Best reading schemes for consolidation

[Howcantheybesobloodyselfish]

DD (4, but reasonably old within her academic year) is starting school this year and has shown an interest in reading, so we have been working our way through the Julia Donaldson Songbirds reading scheme. (I also had a look at some early Biff, Chip and Kipper books when we first started, but they didn't seem hugely exciting for a 4 year old. Perhaps they are better later on?)

The Songbirds collection is really good, but it seems to move at quite a pace. After a few weeks, we are now on the red books (so "igh", "kn", "wr", "ea" sounds etc). It would almost be better if they had a few stories at each level before you moved on to learning the next thing. DD has made amazing progress - I am gobsmacked - and I don't want it to go to waste, but I also don't want to push her as I can see her enthusiasm starting to wane as the books get harder. Ideally, I'd like to find some more stories to consolidate what she's already learned and build her confidence. Might anyone have any recommendations for good stories along the lines of these Julia Donaldson ones that I could use? Thanks very much for your help.

At four, I don't see the need for you to be buying reading scheme books. She's more than ahead of the majority of children as it is and most schools are using Songbirds etc these days.

If you really want to continue working at home, I would buy magnetic letters or bath letters and let her spell out words to read.

I would be wary about reading scheme books, as some are very dull and even more so if she did end up having to start the same ones again. I'd go for fun reading, to her and with her and giving her chances to read to you or herself and see how it goes. When she starts you may be asked to listen to her reading regularly to you. I'm afraid I was rubbish at doing that, I have no excuse but I lived abroad for just over a year in the equivalent of years 1 and 2 and came back to being a fluent and keen reader, but school reading books were just frustrating until I went to middle school (year 5) and was liberated. I didn't mind just reading the stories in them, but I wanted to read them at my pace and not faff around with all that slow reading aloud!

She's got a great head start. Perhaps just get books which might encourage an interest in/enthusiasm for reading. Get some Julia Donaldson picture books and others and read them to/with her and just see how she goes.

I didn't actually teach ds1 or 2 to read before they started school but we had bedtime stories and also at one point I started reading them poetry - was waiting for dp to come and read them a story and didn't want to commit to anything long so read to them from a couple of anthologies but it ended up being a regular repertoire of 10+ pieces I had to read every night. DS2 had some of the same poems at nursery.

In reception or year 1 I ended up asking a few times for books with words or books with more than four words and in year 1 he and another child did reading with year 2. But home reading books were given out back in their year 1 class at a different point. I gave up trying.

DS2 does enjoy reading when he can't play computer games, and occasionally will read something other than computer game books. DS1 suddenly got interested in reading at about 7 and from about 9 is a keen reader and will sometimes turn other distractions off to read for a bit.

Visit your library (you can probably also order in from linked libraries). You get through early readers so quickly that they are expensive to buy. Book sales and jumble sales are another option too. But also keep reading to her - that is as important as her reading.

Just go to the library and let her choose books. Picture books or early readers - it doesn't matter. Let her read alone and also read together. At age 4 reading should be all about just enjoying the story and the pictures - not about getting to the next level. Just have fun with books at this age.

What kind of books are you reading to her for fun? Can you get her to join in on those with the words she knows?

Also kids are usually fans of repetition so I'd go over the ones she has until she says no to them

Do you have all the Songbirds books? I realised at one stage that though I had bought a 'set' I only had half of each level.

If she enjoys the stories, you can always re-read them. As long as she is not simply memorising the words, re-reading can be as good as reading for the first time. DS used to love re-reading at the early stages, but not later on, and not all children will! Our issue was then that after a couple of readings he would have memorised the whole book so wasn't reading anymore, but was using the words/letters to trigger his memory, which is actually quite a bad habit - it works fine when you do know it off by heart, but might lead you to guess at words from their first letter/context/picture when you read a new book, as you are so used to using them that way.

The 'Traditional Tales' set is a set of decodable books going from pink (or lilac even?) to gold. Each level has only a few 'books' (the early levels are two stories in each book) but they are way longer than regular scheme books at the same levels. So for a child who is building fluency and consolidating e.g. 'pink' level phonics but not quite ready to move to 'red', these can be great. Also, they are the only 'decodable' books following levels I found that aren't regularly used as school scheme books, so you are unlikely to come across them once she starts school.

I wish you good luck at school - hopefully they're on the ball with phonics, teach it well, and have plenty of decodable home reading books.

At my sons school they mix the song birds in with the biff chip and kipper and also the kipper phonics books.
It gives them more experience with the sound groups before jumping to the next book.
Do you know the reading scheme the school she will be going to uses?
I quite agree, I much prefer the songbirds books!

I quite like the Phonics Bug books published by Pearson. They follow the phonics progression that they use in Letters and Sounds (a phonics programme that they often follow in schools). There's a mix of fiction and non-fiction, although the early ones are a little tedious (Sid's Nits!). They can also be accessed through a subscription to Bug Club, although I don't know if this is available outside of schools, which is good as they can be read online with "Bug" questions for the children to answer.

That's great - thanks very much, everyone.