“We’re going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day.
We’re not scared.”
And I paused.
“Uh-uh! Grass!
Long wavy grass.
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go under it.
Oh no!
We’ve got to go through it!”
The boy had no patience for me to continue his bedtime story; he was off.
“swishy swashy!
swishy swashy!
swishy swashy!”
I turned the page. “Why don’t you read it to me?”
“No.”
“How about we read it together?”
“Ok.”
And so we did. Until I stopped and the boy just carried on. As we got further into the story he couldn’t remember the words so he had a go at reading them. He stopped when he got to the pages with lots of words on. At bedtime he’s just not that into reading to do that much for himself but he did have a go with some bits.
I hugged him in tight and remembered that although reading the books the school sends home is a battle, when he wants to, the boy really will try.
He does it with his favourite books. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He used to do it with Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy in the days when he could only read a handful of letters, but that one’s fallen out of favour now.
The boy likes to read, or at least as much as any boy does. He likes to show off that he knows words and will shout them out as he reads them from billboards as we drive by. But he has to be encouraged. He hs to read on his terms and not be forced. He has to read what he wants to read and not what other people think he should.
I can’t say I’m impressed with the way the school is teaching the boy to read. They started out encouraging him to sound out words as a way of working out what they said. That was fine when the words could easily be sounded out. Now, once a week they send home a reading book and we battle our way through it. His target is to sound out the words before saying them. That would be fine, but most of the words can’t be sounded out. To someone who knows what they say, the words are a mixture of lowercase and uppercase sounds and the boy has no clue how to tell which from which. To be honest, neither do I; I just know because I know the word.
The boy also has no inclination to read for either myself or the husband so we have no way of gauging his progress. He messes around, repetitively pronounces words completely wrongly, despite knowing the word, just because he knows it annoys us. He gives up easily in the hope that we’ll give up too. The contrast when he’s not reading to us is clear. The other day, he read his school book to the sister. I’d never heard him read a school book so well.
His teacher is fairly unapproachable; more concerned with military discipline of her class of five and six year olds than letting us know how they’re getting on. I need to sit down with the sister (a speech and language therapist) and the mother (a former primary teacher) to see what they think, to see how I can help. Because at the moment, all I can see is a boy who will fail if he doesn’t get more support, from us or from anyone.
TEN HUT!!!!!
.-= urbanvox said TB & Daddy’s Lego Adventures =-.
When ever I babysat for boys, I always took comics with me. I found that boys liked to read them more than “proper” books. Just a question of catching their interest!
.-= Pippa said Top Ender Giggles – Its a bloke wearing a Dress! =-.
Glowstars Reply:
November 25th, 2009 at 10:49
We’ve got x-men (a huge book of them), spiderman all sorts. They drive me up the wall. Maybe I could just get him to read them to the husband instead?
Bless his heart. What I’ve always found is that if there is a movie or TV tie-in the book becomes instantly more attractive. So for example, Where the Wild Things Are is coming out soon – if you haven’t read this with him, it’s a wonderful book. Spike Milligan’s great because the poems/stories are so silly. And remember all reading counts – so even if it’s just the back of a ceral packet, or taping words to the backs of furniture etc it all counts x
Glowstars Reply:
November 25th, 2009 at 10:49
You may be on to something there. Poor kid’s gonna end up with books of movies for Christmas! lol
Our teachers are great with reading (and this is a state school!) and hold workshops on how to encourage the younger ones. The suggested that if they are too tired to read themselves to read to them (pointing to the words as you read them). My oldest seemed to learn by memorisation and it was nearly impossible for her to sound out some words, just as you said. Stick with it. With mine, it all seemed to “click” around age 6.
.-= A Modern Mother said Dear dog walker =-.
Glowstars Reply:
November 25th, 2009 at 10:50
Only another 6 months to go then!
My oldest inhaled every book he could lay his hands on — still does actually, but my middle one’s cultivation of reading took longer. Until I discovered he loves non-fiction books with facts and figures. It amazes me that to this day he will pick a non-fiction over say Harry Potter. So, I guess my advice is to find what he really loves and give that to read.
Also, I think the comprehension is important so always be sure to quiz him on what the book is about. Bookadventure is a great website — it has quizzes on loads of books that you could actually take with him. I’ve been using it with my boys for years and, no I am not getting paid by them to write that!! Good luck!
.-= Karen @ If I Could Escape said Musical Monday . . . Set the Fire to the Third Bar =-.
Glowstars Reply:
November 25th, 2009 at 10:51
We’re screwed! He likes dinosaurs. I can barely even pronounce those names!
I’m with Pippa. My son went from being an almost remedial reader to being the best reader in the year just by reading comics. I also found audio books where he could read along to be good. Unfortunately, many teachers are impatient with boys when it comes to reading and don’t develop the strategies they need. I remember feeling quite disheartened when Nick was about 5 or 6 but it did improve in a year or so. Try not to worry.
.-= Selma said SPILL =-.
Glowstars Reply:
November 25th, 2009 at 10:52
If comics are the way to go, reading is definitely going to become the husband’s domain – he’s a freak for all those sorts of things, still.