Home/school reading diary question?!

[Bumpmadethemjump]

My dd brought it home with her today along with a book and a Letter. On the letter it says to please write every time you read with your child. Is that just when you read the book the school gave you that week or literally every book you read?! I read a book every night at bed with dd so does that need to be included? Also when I do write in it, what do I write?!

Sorry for the questions, I probably sound ridiculous but she's only child so had no experience with this yet.

At this stage of the academic year you would write in a short essay about everything she ever reads, plus her emotional responses to it, favourite character, anything she found tricky and so on.

As the year goes on you write less, perhaps just "DD read this with me tonight" or "DD liked this".

By the time she gets into Y2 you don't bother anymore.

But seriously, I would just write when you read her school reading book with her, perhaps noting if there was anything she found esp. difficult that you think the teacher/TA could practice with her.

At my ds's school, we write in reading diary when he read book to me. He write some comment himself and I initial it.
When he didn't have time to read aloud and read it to himself, he write the comment and I sign "he read it to himself"
He is in yr4 though, so when he was younger, I've written some short comment when he read books to me., or just initialed it with name of the book.

What Bump said! I just initialled it at the end of last year - there's only so many things you can write about biff and bloody chip.

Ours is usually just for school reading books.

Comments would be things like "Read p4 - p.10. No help needed" or "DD liked this book" or "DD needed help with some of the longer words."

Mostly it's just a couple of words to show that DD has read some or all of the book. I'm not sure anyone actually pays much attention to them other than to glance at the page to see if the child has done any reading at home.

At DC's infants it was every book. Though if you read a lot after about the first week you get bored, so you just list the school reading book, pages read and initial it.

[Currently in despair because DC's Year 6 teacher is insisting on an entry in the reading diary every day, after a Year 5 teacher who didn't bother. Why oh why!!!]

Usually just the school reading books which they read out loud to you.

Redsky- really? That's daft. I haven't written in dd's since year 2. From year 3 onwards they can fill it in themselves if they're competent readers.

Our school insist we write in it too..

I do as DS doesn't get his homework signed off if I don't and as he has done it think he should.

But Op yes school book read page 5-6 or the whole book when just starting.. Found word ... tricky.. How managed answering questions..

My dd isn't reading yet should she be?! I just read to her, so shall I just write how she enjoyed the book & favourite character etc..?

P.s dd has just turned 4 at end of july so she's a younger one.

No, don't worry, OP, she shouldn't! All schools do it differently but our give them picture books without words to start with where they have to tell the story from the pictures, so even though they can't read, it's them interpreting the book, not the adult. Then they move on to very simple books with a few mainly phonic words per page. Eg Fat Cat sat on the mat. We didn't get books from school that we had to read to them.

Yes, I would write what you suggested.

nennyrainbow Oh DD can fill it in herself but I'm meant to check and sign it every day. Or, as happened today (as her book gets checked on Friday) DD writes down a list of 5 books and I sign all of them without looking. Complete waste of time IMO

Brilliant thank you all.

Red sky, that's ridiculous for year 6! How do they expect them to cope next year when they're responsible for their own homework?

Once she starts learning her phonics you can get her to find sounds on the page. Can you find an /s/ etc.
Then in the comments you can say DD enjoyed the story and was able to find /s/ and /m/.
Or she sounded out /c/ /a/ /t/ but needed help to blend.

In secondary i had to sign my kids homework diaries every day or they got demerits

In primary we would like them to read to an adult and chat about what they have read even after they are "good" readers.

I don't expect long essays just a really brief comment initialled when finished

Are they Oxford Reading Tree books OP? They give some suggestions of questions you can ask the child as they look at the book (for picture books for children who aren't yet reading). There is definitely no expectation that she will be reading yet but you always ask her questions about whats happening in the story, what she likes etc and then comment on these in reading log.

I do
Date
Book name
Pages 1- whatever read

Nothing more.

I write in DD's (just gone into y3) and I hear her read most days, even though she is an excellent reader. It means we can share the enjoyment of the book and also that things I thought she knew but didn't can be ironed out - like yesterday I discovered she didn't know the word 'ignorant' so we could discuss it - even though she read it as if she did know what it meant!

Each comment is ticked so I know the reading record book is being looked at daily.

I am also a TA in Y3 at a different school and we would like the child to read as often as possible at home - even the good readers - and we check the reading records probably once or twice a week.

Just a signature will do, just so that we know the book has been read to someone. We accept signatures/comments from grandparents and older brothers and sisters ,etc, too, it doesn't have to be Mum or Dad!

Of course ,if you want to tell us more, that's great too!