Be honest - how often do you read with your reception child/practice keywords etc with them?

[BadGardener]

Not sure if I'm going to regret posting this if everyone jumps in and says 'oh we do everything every day of course - don't you?'
I find it a real struggle to do reading with dd every day; we have reading books, keywords, sounds and letter formation that she is supposed to practice atm so we don't get through it as much as I'd like to. Is this normal?!

The way I see it is that my DD works hard at school and whilst my DH and I will do all we can to support her with her learning that does not mean that we listen to her read every single night - there are more important things to do with our time together such as eat dinner, play in the garden and build Lego models.

She's a keen reader though so will read aloud to her teddies quite happily and writes all sorts of phoenetically sounded out notes/messages so I consider this to be perfectly acceptable.

Oh, and myself and DH are both teachers so we're probably really bad examples

I don't want you to feel bad --

but I do reading book, phonics, handwriting (if assigned) and other homework - maths, research for school 'topic', comprehension work from reading books, spelling words, with three children, every night! Mine are a little older (in p2, 3 and 5 - equiv to Y1, 2 and 4).

I am always home when they get in and I just have to be strict about it. In - change - snack - sit down at dining table all together - do homework - then chill (usually Wii as they got one for Christmas).

But homework gets done first and I do make it a priority to do reading every night - and my kids are in bilingual ed so 2 of them have 2 reading books.

I think that on balance they probably get too much homework but its important for them to learn to do it as they are going to have to when they get older.

(maybe I am strict about it cos I was am a teacher? never thought of that!)

When DD was in reception she has nightly reading as her "homework." Just 10 minutes max, so we find it manageable. Used to do it just before bedtime. This continued throughout infants, and now in Y3 sheis expected to read 20 minutes a night of her school book, some to us and some to herself.

I work in a Y1 class and it is very hit and miss. The reading diaries are only checked once a week and some children can go days and even weeks without reading at home, whereas others read nightly.

dd3 is in reception and for the last two weeks, we've done the reading every day the books have been changed and the words most days [polishes halo] before that we were managing once a week at least, but we're cracking down on homework this term

dd3 has got bored of just reading the words, so we've started playing games with them. She likes trying to make sentances, which is hard with just the high frequency words we've been given! I've helped her make more words so we've now got her friends names and swings, slide , see saw etc.

It is hard to fit in, but like weegiemum, it's done right after snacktime before any tv, pc, wii, otherwise it doesn't happen

My observations:

• School books are shite. I've read more interesting backs of cornflake packets

• Regular reading practice = confident reading = independent reading = smarter kid and less handholding needed in the future: really, really worth investing in the reading.

• Letter formation, I've ignored. Sounds - we have one of those phonics alphabet toys from ELC (Leapfrog also do a fridge magnet on the same theme). It saves me going a-a-a-a- [bored] . Dd always liked showing me hers - the funny ones, like Sssssss with the snake action.

• I read books to my kids immediately after dinner (i.e. while they're eating a yoghurt or something). I find I'm too tired by 'bedtime' - and the kids are more distracted in their rooms. Can you find a time that works better for you?

• Other fun literacy stuff Dd loves (and does pretty independently, given the means):
• writing birthday cards for real & imaginary friends

• reading recipes (i.e. if she wants to make one of those packet cake mixes, they'll usually say on the front in big letters 'just add 1 egg, oil and milk'. I make look like busy, and say 'Dd. what do we need for those cakes'.

• Reading street signs. We live near water, and lots of signs warning of a gruesome end for anyone who is careless on bridges etc. Dd loves them .

ds gets sent home with some flashcards and a reading book. We do this quickly over breakfast each day as do not want it to impact on his time having fun at home.

Thanks all.
We do read other stuff pretty constantly, as Kif describes - love the scary streetsigns though
We read the sides of vans so we can be nosey about what our neighbours are having done to their houses. And recipes, a lot.
I also do get dd engaged in reading her bedtime story - ie get her to help with the easy words - and she likes reading to her younger brothers.
It's just the school stuff that is so much harder to get her attention with.
The school only changes the books once a week and we do read them the day we get the new one (dd is keen because they're new).

Is there a big difference between reception and Y1 in terms of how much you should expect from your child? She's still only 4.

In reception we read everyday as ds was sooooo desperate to learn to read. (writing was like pulling teeth so we left it)

We read the school books, mon, wed + fri and read 'read, write inc' books in between which he loved. All this was working towards reading the coveted 'Star wars' books that he was desperate to read.

We read as soon as we get home before taking uniform off but he wants too so it's quite easy. I give a book to ds 2 so he feels he's joining in.

He's now in year 1 and reads all the time. We read school books on the same days but his books on the others (greek myths last night) We're now forcussing on his writing. We write everyday -just as sentence- and practise his spellings. I don't believe in spelling tests as such but I do believe in practising little and often so it (reading or writing) becomes something we do normally, in everyday life.

His keywords sheet he whizzes through but that's becasue we focussed on reading so much last year. Ds 2 now sits and wants to 'draw' when ds 1 does his writing practise. As this has become the routine both boys are happy to do it and I don't have any fighting him to get him to do his writing issues.

I think re the expectations for year 1 we have seen a leap in what he is expected to do. He came home with spellings in the first week which were ridiculous as he couldn't even form the letters to write the words! We had to work at home on letter formation as I felt the expectations were way above what he could do. I do wonder what he did in reception but that's a whole different thread. It seems to me that reception and year 1 didn't talk in our school...

He knows he wasn't great at writing and was beginning to get down about it even saying that 'the girls can do this mummy' so we felt it was in his interest to help him outside of school.

In the Y1 class I work in there is no homework at all, and the only thing children are expected to do outside of school is reading. Although, as said before, this is very hit and miss and not actually enforced in any way. It is enitrely parent/child led, and not directed by the teacher.

The teacer listens to the children once a week, as part of a griup in guided reading.

If your books are only changed once a week I'd just do that a coupl of times inthe week, and spend time reading and sharing more exciting books and magazines at hme the rest of the time.

The regular reading practise is very important IMO, but it doesn't have to be a reading scheme book. Any reading will do.

One thing I am mulling over (before I go out): it is hard to get dd to do some of the prescribed tasks but she loves some aspects of reading and writing - eg she is obsessed with writing thank you letters and I'm sure she must learn a lot from that!
Is it ok to go with the flow and let her focus on the things she wants to do, or should I be making more effort to force her to sit down and do the tasks that school sets? Obviously she does need to learn habits of self-discipline but like I say, she is only 4....

x-posted - thanks Hula.

Can she achieve the same objectives doing her own stuff?

So if task is letter formation - any writing will do this, not just given worksheets, for example.

well she will pick up things in a slightly different order - eg she will learn to spell words she likes like 'fairy' before she is 100% on her keywords - but it will get her to the same place in the end, I guess.

We do 5 days a week, so give it a break at weekends. I struggle for time too - I have three to listen to, so ten minutes each means I have to find half an hour. If I am really pushed, I jsut have to listen to them in the kitchen while I'm doing the packed lunches or folding laundry at the same time. Prob not idea, but better than nothing.

We make it fun, normally find something to laugh at in it, and do a variety of weird smilies in their reading record when they've read well.

with the keywords, we made silly non sensical sentances out of them.

how old are yours Chops?

I would say go with what your dd wants to do. If you follow her interest she will develop and entusiasm for reading but if you force her to do what she doesn't want to then she could be put off.

Look at signposts, buses, when you're out shopping 'can you find...' how much is it?
Let her write letters, can she do it to different people? What about her favourite characters out of books, on telly. Could she invite Peppa Pig to tea? Could she thank Fif for the lovely cakes she made?

Write to realtives, post the letters so she can see you have to address the envelopes, stick the stamp on, Get Grandma/whoever to write back. Can she send postcards from days out?

There's loads you can do to broaden her reading/writing horizons that can follow what she's into.

sentences Maybe I should be the one at school!

4,4, 7. The 7yo has sn, so I still have to do a lot of support with him.

We're not having Peppa Pig to tea here, she's too bratty and not always kind to George

Good idea to get Granny to write back. Granny would like that too

We're now powering through school reading books as I've said to ds (4.9) that we will get to the more interesting books more quickly if we get on and read the 'boring' books every time they are changed (at least 2x per week). That being said, this is the only 'formal' school work we do with him. However, we read signs on the way to school and if out and about, we read the cereal box in the morning, we read book titles in the library etc etc. He also does a lot of sounding out of words as we're driving along and we talk about what letters the sounds are made up from (eg, the sounds of shop are sh, o and p, but sh is made up from the letters s and h). And, of course, eyespy is also a good one - we're still doing this phonetically at the moment.

And we have a story every night - and now, whilst I do the majority of the reading, ds gets to add in words as we go along - this is helping to get him to follow the lines as I read them, and also encourages him that reading is fun and not just something to do at school.

and we're of course talking emergent writing so don't worry about spellings, capital letters etc. Just get her interested in getting her ideas down on paper. Don't ask 'what have you written? She may think 'Why? Can't you read it???' Just ask her to read it to you/tell you about it.

Apple Tree Farm books are good as they have sentences for the adult to read then simpler ones for the child. Ds loved these when he first started.