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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

'Free' reader

16 replies

thesleepyprincess · 30/01/2010 20:35

My DD is four and in reception. She started in September knowing all her letters etc but since then she has flown on with her reading and I was told a couple of weeks ago that she is now a 'free' reader. She can read pretty much anything and she is currently reading aged 9+ level books.

My question is, should I be approaching the school to see if there is anything else they/I should be doing for her, or is this ability relatively commonplace at her age? She is very hungry to learn and I don't want to do anything wrong that could jeopardize her interest in school in years to come.

Any advice welcome; I am new to this as she is my PFB!!

OP posts:

Original poster

thesleepyprincess · 30/01/2010 20:37

(When I say she can read 'pretty much anything' obviously I don't mean War and Peace!)

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whizzylala · 31/01/2010 10:18

Hi,
My DD was similar in reception, could read more or less anything. She is in Yr 1 now and she is still on scheme books because there is more to reading than just being able to do it. They are focusing very much on expression and grammar rather than what the actual words are. Also about applying what she has read to her writing - punctuation spellings etc.
Whilst they have said she could have higher level books (she is on white level, whatever that is) some of the content would be inappropriate for a 5 year old.
So whilst it seems as though she isn't progressing with her reading at school she is in other areas that are just as important, after all once you can read you can read, she'll never forget! Might be worth making sure all of the above are happening for your DD too. We just let her read whatever she likes at home to make up for lower level at school and that seems to work (when she can muster the enthusiasm!)
Hope that helps.
Whiz.

SeaTrek · 31/01/2010 10:49

WOW! That is amazing that she has gone from reading nothing at all in September to reading so well in just five months!

I don't think it is especially unusual to be reading so well at such a young age (although of course not average), but to do it so quickly....

My son (who is the youngest in his yr 1 class, so nearly 5.5) usually needs no support to read white band fiction but it took him getting on for 17 months to get there - not just 5 months, and I am pretty sure his reading age is more like 8 than 9! I know there are others (older!) who read better than him in the class though, certainly a couple were free reading at the END of reception.

'Free Reading' means different things at different schools. At my son's school it is after white band (band 10), at others it is after band 13 and others are classed as 'free readers' as early as after band 5 (green)!

My only advice would be to keep reading with her and finding appropriate level books that further improve her reading but also her comprehension of the world around her. Like easy history/science books etc. Certainly non-fiction books are harder than fiction books on the whole!

How is she with Maths? I would say that that was a better indicator to her overall ability than her reading tbh. Some extremely bright children don't start reading well until much later, where some children who are fairly average read at a fairly young age.

Anyway, my advice is to build upon her great reading by using it as a tool to explore all the other subjects.

FranSanDisco · 31/01/2010 11:08

I would just ensure she understands what she is reading. You could ask her questions about the character and the developing plot for instance. Both my dc's were free readers quite early and the trouble I found was they went off on their own to read so that I wasn't listening to them as much. On questioning them about what they were reading and the new vocab they were learning it was apparent that sometimes they weren't comprehending as well as I thought. Well done to your dd.

ellokitty · 31/01/2010 15:39

Totally agree with Whizzy. My DD is in year 1 and is on white band. On fiction books, she knows all the words and understands everything. On Non fiction, although she can read the book, sometimes it covers concepts that she does not fully understand yet, so they do need to match their reading ability with books that are age appropriate.

Over the past year, I've learnt not to stress about the whole thing and just to trust the school. She reads the books she reads at school, and at home she reads whatever she wants to read for fun - at the moment it is Enid Blyton.

I think more important than reading, (particularly once they have got the basics) is to give a love of reading. Just let her enjoy books at home, and I' sure she'll turn out fine!

Original poster

thesleepyprincess · 31/01/2010 20:07

Thank you so much everyone - great advice.

It is amazing how fast it's happened...from knowing her letters in September, to this...does it sound odd if I say I'm not really sure how it happened?! She turns five tomorrow and we had a day out to a museum today and she was reading all the signs and labels and enjoying it all very much.

I do ask lots of questions when she reads, as I've heard the expression 'barking at the page' to describe children who can read but don't understand what they are reading. The books she is reading now contain quite a few new and long words and I am making sure we always stop and talk about what they mean.

I'm not sure how her ability in maths compares to others...she is in the top 'set' but I really don't know if she is as advanced as she is in her reading. She's quite quick to grasp new concepts with numbers but I am not familiar enough with this age group to know much else.

I guess as you all say the main thing is that she is happy, first and foremost, and enjoying her reading. She is getting lots of new books for her birthday (including Enid Blyton!) and also the usual sorts of little girls' toys that she has asked for...I'm definitely not 'hothousing' her or anything like that. (But I am still very, very proud of her )

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SeaTrek · 01/02/2010 07:29

Yes, it is great when they really start reading 'out and about'!

What book band/ORT level was she on before she became a 'free reader' out of interest?

The New adventures of the wishing chair are three of the Enid Blyton books that my son enjoyed around the time he turned five, the magic tree house books are great easy-reader books for this age group too.

It must have been so nice that she was so keen to learn - I had to literally force my son (just turned four when he started reception and was still four when he finished!) for the first six months with his reading.

GooseyLoosey · 01/02/2010 08:14

There are a set of books called "Sprinters" (link to Amazon) which are about 50 pages long each and have pretty good stories. Ds loved those (aged 5) when he started to read a lot on his own.

The school kept him on the reading scheme until mid way through year 1. After that he was a free reader which meant for him that he could get books from other class rooms in the school. If this happens, do have a quick look at which she brings home - ds brought home a couple of teenage angst/romance things which were way over his head in terms of subject matter (he just liked the titles).

MumNWLondon · 01/02/2010 22:19

Wow what a superstar... and its amazing the school have encouraged this - not all schools would have... and in my DD's school she'd be totally bored still on ORT stage 2.... being forced to read each book until moved onto next level....

Focus on punctuation, expression and talking about content. Let her read it and then retell you the story.

My DD (year 1) can read pretty much anything age appropriate but still finds occasional words in the reading scheme challenging so there is a value in the reading scheme even when they can read other things. However need to discuss whats appropriate as the reading scheme at that stage might not be suitable content for a 5 YO.

PiratePrincess · 01/02/2010 22:58

Ours have to read each and every book on the 14 levels too, there is no way my DS could have done that in 5 months!

completelyshotpelvicfloor · 04/02/2010 21:58

Been reading this post with interest. Have a similar reader, aged 5. I checked out the "Sprinters" books recommended in a previous post and they look brilliant. Are there any other recommendations? DD is 5, quite sensitive to scary stories, but (apparently) has a reading age of 9 or 10. If anyone else has a similar experience and can recommend other books I'd appreciate it.

BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny · 04/02/2010 22:06

Ds did this, 0 to 100 mph in a short space of time (reading one word to reading a Mr Men book in erm, well, not very long, he entirely skipped the ORT if this makes any sense.

Please read the books that the school give her before she does. Alot of the ones aimed at older children contain subject matter/words that are not appropriate for a much younger child. The Dick King smith books are good and there's alot of them.

violetbloom · 04/02/2010 23:15

My dd's school didn't do ORT - hurray! She read very well in Reception, also after starting school unable to read apart from her name, mum, dad, love and other words she'd written on birthday cards!

In Reception dd got a series of steadily more difficult small readers and I think that slow start was brilliant for her. Her friend in the other class was a similar reader to dd and was sent off to Y1, then Y2 for reading books, most of which she didn't understand. I remember one being very nautical and one was a Dick King-Smith book about horses escaping slaughter. As a result, now in Y2, friend's dd barely reads. she's a great reader but doesn't see it as fun at all. Whereas dd absolutely loves reading. She'll read anything - from Roald Dahl to some of her old favourite picture books. She's always got a book in her bag when we go out.

I think it's definitely worth going slowly with reading and keeping the level of the books right, in terms of content, not just vocabulary.

Original poster

thesleepyprincess · 14/02/2010 08:01

Thanks for all other replies. I'll definitely check out the 'Sprinters' books.

We're on 'The Wishing Chair' now which is lovely and very exciting! She is also reading 'My Naughty Little Sister' which, again, is age=appropriate but also interesting and funny.

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Original poster

thesleepyprincess · 14/02/2010 08:04

PS yes the school has been brilliant - most particularly Reception's class teacher who recognised DD's ability very early on. I'm actually dreading September when DD moves up to Year 1 and a teacher who is notorious (and has been for years) for being uninspiring to say the least...

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SofaQueen · 14/02/2010 09:37

DS1 was like this. His Reception teacher would send home extra comprehension sheets and independent projects based on subjects raised in the books he was reading to challenge him. He read the treehouse adventure series, the Ottline books, and the books in the ORT treetop all-stars series.

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