjoys. He has tried reading them himself, but struggles with the first sentence & refuses to do anymore.
However, thank you for the Captain Underpants suggestion - don't know him, so will be checking him out too.
In fact thank you all - some good suggestions coming through.
Think I may have to do yet another chat with his teacher. Almost a daily occurance at the moment.
In a complete tail spin about his ten times tables too. He has no concept whatsoever how times tables work & the principal behind them (i.e. it is easier to say 4 x 10 than 10+10+10+10. He is supposed to be learning them over half term for a test next week. He says the other children laugh at him because he finds 10 times tables hard. How the hell is he going to cope with 6 times tables? ARGH!!!!!
He is 7 years old.

More dull sounds of Bugsy's head banging against her desk.

LOL, at a whole book BBmum - we are lucky if we manage 2 pages!!! But thank you. It is good to hear that some other children hated reading & then warmed to it as they got older.

don't go for whole sentences - make it his job to read every 4th word, or everything beginning with a given letter.

That way you make a game of it, he concentrates, and he reads - but without getting demoralised because he is stuck on the first word.

I agree with my fellow twin mum!

Ok, sounds like I should ease off a bit & maybe read it with him & do word games - rather than forcing him to read. I'm slightly worried that is a cop out though & because his concentration is so poor, he'll be daydreaming while I'm reading.

Bugsy......... babe I ignored all of my children successfully for years and 2 of them got into selective schools and the others seem to be managing!

Fret not babe! Reading will come!

If he appears to drift prompt him about what you have just read or might happen next, to keep him on task. tbh I don't think the odd missed/inserted word, guess from context or paraphrasing is the end of the world as it shows he has taken it in anyway.

DS's teacher was adament that forcing was not the way to go. She said it is all to do with confidence building - and keeping it fun. And then it "clicks" as someone else said - a bit like riding a bike - the look of delight on their face when they realise they can do it.

With my scatty 5 yo I read a story then we caht about it, not me asking him direct question but more like WOW thats was a bit scary what would you do if the dragon as in your garden, you found a dirty old key, a dog knocked down your washing etc. just to try to encourage him to see it as a fun thing.

Also little things like fridge magnets, write a little message each night, just simple things like, do you want water or juice in your lunchbox?, Have a good day?, Have you got PE today? WE have a white board where we all write messages to each other for fun. Also when you go shopping ask him to write a little shopping list then let him read it and collect the things when you go shopping!

HTH