when did your dc start to read silently to themselves?

[Aranea]

The ORT read-at-home pack which dd1 has been reading says it is meant for children who can read silently to themselves, but she doesn't yet. She's 5 and recognises lots of words by sight (definitely well over 100, I have absolutely no idea how many) but still tends to guess at sentences without looking at the words properly, so I don't think she's ready to read silently yet really.

So just wondering... when does it usually happen?

With my 2 dcs, it just started to happen naturally, probably around ORT level 5, but can't remember for sure. It doesn't sound like your dd is ready if she's guessing sentences, it probably won't be long though.

Yeah, she's funny because in a way I feel as though she reads at a higher level than she is actually ready for. Does that make any sense? She can manage really tricky stuff but only if she really concentrates. If she's a little bit tired she flies along on guesswork and intuition and then it can all fall to pieces completely. It's as though she hasn't got very solid foundations but can decode pretty much anything.

With DD1 by about the summer holiday after reception; with DD2 earlier, I think around Feb half-term of reception.

Interesting... maybe she will start soon then.

I wouldn't worry at all. DS was exactly the same as your DD for the whole of Reception and we resigned ourselves to reading not 'clicking' with him for while. Then over the summer holiday between Reception and Year 1 it just fell into place and he was away. When he went back after the summer, he started the reading scheme where he had left off and we had to ask for him to be moved up a couple of bands.

It will happen all at once; you'll see. It's lovely when it does (and oh, the bliss of them reading silently to themselves! )

I would say watch the comprehension. You don't want to feel great about her reading harder books silently, only to realise some time later that she isn't understanding them as well as she should be. I make my dcs read aloud a bit most days even now they can read pretty much anything. Dd in particular has a habit of skipping over harder words and I have to keep an eye on it.

Well exactly, alittlebitbored, that's why I don't want to encourage her to read silently - I want to know that she's getting it right!

She loves reading and will read aloud to herself. She even loved this week's school reading book so much that she cried when she had to give it back!

Biff and Chip???!!!

no, The Jolly Witch by Dick King-Smith.