Reading has completely stalled -how to talk to teacher.

[3bunnies]

Dd1 has been on level 9 (sorry can't remember colour) for 6 months now. She has read all the books in the box, she says they are too easy - though she sometimes comes across a tricky word. Most of the time she is bored reading so puts little expression into it. She is totally uninspired by it all. The teacher has said she can read other books at home but the books she enjoys are too tricky - Lemony Snicket, Roald Dahl. We have enough rainbow faries to populate fairyland but she hates them.

She is finding it particularly frustrating as ds is catching up with her. She is now telling him that he will get stuck on orange which was her experience, but it doesn't help him and she is overlooking the fact that he reads a book a day and so gets loads of practice.

Ideally I would like her to be able to raid their level 10 box, I wondered about buying the time chronicles as she did enjoy the magic key stories. They don't have them in the library. How can I move her on?

In this situation, there are a couple of things I would try. Firstly, a friendly, no-blame chat with the teacher to assess what areas to work on. Secondly, go off-piste with your daughter's reading at home. There is a big difference between Dahl and Rainbow Fairies in terms of ability required, and plenty of other books to choose from to extend get skills and pique her interest. What are her interests, and what sort of books do you think she would like?

I would speak to the teacher to find out what she needs to work on. There must be a reason they are holding her at that level if she has read all the book. If it is expression then she needs to be told that whether it is interesting or not if she wants different books then she needs to treat it like a performance and do voices etc. If it is comprehension you can work on that.

With regards to accessible books at home I would look at things like Magic Molly by Holly Webb, Dick King Smith, some of the early readers, some of the usborne young reading series 1 and 2 books might appeal, Jill Tomlinson. Try anything really. There is no reason why she can't have a stab at any of the books if she reads them with you. My daughter is reading a book that is a bit hard for her at the moment, some of the inference is a bit beyond her but she sits next to me even if she is reading to herself and asks me things or says if she doesn't understand something.

My daughter went straight onto Dahl and missed out the Rainbow Fairies on account of the fact that she look at one of the book covers and decided that she didn't like them. On the subject of ability required for Dahl, Enormous Crocodile doesn't require much, Fantastic Mr Fox not too much either, but Twits, Matilda and Giant Peach require more.

We have the rainbow fairies left over from dd1 when it was the only thing she would read! I think that she is probably that level or slightly lower. We do have enormous crocodile and fantastic mr fox so I will look those out. She likes history, Narnia, Wimpy Kid, 'stories with sad endings', she doesn't seem to like animal stories, and not really boyish stories either. I think she will probably enjoy mystery books too. Her comprehension is fairly good but she reads so slowly - through choice, that it is hard to maintain her interest over a number of days. She can read a book in a night if she wants to, but usually she reads a few pages and refuses to read any more.

How old is she?

You can get Winnie the Witch as chapter books - girls (and boys!) love it. She can read chapter books with you and still do the Level 9 stuff for school, can't she?

She is nearly 7 so is average/slightly above in reading for her age. It is not her ability as much as her lack of enthusiasm and that she has read all the books in that level and is bored.

I spoke to her teacher who has said that she can try going up a level. I will try to order in some of these suggestions at the library. ds will enjoy the Winnie the Witch even if dd doesn't, he loves the books.

The other thing is to raid the Book People.

I have just ordered DD various sets of books from there...
Winnie the Witch Collection
Walker Stories Collection
Princess Poppy First Readers Collection
Rainbow Fairies
My Chapter Book Collection

You may well be looking at slightly different ones as DD is younger than yours, but you may want to go back to slightly 'easy-reads' for a while to reignite her joy of reading. There are also Horrid Henry, Alice in Wonderland in 22 volumes, Time Chronicles, etc.

I think that she might enjoy the time chronicles - I am going to try to encourage her to see if they have some in the box tomorrow. She doesn't like Alice in Wonderland or Horrid Henry, point blank refused Winnie the Witch when I suggested it earlier. She is fussy discerning in her tastes.

You could try: non fiction books atm my DD is very into The Great Plague and Henry the 8th so has read loads on that. Fiction wise she loves Ramona the Pest, SuperFudge, Amelia Jane and anything by Dick King Smith.

DS (now 8) adored the Times Chronicles books however DD (5) hates them (only read the first one) so they are hit and miss in my experience.

Hi 3 bunnies:

My advice is don't worry about what they're giving her from school (very hard to win that battle for all sorts of reasons) -

better attack is to try and liven things up with reading at home.

So if Rainbow Magic Fairies is the right level

have you tried:

Rudica the Rude (www.richardandjudy.co.uk/childrens-books/Roodica-the-Rude-and-The-Famous-Flea-Trick/77

The Worst Witch series www.booktrust.org.uk/books/view/33293

Slinky Malinki stories www.amazon.co.uk/Slinky-Malinki-Lynley-Dodd/dp/0140544399

or the Sally Gardner Early Reader princess stories: www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=sally+gardner+early+reader

these should be o.k. for ages 5 - 8

MORE IDEAS CAN BE FOUND AT:

Book Trust has a book finder in the children's section. Just click ages 5 - 8 and then look through the various genre suggestions. Lots of great ideas there. www.booktrust.org.uk/books/children/ - scroll down below images and you'll see book finder - click that and you get books by ages & then just click 5-8.

Guardian has a suggestion list for ages 5 - 8 as well: www.theguardian.com/books/2000/apr/08/childrens.library.47

Go to the library and get a variety of books out. Some that you think are a bit easy, some about right and some a bit hard. Get a range of different styles. It might surprise you what she likes, then you can take it from there. She is about the level where there are all sorts of books and she can really start to take off if you find something that engages her. (with Ds this was Horrid Henry, groan....... lasted about 2 years...)

Freetrait - yes yes. Although take dd with you and let he choose books she likes the look of and ask the librarians for their help. Worked for my dd...she found a series of pet books the really got her reading to take off.

Has your school got any of the Macmillan 'I am Reading' series? DD has just had two of these - 'Dr Witch's Animal Hospital' and 'Yeti Spaghetti' - levelled at purple/stage 9 and absolutely adored them. They were fantastic stories without being too long. My DD is Y1 so they may not be grown up enough for a Y2 but definitely worth a look if you can find any at the library.