Reading books

[miketv]

I have a y3 child who loves reading generally but isn't interested in the free reading books in his class (mainly factual rather than stories and many easier to read than the level he's capable of reading) - he's currently reading a book he's read before at home as it was the only thing he was interested in.

I was to keep his interest in reading - easy at home but less so at school. I was wondering about asking the teacher if I could donate/buy books for the classroom, even if they're charity shop books - do you think this would be ok?

I don't want to be "that parent" or be interfering, but I'm pretty sure he won't be the only child a bit bored with the classroom books.

my daughters both took their own books in from year 1. School were happy with it once they saw what the books were, meant they had more available for other children because my kids weren't using school ones. I would ask the question.

This happened with my DD in Y2. Initially she asked to borrow from the school's main library which was fine, but after a while she chose to bring in a book from home (clearly labelled) and keep it in her drawer as her class reading book. She did this for the rest of the year and the teacher was happy with this.

It's unlikely at y3 that there are no suitable books in the whole school, so it may just be a matter of your DS explaining to the teacher that he's not very keen on the books available in the classroom, and asking the teacher where the 'other' books are. They may be in other classrooms or a main library. If the teacher is not keen on him wandering around the school looking for suitable books, I'd suggest you provide books from home.

As for buying books for the school, it's a kind offer but would need to be pitched carefully. Who would choose those books? What happens if some weren't deemed suitable for whatever reason? There's no harm in asking, if you're keen on the idea, but I think there's a possibility this is more complicated than one would think!

There's no harm in asking. I would just put a note in the reading book. "I've noticed DS is not keen to read the books he brings home from school, would it be possible for him to bring alternatives in from home. In fact we could donate some for the class room if you found them appropriate".