Changing reading book

[timeforgin1]

I'm not sure whether this belongs here or in aibu. My son is 4 and in full time education (Wales). I used to be a teacher, now work elsewhere.

My son has had a reading book since half way through the Autumn term. He loves reading and has been coming along fantastically. During parents evening the teacher commented on how good his reading was.

During the Easter holidays he came home with his book. We read with him most (not all) days, and by mid way through the second week he had read the book many times and was reading it really well. We had the next book on the series at home so I decided to start him on that and noted in his reading record book that we had done this.

Yesterday his book was taken in for changing, today he came home with this second book that we've been reading. The teacher didn't read with him today, just changed the book. He came home and said that Miss says we need to buy more books and not to read the school series.

In my mind he is 100% loving reading, and whilst he is I want to keep this going and not allow him to get bored. Moving on to the next book meant he was really proud of himself and was also progressing. We have plenty of other books at home, but these are far more suited to his level whilst the others are more difficult. We do sit and read them together, we alternate pages for example.

Surely if she was worried that he wasn't ready to move on she'd have read with him herself before moving him on to the next book. In my mind if it helps my son to progress then that can't be a negative thing.

Was I wrong to move him up?

Let him read whatever he fancies as long as he us interested in reading.

My kids, now 13 & 10, had very different reading tastes & abilities, and I encouraged them to read what they are interested in. Now they are both competent and confident readers.

Ask the teacher when it's next convenient but trust what you've been doing

Tbh I’d ignore her and read next book in series tonight. It’s pretty poor by her to give him a book you’ve already read with him tbh.

I find school reading books deathly dull. DS's teacher was happy for us to read a book from home when he was done with his reading book.

Pick something from the shelf and have him read something he enjoys for pleasure.

Reading books were changed weekly when myself girl was 4. I would be concerned if he still had the same book between Autumn term and Easter. That seems very odd.

'my girl' not myself!!

Reading should be a pleasure and not a chore whether as an adult or child

Sorry for the misunderstanding - he hasn't had the same book since Autumn.

He enjoys reading, and enjoys the school books. I agree they can become very dull, I'm certainly not looking forward to the next series he's on! At the moment, though, he is really enjoying them.

OP, do you mean that you read a book from the next book band /reading level with your DS? Eg, he brought a blue book home and you moved him up to a green one?

Finding exactly the right level books for the earlier stages of reading can be hard work.In my admittedly limited experience, the most important thing is that your DS is reading regularly, and he is happy with what he is reading.

Swingsandmusic - no I didn't move him up a level, just to the next book at this level.

Can you get hold of the same level from a different scheme?

The problem is, in my school at least, we don't have that much choice at each level so if a child has already read them at home I don't know how much they have actually read and how much they have remembered from having seen it before. If they are the only books that level you have then yes, it is much better than letting him get bored of reading, but a different scheme would be better.

You'd be doing your son lots more favours reading good quality children's picture books with him, rather than more reading scheme books at home. The reading scheme books fulfil a particular purpose: children practising their decoding skills at an appropriate level (and as another poster has pointed out, schools often have limited books at each level). I understand your son was keen to read the next one, but honestly, there are so many beautiful picture books that he'll get so much more out of- it doesn't matter that you're doing most of the reading: he will be accessing much wider, richer vocabulary than in the reading scheme type books, the pictures will be more interesting and multi-layered in their meaning, he'll be improving his comprehension skills and you'll be giving him a great leg-up by talking about what you're reading and what he's interested in. There's lots of research that reading for pleasure, and especially in the younger years with a supportive adult, is the most important thing you can do not only for a child's literacy: spoken, reading and writing but also later academic attainment. And you get to share that time with him reading fab books!

With Welsh books the choice is very slim. We'd bought these before he started them in school so that he could read something different to his school book! Oops!!

I would just keep doing what you are doing, and noting it in his reading record. If he's happy with the books why go to something else? Onviously you read other books too, but these show a progression at an appropriate level.

If you are looking to diversify the books he reads at home, my son is very keen on the DK Star Wars Readers

Oh are you reading in Welsh?

Fayrazzled, we do read others with him as well.

What should I have done? Kept reading the same pages of the school book, or stopped reading it and stuck to other home ones? I'd be expecting him to have a comment then asking why we haven't read the book he's been sent home with.

I genuinely do not know which is the correct answer. I don't want him to get bored and I want to keep reading the school books so that they're the 'norm' and not a chore (as well as other books, obviously).

Ilovedolly yes we're reading solely Welsh books at the moment. Thank you for the suggestion, though. We have a range of Welsh and English books here and he enjoys picking up English ones as well from time to time.

With Welsh books the choice is very slim Oops, I hadn't made the connection between Welsh school and reading books being in Welsh, sorry. That does limit your options a bit so keep doing what you are doing but be sure to note down each time which books you have read or you risk the teacher thinking he can read much better than he can.

Thank you rainbowglitterfairy. We did write down that we'd read the next book with him and that's where the comments back have come from.

My husband is taking him in tomorrow and will have a chat with Miss to make sure all is ok.

So do they read in English at all at this age? Are they taught entirely in Welsh? Apologies for my ignorance, it's interesting!

I would just buy some easy welsh books for him to read to you/ you read together so he doesn't read the school book over and over.

We have the biff, chip et al which are very dull so we read them once only!

If they are taught through the medium of Welsh, they only read Welsh books until year 3. In Year 3 they have English lessons for the first time and are then introduced to English reading books.