Helping my child to enjoy reading

lakecounty2006

Hi all,

My child is 7yrs old and is going into 2nd class. She was never big into books even as a baby - she liked her bedtime story but much preferred just having a chat at bedtime. She is still like that now! Since she started school her teachers have said that we need to encourage her to read more. She is happy to read her books for her homework but has no interest in taking a book out at bedtime and reading it herself. In many ways she sees reading as something she does for her homework but not necessarily for enjoyment. I have taken her to the library and she has chosen books but i really need to push her to read them. Her "reading age" was tested towards the end of 1st class and her reading age is marginally older than her actual age....i get the impression from the teachers that it should be much more?

How do i encourage her to read? Can you recommend any books that she might enjoy reading? That are funny? She is currently reading a Horrid Henry book but it isn't engaging her - she is just doing it to keep me quiet!

I am worried if she doesn't practice her reading she will suffer in 2nd class.
When she reads she doesn't read confidently and i've told her that will improve the more she practices. I see this when she is reading for her homework - she starts off slowly but once she gets into the groove she reads more fluidly. She still occasionally has to "sound out" words - should this still be necessary going in to 2nd class?

Thanks so much,

LC

Moonbeam

I have the opposite problem, my 7 year old is an anti social reader.

What is she in to?
Princess,adventure,horses,fantasy,science?

beauf

Find a subject she's interested in.

Can't be reading for the sake of reading.

lakecounty2006

Thanks for your replies!
Ok - So TV shows she likes include cookery programmes (Great British Bake Off and Masterchef!). She will watch some cartoons her younger brother watches but she isn't really that interested - she'll watch them only if she is bored.
She likes music and programmes like Strictly Come Dancing. She got a few of Darcy Bussell's books from the library but the stories were awful.....all the princess/ballerina books tend to be very airy fairy and don't really interest her that much.
Its hard to find a subject that she is really interested in - aside from cooking, riding her bike and generally running around!

lakecounty2006

What books does your 7 year old read Moonbeam?

eviltwin

I wouldn't force it or you'll just turn her off books completely. There are many ways to read, magazines, graphic novels etc. Maybe start her off small, build up her confidence and see where it goes but not everyone is destined to be a book worm.

afkasurfjunkie

If she likes cooking get her a kids cookbook. Get a pretty notebook and some cute pens for her to write recipes into. Cut the recipes out of the newspaper/weekend magazines and stick them in. It doesn't necessarily have to be princess and fairy stories that she has to read. Let her see print in the environment and bit by bit her confidence will grow.

lakecounty2006

That's very true Eviltwin - i feel under pressure from her teacher to keep after her but i don't want to completely put her off.
In 1st class, she got a lot of reading tasks as part of her homework (2 books to read over the course of the week and a page per day of a third book) along with everything else so its hard to get her to read at night time also! I'm going to keep after it for the remainder of the summer. Maybe magazines would be a good option.

afkasurfjunkie - she has a cook book but cutting out recipes is a good idea.

beauf

Some people just aren't interested in reading. That's ok too.

One of mine only likes fact Based books like how things work.

Once they aren't having a problem with reading.

lakecounty2006

Thats the thing beauf, the teacher in 1st class recommended that she get some help from the learning support teacher.
The LS teacher just kept sending books home for her to read as part of her homework - along with her regular homework. Towards the end of last term, the LS teacher was putting her under pressure to read one of her books per night which i thought was a bit extreme considering she was already reading 3 other books for her regular homework. I let it go as it was close to the end of term and summer holidays etc. In her school report the LS teacher recommends that she continue seeing her in 2nd class.
When she does her reading homework i thought she was reading really well - but LS teacher seems to think her reading age should be a lot more than it currently is (her reading age is about 6 months over her actual age).

beauf

Was the sten score ok in general.

lakecounty2006

She scored 6 for English in the Drumcondra test

beauf

I'm no expert, but I wouldn't be worried but I would do as the teacher suggested in continue to encourage more reading in subjects she might be interested in. But not too much pressure as you are doing. Gentle encouragement etc.

Moonbeam

lakecounty2006 wrote: »

What books does your 7 year old read Moonbeam?

Her favourites incl -

Roald Dahl
Horrid Henry
Mallory Towers
Ever After High
Judy Moody
Charlotte's Web
Remember the Milk
Where's my cow
She loves comics too like Powerpuff Girls ,The Beano and Dandy .

She likes science so loves to read the atlas and science books .
She loves to read for the 3 younger ones too so reads alot of Thomas,Julia Donaldson and the Classic fairytales.

Is there a younger sibling to read too ?
Recipes might be a good place to start ?

Moonbeam

lakecounty2006 wrote: »

She scored 6 for English in the Drumcondra test

Not everyone is going to excel at everything .
Does she like Maths or is she learning a musical instrument ?

Big Bag of Chips

Reading recipies is good. There might be some magazines she likes, or comics. 'The Beano' is still going and a favourite in this house. The library would have audio books. I know it wouldn't get her reading, but it might get her interested in a story, and grow it from there. Some audio books come with a text book in them. Some of the Disney books have a "read-a-long" CD too. They're often in TK Maxx.

Call me Al

Why don't you read to her for a while at a bedtime? Animate the story with your voice or small actions (have fun with it - it can be great fun for you too - .. My two sons still absolutely love it when i read at bedtime and one is older than your daughter). Get her to close her eyes and picture your words in her imagination. Gradually get her to alternate reading pages with you and make it fun with you. Maybe chat about the story and what she think might happen, potential plots or character development.

I started out like this when they were preschoolers and they are both voracious readers now far ahead of where they need to be.

lakecounty2006

Hi all,

Thanks for all your advice - i will check out those books Moonbeam. She is much more into maths and music but reading seems to be a big focus in school in the early years. Our local library is badly laid out and its difficult to find books for her particular age so your list is a great help.

Call me Al - i do read to her at bedtime and have done since she was small. We both read "Georges Marvellous Medicine" together over the course of a few nights.

Maybe i am worrying unnecessarily - i just want to help her as best i can without putting too much pressure on her. I don't want her lack of enthusiasm with reading to hinder her in other subjects going forward.

byhookorbycrook

Reading age isn't a great indicator, it's a bit unreliable. When you say she got a 6 in her Drumcondra Reading ,do you mean a Sten 6?If so, it's most unusual to get learning support as that is the higher side of perfect average (5)
We use CAPER with our senior infants and 1st class- I'm pasting the relevant bits here. We ask parents to fill in a record sheet and send it in each day but you could make your own little chart and factor in rewards when 10 nights/books or whatever are done


(b) 10 minutes approximately is set aside as “C.A.P.E.R.” time. You and your child sit in a quiet place where you can both work without disturbance.

(c) First just look at the illustrations with your child and discuss them. Then discuss the title – talking about these helps your child to build up a mental picture of what the story is about and will help him/her when they get stuck on a word. If you know the general context of a story, you are much more likely to think of the right word when you encounter a problem word.

(d) On day 1 you and your child decide on a non-verbal cue which your child will use while reading the books to communicate his/her need for your help. This may be something like a tap on your shoulder, a tap on your knee etc. Your child uses this technique every day to let you know when help is needed.

(e) Your child begins to read the book. If he/she is a bit nervous, you could read along with him/her. It is important to slow your rate of reading to match that of your child. When your child feels ready to “go it alone”, he/she uses your non-verbal cue e.g. taps your knee and you stop reading. Your child continues alone.



(f) When your child comes to a word he/she doesn’t know, he/she uses the cue (tap on the knee etc) and you join in the reading supplying the unknown word. To give your child confidence, continue to read along. When your child is ready to read alone the cue is used again and you stop reading. Your child continues reading alone until another unknown word comes up.


Child reads alone – meets hard word – taps parent – parent joins in – both read for a while – child taps parent – parent drops out.

Reading is continued like this for approximately 10 minutes. Many books will be finished at this stage but longer books may need to be kept for a number of nights.

I'd start with short and easy books to begin with- maybe the Oxford Reading Tree books from about level 3 on- your local library should have them or similar.

On return to school, you need to chat with the class/learning support teacher to ensure she isn't overloaded with too many books per night.


As she becomes more competent
O'Brien's Panda" series.

"Hodgeheg," "The Sheep Pig" and other books by Dick King Smith.

"Mad Grandad "series by Oisín McGann. (Part of the "Flyers" series, for children who can read longer stories)

"Milly Molly Mandy’s Schooldays" by Joyce Lankester Brisley.

"Mr Majeika" series by Humphrey Carpenter.

"Penny Dreadful is a Record Breaker " by Joanna Nadin.

"The Pirates Next Door" by Jonny Duddle.

"The Great Rabbit Rescue" and other books by Katie Davies.

"Captain Valiant and Me: Revenge of the Black Phantom" by Adam Britten

"The Great Rabbit Rescue" and other books by Katie Davies.

Some suggestions from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown library:
http://www.cgscoil.ie/Portals/0/6-8b.pdf

huskerdu

Have you come across Captain Underpants. They have cartoons, are a great laugh, plenty of toilet humour and well written. The Learning support teacher in my kids school recommends them and it doesn't seem anything like homework.

I have a daughter who has always struggled with reading, but the STEN scores were always OK, so she was not entitled to support, but the teachers gave lots of advice and help.

I have always made sure that she was not forced to read or made feel it was a chore. I agree that you need to talk to the teachers about this.

Queenalocin

My daughter is dyslexic and took ages to get into reading. I got her to cook and bake and we made recipe books for her granny and aunties.
I got her to do shopping lists and read them out to me as we went along.
Children's magazines are great as well. We got National Geographic for Kids delivered in post which was a great novelty.
Library trips were great, I let her pick out whatever she wanted and didn't pass any comment if she picked really childish ones.
Basically, we snuck in reading without making an issue out of it. She is 18 now and has her own Kindle which is constantly in use.
Don't let her see that it is an issue, that could get her back up and put her off. Go with the flow and make sure she sees the rest of the family reading and enjoying it.

lakecounty2006

Thanks for your reply byhookorbycrook.

Yes she got STEN score 6. She started to see the LS teacher at the beginning of 1st class - before she ever did any of those Drumcondra tests. At her parent/teacher meeting in 1st, her teacher said she was doing fine and could leave LS at any stage if she wanted. When we saw the LS teacher she recommended she continue seeing her so we felt we should just let her continue with LS for the rest of 1st class. I really felt she had come on loads towards the end of 1st class and was surprised she was recommended for LS in 2nd class also. I do worry that the LS teacher is trying to justify her position but if she feels she needs extra help, maybe i shouldn't stand in her way?

I will definitely talk to the LS teacher at the start of the school term. She is happy going to LS and has never had an issue - there are two others from her class who go and it seems they all get extra reading as homework and the pressure was on for her to read a book a night just for LS.

I will certainly check out those books. She is currently reading Horrid Henry and is slowly getting into them. I will also check out Captain Underpants huskerdu :-)

beauf

One of ours got LS even though they are an excellent reader, because the teacher mistook, boredom, laziness for a difficultly. For example they want the kids to write down all the books they read per week, mine wrote one down because they read so many they couldn't be bothered writing them out. They weren't paying attention in class because they were reading their own books on the side.

Anyway, they really enjoyed LS, and it improved their concentration, and to pay attention. So any personal attention is always good.

Another one of ours who is not in to reading we did a lot of bedtime reading with them, and in science subjects. That seem to make them read more. They really like these books.

http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/catalogue.aspx

They also like audio books. Doesn't help with reading though.