Encourage my dd to read but not being pushy

[Louw1988]

Hi all,

So my daughter has had a tough time in reception and year 1 with her eyesight. She now has glasses and has been having eye drops to improve her lazy eye so her eyes have been blurry for over a year but hopefully at the end of this month she can come off them and start being able to see abit better

As she has had all this going on she has been a bit behind in her reading and writing and hates it with a passion! I have brought so many book sets to get her wanting to read but with little success - I think due to her struggling.

I have set up a laptop for her but she wants to just type letters not words and she has an iPad which she can send me and daddy messages on but again it's mainly emojis or random letters with the odd sentences

I've just brought her a set of Enid blyton books so they are a bit more grown up and hope that as the summer holidays come and her eyes are better we can really get her fluently reading
My thoughts are, every book she completes (with my help) she can get a star and when she has 5 she can get a treat
Any suggestions or ideas or do you think my plan is a good one?

Freshprincess she gets magazines weekly but she just wants to do the drawings, stickers etc..on them and doesn't read any of it
She has a whole wardrobe full of all sorts of books, comics (she had a full set of 60 off Dora comics) but will never go in there off her own back

Try Oxford owl - it reads to them and follows the words turns pages etc

especially with the phonics screening test being a washout for her :-(

Dd1 fortunately didn't do the phonics screening because in yr 1 she was far too busy being 5 to learn to read, she is off to a selective school soon. Dd2 passed it a few years later but in yr4 is still finding it hard to read books dd1 would have devoured.

I would add the result of the phonics screening in with everything else that you know about her language skills, eyesight etc and not put too much stress on her. Teach her to love stories and in most dc, with a little practice she will want to read under the covers in a few short years yes looking at you dd1 who should be trying to get to sleep now

Ottoline series,

stunning illustrations short chapters so they get sense of achievement. My DD found Enid really tedious!

www.amazon.co.uk/Ottoline-Yellow-Cat-Chris-Riddell/dp/033045028X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468266019&sr=8-1&keywords=ottoline

Thank you, I've already ordered the Enid ones so I will see but I will bear these in mind for her birthday which is coming up :-)

My son is visually impaired, but our library has a very good selection of large print books for all stages of children learning to read. If you go in and let her choose some things, that might encourage her. (our children's section is lovely, and the librarians are so kind, and treat children as VIPs- I realise we're lucky, and not all libraries are like that!).

The biggest difficulty we've found is him seeing punctuation, as it's much smaller than letters. So we have trained him to look for capital letters, and remember to take a mini pause before them. Once they can recognise more names/proper nouns, this method can work pretty well.

With regard to writing, I picked up some good book sin sainsburys (but I think other supermarkets, whsmith, pound land etc all do their own) that are workbooks based on children characters, where the child has to do 'writing' not all letter/word work- some is pattern copying, waves, zigzags, mazes etc to train their fine motor controls. DS had Star Wars ones, which he really liked, and he would do one page (or more, sometimes) in the evening while I prepared supper. They were not expensive, but helped with hand/eye co-ordination.

Considering her age, her eye problems, and the fact it is the summer holidays coming up, I would:

1. definitely sign her up for the Summer Reading Scheme at your library (6 books in 6 weeks);
2. give her the option of an extra 15 mins before bedtime if she is reading;
3. read to her a lot.
4. try a few comics (DS2 read the Beano pretty much before anything else)

Thanks again ladies, we are going to do the library challenge like we did last year so hopefully she will pay more interest this year
She has a full wardrobe full of books and lights on in her room till I go to bed at 10 and she knows she can stay up a little longer to read or write as long as she's asleep by 8.30 but she will never get a book out to read :-(

That age I would definitely be concentrating on picture books, still.
This book is a good bed time one & it encourages reading and understanding sounds and patterns.
Dr. Seuss are simple but clever reads, too.

lijkk
That book looks brilliant.

yeah, it's smashing. Has won awards. Friend (teaches on PGCE course) was showing me a copy today. Perfect for yr1 age, but I was saying my 12yo would like it too.

Lljk
Anything that brings the magic of words and letters alive like that is wonderful.

OP I hope the library will be fun. Now she is seeing better, it may take time for her brain to catch up neurologically with what she is seeing, so in my opinion, mostly just reading to her while pointing would be best for now. Any anxiety would be best avoided.

Hi op, slightly different angle here but have a look at the app "teach your monster to read"
Your dd will get to design and even dress her own monster and help them on a learning journey of reading.
The way you could use it could be to say that you KNOW that dd can read but the monster can't and it will help her immensely with fluency and give her so much confidence.
It has been great for my dd.
Good luck :)

My kids would hate Enid books! too twee and not enough fun.

Cant she choose her own books at the library. Let her make her own reading choices. If she chooses easier reading books, let it be. It's better to read a lot of books comfortably then read rarely and struggle. The main thing is to generate enjoyment and an interest in reading at your DD's age. Books need to grab her interest.

Mine read for up to an hour at bedtime. I usually put them to bed at 7 so they have time before they are too tired.

DD loves me reading Enid blyton to her at bedtime but also loves Daisy and the trouble with series and is now reading them by herself (with some help occasionally). They are a lovely series and DD loves how Daisy gets into trouble.