Learning to Read with Collins Big Cats

Freddy is about to complete his second year of primary school, before moving into Class 2 in September. His time in Reception and Year 1 has seen him make huge amounts of progress, and he has just about scraped through his phonics screening (although he is still below the level that the government expects from our children when it comes to actual reading and writing). His journey towards learning to read and write has not been easy, but with a lot of extra input from both his school and from me at home, he has started to overcome many of the obstacles in his way. He is making good progress now, gaining in confidence and doing so much better. I hate the fact that he has had to be tested and labelled at age 5, but I know that my son is so much more than just a test result or an attainment level.

Helping him with his reading is important to me, not because of the Phonics Screening tests or because of the prospect of SATS tests in his future, but because reading opens up a whole world of wonder and discovery to children. Nurturing a love of books is a wonderful gift to help develop in children. Just because Freddy struggles, does not mean he shouldn't have access to the joy of reading. So I use as many resources as I can to keep him happily learning in a fun and relaxed manner. This strategy is helping him to learn in a natural way without causing him to resent or fear words and books.

Collins have a great range of resources for parents to use at home with their children. The Collins Big Cats Reading Lions reading books offer a series of stories and non-fiction books that children will enjoy. Freddy received a set of their reading books to try out.

The slip case contains six paperback books, three fiction and three non-fiction, each with lovely illustrations and engaging text, suitable for the child's reading level. Level 1 features simple, short sentences made up of words using specific phonemes and without tricky words. They are recommended for ages 4-5 years. Looking at them, I think Freddy could have handled Level 2, but I didn't want to put him off reading with anything too challenging at this stage.

Here is Freddy trying out his new books and giving his thoughts on the Collins Big Cats First Reading At Home books.

                       

The box of six paperback books has an RRP of £24.00.

Find out more about the Collins educational resources available to support your child's learning at home at: www.collins.co.uk.

Everybody Learns - Lexia Reading and Writing Workbooks

Lexia Reading and Writing workbooks are a part of a programme designed by primary and special needs teachers.  They make a progressive scheme of work based on the acquisition of phonic knowledge and are structured to provide repetition and revision of exercises to aid a child's learning. They include black and white line drawings that younger children can enjoy colouring in and the engaging tone of the books encourages children to learn.

I was sent a set of Lexia Reading and Writing Books for Young Children Levels 1-4.  Freddy is in Year One and remains a bit of a reluctant learner.  He has been hindered by his eye problems, and has been playing catch up since September but is at last making some progress.  So this set of workbooks is a perfect resource to use at home in order to help his progression.

The eight workbooks include pages dedicated to the learning of phonics, vocabulary and reading. Dotted letters allow little hands to trace letters using the correct formation before they go on to write lower and upper case letters independently.  Beginning with writing initial letters of CVC words, children build up to writing full words and then sentences. Children get to say, see and write the words and sentences, consolidating their knowledge and leading them towards being independent and confident readers and writers.

Freddy, although still not enthusiastic about learning to read and write, is enjoying having a chance to work through this comprehensive program that compliments what he learns at school.  It is reassuring for me as a parent to know I can help him at this important time, when he is struggling with the basics.

Freddy is bright and articulate but the penny is quite late in dropping when it comes to literacy! Knowing that he will be tested in year one, and that this result may affect how he is regarded academically in the future, makes me question the whole education system in how it fails to treat each child as an individual. I'm grateful that his school and his class teacher do what they can to give each child a more holistic education, but with policy being what it is, I feel that I have a responsibility to help my son do the best he can.  It's good to know that there are such comprehensive programmes on the market.

The eight pack of workbooks of 45-49 pages includes two books for each level, progressing to being able to write and spell two syllable words and read multi-page stories and do comprehension questions.

The books go alongside the Lexia Home Reading Course which is a subscription based reading program  for children.

The books are £24.99 for the set of eight books.  Find out more at  everybodylearns.co.uk.