How to progress my daughter?

[wannabepos]

I am hoping that someone can help me make sense of where I am at with my just turned (September 2012) 5 year old daughter as I feel like I have hit a bit of a bump in the road!

 

She has been reading now for the past 3-4 months and is doing very well. I have her read to me everyday with a readers, starting from no. 1 all the way to no. 70, increasing in complexity. She is currently at no. 31 and seems to be finding the reader hard going with at least 2-3 words on the page where she stops and takes a while to decode the work or needs me to help. Am I moving too fast or should I persevere with the readers? Perhaps read it to her first and then get her to read it? Should I perhaps drop down a level with an alternate reader or just give it a rest for now?

 

Another problem I am having is that I have, in the past few months, discovered the well trained mind book and want to follow the classical education path. I get the feeling that I have left it too late!! I searched for a few lovely classic novels to read to my daughter, Winnie the Pooh and Beatrix potter, and it fell flat!! After the first paragraph, filled with wonderful classical style writing, she lost interest!! I have always read copious amounts of books to her but they have always been picture books with simple wording and she has always run to the sofa to read and insisted i read many books. We go through at least 50 books a week!!

 

I have even tried classical audio books and that too has not grabbed her interest!! What shall I do!!??

 

Thanks for reading this and your valuable advice.

[HS Mom in NC]

Are you interpreting sitting still and quiet as being interested? Do you assume that your child doing something while you read aloud means she isn't interested? Most read aloud chapter books don't have pictures to look at, so it's perfectly normal for a child to want to do something while you read aloud. Most of us who have done lots of reading aloud have all sorts of things for the kids to do while we read.

 

http://forums.welltr...to-read-alouds/

 

 

It's also possible you're choosing books that are a bad fit for her. She may enjoy something with more adventure like The Chronicles of Narnia or the Little Britches series. I have 3 girls and two have always wanted lots of action and adventure in a story.

 

Children don't progress at every assignment or stage at the same rate. Some things they get the hang of faster and some things take more time. Generally speaking, they should have a good solid handle on the latest thing before moving to the next thing. She might need to spend some time at this level or the previous one while she builds confidence and can read without effort just for the joy of it.

[Tawlas]

It also wouldn't hurt to ease into novels with a book like My Father's Dragon which has pictures and chapters. Don't underestimate the quality of picture books either! Go to the five in a row website and use their reading lists fr some classic picture book reads. She may just need more time.

 

As for the readers, I find my son's reading develops at different rates, sometimes speeding ahead, sometimes hitting a plateau. I find other sources for him to read at approximately the same level. Check your library, make up some story books, bob books, AAR readers, I See Sam books etc. let things percolate for awhile before pressing on? Might help your daughter as well?

[Tanikit]

I think you have to play around with chapter book reading and find what suits your daughter. My own (also born Sept 2007) wanted to listen to The INdian in the Cupboard this last week - and this is NOT a book I would normally read to a 5 year old and especially a 5 year old GIRL, but she loved it and asked all week for me to read it to her. Try a lot of different books and see what catches her fancy.

[wannabepos]

Thank you all for your valuable advice! I guess I was expecting her to be sitting still and staring at a book that had no pictures the same way she did with the picture books!! Now I feel foolish for getting upset. :-)

 

I am now armed with a different list of books and off to the library! I also need to put a basket of goodies together that she can do whilst I read. Super excited again! :-))

[wannabepos]

Thank you all for your valuable advice! I guess I was expecting her to be sitting still and staring at a book that had no pictures the same way she did with the picture books!! Now I feel foolish for getting upset. :-)

 

I am now armed with a different list of books and off to the library! I also need to put a basket of goodies together that she can do whilst I read. Super excited again! :-))

[LilBearsMama]

I hand my little boy legos, lincoln logs, putty, playdough, paper and crayons/markers, whatever. We've always read to him and he'll sit through Beatrix Potter or Andrew Lang's Fairy books as happily as he will If You Give A Cat A Cupcake. He'll draw things from the stories sometimes. He's even listened to The Hobbit twice now. He just seems to like the time together and it's certainly helping his language. He always surprises me that he actually is paying attention when he seems to be somewhere else. So I bet as long as she's busy, you'll have great success with it. :)