What age did your children do their school reading alone?

[Beatmeonthebottomwiththewomansweekly]

What age did you move to your primary children reading their school book alone / silently rather than aloud to you?

Did you or they sign their reading record?

We’re not at all ready yet and will fk with when it feels right, but can see that it will come so wondered when others have done.

Bump

Year 2 for mine. Although now she's in Year 3 she doesn't bring reading books home any more 😒

Well the point of school reading books is that they’ll be reading words they don’t know so will need some supervision. But DS is in year 3 and we rarely listen to him and didn’t really last year either. DS in year 6 is still meant to read out loud to us for 10 mins a day too, according to the year 6 welcome letter. But we definitely never even try to hear him. I do still feel the ‘eek we should’ about year 3 DS though. So I feel like year 4/5 is when it wanes without guilt. They both read for about an hour every night so it’s not like they’re illiterate.

Year 2, once he could read fluently. We still ask him about what he's reading though. Sometimes I'll read a bit of what he's reading to myself so I'm in the loop/can look out for any words to ask him about/plot points to discuss.

It phased out between Y3 and Y4.
Y3 they still had school books and were encouraged to read to us but there was no formal reading record. Y4 is totally free reading, they have to have a book on the go in their bag everyday for whenever they do quiet reading or reading to the TA but this can be a home book or from the school library. We also do 10 minutes of reading (to herself) in bed at night because I think it’s a good wind down habit but school are not specifically asking for it.

Really?! I’m pretty sure they bring books throughout for mine as the newsletters always remind us that they need to read 4 times per week minimum. That’s partly why I was wondering at what age it’s not ‘sit down and read aloud with parents’.

edit that was a reply to @thirdistheonewiththehairychest that didn’t post

Yes I think it's bizarre too!

Mine used to read to me while I made supper

We didn't get any in the last term of Y2 and now in Y3 it's started up again. As ever the book is far too easy but we read it in one or two nights and then switch to something a bit more challenging. I think I will ask DS to read aloud a few times a week and then to himself the rest of the time

We kept up reading to a parent up all through primary school, mixed in with reading silently and an adult reading to them. I think it's useful to keep reading aloud to an adult even when they can read silently, and it can help pick up things that you gloss over if you are reading to yourself.

Plus it often sparked some interesting discussion about what they read and was nice as a quiet 1:1 time. I enjoy reading so saw it as a fun activity to be encouraged, rather than a chore to get through because the school insisted (actually we carried on reading together through a lot of secondary school as well).

Until they start secondary. Did it for my eldest, will continue with my youngest in Y4. The whole point is they are reading outloud so you know they are reading correctly.

We read with my Year 3 (listen to her read anyway) as I want to check she understands what she’s reading / is taking into account the relevant grammar etc. How do you know if they’re struggling with anything if you don’t listen to them?

We had no reading record after year 1.

I always thought you should read aloud throughout primary as isn't the whole point that if you then come across something you can't read or understand the parent picks up on it? My DC is yr 2 and reads fluently but I can't rely on her to ask me about something she doesn't know. She will sometimes but other times she will just guess/give it a go and continue, having read the word wrong and/or not understanding it. I read aloud to my DPs throughout primary school as did my siblings.

My kids are 10 and 7. They have reading homework twice a week and they read to us. Both are confident capable readers and rarely come across words they don't know. It's more so we can discuss themes and context. I think that's particularly important for dc2 as her reading group are mostly two years older than her and so her books have "older" themes.

You’ve captured a lot of the reasoning behind my question here.

DD is year 3, been free reading since 2. She likes to read silently because she’s now on exciting books and she can go faster. But I believe reading aloud will help capture the trickier words she would perhaps skip.

Also, having read aloud the more difficult books myself, I feel it’s so good for you! My speech and brain have been put to work more and I can feel the benefits. So I don’t want her to miss this.

I think I may transition to the 4 expected evenings as being aloud, and then 3 silently if she chooses.

Same. I kept it up til late primary with my eldest DC, and currently doing the same with the youngest two. Aged 10 and 8. I like to hear how they pronounce the words.

All the way through to year 6. Less frequently when they became 'free readers' than when they were working their way through the staged books. But still read to them daily and had them read to me often. I love reading, they love reading, its a nice thing to do together.

My 3 (4th is too young) could read alone by about 6yo but I did still listen to them reading as they would come across unfamiliar words and I needed to explain them and check they were pronouncing them correctly. Eldest stopped reading to me around 12ish but does still ask me what a word is from time to time.

Once they are off the reading scheme for us. Year 2 for my youngest, year 5 for the oldest (dyslexic). average is mid/late year 4 in our school.
We still read with my youngesr (year 4), but don’t need to sign the journal anymore

While mine brought home reading books I read with them.
And sometimes we'd read the book twice, reading opposite pages, then swap sides!

Once they get to the they need to read 10mins a day then they can do that alone
Although I think I'm going to revert back to reading with my reluctant reader as the 10min isnt happening.

I would say probably Y5. My youngest is now in Y3 and while yes he can sit and read silently to himself (and he does in school), his comprehension is not such that he’s grasping it without needing an adult to read aloud to. Being forced to read to me and ask about words he isn’t sure of and answering some questions about the reading were really important.

Also my 10yo is going through the dyslexia assessments at the moment so for him reading is still daunting. He is the lowest group and gets down about it. Every day I read aloud to him at bedtime. And he reads his school book to me.

My son can read on his own but reading together is useful to practise discussion as well as comprehension. The books he gets from school have specific words shoehorned in and sections to ask them questions and get them to summarise the story. So you kind of have to do them together.
Also I found a lot of words he knows but his pronunciation is completely wrong so reading out load together helps with that.
Usually we do I read the left page and he reads the right page just to break it up a bit.
Usually it's just after he gets into bed because that's the only time he's calm and concentrating.

I’m dyslexic and never read aloud. I preferred to read in my head from the moment I learned how to read. It was just faster for me. My sister, however, who isn’t dyslexic always reads aloud even as an adult.

This is really interesting - thank you for starting the discussion OP. DS is in Year 2 and is a very fluent reader so I’ve been wondering the same but I think it’s very useful at the moment because it’s clear when I ask questions that DS can read the words correctly but doesn’t always know what they mean (and doesn’t ask). He also reads aloud with the teacher twice a week too.