How are you going to make sure your soon to be YR1 child keeps up with their reading over the holidays?

[JumpingJacks]

DD1 brings a new book home almost every day so I haven't bothered to buy books designed for teaching reading. The school pretty much has this covered.

I find it quite difficult to look at reading books in bookshops and know what level she is at. The last book I bought was too far beyond her but by the time I thought she was ready for it, she had moved on and found it too easy.

She is at the expected level according to her report yesterday, moving towards emerging. So what can I do to make sure she doesn't forget how to read over the holidays?

How do I work out what books I should be buying for her?

What will you be doing?

Split digraph is the ae in came, lane, race, ee in these, i_e in line, time, file... It used to be taught as magic e.

My DD is just finishing Y1 - she's a good but reluctant reader so haven't pressed her too much on the books sent home as she tends to just give up and mess about.

Definitely heading for the library challenge as she's done this before and enjoyed it a lot. Also The Book People is great for sets - we've got Horrid Henry and the Happy Families sets from them.

Charity Shops and jumble sales also as she likes to pick her own books and will read better from them. She also gravitates to the picture books in the library - I did worry they were too young for her but she likes them and will read them so I'll count that as a win!

She also likes joke books and poetry as she doesn't seem to count that as 'proper' reading.

She's slowly starting to get the reading bug but it's been a struggle. In Reception I probably pushed too hard so I've made myself take a step back this year, even though I found it really hard!

I wouldn't have a clue how to teach that pozzled.

The new alpha blocks series on Cbeebies teaches the two letter phonemes and split digraphs.

Mine is doing the summer reading challenge too.

it is hard to know how to explain it to them as we (most of us) aren't teachers but if we just read the word to them then potentially they just learn the word rather than learn to sound it out. at the stage she is with her reading I don't think that would really matter if you just said the word rather than spelt it out.

basically it is just that a letter has got in between the two vowels so
ae would be a (with its name rather than its sound) and a_e is also a
ee would be ee and e_e is also ee
ie would be i (with its name not sound) and i_e is also i
and so on.

so it is the phonic digraph sound but the letters in it have been split

does that make sense?
have I got it right?

to be honest i just told her it was magic e and she seemed to pick it up.

That does make sense Peri, thanks for taking the time to write that out

thats ok - there is nothing worse than wanting to help your child but not knowing quite how to. thats why I have set up my little blog on childrens books. not so much for reviews (as I haven't really done any) more for recommendations of different books that people may not have come across. as time goes on I hope to link to info about starting reading so it can be useful to people. (just wish I had more time to do it)

DD is just finishing year 1 and I have subscribed to reading chest (did the same last year) ... I find teachers at this time of year reluctant to put DD up a reading level (and typically this year and last she seems to have made a jump now) so have ordered books 2 levels up from what she is getting from school - She is on book number 4 at this level, and whilst there are a fair few new words at the moment it is because of the subject matter of the books so far rather than lack of understanding if that makes sense - she is sounding out those words and reading brilliantly.... I will be interested to see what level she gets put at in her new class when assesed if the summer continues this way!

That's a really good idea Peri, I would find that very helpful.

I am so tempted by reading chest. Does it offer anything that the library doesn't?

I agree with the posters who have said not to worry too much about levels. Personally I trust the school to teach phonics etc, and I just see my role as encouraging them by making sure they have lots of exposure to (and hopefully enthusiasm for) different books. So I don't think it matters if the books you get are too easy for her (she can still enjoy the story) or too difficult (you can help her with hard words or share the reading between you). The two of you reading together is the really important thing!

I've got DS1 in year 2 and DD in reception btw.

I think I need to just forget levels, take her into the library and look at the books there with her to work out what I should get.

Peri can you link to your blog?

Reading chest - firstly, you can get a code for a half price first month (£4.99 I think - and I can probably send you a code to try it), secondly you select what colour bookband you want (can change whenever you like) you can choose specific reading schemes if you want - or not, and can choose just fiction or include non-fiction - they send them to you 4 at a time, and with the first order comes a bag, chart, stickers and bookmark - so you put a sticker on everytime you've read one and if I remember correctly you can also download certificates off the website when they've read X number - you post back 3 books at a time so you always have one
I love it!

I sometimes use this website

Books you can read online (ORT amongst others) or you can put the volume on for it to be read to you.

thebookbears.wordpress.com/ - please be nice, I am new to it and have loads I still want to get on there.

I think the thing is if you can look at a couple of 'real' books and see how she gets on then you will very quickly work out if a book in the library is suitable for her to read or if it is more suitable for you to read together.

If there are words she doesn't know that is fine, it is all about expanding her experience and if she sees you reading them and you sound them out so she can see how you knew that was how to read them then you can talk about any words she doesn't know the meaning of etc.

I signed up for Reading Chest a couple of weeks ago with the intention that it would give us a supply of new books through the holidays (the library is not easy for us to get to).

So far DS has devoured the books that have arrived - I chose the same level as he is reading at school. He likes getting his envelope through the post and if it keeps him reading over the Summer I'll be happy.

ds will be doing homework every night before bed. we have built up from four cvc words to 4 sentences and some high frequency words (mainly the phonically regular ones) he has asd and there is a bit of a melt down if he does not do homework. (unless he is excetionally tired or ill)