Fantastic Mr Fox

[wigglywoowoo]

Can anyone tell me what book band this is please?

The books DD reads at home aren't really similar to her school reading scheme books. At school, she reads turquoise books. At home, she's reading Fantastic Mr Fox, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,The Sheep Pig and has started getting bored by the Rainbow Magic books, although she loves quite a few of the Linda Chapman series. I just assume that when she gets a story she enjoys, she races through it, but benefits from simpler texts at school where she has to put mite thought into really thinking about the text and understanding it all and thinking about things like the punctuation and vocabulary.

I think that's true. There is a difference between reading a book where you can ask questions of the adult reading with you and one where the adult is asking the questions of you. But I'm not sure that that difference is meaningfully reflected in the gap between what some children are reading at home and what they're given in their school bags.

Possibly DD's preferences or more likely a reflection of what she thinks of the levelled school books.

I think having a stated policy of showing no interest in what a child is reading at home might go some way to explaining the size of some gaps.

I just don't get why some schools make kids wade through all books at every level tbh...

DD does guided reading at stage 7 which is a good bit below where she is but I can see the benefits of her doing it (mainly for her writing tbh) but if she was doing guided reading at stage 4/5 IMO it would be pointless.

I don't think my daughter has a gap between what she is reading at home and what she is reading at school. What she reads at home is lower than her school reading books but I posted as I wanted to know where her comfort zone was. I thought her comfort zone was about white band but it seems to be a bit higher. DD's school also has no interest in knowing about what she reads at home but they are pushing her, I think a little bit too much at times.

DD's school are waiting for her to mature a bit before pushing her as she is only in reception.

I don't tell them what she reads at home nor do they ask but sometimes DD loves a particular book so much she wants to read/show it to her teacher which they are happy with

They seem to have got the right balance between encouraging her (asked her to read a poem in assembly last week) but taking it slow so she truly understands what she is reading, so it's all good let's hope it continues in yr1...

I can see how a pushy-school gap might be worse than a laid-back school gap in so far as a pushy-school might send a child home with a distinct impression that she was not cutting the mustard. For a very young child that might well be a personality forming experience. In laid back terms perhaps nothing at all might go wrong unless the child gets the impression that schoolwork is a joke. If that doesn't happen or gets dealt with swiftly then the laid-back approach might not do too much harm. (It probably won't do much good either.)

I like the sound of your DD's school Simpson - certainly sounds like the best place for her. I have just discovered today that our school book levels DO go beyond 11 which I am relieved about (assuming the books are vaguely interesting) as it does mean there is still some progression for my daughter but I expect that they will hold her for quite some time on 10/11 so that her 'other' literature related skills can develop, like you said about maturity. at the moment as she has run out of poetry books she has gone on strike....

wigglywoowoo I think the level your daughter is at now is really the sort of level where it doesn't matter so much. I used to like to read below my age, I loved Dick King-Smith books until I was a teenager, I was too embarrassed to tell my friends though. I could read much harder books but I wanted to read things that were more relaxing, nicer stories or whatever. So long as she finds things she likes and enjoys then once she is able to read Roald Dahl books she is able to pick up just about anything I expect.

DD has decided this morning that she wants to give The BFG a go...and nearly made us late reading the first 2 chapters to herself.

IMO it's far too hard for her but she is determined (because her brother has just finished the book and she has to do what he does ).

If she wants to read it let her read it. There's a world of difference between making a child do something and letting them do it.

She seems to be getting on ok with it, she is asking me the odd word (what it means rather than decoding it).

fab - thats great. The BFG was a favourite of mine.