DS's Yr 2 teacher asked to see me today about his reading.

[Budababe]

It seemed to be because I put a comment in his reading record book that he had struggled with sounding out some words. So we had a chat and she said he had read to her today and had struggled with about 8 words but then seemed to know them if they were on another page. He also reads very slowly. I explained that I assumed that he is struggling with sounding out the words with me due to a combination of tiredness and laziness.

He is on ORT stage 5 and is getting trough the books pretty well on the whole.

So she asked me what I thought we should do - keep him going forward or hold him at this stage for a while. I said that he would be disappointed to be seen to be held back so it would knock his confidence.

She also commented on his handwriting which is bad. I tried to get him to practice over the summer but without much success. Again she seemed to want me to provide the answers. I said that we have been trying to get him to change his grip as it looks very awkward so she will check.

Am very proud that I didn't point out that she is the teacher and I am paying a hell of a lot of money for HER to teach my child. Or - AIBU???? I really felt she expected me to have the answers.

tbh I think you should be pleased she had noted your comment(having read in our yr 2 class the teacher doesn't always see the reading diaries herself), was prepared to listen to your concerns, look for ideas and work with you. It is important you do the same thing to reinforce his learning at whatever pace and at this stage in the term you know him better.

Budababe, is this a private or a state school? (I'm presuming private). What does she mean by 'keep him going forward or hold him at this stage?'. I always think of reading as being a continuous progression anyway. Can you get a stash of books that he'll enjoy? THe books that REALLY got ds1 going with independent reading were the Dr Seuss ones - Green Eggs and Ham etc, and they're good for phonic reading as lots of rhyming words.

How is he compared to the rest of his class? Ignore the girls, as they are often further ahead - but how about compared to the boys? Is he doing better/worse than you would expect?

Things my ds1's Y1 teacher said to me last year were;

reading out lout at home are the MAIN key to good reading - she said you can really tell the ones who read at home, because of the progress, and to keep this going through Y2, whilst introducing more 'independent reading' - this is what I do with ds1 who is Y2 - we read a few pages together - him reading out loud, he then reads a few pages on his own, or finishes the story, and then we talk about it to make sure he is doing it.

Also, they often 'go backwards' a bit over the summer when they don't have the school routine to keep them reading. Often it can take till half term for them to get back to where they were.

Handwriting - will he do work books? Those ones where you have to trace over shapes, or dot to dot books are good for improving fine motor skills without actually 'making them do writing'.

I do think reading is something that really benefits from a lot of home input - as much as possible really - we try and do reading practice every day - just 10 or 15 mins - just to keep in the routine of it.

hth!

Thanks guys. It is a private school. Lots of ESL kids so can't really compare him to classmates. I help out with reading at school and know that some are still on Stage 1 and others are way ahead.

I do appreciate that the teacher responded rapidly but I felt that she was looking to me for the answers!

Tried the workbooks thing over the summer as I really wanted him to improve over the summer but he just wasn't interested and I'm afraid I let him get away with it.

She did suggest colouring and he hasn't been doing that for a while so I will print off some stuff for him to colour and see if that gets him interested.

He now gets homework on a Monday to be handed in on Friday but they get a merit point if handed in on Tuesday so we did that last week to concentrate on the spellings that come home on Tuesday and do reading every night.

Will do a workbook over weekends too to help.

TBH I am not that bothered - he is an August birthday so only just turned 6 and I know he will catch up. I just found it odd that she asked ME what I thought we should do.

Budababe, my ds1 had very poor handwriting and grip and it's hugely improved since the school pulled a few of the children to one side and did Write Dance with them.

Apparently it's a scheme where they do lots of big movements to music which helps strengthen the relevant muscles and gets them used to smoothly making the shapes. Our school had only just started using it and they said they were very pleased with the results the children were making on it.

Might it be worth trying something similar at home or asking the teachers to look into it as some separate help for those children in the class who are struggling?

My son has been doing "Write from the start".

www.amazon.co.uk/Write-Start-Programme-Perceptual-Handwriting/dp/1855032457/ref=pd bbssr_1/202-9912655-8084651?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190912056&sr=8-1

It has really helped his handwriting and fine motor skills. Prehaps your son's school could get him to do "Write from the Start".

It seems silly to me to give him harder reading books if he is coping with the ones he has.

Your situation reminds of going to our new doctor who asks me what I think. I feel like answering "Well.. you got the medical degree!"

At least the teacher is prepared to listen to you.

Thanks for the suggestions RubberDuck and Reallytired. Will look into both of those.

He needs something to be fun. I bought workbooks with stickers etc and tried bribery but got nowhere!

The other thing our teacher told me at the time was that boys quite often have bad handwriting because their hands aren't strong enough. I kind of glazed over at the explanation but it's something to do with bones fusing together later in boys than girls and can be as late as around 6 years old before they have the strength to grip the pen/pencil properly. Could that be another factor?

Yes Rubberduck - I think so. His YR 1 teacher suggested exercises like squeezing a small ball etc but tbh we sort of let things slide over the summer.

Interesting theory - I assumed it was just that DS hadn't had the practice as much as the girls we know as they love arty stuff so much more than he does.

ds1 was exactly the same. And funnily enough, now his handwriting is stronger, he SUDDENLY loves drawing things.

I doubt he'll ever have extremely tidy handwriting (after all, his father's is APPALLING) but he has come on in leaps and bounds over the last year. I'm very wary of doing too much with him extra, simply because I do want him to continue to enjoy school.

What about other things to improve his dexterity... does your ds like Lego? Some of those bits (and Lego Bionicle in particular) are incredibly fiddly and you need good manual control. Plus it's fun and doesn't feel like school work

Can she keep him at this stage but introduce other similar level books, from other schemes and general books. It could also be content that is slowing him down. How about trying some non fiction - Ladybird do some such as about stars and planets, the body, etc.

I can't see the point in moving him up a lovel if he is struggling with this level yet - I'd be concerned that the risk of nstruggling further would be more likely to knock his confidence.

What about other media of reading too? Computer software? The internet? Board games requiring some reading, etc?

We found these good for strengthening little boy fingers

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=toys-uk&field-keywords=plasma %20dragon&results-process=default&dispatch=search/ref=pdslawtops-2toys-uk2018693321&results-pr ocess=default

I think Tescos and Woolworths are good place to get plasma dinosaur/ dragon eggs. Lego can be to difficult for some boys and dulpo is too babyish.

Another idea is to not worry too much about his reading level, but introduce more complex stories by reading to him. If he enjoys them then he's more likely to have a go himself when you're out of the room and he's supposed to be asleep

We've been reading chapters of Famous Five which has really grabbed ds1's imagination, and also some of the Roald Dahl's (Magic Finger is the one ds1 loves atm as they've read it at school apparently). He's not doing the work, I am, but he quite often looks over my shoulder and says "where does it say .." to find out where I am and follow along. Takes the pressure off, I think.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Got distracted with bedtime etc.

And he asked for a book and wanted Fox in Sox and read it himself.

Have ordered the Famous Five for him for Xmas and remembered I have a stack of Early Readers that an American friend gave me that her DDs had finished with - will take some away this weekend and encourage him.

I found that comics such as power rangers have plenty of pencil type activities eg mazes to follow through, colouring etc and my ds does them becasue it is his favourite thing at the moment. You can also generally download colouring pages for almost anything off the internet - we have done most of the Cbeebies stuff, plus Dr Who, transformers etc

Also thre are some pretty good books if he likes transformers / Spiderman / Shrek in the 'I can read' series e.g. here which my ds absolutely loves

Thanks Carbonel - will have a look.

I really recommend Horrid Henry. My son was a reasonable, but not enthusiastic, reader until a friend gave him a HH book in Y2. I read a bit to my son and he seemed moderately interested. One night I came upstairs and heard manic giggling. He was reading HH under the covers. He then begged me to buy more. My son then shot up through the reading levels.

I think it's the fact that HH is so revolting and the author's on his side that made the books so appealing. I also tried to give the impression that I didn't approve of HH and wasn't sure he was a good example. Which made him more enticing.

Yes, ds1 loves Horrid Henry!

Somebody reminded me of something else we used to do with ds1 - he could NOT be persuaded to draw or anything like that, and his handwriting was limited by his fine motor skills. But he did love colouring the CBeebies printables, so we encouraged him to do that, and he is now VERY into drawing - generates 40 or 50 pictures a day (!) and his handwriting is improving. Basically, go where their interest is.

I know its not liked on here, but after a year of kumon my son has come on with his reading and wiriting in leaps and bounds.

He has gone from in yr2 to being awful to in year 4 being the 1st boy allowed to use pen as his writing is so neat.

He has also shot up reading levels.

I suppose also, it's the beginning of the school year and she doesn't know your ds very well yet, whereas you know what motivates him.