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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

No reading books week One

34 replies

littlebylittle · 11/09/2010 01:11

Feeling wobbly about dd starting school so finding plenty of things to worry about! Just went out for drinks with friend whose dd has been given reading books to bring home from day one. Should I care that dd hasn't been and isn't likely to for a while at her school? My gut says that it is unimportant to have books this early and dd is so tired that I'm not sure she'd cope but still. And I believe in play based reception education but my academic old school upbringing lingers on! I know...it could be a long thirteen years at this rate of worry!

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Fayrazzled · 11/09/2010 06:44

My son didn't bring a reading book home until December in his reception year. Please don't worry about it. It's much more important they learn their phonics first (and enjoy school, have fun, learn the classroom routines etc etc). All in good time!

specialmagiclady · 11/09/2010 06:48

Completely agree with Fayrazzled. My son didn't bring a book home til after the first half term at least. He was reading by May - really reading.

IndigoBell · 11/09/2010 06:49

Bringing books home before they have learnt their phonics is what causes damage....

Pancakeflipper · 11/09/2010 07:44

It was about November when our school sent reception kids home with a book. This was once they had a few sounds learnt, the teacher had chance to assess them and hold a little gathering for us parents to teach us how to read and help with our little ones.

So as the others wisely say do not worry. Your child will not be behind or their education suffer.

I am like you and believe the reception year is mainly learning through play. They learn enough in this leap to school, mostly of a social development nature. Being a happy child in a school environment is what's needed this year.

Just keep reading to your child at bedtime so that reading is something they know and isn't an alien concept to them.

rebl · 11/09/2010 09:23

I've had a terrible 1st week with my ds thanks to words being sent home and he's no where near ready. Its done terrible damage to his confidence and he is screaming all evening and is already saying he hates school. I wouldn't be worrying about not having a book.

onimolap · 11/09/2010 09:28

Don't worry! My DCs didn't get Reading books until several weeks into term - the teachers wanted to get them settled before assessing them. Children who could read CVC words got books, those who were not ready had word lists or individual sounds to practice.

Ineedsomesleep · 11/09/2010 09:29

DS is in Y3. He has been there for a week and a half now and no reading books yet. On the plus side he has had a lovely relaxed start to his school year and his teacher seems to be concentrating on getting to know everyone and relaxing the children.

She will be tired and I'm sure there would be no benefit in her having reading books this early. Let her relax and do some nice quite things together. Oh, and don't worry

fruitful · 11/09/2010 10:40

DS1 got his first reading book just after half-term. The May half-term.

Much better to wait until they are good and ready!

mrz · 11/09/2010 11:33

I would be more concerned if I was your friend!
Schools who send books home before teaching children the skills they need to read are more interested in placating parents than doing what is best for the children.

redskyatnight · 11/09/2010 12:47

Our school has said that they are not sending reading books home until the children have been assessed, are settled and have been taught some basics. Which seems a more sensible approach than a reading book on Day 1.

ChasingSquirrels · 11/09/2010 12:54

ds1 could read when he started school,he didn't come home with books for the first half term, and when he did they were the first ones with pictures and no words.
We just carried on reading to him, and getting him to read picture books to us.

ds2 started last week, he probably doesn't know a third of the alphabet, never mind learning to read.
Again, I will just carry on reading to him, and talking about the book, the story etc.

scrappydappydoo · 11/09/2010 12:57

DD1 started school this past week - her teacher says that they will go to the library next week and bring home a library book to share but probably won't get reading books or any kind of 'homework' til after 1/2 term at the very least.
I also worry about everything - can't help it - its going to be a long 13 years for me too!!

mrz · 11/09/2010 13:03

I'm not a fan of wordless books in reception I don't think they are necessary (more revenue for the publishers) sending home a quality "library" book is far better as children can still look at the pictures and talk about them and also listen to the story (read to them) and reinforce the concept that words carry the meaning not the pictures - no guessing!

We came across some lilac level (no words) scheme books which were -binned- filed

Karoleann · 11/09/2010 14:12

we won't have any til November at the earliest. They spend a lot of time in class initially just getting used the the routine. I don't think DS1 has "learnt" anything yet!

specialmagiclady · 11/09/2010 14:20

Just want to jump on the "guessing" thing, Mrz. In English, where every rule of spelling is broken, it is a very useful skill to be able to interpret the meaning - and indeed identity - of a word from the context.

If your child sees a picture of a dinosaur with "I see a dinosaur" under it, they'll learn that the "d" word is dinosaur while sounding out - or learning to identify - the small words.

When you read, you use lots of bits of your brain, not just phonic sounding out. Phonic sounding out works very well in, say, Spanish, where the pronunciation rules are very simple. When my DS1 asks why words with the same letter combinations are pronunced differently, I can usually only do it by referring to a word's etymology and my knowledge of Latin/German/Dutch. Probably a lot to take in at 4.5/5.

mrz · 11/09/2010 14:43

specialmagiclady meaning should come from the context of written language not from picture guessing. I pity the child who relies on pictures when they encounter their first illustration that doesn't relate directly to the text.

mrz · 11/09/2010 14:45

and phonics works very well in English provided the child has been taught well no need to rely on picture clues

Original poster

littlebylittle · 11/09/2010 15:04

ah, thank you, I kind of guessed this would be the response, my friend said her dd very tired and just wanted the book to be read to her. Mumsnet at it's best - as you can see from post I was in a serious sleep interrupting tis when i came home and I'm not now, just very tired from the lack of sleep!! You know, I think the parent placating thing is so true, it is the sort of school where people think they're going to get an academic approach and that's just what it is, which prob suits some very well. My dd, well she wakes up saying can i do this, can I do this and is going to need a gentle intro into having her plans "shaped" by the teacher. But I love her, she's imaginative and creative, excited by words and lovely with her brother. I want her gently guided not squashed. she knows her letter sounds and I am sure she will learn to read in good time.

OP posts:

EdgarAllInPink · 11/09/2010 15:10

Bringing books home before they have learnt their phonics is what causes damage....

..like what?
can you crash a sentence?
injure by overgeneralisation (e.g. boughted, buyed) ?

for kids that already read, surely won't make any difference at all (apart from, oh, you have not inconvenienced them for a minute with a boring book that is well below their reading standrd....which they will read then quickly discard for more interesting and challenging stuff..)

mrz · 11/09/2010 15:23

EdgarAllInPink you obviously haven't read what has been written

Sending home lovely story books for parents and children to share from day one ...fantastic!

sending home a wordless reading scheme book ... why?

For kids that can read already take a minute to find out their reading capability and send home a book they can read themselves along with the lovely story book they got on day one to read with a little support from a parent ... not a wordless reading scheme book!

IndigoBell · 11/09/2010 17:45

Ok Edgar. Bringing home books with words in them before you have learnt phonics causes damage to a few kids because it makes them think that reading is meant to be about looking at pictures and guessing until somebody says 'good girl'.

Most kids soon learn that actually words cotain sounds and there are rules for sounding everything out and it follows some kind of logic - but a few kids find that really hard to grasp if their first exposure to reading has been look-and-guess-and-praise.

If they can't guess right they can get very upset and demotivated.

If they can guess right they learn how not to read. So neither way is what you'd wish for your kid.

For the majority of kids it doesn't matter and doesn't cause damage - but for a few kids it makes it a lot harder for them to learn than it needed to be.

rebl · 11/09/2010 19:38

Edgar I can tell you that the damage caused to our ds is in the space of a week a child who ran into school the 1st day all smiles and now one whose screaming all afternoon and evening that he hates school and its all too hard. Thats the damage. 1 week and my ds has been pushed way to hard and is now refusing to go to school.

piscesmoon · 12/09/2010 07:48

I would be more concerned for your friend-in only a few days the teacher can't have had the time to send the right book home with them-it is all too easy, as rebl says, to put your DC off completely by getting it wrong. Settling in and enjoying school is the most important thing. You can always go to the library and share books together.

PavlovtheCat · 12/09/2010 07:52

DD did not get any this week, it is the first week, so there really is no rush, there is plenty of time for books and learning, they need to spend a while getting used to it. Is she in reception? DD got a letter outlining a few things, and one of those was that books will start to be introduced for home in the next couple of weeks.

Willabywallaby · 12/09/2010 08:02

DS1 is at a private school and started on Wednesday. Thankfully no books yet, we have an evening in a couple of weeks for parents so I assume they'll teach us how they teach and maybe books will start to come.

I'm worried about his writing. He can write his name, but not using the cursive style they use. I've just tried to teach him how to do the u in his name properly, he tried and couldn't so wandered off. I definitely don't want to put him off but know the fact he doesn't write his name properly is frowned upon. It would be better if he couldn't write all I think in their opinion.

I'm just relieved we only had one day he didn't want to go, but didn't wail like one poor little boy on day 2 and 3.

Also every school will have a different approach, just try and ignore the way otehrs are doing it.

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