Am I committing a parenting faux pas by letting DS1 read his reading books to himself and then just give me a summary of the story??

[ceebeegeebies]

He is free reading chapter books, magazines etc so is there a reason I am missing why he needs to sit and read boring books to me?

[Enthuse]

free readers for last few months. None of us really enjoy me listening to reading anymore... We do it reluctantly once a week but necessary as I think words are being glossed over when they dOnt understand them. Otherwise ask for summaries. Have also just bought them a kids dictionary so they can look up words. However I read to them every night for half an hour and we always discuss the story and plot and characters and what we like etc so I think comprehension etc is aided and checked by that and hopefully feeds back into their own reading.

[wheresthebeach]

We had dd teacher send a letter to all parents saying we should be listening to them read for 20 mins a night. Was a bit of a shock as we'd all stopped listening to them around year two. Started again...and can see that it is still helpful. DH reads to her each night as well just for fun.

[UniS]

Reading aloud is a slightly different skill to reading to ones self.

I've kept on with reading aloud regularly , tho maybe not daily , with a confident year 2 fre reader DS. He needs the practise reading aloud to keep him from gabbling and skipping punctuation. The reading aloud helps us to pick up on words he is not familiar with and check if he understands their meaning. Espionage was today's one, he can read it, but didn?t know what it meant.

[Lulaloo]

Please please do listen to your child read regularly.
I asked one of our yr 2 free readers the other day -(a child whose parents just ask for a summary of what they have read), the meaning of a number of words that he had just read. He did not have a clue.
Listen , discuss and enjoy,books together as often as you can. Creating memories and skills we use our whole lives!

[mrz]

As a teacher and parent I would stop listening once they get to secondary school. Good readers don't take long to read one page aloud so it's worth making time once or twice a week.

[ISAmum1]

MY DS is in Year 6, so about to leave for secondary. He became a free reader at the end of Year 1. He read to me every school day until the beginning of Year 3, when I found it difficult to get him to read aloud, as he wasn't enjoying it.
His teacher told me not to worry, but instead to read to him as much as possible. After some months of this, we started sharing reading a book (taking it turns to read) which worked well.
Now in Year 6, he reads a book to me and I read a book to him. We alternate each day. This seems to work for us and I will keep it up as long as I can, as I know DS is not such an avid reader.
But as far as literacy is concerned, reading is the most important thing you can encourage (aloud or to oneself). Children who read a lot, tend to do well in English in secondary school.
Btw, my DD (age 13) still loves reading aloud. At the moment, she is reading The Hunger Games to me.

[Elibean]

dd1 is in Y4, and mostly reads to herself (purely because I run out of time after listening to her little sister) but I make sure I listen to her a couple of times per week at least - mostly because she loves it when I do. Also to make sure she isn't skipping over tricky words in her haste to find out what happens next

Other times, dh or I sit next to her on the sofa and read while she reads - it's really enjoyable!

[MirandaWest]

DS is in year 4. I hadn't really listened to him reading in year 2 or year 3 much and in year 4 he got a new teacher part way through the year who said it was important to listen to them preferably daily or at least a few times a week.

I have found that there were words he was occasionally struggling with and also he is actively getting more interested in fiction now. A bedtime we take turns and read a bit and we both enjoy it :)

DD is in year 2 and I don't listen to her reading as much as DS. May be my new school year resolution.

[youcouldnevermakeitup]

DS is coming up as a 5b in Yr 3 and has been a free reader since starting school (obviously this is going to sound like a stealth boast) but he is a voracious reader and I still insist he reads to me from time to time. At this sort of level it is not just about inference and deduction but about challenging vocabulary. Whilst his 'reading for fun' is still at the 'How to train your dragon' level, his school books are at a higher level and I make sure that there is not a word on the page that he does not understand when he reads to me. This, I feel, helps his speech and writing as well as his comprehension levels. I am quite pleased with his understanding of vocabulary for his age but there are still some common words which he is not sure about.

You are not off the hook yet!

[EskSmith]

DD1 is in Yr1 & at White level (10). Her school like to make slow steady progress, she is already racing through Roald Dahl & the dreaded Magic Ballerina books at home
She brings home 2 books at a time. One book I hear her read daily from (normally a chapter or 2) The other she reads to herself and I ask her questions on the text, plus checking that she has correctly read random tricky words in the text.
She also reads her own books & books from the library to herself which we talk about but I don't "quiz" her.

I think at this age, as others have said it is important to encourage expression. Also checking some pronunciation is key - I was a prolific reader at this age, there were several character names and some words that I pronounced in a phonetically plausible but wrong way for years as I had only ever encountered them in text.

[abitlikemollflanders]

year 2! I thought he must be Y5 at least.

Y2 still have sooo much to learn - as I am sure you have now realised! level 5 children still benefit from reading aloud. You can discuss inference and deduction - reading between the lines. Author intent, what did the author use this word instead of...
This is in addition to making sure that pronunciation/expression etc is good.

Enjoy hearing him read for a few more years. It really is one of the best ways you can support your child in terms of curriculum education.

[BabiesAreLikeBuses]

I have asked most of the parents of my y5 class to listen to their children read more often this year - most are nc level 4a and ort 16. Apart from the obvious enjoying time with you, asking searching questions and checking new vocab is really important. One child read to me today, a 5 syllable word and only two syllables pronounced which altered the meaning.

[AbbyR1973]

DS1 reads very confidently but I still hear him read on average 5x per week, the school book he has brought home. This is mostly about encouraging expression, comprehension etc.
DS may read any books to himself at anytime he wants including his reading book from school apart from these times.
A totally separate subject is reading to DS and there is no way I'm giving that up just because he can read himself ...I'm not stopping until he's big enough to kick me out!! We both love story time, I like revisiting books and we can do books that are far beyond his reading level- we have recently read The Indian in the Cupboard and Stig of the Dump and he adored them both, we have also done the tricky Edwardian language of Five Children and It and The Phoenix and the Carpet, again which he loved.

[simpson]

I plan to hear DS read for at least a other year every day (so end of yr4) and after that maybe 2-3 times a week.

Reading out loud is a different skill to reading to yourself and both need practising IMO.

[Periwinkle007]

I think perhaps if school still have him on level 10 (even if it is partly due to a policy of reading every book) then he probably still needs to read to you a bit more. There are a lot of skills they expect them to develop between the levels so it may be he hasn't yet got all of these. My daughter will always come and ask me about a word she hasn't come across before or isn't sure of or if she can't follow something but she does misread things sometimes (even more so with visual processing disorder) so I do keep a close eye on her at the moment.

[Bakingtins]

My ds1 is 6 and Y1. He's reading v well, but I agree his school reading books are often beyond dull. We read them on the day they are changed, twice a week, and on the other days choose something else, a chapter of whatever he is reading. He is attempting complex books because he's interested in the story (Harry potter at the moment) but unless I hear him read I would not know he is mispronouncing or not understanding certain words. He certainly understands enough to repeat back the gist of the story, but I'd be missing an opportunity to increase his understanding and vocabulary if I totally left him to it. Plus it's lovely to share books together - we just read " The owl who was afraid of the dark" at bedtimes, and I remembered how much I had loved sharing that with my Mum.

[Shattereddreams]

I'm not sure it's just about books tho at this stage. For example DD also level 10/11 was playing temple run on my iPad today. She was reading the menu, I wasn't really paying attention, but she read ancient as accident and I overheard her. I just told her the correct word, asked if she knew what it meant, a twenty second conversation.

She is in Yr 1 so hasnt come across the word before. If it were in a book, she may figure out that it didn't make sense. Sometimes, some words are beyond their ability but if the book is reasonably appropriate to their age and sense of the world, I think they figure it out.

[maillotjaune]

I am now only listening to DS1 (10) once or twice a week. He has been a free reader since Year 2 and is a very capable reader (if a bit keen on fantasy for my tastes) but he still comes across words he doesn't know.

In fact I suspect that's more of a problem with good reader who end up reading books that aren't specifically written for their age, and who may not understand everything.

[ceebeegeebies]

mamaleuh - that is why I posted as I don't know what I should be looking for when he reads and was after advice

[ceebeegeebies]

Periwinkle, I have bought The Magic Faraway Tree books to take on holiday this summer and I fully intend to read those with him as they were my very favourite books when I was little in fact he will probably have to wrestle it off me

[mameulah]

How do you know he is decoding more complex vocabulary?

It is so important to keep practising this skill and it is impossible to check that it is being practised correctly unless you listen to him read out loud.

[ceebeegeebies]

He is not a free reader at school, he is stage 10 but the teacher insists they read all the books in each stage before moving up!!

[Periwinkle007]

I am trying to remember when I stopped reading to my parents (my mum was a primary school teacher so pretty hot on reading). I suppose the problem is that reading out loud is a different skill to just reading if that makes sense so the whole time they are learning new ways to read more clearly/effectively etc and if they don't practice reading out loud then when they have to do it at school it might trip them up a little. I don't remember reading to my parents after about yr2/3ish but I did do speech and drama lessons and exams from that sort of age and learned to read out loud through that so perhaps that was when I tailed off reading to my parents so much.

I think so long as you listen to him a couple of times a week then I don't think you are neglecting it but from yr3/4ish I personally think if he is confidently reading chapter books then you could cut that down more but my 2 are still a lot younger so I could be suggesting something I might not want to put into practice myself. I think you know how strong his reading is, where his weaknesses may lie and if you continue to do some reading with him then that is probably ok. I think at yr2 many children will still enjoy having books read to them so perhaps make sure you continue to do that or share reading so he reads a bit and then you do and so on. he will then pick up expression skills and so on from you.

[ReallyTired]

"Just out of interest, at what age would you stop listening to him? He is yr2."

I think that year 2 is far too early to stop listening to him. I think you listen to him to read every day until he is a comfortable national curriculum level 4. It only need be five minutes, but it will help him with comprehension no end. Reading is far more than the ablity to bark at print.

If he is a free reader then surely he can choose more interesting books. I still hear my year 6 son read occassionally although not every day.