Reception levels for maths and reading - am I being paranoid?

[mumrocks2]

I need your help. My DD just starting reception and whilst keen to learn doesn't have the confidence with reading - she's switched on and v aware of what is going on around her. She sees others better than her and it knocks her confidence. I read to her a lot and we read the 2 (very dull) reading books she brings home every day but she won't do them herself. Teacher says to not sit down and read with her but to bring it into every day life - but I only have an hour by time we get home with DS (2.5) to contend with too. Am feeling paranoid that she's being left behind when I know she's bright and can do it. She knows all the phonics, can sound words out but doesn't seem to be clicking with it. That and she hates numbers. I don't know what to do to help the situation apart from making hte weekend like being at school. Help!!!!

I agree! However we did try this once but received so many complaints from parents the SMT thought it would be best if we started just sending them home again. The actual reading book is such a minor part of the reading process and however many training sessions we give parents on the reading process they still find this difficult to understand

For me the best solution would just be to make the school books at home optional but the thrice weekly parental comment in the reading diary compulsory.

learnandsay but that is your child's school's policy and doesn't in anyway reflect what other schools do.

Wouldn't my suggestion be generally useful? I don't know, but where school books aren't too hard or too easy I'm guessing that a lot of parents are generally happy with the books that they receive. Isn't the option simply to cater for the few who aren't?

Your suggestion would be useful for your school (and any other schools that have "compulsory" requirements for parents at home) but the vast majority of schools don't tell parents they must read school books at home or dictate how many entries should be made in reading diaries.
Some of my pupils never ever read school books at home. Of those who do, some parents write a brief comment every time they hear their child read, others just when the book is completed.
Comments typically are - finished/read well/ enjoyed ...

Mrz - in reception would you expect the parents to put in everything the child reads into their reading diary or just the school book???

interesting re how to say "a". I say "uh" quite a lot. I think this is my accent. "Can you see a cat over there?", then my "a" would sound very different from the "a" in "cat". It would be more like the sound you hear in "book", the oo with two eyes/dots as RWI does it, or the "e" in "the". Estuary I guess....where a lot of the vowel sounds become flattened/samey.....

I would only expect the parent to make the briefest comment about the school book.

Very non pc suggestion put the subtitles on the tv or DVD, when they see everything that is said the most often used words will stick.

I would only expect the parent to make the briefest comment about the school book.

Would you find it annoying if a parent wrote down all the books they'd read? We've started to do this with DS Y1 (roughly 5 books per week with a brief comment on what they found difficult in each book) but I can't shake the feeling that the school will find this more of a hindrance than a help.

If the teacher has a policy about the reading diary then it can create a problem in itself. Personally I believe that the purpose of the diary is really to check up on the parents to see if they are actually reading with their children at home. It's just a yes or no check because, I assume, children who get no home/parental reading support are at a huge disadvantage. So the teachers just want to know which category your particular child fits into, not how much you read with them or what you read with them. (Just whether or not you read with them.) But it's a bit silly really, because they could equally well just send you a questionnaire each term instead in order to get the same information.

I don't know how many mothers there are out there who've done an enormous amount of reading/teaching with their pre-school child. But for me the reading diary is no reflection at all of my daughter's reading and neither are her school books. It's all a bit of a pointless procedure. And the gap between how she reads and what the school is asking her to read is so big that I think trying to bridge it is just a complete waste of time. There's no genuine point in worrying about it because she can read. But for families who want their children to read and who support them I think the reading diary is a waste of time and effort.

seems a bit defeatist learnandsay! I would at least try to bridge it. It took me a few goes with DS's teacher but was worth it. Mind you, first term of Reception is a settling in period so maybe try next term? DS didn't get a reading book until January, then it was very funny to hear him sounding out "Top Cat." .

MisterPC I would prefer parents speak to me in person if possible when there are obvious problems (either struggling or reading more difficult books at home) it's so easy for misunderstandings to arise from reading diary comments. I've got to be honest I'm not really interested in a parent telling me little William has read the complete works of William Shakespeare or Enid Blyton this week. Although I would be happy if Billy came in and said he'd read a really good book all about ...

learnandsay nice theory but I'm afraid it is just a theory ... I'm sorry to tell you but some parents actually sign the reading diary and have never even opened the reading book , while others read every night and never record it in the diary.

Well, I've just been to parents evening where the teacher, who's lovely, said my daughter pretty much "gets" reading. And she has one or two girls in her class who can read and are helping the ones who can't. I'm not sure if my daughter is one of them. We both agreed that my daughter is advanced for a beginner herself but I'm not sure she should be helping other beginners.

She explained in a peculiarly apologetic kind of a way that the books being sent home were so simple but she explained that she didn't want to rush my daughter through the reading scheme because in doing so she would miss things. So we are where I always thought we'd be. The teacher doesn't seem to believe that my daughter needs these phonics readers (& nor do I) but she's making my daughter read them on the basis that it's better to have one and not need it than to need one and not have it. (Which is what I've always suspected.) I hate the damn things. But as long as my daughter isn't bothered I'll let her continue to read them.

learnandsay what do you think the teacher meant by "he explained that she didn't want to rush my daughter through the reading scheme because in doing so she would miss things." ?

"she explained that she didn't want to rush my daughter through the reading scheme because in doing so she would miss things."

We started of agreeing that my daughter knows "all her sounds," and then she said and some digraphs. (The girl knows lots of those actually.) Then we talked a bit about the simple chapter books we're reading from the library and the child's natural methods for working out what words mean. So I think we both had a pretty good understanding of where each of us was coming from. In the end what I suspect that she means is she has no idea how deeply the child knows her phonics. We all know it can get pretty convoluted at times. They still teach it in later years. So, to have a guarantee that the child knows everything that she should know (rather than can read, ala phonics check) the teacher is starting all over again from the beginning.

I think this is a danger with the phonics check method. The target can become to know phonics and not to be able to read.

So what do you think the teacher meant by "she explained that she didn't want to rush my daughter through the reading scheme because in doing so she would miss things."?

The teacher didn't use the words "she explained..."
I'm using those words to explain what she did say.

Yes I managed to work that out ... what I asked is what you think she meant by saying she didn't want to rush your daughter through the reading scheme because in doing so she would miss things?

I answered that question three posts up. But put simply she wants all of her children to complete all of the steps of a systematic synthetic phonics course from letter sounds and actions through the scheme books starting with non word books, covering ORT 1 + 1+ , 2 and so on and so on, even if the children can already read. And that way they'll get a thorough phonics education irrespective of whether they can read or not.

I'm afraid that isn't how it works learnandsay ... I hope the teacher doesn't share your mistaken understanding.

OK, how does it work then?

That's not my understanding anyway, you didn't ask for my understanding, you asked me what you thought she meant and I told you.