Reception child refusing to re-read anything

[wtftodo]

My youngest is in reception and gets one reading book a week. Once they can read a whole book, they are expected to reread the same book at least a few times to help with word recognition and fluency.

This worked brilliantly for my oldest child who was initially reluctant to reread but quickly reading fluently on this method and also was very secure in phonics.

My youngest however refuses point blank to reread anything. She is eager to read every day but it has to be something “new”. I’ve tried bribery, cajoling, the teacher has told her, but she will not reread. She is totally set on reading a new book every day. We did have a stack of random old books given to us plus use Oxford online but she’s worked her way through all of them up to a couple of levels above where she can comfortably manage and I don’t want to go any further. She does manage to work out most words and/or I explain the phonics sounds she hasn’t learnt yet and she gets it quickly, but I’m worried she’s going to have phonics gaps or rely too heavily on working it out from context and pictures etc rather than phonics.

I know this is a willpower/headstrong child issue as much as a reading one but does anything have any advice or reassurance? Also @mrsz are you there?? What would you do?

I'm with your DD on this one! She finds it boring to re read and wants to try new books. Sounds reasonable to me. I would read new books with her.

I don't blame her at all. Don't turn reading into a battle - if she wants to read new books, then let her. Borrow a stack from the school library or public (if they are open), ask on local FB if people have books to give away or whatever.
My ds absolutely hated that stage of reading, and refused the school books. At 14, he reads voraciously and told me yesterday 'mum, I don't want you recommending books, I just want them to turn up on my Kindle and then I can decide' -not as spoilt as it sounds, DH and I have our Kindle accounts linked, ds is a child on mine, so he gets all of our books that we consider appropriate, and I get the v cheap and free classics for him- so he's still the same now, and certainly hasn't hurt him in any way

Some people like rereading, others don't.
My dd1 rarely rereads anything. The only book she ever regularly reread was Watership Down, and she reread through the Cherub series after her A-levels (originally read it at around 11yo).
DD2 has been known to get to the end of a book and immediately flip it to the front to start again. She has piles of books she rereads and rereads.
Ds has a few he loved to reread (Swish of the Curtain is one) but generally is a once only.

Respect her choice and let her read other books. The reading books are boring and she'll learn just as much from reading other books. We were always told not to read the reading books too much otherwise they learnt them and just recited rather than read.
In fact my cousin got to year 1 before they discovered she had quite bad longsightedness and couldn't actually see the words properly. They just thought she messed around during the first reading. By the second reading she'd be almost word perfect-she'd learnt it. She had a phenomenal memory for one so small.

I'd sign her up to the library as soon as it's possible. I wouldn't make her re read the books, I can still remember being bored out of my brain in school reading lessons 50 years ago, I was one of those who found reading easy and very enjoyable. Always being told off for reading after bedtime/lights out. Let her read whatever she wants (within reason obviously!)

The early phonics books my DD memorised the first read through. The whole reread thing was pointless and turned her off reading.

Now she's finally of scheme books she's actually enjoying school reading. Her home reading improved massivelyover e lockdown as i just let her read what she wanted.

I'd let her be with this one. Reading should be a pleasure, not a boring chore. I am not an expert but I think she will benefit much more from a love of reading than she will from boring repetition.

Get new books for her. The chances are that she will enjoy some of the stories so much that she'll want to re read them. If not, she'll be getting plenty of practice with new material.

Reception ta here;
I wouldn't worry too much about re-reading the same book over and over. She's doing well to want to read lots of different things as some children are very reluctant to do it at all in reception.
As pp says some children have a tendency to remember the story instead of reading the words using the pictures as a prompt.A lot of the books have the same words and sounds repeated so she'll have exposure to them anyway.

Would she be open to you reading the book to her/with her and you can "make a mistake", she can correct you and play teacher with lots of children love to do.
You could read new books at home to help with the fluency of reading a sentence.
And using cards or a whiteboard with simple words on for her to sound out and blend is easy enough at home too.

Oh and for comprehension of the story you can ask lots of questions;
"Can you remember what Dot had in her bag? For example.

The biff chip and kipper books are good as they have ideas for extension activities in the back pages.

To be fair, books for reception age children can be pretty dull... there isnt really a story to get into and if shes capable of reading a couple of levels up, she probably finds them even more boring.

I wouldn't make it a battle.. just find something she does want to read and see if you can find lots of them on EBay or in charity shops.

I’d go with it if I’m honest, don’t degrade the need to want to read through books like water, it’s a good thing!

I'm with your DC. She's read it. She's ready for a new book. Why kill the enthusiasm. Generally reading scheme books are pretty dull. First time round with new pictures, maybe a bit of a narrative is probably just enough to hook in a new reader, but to re read it more than once - too big an ask. How advanced is the vocab? The words are bound to repeat from book to book. "There", "we", "dog", "boy". It's not like she is going to miss out from not absorbing every last word in every book. The child wants more books, give her books!

If she doesn't want to then don't do it.

My DD shunned all the school reading books, then sat down and read The 8ind in the Willows from cover to cover when she was 7 - she was just waiting for something worth reading! Bollocks to Biff and Chip an Janet and John and all the rest of that rubbish!

Just keep constant flow of books, magazines, letters, shopping list etc. coming!
I don't reread books either, especially the deadly dull reading scheme bilge.

An overwhelming consensus then! Thanks all. And deltaflyer I’ll try what you suggested. Yes she memorises v quickly but also guesses the odd word rather than decoding so I was worried about her just guessing more and more as the books get trickier. I might try her on picture books we already have as well as reading books, too.

Read it once, then play "find a word" = ideally one she struggled to decide, do the extension activities often found at the back, test each other on the story, rewrite it (verbally) changing the location/ending etc, pick apart the story, decide why it's the worst book you've ever read. If the kids in the story did an activity you can replicate, do it.
Rereading something as simple as some of the books can be dire. But you can play with the book in other ways.

I still dont reread books!

My daughter is also in reception. We get 2 Oxford books home a week and teachers would like us to read them daily. My DD hasn’t refused to do them again, though can be a bit reluctant with the ritual though we’re finding our way through this e.g. we now read before school rather than after which seems to work better for us.

Her teachers set out some ways we can mix it up which seems to work.

Day 1. Read story to them and talk about what’s going on etc
Day 2. Read story to them again but point out words to get them to focus more on sounds and words than just the story.
Day 3. Get them to read story in order, helping them sound and blend where possible.
Day 4. Get them to read, hopefully doing more independently.
Days 5-7. Read pages out of order, cover up pictures etc to test they are really reading words rather than just memorising.

If your DD can read it all straight off the bat then I can imagine she might get bored but when it has come to reading it out of order and covering the pages, I’ve turned it into a bit of a game with my DD which has helped her engagement. We get a die out of a board game and she rolls it and then we got to that page number. So maybe those types of games might make re-reading a bit more interesting and fun? Or get her to read it to another family member she doesn’t usually read with?

We had the same issue in reception - utterly pointless as DS could remember the words. There were lots of children in the same boat in the class and eventually the teacher just said that they hadn't got the time to change the reading book more often.
We ended up using this site
www.readingchest.co.uk/#a

We found with subsequent schools (which were private rather than state) that books were changed regularly and the children learnt to read more quickly.

It's so funny that some people seem to love re-reading and some simply cannot understand the inclination to do so. I strangely have always loved re-reading books - some of my favorites I have read 7 times! I feel that I read it in a different way and I am more able to discern the more subtle themes when I am not reading for the plot. I also think that I take comfort in familiar and loved books. Others, including my brothers, cannot understand why one would re-read something rather than read something new.

I would not push her to re-read if she does not want to. If she is eager to read, that is what matters. I think that her urge to read something new likely represents curiosity! Hand her something new every day and I am sure that she will develop language and phonics in the exact same way. The people who continue reading past childhood are the ones who were excited by it, so foster that excitement! She sounds like a bright and curious little girl who will do wonderfully and the fact that you are asking this shows that you are a fantastic mum.

Also, it might be good to communicate this to the school; I am sure that they will have no real issue with it, but it is probably good to let them know.

Thanks, more great ideas that I will try. A few I've tried already to no avail! Yes the school know but just reiterate they need to read the book more than once. I do note down that she's read other books instead and that we're trying. Will chat to the teacher at some point..

Dont worry about it if dc doesnt want to/need to.
Tbh i would prefer to get batches of 5 books at once.
1 per week is sooo slow

Neither of my two will reread anything unless they actually like the story (which is rare with reading scheme books). They will however, happily have me read a story they like to them umpteen times!

However, they will both do flash cards without complaining. I print off words they've struggled with and cut them up and they'll happily run through 10 odd a day. It might be worth a go?

Reading daily will obviously make a difference, but I really can't see why repeatedly rereading / reciting the same book would have any other benefits. As some one above has said, books at the same level generally use the same fairly narrow set of words so you get some repetition by reading different books anyway as well as practice of a wider variety of different words.

We get books either by buying 2nd hand on eBay or reserving at the library.

word cards/games in general or doing a phonics app is worth a try for sure, thanks. Interestingly she did pick up a few she'd read a few weeks ago as we've run out of new ones and read them happily. Word perfect, from memory :/