I think my daughter finds reading boring.

[pongonperdy]

My DD is in reception. She is doing well with her reading and phonics and seems to be able to read the books tjat she brings home. The trouble is tryingto get her to read them. She will read the first few pages and then ask me to finish the book. I dont kow if she finds it tiring or boring or what.

Any experience of this and hpw to encourage without being over strict.

Thanks for saying that seeker.
It is pretty anti Biff and Chip here. My DD really likes them. She feels confident with their formula, stories and characters. She loves spotting the specs and the little jokes. Her school so use a range of books, but those ORT ones that she feels so comfortable with really help to boost her reading.
Variety's good. But I don't think the sagas of Biff and Chip are so bad.

I think that the school books are dull but my kids know that they have to get reading done with and if they concentrate it will be just a few minutes. It's become part of their routine like changing into pjs.

If she is tired on school days then maybe compromise by reading alternate pages or read it over 2 days. There's no rule to say that the book has to be read in one go. If she is tired after school then reading it in the morning after breakfast may work better.

I would just read other thigns with her, and write in the school book "dd read X Y Z this week". Our teachers have always been fine with this. If you're reading at home with them, they are usually happy.

I like Biff and Chip but unfortunately we moved schools when dds were 6 and 5 and the new school doesn't do ORT, so I never did find out what happened in the end. I still feel a sense of loss there.
My experience of primary schools (3 schools, 3 dc) is you can do almost anything you like if you give the teachers the message you are Keen and Involved and Supportive of your child's education. Once they have that image, you can get away with whatever you like.

Paisleyleaf, I do think there is a touch of"Oh, Biff and Chip are so dull - and there are lots of wonderful books out there - why on earth aren't they reading War and Peace - some of the modern translations are really accessible" going on.

Pinch of salt required!

I am so glad to see some MNers saying Biff and Chip books are OK. I thought I was some kind of freak, because I quite like them. All the children I read with seem to like them too. I love the way they often cover history and geography topics as well.

I do have one issue with them: the word "Suddenly" is always followed by "the magic key began to glow, it was time for another adventure". With the older children we joke about it, and look out carefully for suddenly in other contexts.

sometimes reading in the morning is good, they are more alert

Most school reading schemes are very boring, but not all children need to plough through them."

True.

"The ideal way to learn to read is children getting obsessed about a book as a result of having it read and wanting to read it for themselves."

Not necessarily.
One-to-one tutors have experienced the children of writers,critics, journalists, editors who are read to virtually from birth. Why are they struggling? Because they haven't intuited the alphabetic code for themselves. It's cruel to blame uncaring parents, feckless children. It's the job of all primary teachers to understand how to 'teach reading' to children - get the fortunate children who pick up reading easily away from the (often) restrictive, unimaginative, zombie-like structured books while understanding that for some children these are absolutely a life-line. What more precious gift can we give to children who might otherwise struggle for the rest of their school days and beyond?

It's not too much to ask teachers to differentiate, to listen to parents and to move children on, where appropriate. Equally it should not be too much to ask teachers/schools to provide enough decodable reading for those children who desperately need it. The trouble with Biff, Chip et al is that the early readers are a. not suitable for struggling readers and will only make matters infinitely worse for them but b. lack imagination, extended vocabulary for those children ready to fly ....

It's a crying shame - no, an absolute scandal - that teacher training colleges refuse to give their students the knowledge they need. That's why, your reasonable questions, requests, and pleading for more interesting reading material are often met with defensive answers.

I think that was a brilliant post except I don't think it's fair to say Biff Chip n co lack imagination.
But I agree they are never going to be as good at inspiring a child as the precise book that happens to hit the spot for them, which Pippi Longstocking was for my dd, and which will be different for every child.

Biff and Chip were ok. But my son from 6yr would fight me to read out part of Captain Haddock in Tin Tin (in drunken slurred voice)as well as Snowy. Also cornered in on parts of Dogmatix and Obelix in Asterix books.

His interest in reading really was born from these funny books.

Could raise an eyebrow over some terms used, but also true of Enid Blyton.

My DS refused to read the school books in reception, he was 4 then so I left him alone to start with and just continued to enjoy books with him. By the summer term I had a work with the teacher because he said they are too hard (Rigby Star, 1 sentence per page). His teacher said he was reading very well at school, I wondered about dyslexia (it is in our family), but she said no way, he does really well. Still he refused to read at home.

Over the summer we did some reward schemes and read a bit, but now in Y1 it seems he does it at school but just doesn't enjoy reading. He does not have a very good attention span, maybe that's a reason. He still enjoys picture books best, we have read some chapter books, he seemed to like them, but I had to do a lot of discussing. He tells me he prefers picture books though. They have read a chapter book at school and he seemed to love it so much that he borrowed it from the teacher.

I think I tried to push DS a bit too much with his reading, I didn't want him to get behind - but in the greater scheme of things I think he will do it when he is ready. If they are ok at school, maybe its best to encourage them to enjoy books, hopefully, in time they will enjoy reading.

We do it a lot at home and my DD (2) loves books a lot more than DS (5 1/2) and sometimes I find it nice but also worrying if I read them the same stories!?

word - not work

The only thing my DS would read in reception and over the summer was Biff and Chip Read At Home books from the library. He still loves the stories but Levels 4 and 5 seem too long for him and now he doesn't want to read them anymore. DD (2) loves them too, looks at them for ages and pretends to read (copying her brother). So it depends on the child.

I am surprised though that so many schools use ORT as the only reading scheme, as children are so different at that age and learn best if they are excited about something.

All of these are great ideas and i hope to add another to the pile.

Suggest alternating Biff and Chip with another picture book she likes. I suggest anything by Mini Grey really good to read and reread as they get older, they have layers!!

Biff and Chip, and especially the Magic Key ones, really seem to divide kids: some smile hugely seeing the key, others audibly groan. Seem really marmitey, not bad, but certainly not suited to all if enthusiasm is wanted. And I think many teachers recognise this, but replacing whole reading schemes, or providing appropriate levels and choice for all learners, is really very dear given other pressures on resources. The school I work at was clear, for instance, that replacing the reading scheme would mean making a full-time TA with a literacy/numeracy only TA.

Please bear in mind that reading is exhausting and tiring even if the reader is skilled at reqading the words-think how you might feel working through technical reports. My experience across KS1 has been that generally it's only about in this term in Yr1 that most children have developed the physical and mental stamina to read a whole ORT book, something helped by their reading skills themselves developing. So your DD is not odd in refusing after a while, or necessarily just bored, it may genuinely be really hard (not the decoding, just the whole thing).

Also bear in mind that reading is all around us, and in reception decoding activities need not be confined to books. Talk to her about the words she sees that are useful (say in the shops), ask her if she'd like to know how some words she knows are written (work on initial sounds). If you're doing this and reading her books she likes to develop what rose thinks of as second stage skills (reading to learn not learnign to read), and she's developing at school, all skills will fall into place quickish.

She likes books, she's bright, the written word is all around her, why worry that the school scheme isn't her focus at home?

AdelaofBlois - you said at this stage of Y1 it might be genuinely hard for them to read an ORT book. My DS keeps telling me that he finds reading hard, but seems to be able to do it well at school? Maybe that's the reason.

Further, he does not do ORT in school but loved the books, when we got to the Magic Key stories he lost interest - that's Stage 4-5, isn't it.

Ups, I tried hard to find books/info, anything he might want to read. Only very occasionally he really wanted to read, e.g. about cats etc, he would read a paragraph rather fluently and understood what he was reading. In general though he will ask me to read to him - even Xmas cards!!!

I think the idea of one of the other posters to alternate and to read a page each is really good. Also, maybe you can go to a good bookshop/library and get her to choose some books. Also lots of praise once she has read a book (or her number of pages), and maybe a sticker or something like that to give her a real sense of achievement.