How much do your YR read?

[jenbird]

I have read on here about people's 5 yr olds having finished the ORT series. My daughter is 5 with a December birthday and in YR. She is a bright little girl and currently on Stage 5. We read every night. Her books are changed M,W,F and we currently read one a night unless it's a tricky one. School issues the ORT books including wrens, sparrows etc, then we do snapdragons and then fireflies (so tedious). It takes a while to get to the next stage. I am just interested in how much others read and what they read. I thought my daughter was pretty able until I read what other peoples children are doing on here. I also thought we read quite a bit but now I'm not so sure. Our school is v small (49 pupils) and rural so we live in a bit of a bubble so I was just wondering how much others do?

I read with my DD for at least 5-10 minutes a day. We do a book a day, and then at weekends or days when I'm not working I do a bit of phonics with her. (I try to fit phonics in because the school are crap at it give it a lower priority than I would like).

The school use a mixture of schemes and don't place the children on bookbands or particular levels, but DD is somewhere around blue level- not sure how that compares to ORT. I think she's ahead of most of her class see my earlier comment about phonics.

my daughter is in reception and is 5.5. They don't have to read every book in a level at her school unless they NEED to.

She started school able to read and they had her on level 5 straight away having assessed her reading ability and placed her where they thought she was (it was right - she was on level 6-7 at home so 5 was where I had hoped they might put her) She read nearly 30 books at level 5, over 20 at level 6 and then has done fewer at the higher levels because once she had the confidence to read with expression at school she could already do the actual word reading so they moved her up quicker. she is now on book band 10 and reading early reader/simpler/shorter chapter books at home. she has read about 70 books from school since the autumn. Complete mix of Biff Chip and Kipper, fireflies, snapdragons, Jackdaws, sunshine spirals, Ginn, New Way etc so lots of schemes and varieties.

She normally reads about 20/25 minutes a day. If she has a school reading book then unless it is a Jackdaws one she will read all of it in one go as I think part of being on the longer books/higher levels is about increasing their stamina. She gets 3 book changes a week. Often she will then read a 'home' book at bedtime in addition to her school reading book and obviously on the days she hasn't had a school book change she reads anything she wants off her bookcase.

Schools are very very different with how they approach things. My daughter's school don't rush them through at all, they are very careful to make sure they are ready before moving them up BUT they also recognise there is no point making a child read every single book at a level just for the sake of it.

Ignore all the talk on here.

I always aimed for 10 mins a day, 5 times a week. It increased as they got older, but varies day to day depending on the book.

I have found that they learn at different speeds. At one point DS1 skipped an entire level. Both dcs have been moved to the end of a level on occasion.

And always remember, being an early reader does not mean they will always be ahead. DS1 was several levels behind a classmate in Reception (she was reading Enid Blyton when she started school). He is now ahead of her in literacy (year 4).

The key thing is to be consistent and to enjoy it.

Level 5 is very good for reception. my daughter is unusual (and the oldest in the class). I THINK in her class of 30 there are a couple on level 8, her on 10, one on 6 and perhaps a couple of others around 6ish but most aren't.

Periwinkle007 - how on earth do you know?!

Seriously? I know of one other child in my dd's reception class of 30 and that's because her mother is my friend.

Do you rifle through the book bags in the cloakroom? Or invite them to play and pounce on the book bag then?

DD is unusual I think, not by her ability in reading (which is good) but her obsession to read.

She reads aloud to me for 30 mins a day (more at the weekends- but not in one go iyswim) but she can sit there and read to herself for over an hour.

Stage 5 is very good for reception. There are 7 kids at stage 7 in DD's class (I know because she tells me). Other than that I don't have a clue what the majority of kids are on. There are 2 kids on pink (I am friends with their mothers).

I think a lot of this depends on the schools approach. I have dts in reception, diff classes, both top end, both on blue. We read most nights unless too tired and also have books m,w,f, phonics is taught v v well so i leave them to it. I can't honestly say they have been challenged by any school book (apart from a serious of tedious poetry books which i struggled to stay awake through, dull, dull, dull) but the school are reluctant to whizz them through as children need to practise expression, build sight vocab etc. i only read school books once with them and they don't need help. So while school have them on blue, ds read chapter 1 of fantastic mr fox easily this weekend... There's no way they'd put a yr child on stage 10 at my children's school and end of ks1 reading results are usually 90% at level 3.
I have decided to treat school book levels with a pinch of salt and carry on enjoying more interesting stories with them at home!

I would separate what your child can read from what level of scheme book she's on. Schools and teachers have their own reasons, resources, politics and preferences, none of which might have anything to do with what the child is able to do. (And I wouldn't restrict this observation to reading alone, but to the whole of school life.)

Babiesarelikebuses - why wouldn't they put a reception child on stage 10 if that was where their reading level was?

Because one persons reading level is another person's schmeeding level.

DD (age 5) has finished the school reading scheme so she chooses her books from the school library. Some days she chooses picture books, some days she chooses great big novels. I don't mind either way, I know she can read, I think there is far more to get from a book than how difficult it's words are (once you are a confident reader)

There's no need to think that difficulty in reading begins or ends in school. James Joyce and Herman Melville and Linear B are proof that it doesn't. Reading is as tortuous and difficult as you like, for ever.

The only question is: What do you want to gain from reading, ultimately?

I help out with reading in reception and none of them are on these high levels, because they seem to do it a little differently.

I think it is because they really really stress the phonics, so they send home phonics books and phonics flashcards and tricky word sheets etc etc.

We didn't even get reading books until Christmas and dd knew all her basic phonics before she started school.

She is in the top set and going along in leaps and bounds etc, but she isn't on a high level ORT book. Instead they have jolly phonics books which are very weird stories with all the words based on the phonics they know. They seem hard to me, because of the strange words, but she can read them. I think she could read ORT level 5 or 6.

I think the schools approach is to stress the basics, rather than stress the books. Not sure if this is a good thing or not, it is different to how ds and dd1 learned, so I am watching with interest. But it is certainly feeding into their writing and spelling, and when they come across these difficult words, they can decode them very confidently.

I think it is impossible to compare over the internet, because schools use of language varies. I have seen so many people say their child is ''off the top of the school reading scheme'' or a ''free reader'' when they are in reception. In our school, that is a level reached at year 3/4 or above. A child off the top of the scheme is one who is at Harry Potter reading level. In another school, it may mean they can read ORT level 12. That is 2 very different levels, and without knowing the schools definition, I think it is hard to compare.

FWIW, I have helped in a couple of schools and I think that mn kids are obviously all in the top 25% of reception classes.....

I have a September born dd, now in y1, who could read when she started school. She read a few books at each level from 7 ish upwards but then was left to choose her own Christmas onwards. I rarely heard her read at home but she read (a lot) to herself, mostly Rainbow bloody fairies.
Dd2 is July born and in reception now. I don't think she is reading every book on each level but is only on level 3 or 4 I think. She is usually tired after school so we don't often listen to her read but do read to her most nights. She is only 4 and will def learn to read in her own time, so if she isn't keen to read to me everyday, I'm not going to force her. Her teacher is happy with this.

DD had the God awful jolly phonics books (which are wrist slash able IMO) but luckily she has come off them now...

Also the point about a reception kid reading HP comes down to maturity (which comes with age) so a reception child could cope with Fantastic Mr Fox etc but not HP possibly as they are not mature enough/got enough life experience iyswim. But it does not mean they can't be a free reader. But I guess each schools definition of a free reader is different (in my DC school it is when they have got to stage 11).

Op a lot of stealth boasting happens on this website and it frightened the life out of my when ds was in reception.

When ds was in reception, most of the children ended the year on level 2 or 3. A few would be a bit better or a bit worse than that. Your dd is doing very well to be on level 5 at this stage.

It doesn't have to be stealth boasting, a school with eight yellow reading books and only eleven children in its entirety will have different progression rates from one with four hundred and fifty children and ninety six yellow reading books stretching back as far as 1950, with an "every child must read every book," policy.

DD is in a class of 90 so very different to the standard 30 iyswim.

We don't always read DD's school book but as long as she reads something IMO it does not matter really...

I think schools can divvy the children up, at least I hope they can, otherwise some Reception classes in London will have about 180 children in them. I know you can bulge classes, but, unlike stomachs, Reception classes can't stretch indefinitely.

Wow what a lot of interesting replies. I will be interested to see how my dd progresses. My ds1 is in yr3 and an august birthday. He did not progress quickly like my dd but he is an avid reader now (we have just finished reading the last Harry Potter) and so I don't think it matters. I just hope we manage to instil a love of reading in her too.

DD is in a bulge class this year (90 instead of 60) but they are all in one massive room with the correct ratio of extra teachers TAs etc...

Next years reception class is going back to the standard 60 so DD's year will be the only year group with 3 classes in it...

It is a very able year group (DD's year) and they have been doing year 1 numeracy for a few weeks now...but numeracy (like phonics and literacy) is split into ability groups to cater for all the year group.

Jenbird - my DS is in yr3 also with an end of Aug birthday (who did not progress amazingly quickly) and he finished HP a couple of months ago (and to be fair it really pushed him)

DD in reception is end of Jan birthday and it makes a big difference I think...

My Dd1 is in the Scottish equivalent of reception. She is 5 and just learning to sound out cvc words. We practice reading for 15 mins every day. Just to add a bit of balance to the thread!

dd was still 4 aat the end of reception. she was reading white band level. she read nearly everyday and several books a day. she cried if we had to stop hearing her read. she reads everything with print on...

ds on the other hand is not really ready to read much yet. he does not read much as it is a real effort to sound out a few words and remember the previous word in a 2 word sentence. he is also still 4. i am a little bit worried about it, but know really that he is still four and it is not yet a big deal.