At what point do they stop reading schemes?

[BitofSparklingPerry]

Dd is home educated, but she might go back to school at some point, so I try to keep up with school.

We stopped doing reading schemes at home ages ago - we only de regged her from school at autumn half term, but the books were just ridiculous that they were sending home. We think she was overwhelmed by school so wasn't showing what she could do.

Anyhow, at what point would they stop with reading schemes? Dd reads novels to herself (only kids stuff - pippi longstocking, roald dahl, enid blyton etc) and obviously reads for information too. I ask her to read bits and bobs out loud to me - eg today she read out about a pit disaster and Nye Bevan, just a few paragraphs, from a wall display in an exhibition, and I checked her understanding with questions afterwards.

We are much more on to comprehension now though - she is a more fluent reader than some adults. (I have worked in industries where there tends to be quite a few people with literacy problems, sadly)

We need to work on her writing, but I'm happy with her reading. She has whizzed through her year of education city and scored high on a sats test past paper, but I realise that isn't the be all and end all.

So...what would be happening in school?

Dd1 finished in y1, both ds1 and dd2 finished them in yr r. Dd1 only used them for a term tbh. They are easy enough to get hold of if you want to check for interest - just grab a couple of the level 14ish books from the library. If she reads them competently and comprehends them, then I wouldn't bother wasting time thinking about it any more. If she's reading, she's reading. I'm not sure I'd bother tbh, (it sounds as though you may need deschooling more than dd does lol) but if you have to compare, then go ahead. I'm not sure 'keeping up' or replicating the nc is necessary tbh, but I get the conformist pressure to do so.

All schools are different anyway. Some have them on reading schemes for years, others let them move through and peel off to free reading at level 10 ish. Our school went to 13 or 14, but introduced the free reading shelves on additiona from about level 7. The later levels are a variety of genres, and include some factual texts too.

Personally I'd ditch them as soon as possible, but kids do seem to quite like them. Ditto crappy fairies and beast quest. There's something about formulaic trivia that appeals to new readers lol.

We use reading scheme books for teaching in all year groups. This doesn't mean the children aren't reading novels, plays and other texts alongside.

Dd's school doesn't have a formal reading scheme, all books are banded and the child chooses a book from the band they have been assessed at. So dd has only ever read two ORT books despite being in yr 5 (she did that to see what the fuss was about as her friend liked them) because she has always found plenty of other books that appealed to her more. She learnt to read at home before nursery using books from her bookshelf so reading schemes are somewhat of a mystery to her tbh.

What is a reading scheme book? After a certain stage surely it's just a book that has been levelled to be part of a scheme to make it easier for teachers to assess progress, to test and develop the higher order reading/comprehension skills and to provide a part of a broad basis for children's reading.

Of course there are scheme books written to purpose, some will be good, some less so but I shouldn't think there's any real need to read such books per se, other than if they are good books in themselves?

the books DDs (yr4) brings home have the NC curriculum level printed on them rather than being coloured book bands

variety of styles of books but all at the same NC level

not sure what level they go up to though but DD1 doesn't bring any books home but reads extensively

Reading has lots of different functions but phonics enthusiasts talk often about decoding, which is basically pronouncing words as they appear on the page. Look & Say enthusiasts would call this recognising or constructing words/meanings as they appear on the page. Anyway, both of these phases are only part of the story, because after the pupil has decoded/recognised/constructed she still has to make sense of the text or narrative. Schemes on their own are not sufficient for that. Analysing texts or narratives is a skill that is separate from the word recognition method. It doesn't matter whether the pupil uses phonics, look & say, or some other method, the pupil still needs to be able to discuss what she has read and that skill doesn't come from the books themselves.

How old is she??

It will depend on the school tbh...my DC school insist that they don't have "free readers" in KS1 but as they only go up to lime level (stage 11) they keep kids on lime throughout yr2

Although I suspect they are going to have their work cut out with DD (reception) whom they have put on quite a high level already...

Other schools don't have free readers at all and keep them on the scheme until yr6 (by being on stage 16)...

Shes five, she would be in year one. I did some SATs past papers where she was easily getting level threes (well, I only dd the bits of literacy that were easily markable as I wanted to get an unbiased test). My sisters friends (they are all teachers) seem amazed at her reading, but surely once you can read, you can read? Nobody cares how quickly you learned, it is more about learning wider skills, to my mind.

Yy, dd2 was reading CS Lewis and Virginia Woolf before she started school, lol, so there was no real point to biff and chip. She tested at 12yo in yr r for reading and comprehension and 15 for spelling (I've subsequently had the joy of reading the stuff that 15yos turn out, and am far less impressed than I was, lol)

I'm not sure why you are bothering tbh, if you know she's ahead. It makes me wonder if you really do need to deschool yourself and stop the comparisons for a while. It isn't likely that she's suddenly going to fall behind, so I would be inclined to relax a bit and embrace a bit more of the homeschooling philosophy. Even if she does go back to school eventually, you know she'll be on an academic par with her peers.

By this testing (and not even testing on the same schedule as her peers, but almost two years early) you are showing your anxieties, which won't be helping whatever the reason was she left tbh, and could well be compounding them. The worrying about adherence to a reading scheme would be giving me the same concerns tbh. I could kind of understand if she was way behind, and you were intending for her to return at some point, but not as you know she is ahead.

If you did nothing at all, she would still be fine.

Most homeschoolers tend to focus more on the individual child and doing less formal testing, than running with the crowd, so it's interesting to hear from a homeschooler who has completely the opposite view!

She didn't mind doing the tests, she just thought it was a puzzle book :-).

This is the thing, we spend most of our time pottering about, going to HE clubs, getting muddy, chilling out in the library, wandering round museums, chatting to neighbours, playing with street friends, etc. I must need to deschool, it just worries me that I will just look at the 'impressive' bits she can do and miss out the basics (like being impressed at parallel parking when someone can't change gears or something)

Then I suppose when we do formal work, it is quite different to school - lots of classics and science, and probably quite a bit more in the way of reciting poetry and feminism/socialism, lol.

Sounds like fun. DS is a good reader, also Y1. They've just been doing story maps. They have been reading a well known fairy tale and they had to do a "map", with pictures and captions to illustrate the main points of the story. DS's was up on the wall and I enjoyed looking at it and by the look of it he really enjoyed doing it. I was wondering for quite a while what "apear" was...... " a pear? , a pear??" How are there pears in this story.... "appear" .

Anyway, I'm sure you and your DD are doing brilliantly, but you could try this sort of activity which she can do to her own level if you want.

Just a word of caution, OP, and I'm not a teacher: but if I've read you correctly, then I'm not sure that you can grade a SATs paper/give a level accurately if you've only done bits of a whole paper (if that's what you meant) because they have harder and easier sections and it's the overall percentage that would give the level. In the maths ones, as well, they are really easy at the beginning and get harder (most year 2 children could get a fair few of the first half of a year 6 paper correct). Sorry if I've misunderstood you.

And more importantly: I don't think it matters whether you have or have not overestimated her at a level 3. It sounds like she is doing really well, comprehending most of what she's reading and enjoying her new schooling and learning lots with you. It sounds like you've made the right decision for both of you.

As someone upthread said (although I don't think you need to use any reading scheme books either), some of the higher level (14-16) books could be useful for you: I'm thinking the non-fiction ones. They cover a huge range of topics at appropriate levels (content and reading) and you could try ordering a few to complement your teaching and learning as well as to reassure yourself that she's easily above where she 'should' be?