My DD will be 7 next week. I gave her a reading test online and it scored her almost a year ahead of where she is. It was just a list of words though. She knows almost all of the dolch words on the list I have (up to 3rd grade). She has no trouble playing this rhyming/make a sentence flash card game. When it comes to actually picking up a book and reading, she is really slow even though she knows the words. I guess seeing all those words at once freaks her out? Is there anything I can do to help her? Or am I worrying for nothing?
I would let her read at her level - she will speed up the older she gets and the more she reads. My dd is turning 7 this month but we have her in a 2nd grade - she still mostly reads outloud to herself when she needs to read, which slows her down a bit, but over the last few months she has been doing it less - which has picked up her speed a bit. Reading does take time and practice, so just give her time to practice and you will be fine.
With the Abeka curr we used they start mastering reading comp and speed at grade three. Usually by third grade every word is just about a sight word and it comes automatic.
I do not care how fast (or how soon) they read. What I do care about is if they read expressively and understand what they're reading. As the pp'er mentioned, the rest will come.
Thanks! She does understand what she is reading, it just takes her awhile to actually read it. Now I can tell the little voice in my head that keeps telling me I'm doing something wrong to stuff it
I am in agreement. Allow her to go at her pace. Eventually the words will come together and flow with ease.
Relaxing and letting her read for fun is what will increase her reading speed. Don't push her to higher level books. This is what I was told would work with my DD. I really did not do it at first. But then, the 2nd year of homeschooling, I was too sick (pregnancy and such) to do much of anything so we dropped doing a reading curriculum and I just had her read whatever books she picked. Her reading really improved by the end of the year! It was amazing. Plus, a 7 yr old is not expected to have fast reading.
My 9 year old is slower than molassas when it comes to reading! However - she "gets" it more than her brother who trys to speed read and doesn't understand 1/2 the stuff he reads.
LOL, I worry about my DD reading too fast. Two years ago, she was breezing through the books and my DH said, she's not really reading. He didn't think she was processing until I asked her some questions in front of him. She still does miss some stuff, but I try not to stress about it. <shrug> I read a little over a page a minute myself, which makes him crazy, too. Throw me in with the 'don't stress about it' crowd.
Kind of a different problem but the same answers. My ds is 5 and "reads" just fine the list, and site words, he can sound out words and does the 100 easy lessons great. But put a real book in front of him and he freaks out. There is just something about that book that makes him think he can't do it. I have him read words I know he can read easily out of the books then I read the rest. I think that it is just practice, and encouragement that will help them to succeed in the end which is really our goal right?
