Reception child reading, levels etc

[Noodles53]

Hi everyone,
After reading hundreds of threads about reading levels, I thought I would add my own to the mix!
My dd is 5 and in reception. She is currently on red level in school and brings one book home a week.

I’ve seen lots of threads on here of very smart reception aged kids who are ridiculously far ahead with their reading. Im aware dd is where she’s supposed to be with her reading but it would do no harm to challenge her right?

What are your tips and tricks to get your child moving forward. We have flash cards and sight words cards etc but I understand you’re not supposed to just memorise them? So does the child just move forward by reading a different book a day or do you have to teach lots of new words separately to the books and they recognise them when they’re reading? How does it work? At the moment she’s where she is just because of what she’s been taught in school. And I read a couple of storybooks to her at bedtime. Along with her one reading book a week.
Also want to mention that I brought a yellow book from library just to see how she’d do. And she was great. Odd words here and there that she couldn’t read but majority was good.
So any advice please..

My advice is to not stress about it, keep reading fun, carry on as you are with the bedtime stories, and also if she's watching TV put the subtitles on.

Forget the flash card. Forget trying to “progress” her. Just read. Read to her, read with her. Take her to the library and let her choose books regardless of level. Let her have a go. If it’s too tricky read it to her. If it’s not let her read it.

Let school don’t the levels thing. Do your own thing at home.

Just read.

Agree with a pp - just read. Don't worry about the levels. Some will be reading fluently at 4, others not until 8.

Largely, they all even out in the end - reading fluently at 4 is no indication of future academic success (despite what some would like to have you believe).

Search 'tricky words' on You Tube for a fun song. There's a few versions, my 4 year old loves it and can happily parrot how to spell several words because of it (they listen to it in school so it's teacher approved!)

If she brings home one book a week, I would borrow more from the library. DD reads every day. She needed 3 or 4 books a week in Reception (to allow foe reading them twice). Plus keep reading to her.

Enjoyment of books is the important thing.

My DD started Year One still on Pink level. She couldn't blend at all. But she loved books.
Shes now in Year 6... and has met the End of KS2 requirements already and still loves books. Even when school reading was particularly bad (one teacher insisted she had to have books home matching her technical level rather than age appropriate... 9yos really don't want to read books aimed at 5/6yos...) reading the older books with me kept her going.

Reading, reading and more reading!
Reading chest subscription and/or library - they do lots of levelled books.
We are year 1 now and she's way ahead with her reading - we read everyday and have since she started reception, even weekends and holidays :)

We do a lot of short chapter books, exploring vocabulary from those books (DD got a 'my first dictionary' for Christmas), thinking of other words she could use to describe certain words (eg what other word could you use instead of saying 'Polly is tired'? Sleepy). Rhyming games, eye spy etc.

There is so much more to it than just reading.

Its not just books. Give her a shopping list in the supermarket (just easy to decipher things). Puzzles. Signs. The cereal box!

Alphablocks on CBeebies helped mine too.

Get her to read for at least 10 minutes a night. Ideally reading the same book 2 twice in a row. You can buy sets of books for home fairly cheaply from book2door. For that stage Julia Donaldson’s songbird collection is good.

Have her read to you every day and you read to her, ideally a book that's beyond her reading level to expose her to a greater vocabulary (most books will fit this category ATM, but not for long!). When you are out and about, point out signs or bill boards and ask what they say. Help her to sound out the words where necessary. I remember just how excited both DCs found it when they made the connection that this stuff they were learning in school could actually be useful and relate to deciphering things in the real world. DD2 in particular took huge pleasure in reading out and telling me shop names etc we passed in the car: "Mummy look, that's Asda!".
If you really wanted to push it, and I'm not saying you should at all but it might be useful in the holidays to keep up/progress her, then learn how her specific phonics scheme is taught and copy how the lessons are done. You may need to make/buy your own resources to do this. Don't forget to focus on writing/spelling as well as reading. I taught DD2 to begin to read and write during lockdown #1 doing this, meaning she was assessed to start at level 3 of her scheme (Read Write Inc) when she began reception that September - not bad for a Summer born! Read Write Inc is very prescriptive and I just copied exactly how DD1's teacher was doing it in her lockdown video lessons, adjusted for the first set of sounds and words (DD1 was on the last level of the scheme at the time). I also printed out loads of sheets from Twinkl where you match the word/simple sentence to the picture. (Before I get jumped on for hot housing my then-3yo, we only did so much on it because DD1 wouldn't sit and do her home learning unless DD2 also joined her for a bit. Just 20 mins of daily practice over months of lockdown caused amazing progression!)

We have these for receptionaged DD, they are awesome. She just picks books according to how difficult she wants her practice to be.
www.books2door.com/products/usborne-my-first-reading-library-50-book-collection-ages-5-7-paperback?gclid=Cj0KCQiAybaRBhDtARIsAIEG3kmhK0ZO0o40qUT9O_wayZpeFc7bjvvwqCCSkcWWoE5O7SAbe1vM7joaAtT_EALw_wcB

Just keep reading. Find things that interest her... she's into minecraft read minecraft mags, she's I to fairies read about faries. Read all the time. Read the cereal box, the drinks carton, her swimming certificate, her Rainbows badge book... anything. Read it to her - she'll soon read it to you.

Tbh though sibling rivals is what did it in my house ds reads very well for his age - reading age of 13 at aged 8 - because he likes to steal and read his older siblings books!!

One book a week from school is not enough imo. DD brought back two books a week and when I noticed that she could read them perfectly on the first or second read, and daily reading for the rest of the week was pointless, I started getting reading scheme books from our library as it had a good selection (some from the level she was at, some from the level above) and we read those as well. The extra practice, repetition (we read each one a couple of times) and exposure to new words meant she started flying ahead at that point.

Reading to her and discussing books is the most important thing you can do to help her long term reading ability. Discuss new vocabulary and test comprehension / discuss the plot and motivation of characters. Reading is so much more than just phonetic decoding.

If she's keen though, Teach Your Monster to Read is a great app that teaches synthetic phonics and is based on the UK national curriculum for English. It's a fun game that will allow her to progress her phonics and advance her decoding while just feeling like she's playing and having fun.

Based on what she enjoys and how her phonics is progressing, try to have her read about 10 minutes a day to you in addition what you read to her. That should be in combination with rather than on top of what school send home as reading homework.

Have a home full of books that she can pick up and explore on her own as well.

@DoubleHelix79

We have these for receptionaged DD, they are awesome. She just picks books according to how difficult she wants her practice to be. www.books2door.com/products/usborne-my-first-reading-library-50-book-collection-ages-5-7-paperback?gclid=Cj0KCQiAybaRBhDtARIsAIEG3kmhK0ZO0o40qUT9O_wayZpeFc7bjvvwqCCSkcWWoE5O7SAbe1vM7joaAtT_EALw_wcB

I was just going to recommend these!

My 4 year old (nursery) has started reading - 3rd child so she had lots of second hand phonics learning from older siblings during lockdown homeschooling - she doesn't get school books of course so we found this Usborne set at the library.
Start at book 1 and keep going.

My DD also really enjoys playing "Teach Your Monster to Read" and watching Alphablocks.

I agree with everyone else though, just read lots and keep pointing out letters and getting her to sound words out. I also encourage lots of label writing when my DD does pictures at home.

My son is in reception and school haven we’ve mentioned a reading book level ! Is this unusual?

@OnceuponaRainbow18

My son is in reception and school haven we’ve mentioned a reading book level ! Is this unusual?

Does he bring reading books home from school?

I’m not sure what level DS is on as I’ve never seen the book is colour coded but he gets three a week. He reads two per night so that he reads each 3 times over the week. What really helps in encouraging him to read things he enjoys. For some reason he loves street/road names and signs!

@Heckythump1

Maybe once every 3 weeks… or 4

Talking about story books you read to her is the best thing you can do. Ask her questions, get her to suggest changes or different endings, get her to talk about why she liked or didn’t like bits of a story. Let her read/listen to her old favourites as much as she wants, children get much more out of books they know well.

Are the flash cards of the phonetic sounds? There’s nothing wrong with using those but I’d use them alongside the phonics she’s using at school rather than pushing ahead. Sight words they do just have to memorise, but the best way of doing that is through seeing them a lot in normal context. The school books should provide plenty of opportunity for that.

From a TA, please don’t push ahead and jump school reading levels by yourself. It is good for children to get the most out of each level before they are moved on, and there is really no benefit to rushing through the levels. Only one school book a week doesn’t sound like much. Two would be better for a family like yours that are good at reading every night, but they are supposed to read each book 2-3 times to build up fluency and expression. I know parents often hate this, but it makes all the difference when children are still on the early levels.

I also meant to say, especially when it comes to sight words, don’t forget about practicing writing at home. It’s wonderful that so many parents are as invested as they are in their child’s reading, but writing and early maths skills are just as important.

Dd struggled with words like cat in the beginning of year one. We started to read every single night and slowly she got better. At the end of year two she got almost maximum points in English SATs.
It was similar with ds. He was better than dd but really got into it in year two.

My DD's in reception and hasn't bought a book home yet, is that unusual? She is given a set of keywords to memorise that school ask us to do every day, along with recording what we've read at home, but no reading book from school. We read bedtime stories and I make a point of reading myself around her too.

[quote OnceuponaRainbow18]@Heckythump1

Maybe once every 3 weeks… or 4[/quote]
Wow, I'd definitely be questioning that and supplementing with lots of books from the library - they will have levelled books. Or a reading chest subscription - ours was absolutely invaluable for our daughter who was in reception last year, as libraries weren't open during all the lockdowns!

@QuietKingdom

My DD's in reception and hasn't bought a book home yet, is that unusual? She is given a set of keywords to memorise that school ask us to do every day, along with recording what we've read at home, but no reading book from school. We read bedtime stories and I make a point of reading myself around her too.

Mine was in reception last year and brought books home from the first week - intially for us to read to her.

I do find it a bit odd that she's over half way through reception and hasn't brought a book home at all!