All About Grooming & Encouraging Good Reading Habits

[buds]

Busymom:

DH thinks it was probably below S$20 all-in, including shipping. The book itself probably cost about $10 and is in a very good condition. Quite a steal, as a new one from Borders was probably retailing at $59.

Wow! :!:

A steal, a steal, a steal it is girl! :celebrate:

Busymom:

As the fonts are quite small, DD sometimes ended up skipping the next line when she reads :lol: :lol: And she can't pronounce \"Dorothy\" properly!

Must be like a tongue twister for her that Dorothy word! :rotflmao:
Which part? the \"Doro\" part or the \"thy\" part?

[sssdarlings]

optimistforum:

A quick update on DS1's reading and understanding. We have purchased the Gulliver's book mentioned in this thread (and also the more simpler Horrid Henry and Dr Who Books), and DS1 can read but still not understand what he has read.


To test his comprehension I had him sit an English Paper for 6-7 year olds, and he scored an abject low score. Can anyone advise whether the English paper at the following link is difficult for 6 to 7 year olds:

http://www.jags.org.uk/admissions/applying_japs/

Also, any practical tips on how to aid his understanding would be appreciated. :?

Hi!

I must admit I find the passage rather long especially when its meant for that age group. If I am not mistaken, this passage may be more suited for the local 9-10 yr olds.

The words used such as- hovering, occasionally- as well as those tested in vocab are also more easily read and understood by intermediate readers. Beginning readers, or those starting to enjoy reading independantly may be daunted by such words in print. They may understand when hearing it but to have them read when they are starting out, can be an uphill task, IMHO.

Comprehension- i tend to have this habit of stopping frequently to check for understanding when I read to my children. Recently mothers in another forum shared how this can be a turn off for the children as they just want to hear the end of the story!
Depending how the child responds- you can either pause after each/ or couple of paragraph(s) to aid understanding (asking Who? What? Where? qns) or do the same at then end of story.

Children at this age are very much visual learners- I may use a concept map with a butterfly picture in the middle and use suitable vocab from the passage about the creature (hovering, big black wings, furry body, poking etc) and even get the child to draw a picture/ or make a simple craft or model to show understanding of description. This is esp helpful for kinesthetic learners.

And then move on to other characters- using just two/ three words from the passage to describe them.

Involve the child by asking what he/ she would do/ how they feel when encountered such a creature.

hth- SK

[sleepy]

optimistforum:

Can anyone advise whether the English paper at the following link is difficult for 6 to 7 year olds:

http://www.jags.org.uk/admissions/applying_japs/

I let my 6yo tried. She can answer all the questions verbally. However, I doubt she can write the answers

[optimistforum]

Thank you, SSS Darlings (nice name) and Sleepy for the feedback.


We have practised equally difficult comprehensions from books and DS1 has no problem, when answering verbally.

I have got a suite of 7+ (for ages 6 to 7) papers, and they go up in difficulty. I will try the next one tonight; I will provide the link if anyone is interested. I will feedback on DS1’s performance on it.

[sssdarlings]

optimistforum:

Thank you, SSS Darlings (nice name) and Sleepy for the feedback.


We have practised equally difficult comprehensions from books and DS1 has no problem, when answering verbally.

I have got a suite of 7+ (for ages 6 to 7) papers, and they go up in difficulty. I will try the next one tonight; I will provide the link if anyone is interested. I will feedback on DS1's performance on it.

Yes, I will be interested in the link. Thank you for your generous sharing :salute:
- SK (thanks for your compliment on my username)

[plum-cake]

My dd is in p1. she can read. but she loves thoes books with more pictures but less text type, board books, pop up ones…n thin ones. how to make her sit n read chapter books. I saw some same age group girls reading chapter books, how can I make her sit n read?

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi Plum cake,


The first thing in my mind is let her do it in group. A group of friends, cousins…

My son didn’t like to read and hardly read out when i taught him reading for the entire 10 months last year.

Now he has changed. I sent him to some meaningful classes (at least to me) and he is now willing to read out words after words.

We take out a thick book of Chinese classic to recite. He is keen to do it and we praise him a lot.

[ponyo]

hi plum-cake,


Glad to find you here!

For me, I read with #1 at night. To encourage her, we take turns to read e.g. I read 1 page then followed by her - what she calls an A-B-A-B pattern
:lol:

We managed to finish Charlie and the chocolate factory that way (altho it was really time consuming). Sometimes, I will read 1 chapter and then she does the next to speed things up.

If left on her own (e.g. when I am too tired), she also has a tendency to read those big books. For me, it's better that she reads something than nothing at all.

[buds]

Heyya plum-cake, while my DD1 can read willingly in her free time

and can read chapter books like other children her age, my DD2 is
very and totally different. Will not bother to pick up a book unless
initiated by me. I'll let her read the books that she likes first, then
i bring out the books i want to introduce to her. I will read to her
the highlights of the book first, usually found at the back of the book.
Then, i will start to read off from the 1st page with her watching on...
I can trick her into reading the rest of the page when i pause at a word,
or tell her i need to go drink water for awhile and request she read it 4
me so i won't miss any part of the story.. :lol:.. only to usually find she
would have read quite a bit. If she is keen to do more than a chapter, i
don't mind reading a few more pages and continue with it again another
day. The Wizard of Oz pop-up book we recently got has very small fonts
so it seemed kinda lengthy for her. So we adopt similar approach like
ponyo, taking turns to read and together with jie-jie (DD1). I dun bother
asking their daddy cos he'll just keep yawning in between pages. :politebleah:

I also agree with ponyo that it is better to read something than nothing at all. :celebrate:

[optimistforum]

As a follow-up, I did a new English comprehension test with DS1. I had him read the passage in isolation, and then answer the questions to me, verbally. This time he answered all. I tried to get him to get him to answer questions 1 to 12 in 20 minutes. This time, I got him to refllect on difficult sentences and paragraphs, before reading the whole story; this reinforced his understanding.


Later today, I will upload some USA web-sites which provide great checklists for ensuring children understand how to tackle comprehension. I used some tips from here.

The English paper for 7 year old, entry to our Year 3 (Your P2) is from a top UK school. The link is below:

http://www.nlcs.org.uk/uploads/1/7__English_Specimen_Questions_2.pdf