can anyone recommend alternative reading books to ORT for dd, age 6, that we can try at home?

[lucykate]

dd has not found learning to read comes naturally, she is currently in year 1 and on ORT stage 6.

there are many in her class who are up to stage 10 and beyond and she's starting to feel a little left behind. i also have concerns as she only reads in school once a week, and therefore only changes her book once a week, meaning progress is becoming very slow, and as we read with her most nights, she is becoming bored. as some of the others in her class read more frequently, i'm concerned that she has been pigeon holed as far as ability goes, so would like to spend some time, at home, helping her move forward with her reading.

can anyone recommend a set of books, she is a very girly girl, likes fairies, princesses etc, are there any books available she might find more engaging than biff, chip and floppy?!

have you been to a bookshop with her? There are TONS of ladybird early reader books - most bookshops have a section full of them in their children's department. Maybe take her along, make it a bit of a treat outing, and she can choose a few herself (with your help of course)?

the bookshops near us don't have a very big/good selection unfortunately. we live in a small village and although there are a couple, their mainly aimed at adults. i've had a look on the internet, amazon etc, and seen a few but its difficult to tell if they're any good without flicking through them in person

lucykate there have been lots of posts on this, mrz is a really good source of info for this sort of thing. I havent got time to find them right now but here is a list I wrote down from a recent thread:

Rigby Rockets/Stars
Collins Big Cat/Big Cat Phonics
Get Reading Right
Jelly Bean
Story World
Literacy World
Discovery World
Rigby Navigator

My DD is in Reception and we have used the library a lot for books, ours has a whole section on early readers. I have liked the Ladybird Phonics ones and I think it is Leappad or Leapfrog or something.

Anyway must go, hope that helps.

isn't stage 6 average for Year One?

we have Red Nose Readers and some read at home ORT ones.

Snap Dragons

anmhe - wow, thanks for that list, it's really useful

yes, stage 6 is about average for year 1, but she's in a class where there are many who excel at reading, which is why she's feeling left behind. i am hoping that if we can work on it a bit more at home over the summer, she'll go into year 2 with a bit more confidence in herself

yes, same situ in my dd's class, Lucykate

but sure it'll even out over next couple of years

Why don't go to your local library. There are plenty of books for young readers which are about stage 6 standard. Most public libraries have an excellent selection.

She can choose books that interest her and hopefully enjoy the experience.

It is possible to teach a child how to read without using ORT.

daftly enough, i still haven't sorted out joining the library since we moved here, will make a point of going on saturday morning with just dd, and leave ds with dh so we can have a good sift through the reading books there

Milly Molly Mandy, Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair are all good (MMM has lots of short stories)
Also Rainbow Fairies, Tiara club.
I also avail of Waterstones generous facilities and sometimes we read higher stage books which are much more interesting . I can't believe I'm saying it but I'm liking Biff & co more as we read on

i like the look of the rainbow fairies, dd would like those, thanks for that!

lucykate

The summer holidays are approaching and some children/parents may lay off the reading practice a bit. If you keep going all holidays she may catch up but level 6 isn't too bad for year 1 is it ?

if you like the look of the rainbow fairy books, you could also consider the Magic Kitten series (similar sparkly tosh that is like heroin for small girls!!!) or the My Secret Unicorn series (ditto)

I find books like that great for encouraging reluctant readers - I buy them for dd1 (who is bilingual) in German because she doesn't much like to read German books, but can't keep away from those...

don't buy reading scheme books - get her reading real books. dd1 is on ORT stage 6 (year 1) - but she also readds tons of other books - Princess Mirabelle, secret seven, those DK fact books, usborne young readers...

elephant and piggie
pure joy!!!!!!!!!
my highly gifted 14 yr old loves them, dd 5.5 loves them I love them!!!!!!!!
gorgeous books

Does she have a lot of old picture books that you used to read her? We amassed quite a few and now dd has a good go at reading them herself. It's a real change from reading schemes and the artwork is always more appealing. Dd is ORT 6 too and she managed to read me most of 'Room on the Broom' last weekend.

NB Secret Seven for us produced age inappropriate phrases like "Come here you idiot!"
She did love them, but they were age inappropraie. Likewise Narnis series.

Which is why we are back to the Barbara Cartland-esque Rainbow Fairies. Trash but safe.

Would she like Dr Seuss, those books are fun.

horrid henry!

can a child at ORT 6 read books like Horrid Henry though? I think my dd would get stuck on quite a lot of the words. I tried her once and there were so many words she hadn't encountered yet, like 'chance,' 'answer' to name but a few. How would you guys handle that kind of thing? Wait a while or just tell them what the word is and hope they remember it? (seeing as they're not particularly phonetic words)

dd1 has an early horrid henry for early readers 'dont be horrid henry'

dd2 read it over half term she is on level 5 ORT

coopertrooper, thats an interesting point about age appropriate phrases. dd is atm, really into high school musical and is currently putting on an american accent , i fear she is becoming one step away from using terms like 'talk to the hand' etc

if, we do have some of her old story books, they are in ds's room, will check but i think some may be a bit too easy for her iyswim

have talked to her today about going to the library on saturday and she's quite up for going.

misdee, so it has a different level of words then?

lucykate, would she find books like The Gruffalo too easy? I've found all those kinds of books very good for helping dd with words not usually found in ORT (even level 6-7 has quite a limited vocabulary and are very repetitive) and rhyming etc. Plus she feels happy reading something with good pictures that's not a 'scheme' book as such.

ha, book gets changed "only" once a week. DC had her book changed after 3 (three!) weeks (2 weeks before that). But she does read lots of books from the library.

this one