How many times should a child re-read a book

[confusedinlondon]

Is there an ideal number of times that a child should re-read a book to fully understand it?

My DS's school required him to read a book twice before they would give him another book to read. During the lockdown I became slightly anxious and purchased as many books as i could from on amazon / ebay. He was at orange level but during June I moved him onto the next level - turquoise. I have about 22 turquoise level books.
I am making him read each book twice, he will read a new book and the next day he will reread it and then we will move onto another book. I ask him questions to ensure he understands what is happeneing etc. Once he has read all of the books at turquoise level I will ask him to re-read some for a third time.

Is this the right approach? He is slightly disinterested in reading and i need to ask him to read. I wanted him to read a wide range of books because I thought it would help develop him reading skills and would stop him from getting bored. However, some websites suggest that he would be better off re-reading the same books again and again to develop his fluency and understanding.

Should I be asking him to read some 'normal' story books i.e normal story books rather than the banded ones from school? Would this help his vocabulary?

I don't want him to feel like reading is a burden, i really want him to enjoy it and get some satisfaction.

@confusedinlondon your local library is bound to have lots of different reading schemes. They aren’t really the kind of books that are worth repeating, so doesn’t make sense to buy them really. My DS (Going into year 2) reads to me every night and then I read something more exciting to him. The biggest hits recently have been The Faraway tree and 101 Dalmatians

My DS is 8 but only reading a bit beyond this level. He likes Claude, Dog Man, and Phoenix comic (may be a bit too old for 6).
Paddington, Mister Penguin and Winnie the Pooh are current favourite books to read to him.

Mine is going into Year 2.

With school books -We read once with sounding out & phonics. Then we read again to decode and for comprehension. Then we read again for "pleasure". His school is VERY regimented with it though -you have you read 40 + books in each level and you have to read each book 3 times. So he is going on to ORT Level 7 -but we were given 40 books for the summer -and yes he is expected to read everyday rain or shine. This we call his "work reading". We try and make it as fun as possible -he sees it as something which needs to be done -he does enjoy it although Biff, Chip and Kipper on the third time through makes me want to poke my eyes out. I do not like the school's method but we have to follow it according to the HT.

We then read on top for fun. He reads Mr Men and Little Miss books by himself -he will ask if he doesn't know a word. He also has read George's marvellous medicine and some Jeremy Strong with minimal help.

He likes being read to -David Walliams, Dermot O Leary Cat books, Dirtie Bertie, Winnie the Witch, Paddington, Secret Seven etc -we have family book and I read to them all every night. At the moment it's a Dermot O Leary Cat Toto book. But sometimes he will put his headphones on and an audio book and read the book alongside or just listen to the audio book.

My 6 year old loves
All Roald Dahl
Julia Donaldson
Winne the witch
The Worst Witch series
Mr Men books
The Large Family
The beano
Flat Stanley
Creaturpedia and any other animal books

Flat Stanley! That is great.

Mr Men books are instruments of parental torture IMO but kids do love them

Topsy and Tim are a good alternative to Biff Chip and Kipper if they aren't quite ready for chapter books. Also Little Gems books from publisher Barrington Stoke are a range of early reader and dyslexia friendly chapter books from variois authors with coloured illustrsrions. A great option for moving on from picture books. Also the early reader versions of things like Horrid Henry and Rainbow Fairies. Some other series might have easie early readers too.

Actually, just compared Horrid Henry and Horrid Henry early reader and there isn't much difference. The pages are smaller is all. Both have shorter and longer pages.

Second picture is an eg of a Little Gem book.

How do you expect him to develop a love of reading when he has to recite what he read and has to re-read even if he is interested in another book????

Astrodinosaures (Austrosaurus? I think) was a series my bookworm boy loved at that age. Only slightly later percy jacksons

Sprinters books, Ronald Dahl, Beast Quest (but beware there are hundreds of them and the plots are all the same) Sea Quest, Harry the poisonous Centipede, were all loved by my boys. I would echo not asking questions about the books though - leave the dull jobs for school 🙂

Try the happy families series by Allan ahlberg

Also Rabbit and Bear are good ones to read together. Maybe frog and toad, if not now then soon

Just came on to reply but I can see everyone has the same view, I'd leave the school books to school and at home have fun stuff, we never pressured the boys to read and as teens they will watch videos, and read snippets and magazines and read for information, where I read for pleasure and lots of different books.

So the love of reading I do feel is either there or not, I'm not sure it's something you can teach, and if I'd been pressured while young it may of put me off.

But magazines, my boys loved science ones, and car magazines even at that age, even the small writing they loved the grownup aspect of the format and selecting a new subject or topic, when minecraft was big they would read a magazine about it, so I always felt reading should be interesting for them.

We don't re-read anything unless he wants to. I don't do any questions or comprehension unless its for homework or during the dreaded home learning. I have two boys, one going into p5 and one going into p4 and at home they just read whatever interests them - Phoenix comic, beastquest, manga (age appropriate), non-fiction stuff - bloody minecraft handbooks When a bit younger they used to love lego starwars/superheroes stories, beano and dandy comics.

I really strongly feel that reading at home should be for pleasure and interest. They are both pretty fluid, independent readers. I read them chapter books sometimes - at the minute its Brian Jacques' Redwall (which is way more wordy and bloodthirsty than I was remembering it!) But we've done the likes of horrid henry, the sheep pig, gobbolino the witches cat..... ds2 loves animal stories but is very sensitive so we can't do anything too sad (or else hasty editing by me!).

Mine are bookworms and the knock on effect to English school work is hugely positive. We only ever read books they enjoyed

I work with Y1 and I’d say it’s a good idea to re read books. It’s true that it does help develop confidence and fluency along with other things. I also think it’s a good idea to ask questions, as well as get them to retell stories informally to someone else, ask what they like or didn’t like and why, what would they change, would they have preferred a different ending?

Obviously you don’t do all of this for every single book, you can mix it up, and if they didn’t enjoy a book, then don’t make that one of the ones that they reread. I appreciate it’s difficult when children don’t enjoy their reading, but the fact that you’re making so much effort is brilliant, and it really will make a very positive difference in the long run. Don’t worry too much though, it sounds like he’s at exactly the right level, and he’ll be back at school soon!

I’ve often found that by far the hardest thing is finding the reading material that they will enjoy, the rest becomes much easier once you’ve cracked that! Along with lots of good suggestions above, I’d add captain underpants and other comic style books like the pokemon ones. Let him choose a magazine next time you go to a big supermarket and if he chooses one that’s too hard, then read it to him. It’s still really good to read to him, and if you let him see the words as you’re reading it will all sink in. Good Luck!

May be try some non fiction books such as dinosaurs.

Also try audio books

I cannot imagine that f**@king* Biff, Chip & Kipper and their bloody pastel sweater wearing father foster a life long love of reading in anyone let alone someone who is then being forced to read them twice and answer questions! Try fact books on his favourite topics and a range of different fiction authors until you find the type of thing he enjoys then you can ask if he loved X what else might he enjoy? Read to him, read with him take turns to read pages or make him in charge of dialogue (complete with voices!) You can work on comprehension without him realising by general chit chat. "I wonder what will happen to X next?" "What was you favourite part of of Y?"

OP, you’re getting a pretty hard time here. I agree reading scheme books are not the most exciting but they have their place, and if your child is off school for months I’d say they’re not a bad idea. Lots of children’s books which have great stories are tricky for children to read as they don’t have the right skills yet - Reading scheme books can be pitched correctly and children can experience a great pleasure from being able to read them independently because of this. Definitely use other books too - especially when you’re reading to your child - but don’t throw the reading scheme ones out!

As for asking questions - please carry on! This doesn’t have to be boring - lots of adults spend their free time attending book groups specifically to discuss books! The school have suggested it because it’s good for assessing a child’s understanding and making them think deeply about the book, not just saying the words. Lots of schools do make children read books twice too, it can be dull but again, it has benefit. the second time they may read it more fluently as any new words or sounds will have been encountered the day before. This gives the child the experience of reading fluently rather than sounding out every words which some children find frustrating, and can stop them being able to comprehend what they’ve read.

That said, if you have a reluctant reader and the things you’re doing are a struggle, feel free to stop what you’re doing and just enjoy books - lots of good suggestions for ones to try up thread. Don’t worry too much - lots of children will hve done little at home the past few months and teachers will be ready to help everyone.

Scheme reading books may only be useful to read once if they have a good memory, otherwise they're not "reading" the second time, just memorising/reciting.

The way you'll make books and reading a pleasure not a chore is to read proper books to and with him. It doesn't have to be chapter books (though loads of brilliant series have been suggested upthread); there are amazing picture books suited to much older children which he might love. Rereading to him is fine and to be encouraged. Making him reread books he finds boring will be counterproductive.

Ask him what he enjoys and wants to read.

Read the story out of order and choose random words to read and ask for a replacement word. Ask him to give you a sentence containing that word. Ask for an alternate ending or to tell a story from the title page and first page only.
Read the back page for new titles and new words if it applies. Read some limericks and poetry for rhythm and stress.

Definitely don't make it him re read every book. Don't ask questions on each book.
He'll just dread reading.
Just go with what he is feeling, ask the odd questions... Maybe remember read a sentence he struggled with.
If I had left reading books to school I would have killed both dd's reading. 1st adored reading and by year 3, she read the non fiction books on her scheme and I signed for the fiction books when she hadn't read them. Dd2 isn't a natural reader! School wanted to suppress her progress which made her even more reluctant! Lock down and reading chest has been a saviour. She's been able to progress at a rate suited to her.
Do what's right for your son, don't shackle him with the one size fits all. The main thing here is to keep alive and nurture the love of reading.

• dd1 read the entire lemony snicket series in year 2 and re read the series about 3 times in the end!! Home books and her choice. She then also re read, the how to train your dragon books twice!

OP you should look up Daniel Pennac's 'The Rights of the Reader', I think you will find it very helpful.

Relax, read to your child, let him see that you love to read. Surround him with a wealth of reading material and leave him to it.

Just wanted to add depending on his interests, you can buy marvel (and many more) decodable phonics books to try and channel him that way to develop a love of reading.

It sounds like a really weird and arbitrary rule. If school wants to do it fine (but odd), but there is no need to follow it at home. If he loves a book, read it 100 times. If not, once is enough. If he finds reading hard, what a chore in finishing a book and then knowing he has to start over. Hideous! Sounds like a recipe for turning kids off reading.