Reading Chest for the Summer Holidays?

[PeppermintCreams]

Has anyone done this for just the Summer Holidays? (Well probably August and September) My son enjoys the reading scheme books he brings home from school and I'd like to continue with that over the holidays.

The collection at our local library is a bit hit and miss, is hard to find this right level, and actually doesn't include anything that's on the Reading Chest book list.

The books he gets home from school are the Biff and Chip ones. I'd like to aviod these and concentrate on the phonic ones.

Good idea or PFB Tiger Mum?

I don't really know about using it for just the summer holidays but I know that experiencing the variety of reading schemes has meant that I have a better understanding of the type of book that dd enjoys. She really likes the Project X books that were designed to engage boys in reading.

The other thing that I've noticed is that even though books are banded, X colour on one scheme can be easy for her and on a different scheme much more difficult. So it think she benefits from seeing a range of books.

I've also found that the thing that seems to boost her confidence the most is reading books, that I am meant to read to her which the library is great for.

You can easily cancel your membership after 2 months, so I think it is just up to you to decide if you want to. I don't think you should worry about being too precious, it is a nice way to give one on one time.

Personally, I love reading chest for my daughter (4), it all seems such fun for her. She really likes getting a packet through the post for only her to open, filling the sticker chart in, and then posting the letters back (on top of reading the books, obviously).

Sounds like a good idea for the reasons you have given, although if you want to save some pennies you could use the free e books on Oxford Owl- easy to get the right level and phonics ones too .

I did it between yr R and yr 1 just for same reasons. I have restarted it again this year.

It works out about £30 for unlimited books for the summer holidays.

Dd's reading came on leaps and bounds. She was used to getting a school book a day so it just kept that going.

She loved getting post addressed to her, walking to the post box to post back, putting the stars on the chart they give you. It also introduced a variety of different reading scheme books to her. You can also easily alter the level online if they seem too easy.

We did the library challenge aswell and she read her own books aswell. Our library is pretty poorly stocked though.

As soon as she sees the envelope she open it and goes upstairs to read a book so £30 well spent imo.

We started at the start of the last holiday and will keep going until September. I find it great for a couple of reasons. Kids get to read all sorts of books (not just biff and chip), I have 2 selections one for confidence building and one with a little bit more of a challenge. This works really well. I find that the books from other reading schemes offer some useful information and my daughter still gets loads from reading books at a lower level. I hate going to the library with my active 3 year old and I haven't got time to sort for levels etc.

I am doing this too.

DD is about to start reception in sept and we have kind of finished the reading books at the library for her level (although they have recently got some more in) as it seems a bit of a jump to the next stage of books iyswim.

We are only in our 2nd month of doing it but it's going well so far and both kids love the books they have been sent (I signed DS up too as it only worked out at £2 more a month to add him).