Reading level for kindergarten??

[Motsy802]

My 5 year old son has been going through ETC for phonics this year. When he started this year he didn't even know the sounds that the letters made so we had to begin with the primer books A, B, and C. We are now over halfway through book 2, and it's going great. I'm so proud of him! Naturally, friends of mine and I have chatted about what our kids are using for curriculum. Two of them went through "How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." Now that they're finished with it their child is just reading books now. Now I don't know what books they're reading (they could be Bob books or something similar for all I know), and I know you should NEVER compare your child to someone else's child, but, let's face it, that's so hard sometimes. It's especially hard when you're homeschooling your first child for the first year, and you worry about whether you're where you should be.

 

So my question is, as a general rule, what book should a kindergartner complete by the end of the year in ETC? Also, what books are good books for a very beginner reader to read on his own? We don't really have any right now so I am planning on shopping tomorrow.

[boscopup]

I personally don't buy early readers unless I get them super cheap at a thrift store or yard sale. The library is your friend for early readers!

 

I can't answer your ETC question (some people don't even start it until first grade anyway), but children vary soooooo widely in their abilities to read in K. My oldest was reading independently at a 2nd grade level before he started K, and when he went to first grade, there were 3 boys in his class that still weren't reading yet when the year started. Then some kids who didn't start reading until late in the K year were now in the "advanced" reading group in the beginning of first grade.

 

My current K'er is not ready to read real books yet. He's taking the long, slow route to reading. He's doing a combination of Phonics Pathways and Dancing Bears, and we'll just keep going until we finish something and he's ready to really read books. He can do some easy Bob books and help me read some Dr. Seuss (but a lot of those words are first grade level or higher). Check out the I See Sam readers, as they're similar to Bob books but way more interesting/fun. Just teach the "ee" phonogram before you start, since the first words in book 1 are "I", "see", and "Sam". :)

 

Really though, just keep going and making progress, and tune out what "other kids" are doing. It doesn't matter what they're doing. If your child isn't ready to read books, then he's not ready, and you can't just push him into it (though I'll bet he can handle Bob and I See Sam now). When he is ready for books, give him some books. Reading is such a developmental thing. You just can't predict what your child will do when, and other than giving consistent phonics instruction every school day, there isn't much you can do to speed the process up, kwim? I would love for my 6 year old to be reading on his own, but it just isn't happening quite yet, and it may be a while. Big whoop if some other K'ers are reading real books. That doesn't help MY K'er at all. What helps him is continually doing 10 minutes a day (his limit of instruction) every single school day. He's making progress, and he's doing so much better than he was at the beginning of the year. It's wonderful to see his progress. It is S-L-O-W though, and kind of hard to do that after my oldest literally went from not reading to reading at grade level 1.5 in a day. :tongue_smilie: My 3.5 year old may even catch up with my 6 year old in the next year. Oh well. We just keep plugging along, and I praise for all the effort he's making. He won't be 16 and still reading Bob books. ;)

[StartingOver]

In my home it varies from Bob books to Newbery. Seriously as long as he is making progress, even slowly just keep on keeping . Mine all hit solid third grade fluent reading at different times from 5 to 10 years old, no matter what I did, it came in their own time.

 

I would expect a K'er to be reading three letter words at least and building fluency. But many aren't there yet, or are beyond That. Here in my area PS K'ers are only required to know the letters and their sounds.

[Motsy802]

Thanks ladies. I know that I can't and shouldn't compare my kids to someone else's kids, but I mainly wonder for purposes of trying to figure out where he is compared to other kindergartners. He can definitely read 3 letter words. Right now in his ETC book he's reading words like stuck, black, twig, stick, still, etc. He loves to read, and I'd love to find a book that he can read all on his own because he gets so excited when he can read words on the page of a book I'm reading to him. We usually get through 2-3 lessons a week in his ETC book so I don't think he's going through it slowly really. How can you find out what level your child is reading on? Is there a comprehensive test for that?

[StartingOver]

I would call reading beginning and ending blends a beginning second grade level. You might yet Sonlight readers selections, our Level readers a two on . Like I can read, DK readers, or All Aboard Reading. Anything with a 2 on the cover, not all of then will be easy as there are place names and names he won't know.

 

You might have to help him with some silent e words too. For fluency you might try some 1 books as they will be easier.

[jennynd]

I think he is ahead of curve. I will however start he to read real book with contents. If he can decode, time to work on fluency.

[GSOchristie]

To give you a point of reference, my kindergartener started the school year not reading at all. He did know almost all of the sounds the first 26 phonograms, but could not put them together. It was like magic when he went from saying every sound to blending the sounds together, seriously, like magic, I don't think it was anything he or I did, it just clicked with him. After that point, he took off, now at slightly past half-year, he can independently read Dr.Seuss books, for example, or a level 1 or sometimes level 2 book from the library, or most picture books. I have him read one book a day, and just this week he started picking up his Lego batman book to read on his own. In his class at CC (all started as 4 and 5 year olds), there are kids who are only decoding and a 4 year old who reads fluently, better than Asher. I have seen such a broad "normal" for k'ers.

 

We get all of our books from the library right now, because we are using the WRTR, and I don't even know if it has leveled readers. I let him pick out the books, and if we start it and I can see it's frustrating him, I finish it and let him try something else. He chose a bunch of Batman books yesterday, yippee, I'm so excited to hear those stories for the next two weeks :/.

[StartingOver]

To give you a point of reference, my kindergartener started the school year not reading at all. He did know almost all of the sounds the first 26 phonograms, but could not put them together. It was like magic when he went from saying every sound to blending the sounds together, seriously, like magic, I don't think it was anything he or I did, it just clicked with him. After that point, he took off, now at slightly past half-year, he can independently read Dr.Seuss books, for example, or a level 1 or sometimes level 2 book from the library, or most picture books. I have him read one book a day, and just this week he started picking up his Lego batman book to read on his own. In his class at CC (all started as 4 and 5 year olds), there are kids who are only decoding and a 4 year old who reads fluently, better than Asher. I have seen such a broad "normal" for k'ers.

 

We get all of our books from the library right now, because we are using the WRTR, and I don't even know if it has leveled readers. I let him pick out the books, and if we start it and I can see it's frustrating him, I finish it and let him try something else. He chose a bunch of Batman books yesterday, yippee, I'm so excited to hear those stories for the next two weeks :/.

 

Oh Yes the reading over and over my daughter is there now. Her current favorites are The Bernstein Bears and the Spooky Old Tree, and Pompeii ?!?! ( the child is out to drive me nuts )

[boscopup]

If your son likes Star Wars, Scholastic has a nice Star Wars Phonics set on Amazon for around $10. It is 10 little books that you read, and they fill in the bold word, focusing on one short or long vowel in each book. The sentences are fairly simple, so your child can probably read some of the "parent words" also. ;) I use these books as bribery to do a phonics lesson these days. DS2 LOVES them!

[UrbanSue]

I personally don't buy early readers unless I get them super cheap at a thrift store or yard sale. The library is your friend for early readers!

 

 

 

 

I agree with this. There are a lot of early readers out there and the easier they are to read, usually the less worth owning they are. I have the crummiest library ever and it has hundreds of early readers, so I'm sure yours will, too.

 

I agree wholeheartedly with everyone saying to just keep moving forward and not stress about it. The best thing you can do is keep reading to him lots of really great picture books written by great authors. That's more important to his development at this age.

[sewingmama]

My DD works on grade level. In her K year she completed ETC Book 3. She did a page evey other day so at the rate your DS is going he could probably finish Book 3 as well. The words aren't really any harder.

 

As for reading well DD was a slow, steady learner. By the end of K she was reading at a 2nd grade level. I know this because we use the leveled readers from AZReading.com which are graded.

 

For real books we used the Sonlight Year 1 reader list - Frog and Toad and such.

 

I didn't really use the early readers from the library - I found they were inconsistant with their ability levels and frustrating for DD because she knew she could read but some words were really random and difficult.

 

She has only really just started reading books to herself after she turned 6. Rainbow fairy books and Magic trre House books were favourites.

 

My 5yo is advanced. He taught himself to read at 4 and is reading at a second grade level also. However he tends not to pick up books to read on his own yet. He doesn't turn 6 till September which was when my DD started showing interest in reading on her own so I'm not pressuring him. He did ask for a couple of Magic Treehouse Books so I bought some and he read one on his own but asked me to read the rest to him. So he is capable but just doesn't have the stamina I guess.

 

He is just starting K this year and is only in ETC1. He can read it fine but his writing skills were behind so I waited till he could write on his own before starting.

 

Good books for a reader to read on their own is anything they express interest in. My DS doesn't like to read the chapter books but he will read aloud portions of encyclopedias and any non-fiction book that contains his interests -so fat that is anything about dinosaurs, the human body or mummies. So I wouldn't be to concerned about early readers -especially for boys who are more likely to read things if they see a point KWIM.

 

Maybe you could ask your DS what he would like to read about and then grab some easy science type readers - those are the kind my DS really likes and is interested enough to pick up on his own and read it.

[Esse Quam Videri]

In my understanding, the goal of K is to prepare child to begin real "early readers" in first grade. By the end of the year, a Kindy should know a few sight words and be able to sound out simple CVC words. I think ETC book 2 is perfectly on track for a Ker. We were using book 3 this year with a first grader who reads well just to reinforce phonics instruction.

And to reiterate what you already know, comparing your children to an unhealthy degree can be one of the most damaging aspects of homeschooling. This becomes more and more obvious when you school multiple children. (And you also realize that a child's ability is not a direct reflection of how you are doing as a teacher.) Each child is different and learns at a different pace. Many end up at the same place later on, just have a different way of getting there. The progress your child has made so far this year is more than adequate. How exciting that he's come so far!

[blondeviolin]

To give you more info on 100 Easy Lessons, my son completed most of it (we stopped at lesson 80ish). Between that, and a bit of instruction from me, he is reading "real" books, but still an emergent reader. Last week he read Little Bear. He can do most early Dr. Seuss books. BUT, he still asks for help on multisyllabic words or words that don't have familiar phonograms.

 

Each child is different. My daughter followed a completely different path, even though she had the same teacher (me!). At this point, she was reading more difficult books and filling in phonics rules on her own. Emmett is not really doing much of that. He does not infer the code of language (for lack of a better word) like she did.

 

This is a marathon, not a sprint. :)

[MistyMountain]

My kindergartner only recently has been making decent progress. She got stuck in the process for quite a while. She is probably currently at a late first grade almost second grade level. A month ago she was at the early first grade level and couldn't handle more than a sentence or two a page. Before that it was only phonics readers and Dr Seuss. She just recently has the stamina for longer stuff. She liked the Little Bear and the Bernstein leveled books she read recently and she read those really well. Sometimes words in other readers will trip her up though but it seems like others have that issue too as mentioned above which is good to know. This is new to me since she is my first.

 

I can't figure out what she can read well by level. To me she seems to be on a late first grade level but what she can do more fluently varies sometimes. I also can't figure out what her teacher is trying to do. They get 2 or 3 books sent home daily that are returned the next day. This week she had this science book on dolphins on a 2 or 3 grade level with long paragraphs, a second grade leveled book, a lot of first grade stuff and these 2 really really early readers. One was an I See Sam book. She struggled a little on the harder books. It seems 1st grade is the sweet spot. I got a little worried when she sent those easy books home that maybe she isn't as far as I thought. She is 6 and reading has been hard work for her. At 5 she was doing funnix passages and easy phonics readers. In her class there is a huge variance at this point. I think dd is one of the better readers right now but there are kids doing chapter books fluently and kids doing the easiest readers. I started over a year ago when she was 5.