free reading at 5, in y1/2 class worried this will leave her at a disadvantage.

[festi]

my dd is on the last level her school offer in guided reading, the books are still fairly basic, interms of words grammer etc, but the content is still quite challenging at times for dd covering topics and contexts she often needs lots of discussion and explination.

Im thinking of asking for her to repeat this stage as Im concerned that she will just simply give up reading without the routine of me writting in her book etc.

would I be best letting her repeat these books or move on to library books? also the problem with this is her ability to choose a book in the library that will stretch her. she will happily read biffs magic key etc, as she skipped most of these books and is a bit enviouse of this.

she is reluctant to build her stamina with books at home, so my plan is to replace all her enjoyable books with more challenging books at christmas and doisplay her new books and put the easier ones in the wardrobe, where she can still look at them is she wants to, in the hope she will read with more interest the harder books at home.

how have others found the support from school for early free readers?

My son has just become a 'free reader' after finishing Bif, Chip, Kipper (he's also 5). He was getting 3 books a week, 1 ORT and 2 of his choice at a similar level. Now that he's finished them he chooses his own 3 books which are similar sized and style as the 2 he chose before but slightly harder (or are often non-fiction and so often have harder bits in them).
He still gets heard reading once a week as before so it's made no difference in terms of the support he gets at school.

Will your dd not do reading at school anymore?

they dont read 1:1 to the teacher weekly. for guided reading once a week, they mix the groups up in terms of abilty and read to each other. This is over seen by the teachers and TAs, which works well for the other children but does not make too much difference to my dd. The teacher works her way through the class in these sessions so my dd maybe reads every two to three weeks to the teacher. However from what dd tells me her and a few others do extra work with one of the TAs daily, but this is varied between number and literacy work.

my dd will generaly gust grab what is clest to hand, so if left to go and chose their own books which currently thye do, Im not convinced her choices will be wise.

she reads her school reading books at home but other than just flicking through books in bed and reading the easier picture books she will reluctantly share a chapter book with me, if we do she will say im to tired etc you read it. so I have bought her lots of peom and nursey rhym and fabels for christmas, as they look lenghthy with the hope she will have fun with them and not realise she is reading lots, but Im worried this will also not be enough to get her to continue with following a story as she is doing on the reading level.

There are additional packs for the books, at each stage of books if you want your dd to still have structured reading books. There are so many additional packs they would take quite a while to get through (believe me, ds1's school believes in every child reading every single blooming book on every level. It is a wonder he has made it to level 10 at yr2, given the sheer volume of biff, chip and floppy we have had to sit through).

Op,I don't know why you are worried about moving her to library books.My Ds2 started reading chapter books when he was in reception.He hardly read any reading books and I didn't see any problem.He is completely on a reading to learn level, basiclyjust reading everything, however, I do need to go over the contents roughly.I found most information books are fine and school life based chapter books are more suitable for his age. One thing like you said,they are young, might still be interested in young children 's book. It doesn't hurt, I would just let them.Many young children's book are very inspring for writing, like Julia Donaldson' s several fantastic stories.

Don't take away her easy books! She's only 5- she doesn't need stretching or challenging. Just let her look wt picture books, read to her loads and loads and relax. She'll get there. But if you put any pressure on her at all, she'll get anxious about it and not want to try for fear of getting it wrong.

Ds was free reader at start of yr 1, & while I encouraged chapter book, have never had a problem with him reading shorter or less challenging books, when he chose to. Theyre still very young & likely to enjoy picture books & some chapter books although suitable for their reading ability aren't great content wise.

Also i dont think that just because they're free reader doesnt mean you should stop writing in their reading record book. I still write in ds's every night (he's yr3 now,) with details of what hes read. I regularly ask him about what he's been reading & still listen to him 2x a week, to share the experience with him, & to check his (as a whole & individual words,) & the suitability of the book.

there is lots of interesting language in picture books and some of them can be at a fairly high level. (up to white level 10, eg katie morag) i have found that dd, age 5 needs to expand her vocabulary with a range of picture books and early chapter books. she needs to practice retelling the story, talking about the characters feelings, thinking why pepole do things, what she thinks is going to happen next. all this she can get from picture books. she also gets great pleasure out of rereading the ort read at home books, even the first level books and some of her baby books. this is important as it gives her a love of reading which in turn encourages her to read more.

your dd is still 5. however good a reader she is she is still 5 and 5 year olds need learning to be fun. use the new books to practice reading a little bit everyday with you and let her read and reread the books she already has for pleasure.

thanks for the advice everyone. I was worried about her moving up as I felt although she is capable of reading at the more advanced level, I feel she not quite ready.

you have just confirmed what I was thinking, not to push it. I will allow her to continue at her own enjoyment and comfort. Like others have pointed out I think at 5 the challenge could be counter productive in reducing her enthusiasm.

I agree, take her to the library and show her lots of tempting books (with lots of pictures) that might challenge her a bit more (and listen to her read them), but don't push it, and if she wants to read Biff and Chip for an

I agree, take her to the library and show her lots of tempting books (with lots of pictures) that might challenge her a bit more (and listen to her read them), but don't push it, and if she wants to read Biff and Chip for another 6 months then it's no big deal.
The big toddler picture books that are intended for parents to read aloud can also be very valuable for young beginner readers to read themselves - they feel reassuring and childish and have lots of colours, but the vocabulary and sentence structure can be much more adventurous than "early readers".

"she is reluctant to build her stamina with books at home, so my plan is to replace all her enjoyable books with more challenging books at christmas and doisplay her new books and put the easier ones in the wardrobe, where she can still look at them is she wants to, in the hope she will read with more interest the harder books at home. "

Oh,please, please don't do this! Especially for Christmas!

Im not talking war and peace or anything and she will still have access to them. they wont all fit on the book case anyway, so some of her books are in the bottom of the wardrobe at the minute.

With dd and ds1 who were both early readers, we would get fun and interesting chapter books. In the evenings we would read together, so ds1 would read a chapter, and then I'd read the next aloud and in taking it in turns, they weren't so daunted by the length of the books and also heard me read with expression, and so were more interested in doing the same.

DD loved the Milly Molly Mandy books when she was similar age - each chapter is a discrete story and so could read one or two at a time.

DS1 wanted more gruesome/rude books. He's 6 and in Yr1 but has been free readings since early Reception. He loves Horrid Henry, Jeremy Strong, The Secret Seven and is just getting into Swallows and Amazons.

Keep out the ones she enjoys . Reading needs to be fun ; that's the most important thing. Ask the school if they have different books at a similar stage if that is what she enjoys.

I don't get the "she's reluctant to build her stamina with books at home" comment - she's clearly reading very well, well above her age level - why do you not just let her proceed at her own pace? Heartily dislike idea of putting her current favourite books away - even though still accessible. There is actually nothing wrong with reading books that are for younger children - some of them are great, and probably she may well just enjoy the particular stories, pictures, etc.

Do you never fancy an easy, enjoyable read OP, rather than Tolstoy? Shall we take your Mumsnet access away because it's not sufficiently challenging?

Let her enjoy these books and get her onto chapter ones in other ways.

did you even read my Op lego? seems you didnt, Im not saying she cant ever read an easy enjoyable book, just that I would like to encourage her stamina. I feel it would be best done at home where she can have balance, Im not planning on taking anything away, just asking advice on how to best manage this, as I feel she is a little unable at the moment to manage free reading at school, which is iminent.

there fore I was considering asking that she continues and repeats the books she has just read on the band. My concern is that she will not continue to read well if she progresses to free raeding at school which is the stage she is at so it is important to encourage this. she can still read he books when ever she wants but maybe with the harder ones at hand she may be more inclind to pick them up and look at them and find new enjoyable books.

I am open to adivce and other peoples experience other wise I would not have posted, there is no need for shitty responce, post advice or dont bother.

thanks iggly and pooka, ill let her choose where her books go and just try and encourage a balance. my concern is that taking that step up may hinder her progression as she will not expand her reading.

Can you read a few chapters out of the harder books to encourage her. She may want to rad them more after you have started them. Maybe alternate so you read 2 pages she then reads a bit (that she is happy with).

Sorry, rubbish keyboard (honest ) "read".

i tend to read the chapter books to her, which is fine I love reading with her and she picks a few lines to read, but when asked to read a page etc, she makes an excuss and just wants me to read.

But she will read her school reading books even if she doesnt really want to, so that it is recorded, even though she knows she doesnt need to read the whole book, but obviously this is less enjoyable for her as she sees it as a a task. I want to avoid reading being a chore, so want her to just slowly get used to the longer books being around and see if she will pick them up more redily rather than always reading very easy books when playing or looking at books on her own.

so far I have read to her the wishing chair and far away tree and horrid henry and couple of rohld dahl.

My DS(9) taught himself to read at 3 and at 4 was a free reader. For the next 5 years he refused to read anything except comics/mangas (with an exception for a few non-fiction books). Last month he finally agreed to try Harry Potter. He read all of them within a week. Then he read Artemis Fowl and now is reading Eragon and I bought him loads of books for Christmas.

I wouldn't worry, if she likes reading she'll move on to more challenging stuff at some point

If you put the easy books away, even if they are still accessible, she will still get the idea that harder books are somehow " better" or the ones you want her to read. honestly, there 's no needbto manipulate things- it will happen automatically .

wow winnybella that is amazing. good for him.