So frustrated with the books ds6 brings home to read!

[lisabees]

Anyone else? You know, the books that say...

 

Listen to them pop.

 

Listen to them sizzle.

 

Listen to them drip.

 

Listen to them rattle.

 

Noisy Breakfast.

 

 

 

And the pictures give it all away! Just memorizing. I can't stand it!

[homeschoolally]

putting the books I chose ahead of time 'on hold' at the library. We walked in, (or had my husband run by after work) picked up the books from the front desk, and left. If your library has this option, it saves you from getting into the kids section at all. I've found that after my son got used to reading 'meaty' books, he was able to make better choices on his own.

[SheWillFly]

My 5 year old isn't allowed to pick from certain sections of the library because the school thinks it would turn them off to reading because the challenge would be too much. :001_huh: So, I let my kids pick whatever they want from school and we go to the community library to pick what we actually spend time reading. I hold the opinion that a little twaddle won't melt their brains but only twaddle will.

[lisabees]

Dd is in ps 1st grade. These are books she brings home everyday from the classroom library. They must be read and I must sign.

 

We're doing plenty of reading on our own, but it just makes me sad that many kids are being taught the sight word way. Thus, the reason I am hs my 13 year old.

 

Thanks for letting me rant! ;)

Edited October 2, 2009 by lisabees

[lgm]

With these, the best bet is to teach him to dramatize...read with a lot of expression, learn when to drop the voice to a whisper and read slowly...ya' know like the story hour lady;)

[nd293]

When dd was in school she used to try to read books backwards Can't get more phonetic than that. :laugh: (Better if you try to keep the phonograms intact though - sdarwckab)

 

Ugh. I am thinking about going from homeschooling back to afterschooling, but being here reminds me of all the school hassles (at a really good private school). Mostly little things, but so annoying. For example, I was "allowed" to take extra class readers for dd(then5) "but please don't say anything to the other mothers".

 

Dd was reading fluently by 6-ish, and I never checked her school reading after that. She'd read the book in the car coming home, and put it right back in her bag. We read mostly reader that I chose from the school library. I found the school librarian very helpful, as long as I didn't use the words "reading above her grade level" which seemed to offend her. I could indicate a book, and ask for more at a similar level, but if I actually suggested dd was reading above grade level I felt like I was being labeled the pushy mother.

[aggieamy]

I can relate to this group. Step-daughter brings home some of the oddest books from the school library sometimes and don't get me started on their attempts to teach so many sight words. Lately she's been bring home chapter stories and tells me that none of the other kids are interested in those. Her teacher is also reading Magic Tree House in the classroom and told Sophia not to give away the ending to the other kids because nobody else had read any of them. I hope they don't dumb down my kid before I can start homeschooling her!

[elise1mds]

We're doing plenty of reading on our own, but it just makes me sad that many kids are being taught the sight word way.

 

That reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend yesterday. She said her daughter (kindergarten) came home and read all her color words to her. She can't read sentences like "the fat cat ran," but she knows the words orange and blue. It blew my mind, and I started ranting about starting at that age with words like that that make no sense phonetically, to which she replied, "Well, but ALL kids can learn color words because they just write the word underneath the color!" :glare:

 

I'll never forget the look on my son's kindergarten teacher's face last year when she said he was bored during rest time and could I please bring in a book for him to read, and I brought in "Charlotte's Web."

 

To each her (or his!) own!

[Sara R]

Yes, this is what they are calling "balanced literacy" nowadays. They use predictable texts instead of decodable texts. They tell the kids that when they don't know a word, they can use certain strategies: look at the picture, look at the first letter and last letter, ask yourself if it makes sense, and so on.

 

I got trained as a balanced literacy tutor for my school. They teach the tutors not to say "sound it out." You aren't supposed to correct their errors right away, even though you are matched one-on-one so corrections could be done easily. The theory is that "expert readers self-correct," so you let them read through the sentence twice, and if they don't correct it themselves, then you tell them. But you don't do "instruction": that is, if the word is "new," you're not supposed to remind them "e-w says /oo/." The instruction is strictly in the "phonics" part of the lesson, 5 minutes at the end. And those never gets into the advanced phonics; it's pretty much kindergarten stuff.

 

So I'm doing underground phonics instruction instead. (shhhh)

 

What level is your daughter reading at? My daughter is at an E or so, but about halfway through Phonics Pathways. She's been making a lot more mistakes in phonics since starting the