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?

I'm interested... what is a 'free reader'?... that may sound dumb coming from a parent of an advanced reader but honestly I have no idea what you all mean by it... DD infant and DS junior school do not offer children the chance to pick books that are not carefully leveled by them. So although they may think they are choosing, the reality is it is within their careful structure... and I guess that doesn't count as free reading. Or have I totally missed the point???

Though as to your comments... I think the biggest problem with 5 year olds reading well is that they can read the words but have no idea on their meaning sometimes... so with my DD I work through concepts and words she doesn't understand as she reads through the book aloud to me eg. discussing what a 'butler' is, 'extinction', 'ford', 'troughs' and looking for places on a globe so she can get a bit of Geography in, plus they always want you to get them thinking about what happens next!!
I am also finding that although my DD has a good concentration level and loves reading... she wants books with colour pictures and is very reluctant to go onto books (even the same level) with only black/white pictures. Also she doesn't quite have the capacity to read enough of a story yet especially longer ones before she has forgotten what happened/has lost interest in the book. I try to let her choose her books in the hope that it will keep her interested in reading and if sometimes the book is too easy, she whizzes through it and then says there were no hard words and it was easy but that boosts her confidence, so not a bad thing. I also try and point her to books with small chapters or with several mini stories in. She also loves poetry which is good as rarely more than 2 pages!!

Well dd is now 8 and would always always prefer me to read to her if I'm putting her to bed (and then will carry on for half an hour or so before lights out).

She likes the comfort of her - being read to is very soothing and comforting I think. :) And it's still very useful for children to hear adults reading so that they can pick up on pronunciation and expression and so on. Is lovely.

In our school a free reader is a child that has shown fluency at each of the book bands (red, green and so on, leading to silver, gold, white? and various other colours included). Once they do this they still access age or ability appropriate books at school. When ds1 was in Reception he used to be taken by a TA to Year 2 class library to choose a book. Now he's in year 1 he goes to the Year 4 class library, and is in a year 4 guided reading group.

Other schools do things differently - maybe by expecting each child to rigidly plough through every book in every box in every level (have a friend with dc on box 68 of a hundred and something. There is a bit of a race to the finish post, and some parents have been known to request many books a night to get through them all faster). But at our school there is a certain amount of flexibility and so children possibly get called free readers sooner - DS1 started on blue and then was at gold level a month or so later. The teachers assessed his reading, comprehension and expression and so on to make sure wasn't just "barking at the text".

seeker dds school allow them to chose from the library instead of the shelve or box that is their "colour band", she would not be guided in what to choose nor accompanied to get her books. which is what would concern me.

Don't make reading 'work' or a chore, it's a delight to be treasured and enjoyed, a child that can take pleasure in a book, even if it isn't a challenge will go on explore more.

pooka - which coloured book bands, the ORT ones or something else? Our infant school very much goes down the route of every book in every series known to the ORT entire library from current publications right back to ones which look like the ones I read as a child!!!!!!!!!!! I had to push hard to allow DD to jump any books!! I dread to think how many boxes of books the school has! And I know what you mean about the race on books... some of the other parents, I have to very careful what I say to them about my daughters reading books!!!!!

The book bands are made up of a variety of books - so a mixture of ORT, rigby star, fiction and non fiction, which have been put into reading bands by the teachers I think. I think some other schools use the same colour bands - advantage is that you don't rely on just one publisher/style.

At dcs' school they are very relaxed about skipping books/levels. I think generally it is a positive thing - with ds it was. I keep out of convos in playground re book bands (!) - though on listening in it appears that the teachers only skip kids on when they're absolutely ready. The argument against it is that if a child reads ALL books on a level, then their adding skills are definitely secured and there is no moving on until absolutely ready. Also i think you need the resources to pay for many many books, ideally with duplicates, in order that there is always a fresh book in the box for a child to move onto. Our school just doesn't have the resources for the huge number of books, nor the space.

I have a friend of a friend who helped with reading at another school and took the opportunity each time to grab handfuls of the ORT books at a time. She told my friend that she was taking 20 with her to disney so that they could power on through! I think that sounds like making reading a bit of a chore/grind.

reading skills, not adding!

my dds school follow the ort with other books thrown in and banded in comparrison to ort, so very similar poka.

dd2 was a free reader about 4 weeks into yr r, and just went and got the books she wanted to read from elsewhere in the school. it was all fine.

i don't really understand why choosing books would be offputting and she would give up reading? surely if she chooses the ones she wants, then that's the motivation to read them? you can still get her to read them to you if it matters to you that she does.

i have to say, i was a bit anal about dd1 and ds1 wrt to what they read, but tbh even if one or two books they pick are rubbish, they are still reading, and eventually they picked books that i approved of lol. (i grit my teeth with ds1 sometimes, as there are some desperately crap books for boys)

why don't you just let her read the horrid henry etc that you normally read to her? or get flat stanley or something. cressida cowell. if they have plenty of books to read at home, what they pick from school is pretty much obsolete anyway.

If you would like to see your child independently and voluntarily choose a book and sit down to read it by themselves I have a suggestion

Gather 20 or so libary books (nice big colourful ones) and set up a mini libary in your lounge all ready for when child comes home from school (complete with snuggly cushions and help-yourself snacks and drinks) - display books around the room facing out-wards (not spine-on).

Un-plug TV, and computer, hide toys - don't invite a friend for tea and seperate any siblings off to seperate activity).

Then leave child completly to it - no hovering, no mummy lead reading, no suggestions of reading levels, leave child alone - make no comments at all - clear all away at tea time - new set of 20 books and repeat the next day, and the next and the next - by Friday your child will have astonished you, repeat twice a week for years to come.

Rosemary and Thyme:
No playdates for a week . DS would just hate reading if that was the trade off! What if they want an old favourite rather than 20 new books a day? I am not sure it would work for every child.

I love the snacks and comfy area though.

good suggestion rosemary, thanks.

dd doesnt tend to have play dates in week anyway, as she is quite busy on most nights between activities and time with her dad. she would love that suggestion.

she often takes herself away upstairs and plays teachers reading to her teddies and dolls etc. her favourate is bringing all her bedding and books to the bottom of the stairs and lines her teddies along the steps on the stairs and pretends she is the librarian at story time. she selects a teddie to sit on her knee and reads all snugg on the duvet and cushions.

Our 6 year old is in Y1 and is a fluent reader. I take her to the library and she loves the Rainbow Fairy books which I read a chapter at bedtime, then she reads another chapter to herself. I dont really like the Fairy books but she loves them. We have also done her brother's collection of Roald Dahl, but she is the type of reader that will pick up anything and read it and we have a huge collection of books. Which is what I have tried to encourage by getting her to read anything and everything including online sites such as Barbie (yuk I know but again she loves them), letters from school, sign posts, instructions, ingredients on cereal packets etc.

Instead of buying workbooks which can get a bit boring, try writing for a purpose with her. Our little girl is currently carrying on a correspondence with the Elf on the Shelf who takes her letters to father christmas and brings back a reply. She also likes to make me lists of things to do, Christmas lists, makes her own books etc. She also writes notices and puts them up in the kitchen or in her bedroom.

Have you also got a list of Y1/2/3 words from school and practised the spellings with her? You used to be able to get this info from government website but Im a bit out of date now (retired teacher). Something else to practise with her is adding money and giving change and telling time. All these cost nothing and are extremely useful.

Really the harder books and the easier books are not contrary motion.I am very sure my Ds2 now is reading Mr men,,little Miss set, look Inside(Osbourne) and Wimpy Kids,Captain Underpants on the same day.
Op, just put new books on theshelf, and leave the olds as where they were.You will soon find it's perfectly comfortable.

I printed words of the internet a few days ago as I have continually asked in school for the next set as she could already spell the y1/2 she was given when entering y1. but on friday was given a photo copy by her teacher from an appendix of some teaching text book, they are the same as the printed ones from the begining of term .

what i printed was all of ks1 words and the first few for ks2, seems enoogh to go by. I havnt really had a chance to look at them all though as im sure together we will be able eliminate a fair few she can already spell.

she writes all the time, no problems with that and can tell the time also. her numbers she is not quite up with her literacy but still ma2 I would say.

Im not terribly accademic myself with numbers and probably dislexic. though to be honest dont quite understand how they teach numeracy these days very different from when I was in infant school. The teacher also says that although her numeracy and litteracy are different levels she is happy with her progress as still ma2 and litteracy ma3. Im leaving it a while as I found in reception her teacher was reluctant to push her reading etc even though she was way ahead. I did at the time feel it was to keep her at the same level as the other kids for ease, but I may be wrong.

Im just waiting untill next parents evening, to judge this on the numbers. As I said im unsure of the teaching of numeracy so I have printed some games and work sheets from bbc starship, just to see what she can do and get a feel myself for the curiculum.