Books 7-9

Alice read beautifully tonight especially after such a busy day. She was able to recognise almost all the words and broke down several of them. I am noticing how sometimes she finds some words like ‘this’ hard to pick up but then over time and sometimes in later books they seem to sink in.  Other words like ‘spider’ and ‘place’ she seems to pick up straight away.

I really am starting to realise that if Alice isn’t in the mood there is very little point in reading as it ends up being very counter productive.

Alice asked to do her reading the next night.  She started a bit slowly but then read really well.  She started to play a game of pretending to be in class and putting her hand up when she knew the word.  She really liked this and couldn’t stop reading. Really pleased.  The words all seem to be sinking in. She was thrilled to finish the book. We quickly looked at the book 8 and she was excited by the story.

She liked the story of Bess and found it easy to break down the words ‘bad’ and ‘Bess’. .  She really seems to have picked up the words.  After reading we went over the four new words several times to learn them.  Even when she is tired Alice seems to be able to read the words now.

The next day, Alice wasn’t in the mood today for her reading and so she just read one page.

The next time we read, Alice wasn’t keen to read at first.  She has been on holiday and we have had a bit of a break from reading.  However, after a slow start Alice really got into her reading and wanted to finish the book so we ended up reading for 25 minutes. There are a few words from previous books like “they” and “find” which she is still struggling with. It once again took me by surprise how well she can now read.  I was really pleased to see her picking up all the new words.  A great reading session.

When we started book 9 Alice was very interested in the apostrophe after Ziggy’s name and so I explained what this was to her.

In one session during the middle of book 9 Alice started off badly.  I explained to Alice that as she wasn’t concentrating she wasn’t picking up on the story which was making it less interesting for her.  Once I had told her this she showed much more interest in the story, her reading improved, it flowed much better and she picked up a little speed.

We had had a bit of a break during the week and I think just reading at weekends really helps Alice.  She is much less tired when she hasn’t been at school.

Next: Books 10-12