What would you expect an "average" Reception child to be able to do?

[Festivedidi]

My niece is in Reception and is one of the youngest in the class. We spent the day together yesterday and we just happened to be playing with dd2's magnetic letters from the fridge (dd2 was playing with them too). I was quite surprised that dn didn't know many letters, not even the letters in her own name. Dsis keeps telling us that dn is doing well at school and making good progress at reading and writing.

My question is, is this about average for a child at the young end of the yeargroup? It's been a long time since dd1 was in Reception and it wouldn't be a fair comparison anyway as dd1 is a September birthday so was almost a year older when she started Reception that dn is. I've still got a couple of years left before dd2 starts school as well so I can't compare her either. Is there anything anyone can recommend for dsis to do at home with her to bring her on a bit if she is a little bit behind the others?

Really her dd was fine about it and she is still doing very well in year 4. Her mum was not happy with the other school trying to raise through the Levels.

Thanks for clarifying it, it's kind of what I thought tbh...

DD has been put up 2 levels today and read her new book this eve totally fluently (did not even get one word wrong) and IMO answered fairly complex questions on comprehension ie why is X doing Z?? (which was not mentioned in the text)

What was the trick?? How do they know X is in the house?? Etc etc....

She was able to refer back to pages read in the book to point out characters in disguise....

So I guess I am just wondering whether I am asking the right questions iyswim...

It took us about 30 mins to do a 32 page book.

But I am not convinced she would be able to read "I really love this" with text in italics and a picture of the character very obviously not happy in any way apart from the literal way iyswim...

But obviously she is still very young and just loves to read (all the time) so it will come I guess....

That is another worry I don't want DD to race through the levels either (as I believe it will do her no favours long term) but want her on a level which will fire her love of reading iyswim and not make school reading books a chore (she loved the book this eve)....

I can see the difference in understanding/those higher skills between my (non-reading) 4 year old and my 6 year old. A good example for us is the Mr Men/Little Miss books which they both love and I seem to spend a lot of time reading at the moment. They actually have some difficult concepts and subtle humour. DS enjoys me reading them (to both of them) and we both chuckle along. A lot of it passes DD by, she chuckles a lot less, although she still enjoys the books on a more literal level and some are more suitable for her than others.

There is nothing to stop a child enjoying more complex books at their own level it's just if they rush ahead they can miss developing these useful skills which are sometimes easier to learn with less complex texts.

Yes, I agree with mrz there. I think there's room for both.

I am often surprised to find DS coming to listen to the story I am reading DD 4 or reading it to himself later. He still gets a lot out of quite simple picture books. Some of these are excellent though and probably more age appropriate for him than some other things he reads. We often read stories many, many times and I think both children and myself gain from this. You pick up more and more each time you read, and DD will often memorise the text and start noticing minute details in the pictures. She will start noticing discrepancies between the pictures and the text and point them out/ask about them!

Sorry, can't resist sharing one of today's treasures. In "Super-Worm" there is a dead Gruffalo on the rubbish heap, (DD noticed that one) and DS noticed a page from Charlie Cook's favourite book .

I think levelling the reading scheme is creating a recipe for competitive mumness. Nobody compares which page of Euclid's Geometry their Reception child is on or whether or not he has reached page fifty in Greenough's Grammar yet. Mind you, if their pages of Euclid and Greenough were written in public and the parents encouraged to comment daily on their progress then mums would swear blind that Euclid was finished two years ago. Ultimately it all probably matters little unless the child is being made to feel bad because she hasn't reached page fifty yet. I think that's when the problems start.

Competitive mummies with no life outside their children have always existed before reading bands existed. I feel that something has seriously gone wrong when parents worry more about what stage of the ORT their child is on than whether the child actually gets anything out of the book.