school has surprised me!

[blackeyedsusan]

last week I asked for harder words to read... one (or more) groups have been given spellings!

I also asked for more challenging books as the yellow band books were a "little easy." given that we are reading easy chapter books at home they have put her up one band. I am shocked as we normally play a little game every couple of months where I say the books arer too easy and they ignore me and we carry on doing our own thing in our own happy way. once pmt has passed

ok so she could spell the words first time at home and green band is not a big leap, but i do not know whether she will cope with spelling in a test and at least the green band books are a little harder and we can get something out of it now. she has been asked to practice adding numbers in the teens as she doesn't use the number line to count on. (tends to do these things in her head) well we have practised and introduced a strategy of using number bonds of single digit numbers to check teens+ addition (ie if 2 and 4 =6 then 12+4=16 and 22+4=26 etc) doubt that will go down well! I hope she talks about her strategy at school.

I think I want to push for more, but not until she has had time to try out/prove herself for another month or so. (after all she might go to pieces under test conditions and we have a lot of work to do on handwriting) anyone fancy sitting on me and administering the duct tape for the next month?

(disclaimer, i know she is not doing some of the stuff other really bright children do at this age, though she is the top end of normal and I post mainly because i as fed up of the lack of progress ith reading in school compared to home)

ps, sorry about the lack of capitals, intermittent shift key!

off to do more research! (thanks to abigail s who gave me the key!)

Thanks for those links they look fab

He finished yr1 on a 2b for reading & writing, maths was a 2c.

The only thing (IMO) that is holding him back with his reading is he still wants to read it aloud with me iyswim.

I think this is because his little sister is in bed then and he gets "special" time with me. I have suggested doing something else then or he can continue reading in bed by himself, but he wants to "save it to do with me"

He does love to read though, it just has to be with me!!!

I totally get it when you mean how the teacher sees a child too!!! DS is tiny as 31st Aug born and very quiet so they are not always aware he is even there!!! He had a massive problem with bullying a few wks ago which has not helped his confidence

But this new teacher does seem fab for him, fingers X.

Hello Simpson! We have just the same problem as you with books (and DD isn't really old enough for girls friendship stories yet, so she's been reading quite a lot of more boy-style books), I was given tons of good advice on a thread a couple of months ago, which I will try and dig out for you, and have also got some useful advice on Amazon, where a similar question has been asked a couple of times.

To the list you've been given, I'd add:
Magic Tree House (DD loves these and they are quite adventurey)
Horrid Henry (there are a couple of HH early readers which are worth looking out for
Jeremy Strong Pirate School - entry level, and might be part of a reading scheme but our library has them. Also the My Brother's Bottom series. Some of his books are too complex still for DD though
Flat Stanley (very popular)
Mr Majeika (ditto)

DD will also read the Fairy books ceaselessly if allowed, and apparently the Beast Quest books fulfill the same kind of role for boys.

Here's the thread I started a few months back:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gifted_and_talented/a1305788-Early-reader-in-reception-what-to-do-in-the-classroom

And here's the amazon thread too.

www.amazon.co.uk/forum/childrens%20books/ref=cm_cd_rvt_np?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2TFCBPP37ECM4&cdPage=3&cdThread=Tx1TOXZS4M35EJM#CustomerDiscussionsNew

Hope this helps!

I concur with one sandwich, boys will read beast quest ad nauseum, (so, great if you're desperate to get them to read, but best avoided as long as possible, if you want them to read anything else, he's bound to discover them himself at some point anyway). I'm in the same boat with dd1 she's (yr1, age 6, so only a little younger than your ds,) & a good reader (level 9 ORT) & reads school books to me nearly every night, but I can't get her to read on her own for fun! I may have to get some rainbow fairies...but only if she promises to read them to herself!

Well we had a bit of a break through today as DS has been reading beano/dandy comics in bed this eve and this morning he read a book called "Little red Riding Wolf" which although is a bit easy for him, he did it by himself!!!

Unfortunately he hates Horrid Henry with a passion

Will get him some beast Quest books but hold off on giving them to him for a bit.

He is very into Power Rangers and I have bought him (for Xmas) a couple of PR books hoping to entice him

He got the WoW (work of the week) award on friday for his mental maths

Forgot to say onesandwich - thanks for the other tips

He is reading (to me) a Jeremy Strong book his teacher has lent him.

I LOVE teachers who lend books and bother to work out what is really right for a child. DD2 (yr4) has really lucked out with her teacher this year, she was a 4B in reading and writing at the end of yr3 and her teacher has totally got her - worked out the school really didn't have anything to suit and so delved into her collection for a trilogy by an Australian author (first book is called 'The Book of Lies') - DD loves them and as a result is now happy to do the more analytical reading and thinking that she needs to do to work towards the 5C her teacher reckons she can get.

It's the same in maths, this school really spots potential - DD2 was moved up a group in maths last year precisely because she had confidence issues, and it totally worked. All children deserve to have their potential recognised.

i need my dd to go to your dd's school pointythings

Come to Suffolk mrrsshears. We have no hills, but we have some damn good primary schools where I live. And I'll share cake recipes with you too .

Seriously - it makes my blood boil the way bright but quiet children are being let down - I very nearly had a fight on my hand with DD1 (Yr6, and quiet) when her school decided not to set this year - it's SATs year and they thought that the bright ones would drag the strugglers upwards, or something. Cue DD1 being in a group with a NQT - I knew her from before, she explains well, means well - but sat my DD between the two most disruptive boys in the class. When DD told the boys to be quiet (because she wanted to learns something) she got into trouble and teacher questioned her effort and motivation! And I might have bought it, only none of DD's other teachers mentioned her chatting in class, so I was pretty sceptical.

And now (surprise, surprise) they have decided that not setting is not working and thank goodness DD1 is now back in a proper top set, with a very experienced and highly skilled maths teacher.

I am still reeling from being given books from ks2. can not believe that the experience of school has done an about turn. definately need a long lie down. i should be grateful that they have checked this out in the first term of year one. you are lucky with the y4 teacher pointy but what on earth were they thinking about with the maths groups. dragging the bottom ones up? no the bottom ones need small groups and carefully targetted work that takes them through the ork systematically with lots of practical hands on work. lumping them all together is going to disadvantage both groups.

mrs s, hope the teacher being friendly means she has taken advice and is now realising a bit about gifted children (and secretly going oh fuck, oh fuvck oh fuck because she got it so wrong)

I agree with Joyn, the Beast Quest/Rainbow Fairies is quite useful in encouraging them to read on their own. I am not a fan at all, but the library is stuffed with them so couldn't avoid them. So the rule was from the start that no grown up would ever read them to her (and there's also a strict quota of two books with glitter on the front in any one visit!).

Pointythings - I may be joining the stampede to Suffolk too. Not least because our middle schools (Yr 5-8) don't do any setting for most subjects . So we're going to have to stampede somewhere...

And apologies for the mess I made of those links

have you discovered the s.w.i.t.c.h. books? they are very good. they were available on book people website, but they have recently sold out. diary of a killer cat seem ok too, though i have only read one. i also thought ricky rocket was ok and like the animal crackers books which bridge the gap between picture books and chapter books.

rainbow fairies are amazingly well written compared to the princess books we have been given, which are dreadful.

diary of a killer cat not bad, DS has read one of them (to me)

Just checked his school reading diary and the teacher has written loads and has given him quite a few targets to reach.

Getting more and more impressed with this teacher by the day

Oh susan if there is one thing I hate more than the Rainbow Fairies it is those Tiara Club things - both my DDs still get them out of the library every now and then. And I'm not allowed to complain, because my vice is Mills and Boon (the raunchy ones). Aaaargh!

Both the DDs liked Horrid Henry at the end of YrR/beginning of Yr 1 (and no effects on behaviour!) They were also very into two series from the US: The Bailey School Kids ('Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots') which are quite good, but the ones I'd really recommend are the Junie B Jones series - proper chapter books really aimed at that age group and their world, and very funny.

simpson i wish the teacher would give us targets. my head is about to explode from reading through lots of targets. i have yet to find the glossary of terms.

Pointy, they are those ruddy tiarra club things. all those capital letters! why?

Its the first time DS has ever had a target, I think I am in shock!!

Apparently his teacher was also asking him how he is getting on with the book she lent him today, which is good.

Quick question???

If your DC has a reading homework diary, do you write in it any other books they have read outside of the school ones iyswim???

I was told not to bother in yr1 as his teacher basically said he could tell DS read every night.

Target DS got: "locate specific information in the text to find answers to questions"

Simpson,

I've always put in details of whatever books the dcs have been reading. Don't/didnt read with ds every night, since he became free reader, but always got him to read, and often ask him about what he's reading etc. Just stopped being fair, when he'd have been reading of his own accord for an hour or more, while I was busy with his little sisters to then get him to read school books to me. So, the deal I struck with school was to listen to him 2x a week & read on his own the other nights (he's prefered to read on his own since he was 5).

The deal I have with ds is he can read whatever he likes, (match magazine, beast quest, etc,) 2-3x a week & school or other more 'suitable' (Rahl Dahl, non-fiction on school topics, Michael Morgurgo etc,) books 4-5x a week. He reads out loud 2x a week & the rest of the time, I always aim to be on hand when he's reading, so if he's not sure of the meaning of a word he can ask (and the deal includes him asking when he's not sure of a definition). The issue with not reading to a parent is they can misunderstand words by guessing meanings & if they don't ask there & then they'll usually forget.

I do not write other books in his reading list (there would be a lot) he just has his school books noted there. I do listen 4/5x a week as asked by school to him. He reads what he likes the rest of the time.

i do write in other books as I am bloody minded and wanted to make a point that there is quite a difference between the books dd as reading at school and the ones she read at home. ithink I may continue, but the list is a lot shorter now she is reading longer books and we are doing more with each book.

simpson, I recognise that target. (having written it out earlier today. ) i think it is in the useful websites thread, where I have been talking to myself for a couple of days. perhaps it is due to the cold the children have got?

We have space on the inside and outside covers of our reading diaries to write what else they have been reading. I didn't bother for a while, but then realised I was probably doing her a disservice, so when I went into see the teacher last week I gave her a list of a) the books that DD read in a day when she was off sick, and b) what we had just got out of the library to give her a snapshot, and I'll probably do that again when I see a change in what she's reading.

We still haven't quite worked out what to do with school reading books; she reads them as soon as they come in, and then we do them gradually over a week (chapter books). But the vocab isn't that challenging and she can read it with expression, so we don't push it it. And to be honest she spends so much of her free time with her nose in a book that I feel as though it would be more useful if I played catch with her for 15 min each night instead .

We got targets at half term, but DD doesn't have one for reading, and I don't think I mind. They do include learning to embroider on binka though!

Was Diary of a Killer Cat OK? We bought a box set for DD's birthday but then didn't hand it over because I thought she'd be a bit upset by the small fluffy animals that get done in at the start. She couldn't handle Fantastic Mr Fox for similar reasons.

And yes, agree totally about Junie B Jones, we got one out of the library a couple of weeks ago and DD is now working her way through the set. Any more recommendations along those lines very welcome! Simpson - Dirtie Bertie has also been suggested as a good one for boys.

One of DD's birthday presents that she did get was membership of Puffin Post - you get six free books a year (and a good choice) so worth it for that alone but she is very happy with a magazine all about her favourite books (and a fluffy puffin too!). But I mention this mainly because the puffin website actually has really good age appropriate recommendations (i.e. DD is 5 and the 5+ books are about right for her, which is a pleasant change.

We have only read one book of diary of a killer cat and there was no killing in it just general high jinks!!

Cannot speak for the other ones though....

DS very sensitive about certain books too, he is refusing to read one of the secret 7 books as its about a house fire and he seems to have a bit of a fascination with fires (loves his great fire of london book) but at the same time is scared of fire iyswim.

I have the Biff and Kipper books but the stage 10+ ones (I forget what they are called) He also refuses to read those as one of the characters looks a bit like a vampire. He also refuses Horrid Henry as he thinks mummies and daddies should love children the same (his words not mine!!) and he feels sorry for Henry

I think I will start to write all the books that DS reads now. It can only help....

i am having a crisis of confidence. dd has made a non fiction book, with help, though she thought of including an index and glossary. I have taped it into her homework book as it is about the stuff they were supposed to find out about and they have also been learning about non fiction books at school. I am beginning to think that it is a bit too much. the instructions say it has to be the childrens work, (parents can help though) but at 5 children are going to need an awful lot of help to research something. however, i also think that homework is an opportunity to teach her something. I have been trying to teach her about "chapter headings" as part of being able to talk about non fiction books. it was sort of in addition to the homework that she had already done.

Simpson That's exactly the strategy took with both of my DDs and the school really took it on board - they were happy for us to supply the reading books they were using at school rather than limiting the girls to the school library, and it worked really well.

DD1 is now at Middle School and her English teacher also lets her do the same thing as she has already read all the good stuff in the library at school. There are lots of books there that she hasn't read, don't get me wrong, but they are all full of teenage angst and DD just isn't interested. She is reading the memoirs of Gerald Durrell at the moment - it's a huge volume containing 7 of his books, all about animals of course and she loves it. All the political incorrectness and his comments about people make for lots of conversation topics, though...