Most parents I come across want to help their child with reading and spend one to one time listening to them.
I once heard the parent and child reading time referred to as “Golden Time”; a fantastic image that we may need to remind ourselves of from time to time, because, in many families this idyllic image falls short.
A parent and child sit down to share a book.
The child is full of enthusiasm and starts to read.
The parent stops them and points out they have made a mistake.
What should the word say?
The child tries to sound out the word, and then tries again to read it.
The parent corrects their efforts.
The child continues to read and possibly makes the same mistake again.
Is the child not concentrating?
You have just corrected this mistake!
The reading continues and more mistakes are made.
The child’s enthusiasm dwindles, and the parent is slowly becoming agitated.
The child skips a line.
The parent points it out and they return to the correct place.
The scenario is going from bad to worse as the child becomes more demoralised and the parent becomes more frustrated at this apparent lack of effort.
Ultimately this “Golden Time” ends with the child in tears and the parent in a bad mood….
Some children will find reading easy, however for many it is a chore to be endured rather than enjoyed.
Yet a confidence and enjoyment of reading has so many benefits in life and not just during one’s time in education. It assists us with spelling, a wider vocabulary, improved grammar and for many provides an enjoyable source of relaxation.
Please remember when you are reading with your child, it is reading time. It is supposed to be an enjoyable experience for both of you and keep this separate to learning new words and learning phonics. Only dwell over a word when necessary, as otherwise you will lose the flow of the story, standing the risk of the enjoyment leaving the activity as it becomes a long passage of linked words without any meaning as the attention is passed from the story to deciphering what each individual word says.
Outlined below are some simple techniques I use when reading with a child which, removes some of the pressure of reading from the child and allows the parent to participate as well.
Start by reading a sentence each, then maybe a paragraph or a chapter. Don’t hurry this though, let the child dictate. By doing this it will take some of the pressure off the child and give you the opportunity to get through some of the story without, perhaps, such frequent mistakes. This will also help the story flow better, thus giving it more meaning.
This gives you the opportunity to introduce a love of books without the fear of getting involved in an activity which is not going to be pleasurable for anyone involved, as the struggling and the stress begins.
You may have to repeat it several times on different occasions before they remember it, but this will also keep the story flowing.
• Occasionally, if it is a word you feel the child may be able to sound out if supported; help them to break the word down, look at familiar sounds. Use the other words in the sentence to help, or the pictures. Don’t spend too long on this though; remember this is a reading task!
This will enhance their enthusiasm and desire to take part. The level of difficulty can always increase over time, but it is better to take it slow and steady. A general rule of thumb is open the book to a random page and if there are more than five words that a child will struggle with on that page, it’s going to be too hard, so find something less challenging. There are an increasing number of books on the market for older children who struggle, these provide a more grown -up storyline but the language used is at a level which is easier to read; shorter, easier words to sound out.
• If you feel the stress is starting to build up, have a break before things start to deteriorate. This is supposed to be an enjoyable activity, so again please be positive and at least pretend to be enjoying your-self.
If they realise you are finding it a chore, they will do likewise. If you can convince them you’re enjoying the time together, sharing the book, they are more likely to do so as well.
• I often read along quietly with the child so that they can parrot what I say, whilst following the words as we go and hopefully starting to spot similarities in letters and words, so next time they come across it, they may be more confident with the letters or words.
• Most importantly offer praise! As adults we respond well to a pat on the back or a comment that someone has acknowledged the effort we have put in. Children are no different, give them praise when they recognise a word they were previously unsure of, they get through a sentence, without stumbling and sounding out every word, when they were not distracted and desperate to be doing something else.
What may seem like a small milestone compared to some could be huge for others, so don’t let these efforts go un-noticed. In order to make reading a slightly less laborious task and to help shed the burden of the reading, I’ve created several simple games that I often use in my lessons to help share the reading:
• A) Create a pack of cards.
Some will be blank, some will have a photo of your or the child’s face on or a picture that is relevant to each of you (if you like ladybirds and they like snails, use pictures of these).
You take it in turns to turn the cards.
If a card is turned with a photo/picture on, the person that picture is relevant to reads the next sentence, paragraph, chapter (as appropriate), if a blank card is turned, you’re safe so turn another card.
It’s simple but by making the activity into a game it takes out some of the stress making the child more relaxed and more likely to succeed with the task.
• B) Another game I use is: Think of a subject that is of interest to your child, for example it could be a pet that you own. For example, dogs. Around the outside of a sheet of paper put pictures of 2 different dogs and some coloured circles.
Choose which picture relates to which person, for example you may be the Labrador puppy your child might be the St. Bernard. You throw the dice and move the specified number of spaces. You can move in any direction around the board, but: if anyone lands on the picture of the Labrador you will have to read a sentence, paragraph, etc. If anyone lands on the Saint Bernard, your child reads.
A coloured circle means you are safe, and no one has to read, alternatively you could create a set of forfeits; such as miss a turn, have another go or describe one thing you have learned about one of the characters, read another page etc. By moving in any direction, it means you can manipulate the game so that an even amount of reading is done, lightening the load from the child and incorporating that element of fun.
A quick game that I love I call “silly sentences”. I write down six openers such as; A, The, This, An, adjectives (small, big, smelly, old) nouns (I normally use animals such as cat, pig, dog) verbs (runs, sings, hops) adverbs (slowly, shyly, quickly, loudly).
We then cut them up and put them into piles of each category. Take it in turns to take one word from each pile put them in the order given above and read the sentence.
It could be something along the lines of: The smelly dog sang loudly.
These short bursts of reading can be set at a level suitable to the child and seem to be less challenging as it is presented as a game rather than as book.
They also support recognising what goes into a sentence and using descriptive words to make a sentence more interesting. I’ve found that even the most averse to reading will be willing to, and often enjoy participating in this game.
Finally, and most importantly: I want to reiterate, give lots of justified PRAISE, this will have the biggest impact of all.
Share the praise with other family members. We all like to hear we have done well and for success to be acknowledged. It gives us the strength and the motivation to keep trying. Don’t forget unjustified praise won’t be taken seriously, even if what you can praise is only small, be specific and praise that one thing. If you say something went well when you both know it didn’t, the child will never know when you’re being sincere. If the child has done really well, you could even offer a small reward such as a sticker or an extra five minutes of tv time.
If you have a child who enjoys learning through games and being more creative, and you enjoy spending time with them, you might be interested in the Clara James Approach, the membership group we have put together to support you in supporting your primary school aged child with their maths and English.
Interested?
Click here to learn more: The Clara James Approach
Happy new year!
I hope you’ve had a brilliant break over Christmas.
I know some people have been on holiday, others have been enjoying family time at home. Either way, I hope it was fantastic.
Someone sent me a Christmas present just before the bog day, but I have no idea who it was from, so I can’t say thank you. I feel really guilty as it seems like bad manners, but it was just in a box from M&S with no message attached.
This year, I have committed to send out the notification when the monthly membership bundle goes live, but I am also going to send out an (initially) fortnightly newsletter with suggestions for revision / secondary school Math / English, then in the alternate week a newsletter with suggestions for the primary subjects.
If either of them isn’t relevant, please either let me know and I will ensure you just get the primary or secondary newsletter if you want it, or just click unsubscribe (but then you also won’t receive the email about when the bundle goes live).
My goal is to keep you more in the loop as to what is happening. For example, we occasionally put free courses on Udemy – we’ve just done one on angles – here’s the link if wanted. It was created to promote the topic book we have also created; we’ve also got revision planners for students that might be suitable for some GCSE parents.
At Christmas we also had some free times-tables colouring sheets which you may not have been aware of, so like I say, it may not be of interest to you, but if it is, at least you’ll be aware of it. I have 3 revision planners and 3 angles topic books to give away if you’re interested. Let me know and I’ll happily pop one in the post for you (or give it to you if I’m likely to see you…).
If you do have one, if you could give it feedback on Amazon (I’ll send you the link) that would be hugely appreciated.
Happy new year for now and warm wishes,
Dawn
Hi,
Last week I sent out an email saying I was going to try and commit to sending out an email at the beginning of each week on ideas to support primary school children, then later in the week about supporting secondary school children.
As a result, I was asked if I could also send out some ideas to support the 11+.
(Again, if this doesn’t concern you let me know and I’ll try to ensure that you don’t receive them).
I’ll send the 11+ emails on an alternate Wednesday as I normally have Alfie, my grandson on a Tuesday and the odds of getting much done with a lively 2-year-old for company…
There will be some cross over between primary school and secondary school subjects, but at any stage there is something you specifically want me to help with, please do shout.
So, back on subject, sorry…
Times tables have always been one of the key subjects that I work on with, specifically primary aged children, but also secondary school children, and often the parents say they’re awful at them as well…
I don’t suggest learning them in chronological order.
If you do, you’ll hit some of the much harder ones before you get to some of the easier ones.
Instead, what I suggest (and you’ve probably heard me say this before) is that you start with the 10’s, 11’s, 2’s and 5’s as they do in school.
Then deviate across to the 9’s as there are so many tricks to help you to learn them.
Then the 6’s or 7’s. Crazy I know! But they are quite simple if you split them so that 6x8 becomes: 5x8 + 1x8 = 50+8 Or 7x8 becomes 5x8 + 2x8 = 40 +16 = 56.
From there you can pretty much work in any order.
The 12’s is also straight forward as we can split it into 10x + 2x which would give us the same answer as 12x.
There are more suggestions on the times tables over in the Clara James Approach, or I have a sequence of emails which sends out once a month with suggestions on how to learn each of the times tables with some resources. If it would help, the link is here: Support your child with their times tables - The fun way! (sendfox.com)
I hope that’s helpful and not just waffle.
Like I say if there is anything specific you would like us to focus on, please do give me a shout.
Have a great week and warm wishes,
Dawn
Hi,
I hope you had a good weekend.
Something I am often asked about is supporting hand-writing skills.
At a young age this may relate to the hand muscles in the hands not yet being fully developed and I have a few suggestions that may help.
As the child gets older, you may want to find the support of an occupational therapist to provide some suggestions.
1. Start big: I guess it’s a bit like parking a car. When you are first asked to park a car, you wouldn’t want to park in a narrow gap, you’d hopefully save that until you were more confident, more skilled. Handwriting practice is the same, using a big piece of paper is far better than trying to squeeze your imperfect shapes between two narrow lines. Even better, (if the weather is more forgiving) start by using water to paint on the side of the house, a patio or footpath). Use large movements and as these improve start to shrink it down to what is expected inside a school exercise book.
2. Jenga: I love this game and we’ve adapted it by writing numbers of the bricks so that we can practice number bonds or the times tables, we’ve also got grammatical terms on others so that we can also practice those. But the skill and care needed to remove the brick from the tower without it all tumbling is a great way to practice the fine motor skills which will in turn support handwriting.
3. Colouring is another suggestion: keeping the colouring inside the lines is another skill that requires practice and patience. Again, the strokes used in colouring can further aid the shapes created when writing letters.
4. Sewing again requires the use of the fine motor skills needed for neat handwriting. You may just do a normal running stitch on a square of fabric, or you may decide to make something or use a more elaborate stitch. Either way I hope this helps.
5. Playdough and clay are other great early interventions to building up the muscles in the hands. The stronger and more developed the muscles are the more precise we can be with our writing.
To be honest, anything that needs to be precise will help. Many crafts and building activities help.
For some people, messy handwriting is always an issue.
There are a couple of members of my family whose handwriting I always struggle to read, yet they are so intelligent. It doesn't seem to add up. But my daughter says, if she doesn’t write quickly, she can’t remember everything her brain is throwing at her. Her brain works at such a speed.
I used to tutor a girl a couple of years back. I hadn’t realized her mum was an invigilator for the A’ levels at the school my youngest went to.
Not long after Hay sat her history the mum asked me if my daughter was doing her exams now.
Yes.
Does she do History?
Yes. Is she called Angel?
Yes.
She said, I thought it must be your daughter.
I have never seen anyone writing so quickly. I expected sparks to come off that page!
There are many reasons why people have scruffy handwriting, sometimes it needs to be investigated and like I say, if you are worried about it, it might be worth while trying to get in touch with an occupational therapist.
Sometimes, practicing using the suggestions above will help. Sometimes, like with Hay, it’s just one of those things that make them, them.
I hope this has helped a bit.
Have a great week and warm wishes,
Dawn