Does your year 1 child read to themselves at home?

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DD is year 1 but summer born so still 5.

We have read to her all her life.

She reads her school books at home (they have to read 5 per week). She reads the Oxford Reading Tree books (Biff, Chip Kipper etc) and is on level 6 (orange label). She seems to find these ok, probably one or two “new” or tricky words for her in each book.

She is so reluctant to read the school books it is painful. I have come to hate it but obviously try to be jolly & encouraging.

She is totally reluctant to read anything else for herself out of school. She likes being read to. she has a book shelf of beautiful books.

If we are out and about, she will say “what does that sign say” and refuses to read it herself.

The other year one parents say their kids are reading Roald Dahl, David Walliams, Worst Witch etc which is so far ahead of DD’s level

Should I be worried?

Personally I wouldn't be worried about it just yet. The phonetically decodable texts are so dry and just a means to an end and she may have picked up on that. Keep encouraging reading for pleasure, even if that is with her home books and her being read to. She will still be picking up on the letters, words and sounds, plus supporting this knowledge in school in phonics. You can try reading these books together, so she has the support from you for most of the text, but encourage her to read little bits she is able to. She's still little, and it's important she develops a love for books, if the phonics books are preventing that then personally I would put that on the back burner.

That's my two cents but maybe talk to the school about how to encourage her or if they can do anything at school to address the concerns.

Each child is different.

My current Y3 child has only just started reading at home for pleasure. Until then every word was a battle but we got her into comics and that set off a love of reading. We do suspect she is dyslexic.

Reception son finds reading easy and reads for pleasure.
I wish we hadn't worried about my eldest.

Also is it 5 different books a week or 5 times a week? If it's 5 different books that could be quite challenging as she will be reading the text for the first time and working hard to do so and maybe impacting her willingness to do it at home?

I have a year 1 who loves reading in bed and will happily take himself off to read stories, loves working out what things say when we are out etc. also summer born and 5.
I also have a yr 2 winter born (so 7.5) who hates it. Will reluctantly read her stories each week and is slowly getting better. She has just (in the last couple of weeks) graduated to ‘free reader’ but it has taken a lot of energy on all our parts and she is still not as fluent as her brother. She just has different interests (sports and arts). I wouldn’t worry. They all get there.

@lilyflower1803 5 different books per week. Most of them have 24 pages with a few sentences on each page.

My year 3 has only shown an interest in reading to herself this year, and I'm told her reading level is very good. My reception (but old for reception) child is slightly interested, but not much. I wouldn't worry in year 1! And 5 books is a lot!!! Sounds like you are doing great by reading to her a lot.

You will always get that one parent who’s kid is a little genius 🙄

When one of mine went through this phase I would read the book, just look at the pictures on the page and talk about what you can see, look at the funny expressions, maybe she reads a page and I read one.

mine loved the Julia Mcdinald books and we went in to by the set so she’d see it as a treat, so I’d read after they had made some attempt. 24 pages a night is a bit much/boring at 5 years old maybe she is just really bored with them

why the hell would a five year old find David Willian’s books interesting- there are no fun pictures 🙄

If it makes you feel better, my pet peeve as a teacher is parents who brag about their kids reading books far beyond their maturity level. Even if they can read and follow the story (rather than barking at print which what they're actually doing most of the time), there's still so much flying over their heads that it would be better for them in terms of reading skills to read something "easier". At least then they'd be developing all the other reading skills (which in my opinion are far more important) to the maximum.

My 6 year old reads Roblox and Animal Crossing to herself! That motivates her to read.

Crikey! Quite hard work for a 5 year old imo. No expert but I wonder if that might not be helping the situation. Think about it this way, the way children learn to read at the moment is by analysing the letters and working out which sound they belong to, then mashing it and blending the sounds all together. If you have to do that for 5 different books, it would be flipping hard work. I think schools usually have one or two books a child reads a week, and then repeats reading a few times to begin to read more fluently as they get familiar with the sounds and words.

Mine is autumn born so a bit older and has graduated off the phonics scheme at school. She’d be capable of reading things like the Worst Witch but would still always choose for us to read to her when given the option. If she was reading to herself for pleasure she’d choose a picture book or a story she already has memorised. Reading is still “work” to them while they’re so new to it, so it makes sense to me that she’d choose something familiar and easy to read if it’s to relax at home.

Eldest did and still loves reading even now in Yr8.

Youngest has always hated reading.

The first thing my DD would read independently was a joke book.

That’s a lot! We had 2 different books a week at the most.

My (January born) now year 2 only started reading for pleasure at the end of year one - just suddenly! So don't worry just yet. The books they get them reading at school are so boring - especially those Biff and Chip ones - have you tried her on any of the Jamie Smart books like Bunny Vs Monkey?

My youngest is 5 and doesn’t read for pleasure by herself - it’s too hard for her right now. The oldest two started to read to themselves at about 7.

No absolutely not, despite me trying. They (twins) love books and the library and we read to them every night, and often after school too, but no interest in reading to themselves at all. We do the school reading 3 or 4 times a week but it’s always a struggle. They’re the same with signs too, asking what they say etc even though they could read it themselves.
They’re struggling a bit with reading though generally and always seem to be much further behind than everyone on mumsnet.

"The other year one parents say their kids are reading Roald Dahl, David Walliams, Worst Witch etc which is so far ahead of DD’s level"

Did you survey them all or are those the ones who were happy to share?
There's wide variation so there will always be some kids well ahead and others further behind. Talk to the teacher if you have any concerns as they know the full range.

This is too much to force on a reluctant reader IMO. It needs to be set in terms of time and effort not pages/books read. I got my DCs to read for at least 10 mins a day, at least 5 times a week. They may or may not have read an entire book in one sitting, but that was never the aim. We read until they started to flag, which was often 10 mins at that stage, but may have been 15-20 if they were on a roll. They are older now (yr3&5) and still read this frequently as a minimum, but often for much longer as they are enjoying their books. Little and often is key whilst learning the skill and building stamina, as is keeping it enjoyable so they want to continue to read at home long after school have dropped it as one of their main priorities.

At that reading level, they would read the same book 2 or 3 times over to me before swapping it to become fully familiar with the words and experience being able to read the book fluently with expression, but I didn't limit them to the book supplied by school. As others have said, the school books are very dry and formulaic and you need the incentive of actually wanting to turn the page to discover the next part of the story. I just helped with any words that had unfamiliar graphemes in them when reading non-scheme books from home. Any reading is good, so just go with the flow if DC wants to read the oven instructions (or something else equally ridiculous) one evening. All reading counts, even the storyline text in video games if it comes to it, but some schools seem to be really snobbish about it.
I also read to them with whatever time was left until bedtime every evening so they could access more interesting stories that are above their reading capabilities, expose them to new words, and hear how a story should be read aloud (I still do this now). I volunteer as a parent reader in school, and you can tell the DCs who are regularly read to as they inject life into the text naturally, even at lower reading levels. They understand how it should be made to sound.
Now that my DCs are older and have long been free readers, I only listen to them occasionally. They know to ask if they are unsure of any word (pronunciation or meaning), and do ask. Mostly they complete their daily reading quietly to themselves, but sometimes to favourite toys or one of the cats.

Mine too. Glad she's not the only one.

In year 1?
Ffs what is this school trying to do, make reading into a chore? The ones who are into reading won't need it prescribing, and for reluctant readers and late developers that's very likely counterproductive.

My dd didn't read really fluently till more like year 3 (after which she took off and had a high reading age by the end of primary). She was never keen on independent reading but loved being read to. Having been a bookworm myself I sort of felt she missed out on the pleasure but hell, she's the one who got into the grammar school and Cambridge

That and the Beano

Is this a joke? I know of no 5 year olds reading Roald Dahl books themselves

My year 1 dd (Winter born) is one of the confident readers in her class - she maybe could read Roald Dahl but as a pp said she wouldn't get a lot of the context. We read every night before bed - currently enjoying "The magical pet fairy" series of books they have about 6 chapters and good sized print so a good introduction to chapter books.

At her school they get 2 books a week, one from the reading scheme and one free choice - 5 is a lot for year 1... our school expects them to read the same book a few times during the week. Getting them to enjoy reading is the main thing so just read books about what they are into. My ds15 enjoys reading too but my ds12 is a reluctant reader - has loads of books but never touches them. So you can read every night when they are little and do all the right things and sometimes they just don't like reading!

My eldest would happily read Roald Dahl etc to herself at 5. BUT she was slow at dressing herself, couldn't swim or ride a bike (not even close, lots are on the brink at that age but she really wasn't) and lacked emotional maturity to the point of the SENCO getting involved and suggesting we should look into ADD and ADD.

If you compare your child's weaknesses to the strengths of others you will always come away feeling insecure.