Reading with a child who can read by themselves

[Bumpsadaisie]

Just wanted to canvas what people do when children get to the point where they can read books silently and pretty fluently. My DD doesn't really want to read out loud to me any more.

How do you "hear your child read?" when they get to this stage? At the moment I just ask her to tell me what happened and were there any tricky words? She is resistant to telling me what happened though - she just says "you can read it yourself mummy!"

Feel a bit like I may not be supporting her properly - its all too easy to get her to go off and read by herself while I sort out her brother.

One issue is that the books she brings home from school are quite easy for her - I don't think she ever has any trouble reading them, so she never wants my input. She enjoys them though so I am not pushing for her to move up particularly.

The school used to get ds to do the odd book review to make sure he understood what he was reading. I'd give him the odd funny book so I could see he understood as he'd laugh and tell me what the funny part said.

DS2 is at this stage. He doesn't like reading out loud as it slows down his enjoyment of the book. I do make him read to me at least once a week (preferably more). I try to ask quite probing questions to check he has picked up any 'inferred comprehension' and spot check on particular words to check he really knows what they mean. I have recently discovered that he will happily read his books to DS3 as a bedtime story which means he is trying to make them entertaining for DS3 to listen to rather than race through to find out more of the plot.

DD loves reading aloud so not a problem. With DS I just tell him he has to do it - but we only do it once a week. We'll sometimes do something like reading alternate pages to make it a bit easier. I do think reading aloud is an important skill - it's a completely different skill to reading in your head, and you do find your DC have skipped over words they don't know if they just read to themselves. I think the actual comprehension is a different skill again!

(the DC's school also require reading aloud to an adult at least once a week even when the DC get to being free readers)

If you are sure she can easily read the books from school, could you get her to read books out loud to you that are a bit harder? Eg books from the library which you choose?

Can she definitely read all the words in the school books, or does she just skip over words she doesn't know? Does she know the meaning of all the words? Is she definitely comprehending the story? Can she talk about things like what the characters are feeling, what might happen next, why something is happening etc? If she can, then I'd say that the library is your friend. How old is she?

I still get DS to read aloud a few tines a week. Reading aloud is a skill in itself. Reading all the correct words, reading punctuation, getting expression and maybe character into quoted speech. Reading at a good pace. Skills that can be improved with practise.

DD is Y3, just moved up to juniors and the head of year is passionate about us still listening to them read regularly. As Unis said, reading aloud is a skill in itself and they need to keep it up. We got quite lax last year but are trying.

We read a chapter book with her every night. She reads the first few pages of the chapter and I do the rest. The easier the book, the greater proportion of it she does. DH and I are each reading a different book with her so we get to hear the whole story too. She reads different books to herself.

DD1 reads to herself but the rule in our house is that she can do this IF she reads the first few pages of the chapter to one of us then she is free to do the rest of her reading to herself. I would make her read more out loud but she has a language disorder as well as a visual problem so by the evening I don't really want to put her under any more pressure or make her any more tired. If she has read at school that day (once a week or so) then I don't mind her just reading to herself. She is very good and if she comes across something that doesn't make sense, she doesn't understand, a new word she hasn't heard of before she will come and ask us.

DD2 is starting to try and read silently to herself but I am very doubtful whether she is actually reading it right or just skipping chunks. She definitely CAN do it but I think she would be more likely to be a bit more erm creative about how much she had read so I might let her do most out loud to me, then a couple of pages to herself then discuss it with me and then a bit more out loud to me.

mine are Yr1 and Yr2.

how old is child, mine reads from library i have built up at home for her, i never listen to her read books from school ( ort).

however occasionally I will get her to read to me, and she enjoys it and then we come across many new words, so we can discuss what they mean.

I think that practicing reading is non negotiable. Banning all electrical items/ tv/ computer until home work is done is surprisingly effective. You are the parent and you have the ability to punish refusal to do homework.

I would go to the library and get some more exciting and demanding books. We did paired reading and you can get into better stories by doing this and also discuss more difficult words and meanings and the sentiments of the author when describing a character or meaningful event for example. This would cover the "read it yourself" retort.

We read to each other. Dd loves to be read to and then it is her turn for a few pages. Year 6 BTW.

When I was at this stage and the school reading books were very boring my mum just used to sign that I'd done my reading 'plus an extra 10 pages'

We never did the reading as we knew I could sight read if necessary.

Proper reading happened from books we got together from the library.

My dd is an excellent reader but I still make her read 3 or 4 pages out loud to me nearly every night. I think it's a slightly different skill to reading in your head.

I also read to her every night (different book to the one she is reading).

DS is a free reader and prefers to read to himself. I listen to him read a couple of times a week with the emphasis on intonation and fluency. He's still quite young (6 yrs) so often needs bits explained - jokes can often cause confusion.
He loves reading aloud if it's to his little sister.

You don't say how old your DD is, but have you thought of a "mum and daughter book club"? Just the two of you in it, you both read the same book and chat about it as you go along. Obviously this works best with chapter books, and you might need to read a bit more slowly than you might normally do, but it can be a great way to discuss books with your DC, and you would really see if she's understanding it properly.

I think reading out loud is a skill that can get rusty quickly if not kept up. But no need to labour through an entire book. I try and catch my eldest two for a few pages of something once a week and the rest of the time they read to themselves. I also find DC occasionally mispronouncing a word - eg putting the stress in the wrong place, or breaking up the syllables oddly. I think these are words which they only come across in books, so it's good to listen in on them now and again just to catch these odd words before they become a massive habit. But it doesn't have to be a school book - eg DS enjoys funny poems, so we share them together when we find a good one. DD1 reads me bits of the newspaper while I'm cooking, which also keeps her up with current affairs and leads to interesting conversations.

Hi all, thanks to everyone for their responses. People asked how old she is - she was 5 in June, in Y1 now. She's on the turquoise books at school but they seem to be straightforward for her although she enjoys them. I am not sure there would be a huge difference if she went up a band or two so I wasn't going to push it and just let her read her own books at home, at the mo she is reading Mrs Pepperpot, Naughty Little Sister, some Usborne Beginners, those magic rainbow fairy ones, some of the easier roald dahls.

I love the idea of the Mum and DD book club! And the sharing the reading of a chapter book is a good idea too.

PS good idea to try and get her to just read aloud a little to me, if not the whole school book.

With ds (8) who is in Y3 and classed as a 'free reader' we read a page each. He actually loves this time between the two of us, plus we do it before bedtime so it's a lovely end to the day.

Dd1 is in yr 5 and her teacher wants us to listen to her read every day! It's made me realise how slack we got in yr3&4 (maybe even 2) once she was a free-reader.
She's expected to read with expression, sometimes we read parts of the stories each to mix it up a bit, so I'll be the mum in the story. I guess we do read it in a book club way and talk about the characters, what they'd do in a different situation, what we'd do in that situation etc. Having gone back to doing it again, I kind of wish we'd not stopped as I feel like I've let her down a bit.
Dd2, I've learnt! And she reads to one of us every day (free reader).

In year 1 and turquoise level she definitely needs to be reading out loud very regularly and discussing what she has read. She also needs to be reading a range of genre ie non fiction and poetry as well as fiction. This link: www.eriding.net/english/reading_materials.shtml#1 gives you really good ideas for the sorts of things you can ask when you discuss the book with her.

How well does she use the punctuation when she reads? ie does she stop at full stops, use her voice appropriately for ? and !? How good is she at making predictions about what might happen next - and supporting her answers with evidence from the text, not from the pictures. Can she say why the author has chosen a particular word and why it is effective?

There's no reason why you have to read a school book every day. You could alternate one of her books and a school book. But the more advanced her reading becomes, the more important it is to discuss the book with her. In your questioning/discussion, can you draw out the skills the writer has used to make the book engaging? Can you then help her to see how she could use those skills in her own writing?

Agree that in Year 1 and turquoise level she definitely needs to read aloud regularly! She still has an awful lot to learn and needs the support of regular reading to an adult.

I suspect most of the comments above were referring to junior age children who are free readers (or at minimum at lime level).

As redsky says, my answer above, and I suspect all or most of the others, had an older child in mind. I was thinking of how I've been reading with DD who is 7 and

Her younger brother is like your DD, Y1 and turquoise/purple level. I think it is way too early for him to just tell me the story. He has his 'own reading time' last thing before lights out, and obviously reads to himself at other times, but the main bedtime slot is very much us both reading to each other. It's often not a school book, but a small chapter book or early reader from the library, or an Usborne See Inside because he still loves the flaps. I don't think it matters much.

There are 3 boxes to tick - her reading alone, you reading to her, her reading to you. They all need to carry on getting ticked for several years yet. Tying the latter 2 together really helps, I think, or one of them goes by the wayside.

Sorry, I based my previous answer on DS2 who is in year and been reading at lime/above from beginning year2.
DS3 is in year 1 and turquoise band. He likes to read in his head but I make him read to me every day and probe him a lot on what he is reading. Not just 'what has happened' in the story, but why has it happened, what were the people feeling, why did they act in that way etc.

*DD who is 7 and a good reader.