Oh help, Oh no, Reading Time Goes so Slow!
I love books! I can think of nothing more relaxing than reading a book in the bath. It’s pure decadence. When I’m on vacation, I simply devour books, reading at least three a week. But this love for books, and reading, does not extend to my child or listening to her read.
My child attends school and, as such, brings home books or reading homework, which should thrill the book lover in me, but it often does not. Sitting down and listening to her read is one of the most painful parts of my day. Time slows and moves like cold honey. And I’m not the only one who feels like this, my child absolutely despises reading. So, rather than let this drag us both down into a never ending spiral of despair, I decided to try to find a way for it be less painful for both of us.
The reason we both don’t enjoy reading is because she does it so poorly. Her reading level is below what it should be and she knows it. My daughter does not mind reading for me because I don’t growl at her or make her feel shy about her reading ability - and this is essential! This is how we are finding a solution to her reading. The books she was encouraged to bring home were way above her level and it simply discouraged her.
As a teacher, and a book lover, I know that reading is the same as sport - the more you train, the better you become. I’ve explained to my daughter that we will approach reading as such, it’s a sport for both of us. We both struggle to keep still for long periods of time so we will simply practise doing it in shorter bursts and build our stamina, do more sets of reading for shorter periods , slowly increasing the time of each set.
We started by reading a paragraph each - first she reads and then I read, taking a break to drink some water, but then coming back to do another paragraph each. We did this until we had read two or three pages in a day. We increased the reading target to more than one paragraph each after a few weeks and slowly built up to a page each. Then we started to increase her reading parts and decrease my sections so most of the reading is done by her.
All the reading is always done out loud, which can be slow torture at times, but it is becoming better as her confidence grows. She’s nowhere near ready to read Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” (which was actually on her reading list for the summer) but she is more willing to try.
At home, we encourage her to read, not only books on the prescribed reading list, but to branch out and find a genre or author she enjoys. We found that one of the series she watches is a book series, so we bought the first book for her. By the end of it, she requested the rest of the series, which we happily got for her. The first book is written as a comic but the others are not, so when she has a break and she wants to read, she has something she has chosen, giving her more control and more confidence. She still finds sitting down for long periods challenging, but when she plans to read her book, she asks that I body double. This is a technique where I simply sit next to her and read as well, not hers but she can copy my behaviour, which allows her to feel calmer and more focussed and she is able to complete the task.
By helping my child understand that reading is a sport and that you need to train to get better, this has in turn helped with perspective and motivation. Being able to share-read and build her confidence is great and then to build up to being able to body-double and spend quality time together, doing something quiet, but still fun, allowing her to experience the magic of reading.
Reading time now goes faster for both of us and is much more enjoyable. Giving my child certain control over when to read, what to read and helping them with how to read has helped us. I hope it can help others struggling with the same issue.
Mrs Kulishova, EYFS Teacher
