Little sister better at reading than big sister.

[Twonker]

Hi everyone.

My y2 dd is a much more confident reader than my y3 dd. she approaches reading positively, and reads rainbow magic books quite happily, and I am offering her slightly more interesting(IMO) books to read too.

My y3 dd finds it frustrating, and while she is doing fine level wise ( think she got 2a in sats) she is overawed by a page full of text.

She and I have a negative history of me hearing her read: she tends unfortunately to get frustrated and get stroppy about reading, and having spoken to her teacher about how much of a struggle it was to do her reading she agreed that it would be better to do it in school, and not turn it into a battle and a negative experience at home.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to how I can help her progress on to reading books independently?

Thanks for reading

I got my dd to

write her own book this entailed

writing, reading, pictures, spellings, cutting, laminating and glueing she read it to her baby sister.

we went libary and I let her pick any book she wanted.

whjat about trying some non fiction on topics that interest her we did summer project on butterflies.

we also going to start with penpal whiuch involves writingg, spelling and reading.

you could try addding subtiles to a tv programme.

board games that involve some reading like scrabble or monopoly.im sure theres lots.

find some reading computer games.

dd loves a site called phonics play.

it is hard as my dd has struggled in year 1. end of reception reading was battle.

least shes no longer obsessed with levels like mine is. drives me crazy as shes frustrated, im frustrated as cant make her a free reader over night will take time, practice and patiance

Sometimes, it can help to let reluctant readers listen to audio books which, if they want, they can follow in the book as well as listening to the disc.

Can you just help her with a full page of text. eg read a paragraph each so she doesn't feel it's too much? Shared reading - big help.

My DD in Yr 3 and has had extra help last year as she had a terrible miserable time in Yr 1. She has visual issues ( tracking etc) which make reading a full page of text much harder to follow so we have been doing eye exercises to help that. You might find that if a whole page of text is much much harder than reading words individually is, then that is worth looking into.

Decoding has been helped along by a computerised reading system we have been doing at home and has much improved her confidence and ability. But full page chapter books are still too hard and she avoids them. Often we go back to 'baby' picture books - she is confident with the story, often the words are quite complex, but there isn't too much text to confront.

The thing I found essential was a no point scoring and no teasing rule.

DD1 is dyslexic (and was pretty much the worst reader in Y2, I heard them read), her sister is the best reader in the class at that age (to quote her teacher).

There is exactly 3 years between them, it didn't always lead to peace and harmony.

I think letting DD1 read at school and relaxing and just sharing books at home for fun and only getting her to read a bit if she wants to is a good move.

If it's possible to get DD2 to read to you while DH reads DD1 a bedtime story so DD1 doesn't hear that may be wise for a while.

DD1 is very good about DD2 reading so much better than she does, but DD2 can be horribly smug.

My guess is that your elder daughter will in the next couple of years find chapter books that appeal to her and the problem will disappear. Much of the transitional stuff is really dull and soppy.

You never know sharing something a bit harder like black beauty or my Fav. Mrs Frisby and the rats of Nihm, might catch her imagination.

DD1 finally taught herself to read aged 11 by reading and re reading Twilight until she understood it. She swears it's easier than Harry Potter.
However it must be clearly understood that my DD1 is a bit mad.

We had this problem as well. DD2 devours books and was rapidly catching up with books DD1 (2 years ahead in school) was reading.

We had 3 solutions for them.

1. We encouraged DD2s preference for very girly books that were of no interest to DD1 - that meant that the two were selecting and reading very different books, although at a similar reading level/ age.

2. DD1 liked pictures and missed their disappearance - so we agreed that as long as there was reasonable amounts of text that she could read comic book style formats. She found a Pokemon book, Calvin & Hobbs comic books (at Oxfam) and through school discovered diary of a Wimpy Kid. All these encouraged reading and helped her through this phase.

3. We encouraged her to swap books with friends and check out as many books as she wanted from the library. We didn't get upset if she gave up on a book - we explained that we also start books and never finish (which was a surprise to her).

Talk to the school (which it sounds like you're already doing). Find out if your school offers some form of accelerated reading programme. DD1 was put into a special reading group at her school in Y4 which was run by a brilliant TA and it made such a difference. The progress she made that year was unbelievable and put a bit of breathing space between her reading level and her little sisters, which helped family tensions a lot.

Oh, I also take turns read to them (which seems to make the burden of reading to me seem a bit more fair). Although, it meant the two of them had to comfort me toward the end of Charlotte's Web.

HTH

HTH

2a is of course fine for end of Year 2. As others have said it is perhaps finding books she is interested in [which may be completely different to younger dd and therefore not open to comparison]. Non fiction may be good idea as someone else has mentioned. Would 'Dino Cove' books by Reg Stone [think] be too 'boyish'? Chapter books but text format not dense.

My year 3 likes 'Secret Seven'. When she does feel less daunted by chapter books these are not too small in text [get from library].

We have this too. Ds1 dyslexic - hugely. And won't read aloud. Ds2 gobbles books and had a reading age of 15 at the end of the infants. Was also coming to suggest audiobooks (great minds, Leeds ) and these days ds2 tends to read out chunks of text, whether books or footy mags and as daft as it sounds they often have a copy each and ds1 follows what ds2's reading. Ds1 has improved massively and now read bits out too in the excitement

Hi everyone, thanks for your suggestions. I had a chat with her today, and she says she doesn't like reading, so I said not to worry, you'll enjoy it when you get older. We cleared a few book off her shelves today, so now she can flick through them to choose one. I think I will look into comic books for her.

I think she might enjoy more non fiction books too.

I read a lot to them both. We have read mrs frisby and the rats of nimh, star tail! We all loved it. They enjoy me reading them stories which are a bit more difficult, like Danny the champion of the world etc.

I might have a chat to her teacher about it next parents evening, to see if she has any suggestions. Reading support in school finishes towards the end of year 3, so she is going to have to get usd to reading independently.

Mam/9, I think you are right, reading is not all about books, and I need to find reading activities which are not book based.

Dino cove

Wimpy kid

Audio book

Will have a look for these

Once again, thanks for all your helpful comments

right, it turns out that there is no reading morning in year 3 any more now, so we have reading at home instead. she did really well, and then chucked her book on the floor and said 'i hate books'.......which really saddened me. she then went on youtube and discovered which episode of pocket puppy was a real episode in english by reading really carefully.....so i am definately looking for some comicky books or games which involve reading for her birthday.

thanks once again for your suggestions

My daughter has just become glued to the Wishing Chair and Faraway Tree. She is a good reader but was reluctant to read by herself. These have turned her into a bookworm! Maybe it's just a case of finding that book that clicks....