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We are on Unit two of Beyond and we love it. But I do have an Emerging reader question: In past when we have read together, my son would read a couple of pages by himself and then I would read the pages on my side and he would read the pages on his side until we were finished reading. He still wants to do this in his Beginner's Bible and gets tired of reading all by himself. Will I be hindering him if we continue doing it like before? If so, do you have any suggestions on getting him to read it all, by himself? Thanks ladies!

We aren't quite to the emerging readers yet, but my daughter and I used to read like that in the "My First Reader" and Level 1 reader books. Then we dropped down to Bob books. They were shorter, and with a little pushing, she started reading the whole book by herself. We are now back to the "My First Readers" and some Level 1 readers, and she is reading them all herself now (with help/correction as needed of course).
We dropped back because my daughter came to expect me to read every other page for her. Although she knew the rules and COULD read the books, it really was too much reading for her at that point. She wasn't fluent enough in reading, so going back to simpler books helped her gain confidence and speed. Could this be your son's problem? Is it taking him a long time to read a page because he has to sound out a lot of the words letter by letter?

StephanieU wrote: Is it taking him a long time to read a page because he has to sound out a lot of the words letter by letter?

No, Stephanie, I don't think this is his problem. He isn't real fluent yet, but he doesn't sound out more than three words on a page, if even that. I think it has either just become habit for him to do it this way or I have unknowingly (until now) allowed him to become lazy in his reading. So, now what?

My understanding is that he needs to read the emerging readers books himself. It does get tiring to read many pages out loud, so maybe you can break up the readings into smaller chunks. I would find a different early reader from the library that you can take turns with.

Which of the Bibles are you using for his reading time? I know you had started with the Beginner's Bible which is a little harder than the Early Reader's Bible. If you think the difficulty is too high the obvious choice is to switch to the lower Bible. For the progression of the ER set, you do want him to be able to read the whole thing himself. Though if you find it to be too much you can definitely break up the readings in 1/2 or something. Once you get out of the Bible, the selections only get longer, not shorter. Again, you could shorten it by making each reading shorter and I don't see a problem with that, but if you read parts of it then he is progressing ahead without being able to do the amount of reading himself. Doing it by 1/2 would slow it down so he doesn't get to harder and longer readings so quickly. Does that make sense?

It is hard work to read a longer reading like that. Make sure it is a good time of day for him when you are doing it, he has the time to focus on it and it's not a low-energy time of day. I used to do reading in the afternoon when the little ones were napping, but that isn't the best time for my DD to be sharp. I ended up moving reading to nearly the beginning of our school day. Also I was struggling with falling asleep while she would read. Obviously it wasn't a sharp time for either of us.

I don't think you've made him lazy. It is encouraging for a child to be able to read part and have you read part. But for Emerging Readers you probably don't want to do that. Once he gets used to it he will probably be fine, and it will help him grow, which is what its intended to do.

I hope this is helpful.

When I first started the Beginner's Bible with my oldest, the assigned reading was too long for him each day as well. We broke up each assigned day into 2 days for the first few weeks. About a third to half way through, I bumped him up to the full day. At first he protested, but quickly adjusted. He finished up the Beginner's Bible just fine and moved through the rest of the ER's without a problem. So, I think modifying for awhile as needed is fine, but you do want to try to have your son do as much of the reading himself as possible. HTH.

Thanks ladies for the input and ideas. I think we will read some in the morning and some during our time together in the afternoon and see how that goes. Thanks again!

I do the same things with my kids. I was a reading specialist, and I think the "modeling" of fluent reading and appropriate voice patterns while they look on is VERY helpful to them.

BUT....their eyes need to be on the words while you take your "turn" reading. : )

I have 2 in DITHOR, and I get 3 copies of each book...one for each child and one for myself.

Shannon

We alternate reading sometimes... I don't have to all the time with mine now, but just to help them out occasionally I do.

One way I make sure they are following along while I"m reading is that I will randomly just stop in one of two ways. Either I just don't stop at a typical stopping point for them to start reading, or I just pause and let them say the next word.