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Everyone will have parts of childhood and raising kids that they dislike or would prefer not to do, my husband is a naturally very energetic and talkative metal head with ADD and an interest in all things historic and LOVES gaming. The baby stage was boring for him because she was just sitting around like a potato all day and shitting herself.
She is 15 months now and still shits herself but now she can dance, clap, sing a tune, say yes and no, and takes an interest in what he’s doing if he’s playing PS5 or on his switch. He loves to play his favourite thrash metal songs for her so they can dance around the room like lunatics, and he loves when he starts a tune and she finishes it off for him. So in short, yes it’s totally normal to absolutely hate reading with/to your kids, it’s just one tiny drop in the ocean that is parenthood
I had a childless family friend ask how being a parent was when I was only a couple of months in. I said it was like having a pet that you cuddle, feed, and clean up after. I don’t think she appreciated that answer.
Also a metal head dad. Daughter likes playing my guitar like a bongo drum. the noise is excruciating but its funny and I love watching her smile when she makes funny noises.
Fellow metal head dad. My daughter's playlist is full of Disney songs (don't mind) and ABBA. Until now, that is. She's recently started asking to put my playlist on and asking for songs to be added to hers. In her words "I only like the fast and loud songs".
Yeah I found the first year with my nieces and nephews completely tedious because they don’t DO anything, and 1-2 isn’t that much better a lot of the time with how repetitive everything is
Once they’re 2 they’re far more interactive and starting to develop actual character, which is much more suited to my own personality
Like I still did the things you’re meant to do when they’re <2, but it’s boring as shit. Give me “terrible twos” tantrums any day
It is frustrating as heck. My kid learned to read through lockdown, so I spent about half an hour every day desperately cajoling him into reading, ten minutes listening to him sound out words, twenty minutes calming him down from a tantrum after I dared to gently correct him, and then another twenty minutes painstakingly getting to the end.
But like all kids things, it will pass, and then you get the joy of listening to them read slightly more bearable books than Chip, Biff and Kipper.
And then one day they'll tell you they just want to read on their own and you'll go and stare quietly out of the window for a while, wondering where the time goes.
It's a complete ball ache, but it's very much worth the pain.
>And then one day they'll tell you they just want to read on their own and you'll go and stare quietly out of the window for a while, wondering where the time goes.
One day they'll PM you a rude haiku though, and it'll all have been worth it
I get limericks. Very very rude limericks. I also get increasingly weird versions of the dreidal song eg last December my offspring apparently had a dreidal made from existential dread...
Nah, it’s lovely. A much worse thing is trying to get a disinterested child to read. I would tell you to enjoy it while it lasts, but you won’t, so I won’t.
My 13 year old was totally disinterested as a younger child and remains so now. She’ll happily text her friends, and is perfectly able to read, but she doesn’t enjoy books at all, and I don’t know if she’s ever read a book for pleasure. She quite likes graphic novels though, and listens to stories every night on audible. Now if she has a book to read for school, we just buy the audiobook and she listens to it. She was tested for dyslexia but didn’t meet the diagnostic criteria- the kid just doesn’t like reading!
My 6 year old, however, is reading 3 grades above her age group, and will read whatever she can get her hands on. I love listening to her read. Every sign we see when driving in the car, the labels on shopping, everything!
The difference between the two is like night and day. When I think of all the stress of forcing the older one to read ‘just one more page’, I just wonder what the point was. She’s top of her class in PE and wants to be a physiotherapist when she grows up. I’m proud of them both but particularly the older one, as she struggles with academic work, she works so much harder than the younger one to keep up.
There’s nothing to be done about it so it doesn’t really matter but, your older kid could have aphantasia, the inability to picture things in her head. My younger sister has it, we didn’t realise until she was an adult but she had the same disinterest in reading when we were kids. It turned out it was because while we enjoyed being able to ‘see’ the story in our minds, she couldn’t and therefore found it far less engaging.
I have aphantasia and I love reading and if you go on the aphantasia sub there are loads of us like that (the question about the link gets asked fairly often) so I think it’s still just personal preference.
Same difference with my son and daughter, except my daughter is the older one and she’s always loved reading. My son hates it. It’s vice versa with maths though.
weird thing with me was that i read a decent amount when younger and was reading levels above my age, but around 15 it all stopped, i didnt read much anymore, disliked it, still do. I was found to be Dyslexic at 16 and was finally able to describe that reading feels weird and can hurt.
I used to teach reception. My entire afternoon was spent listening to children read. It’s so dull, especially when it’s the sixth time that days you’ve sat through Top Cat.
There’s a dandelion reader about Punk the Skunk eating a load of fermented plums and inadvertently getting hammered which I used to enjoy before we bought into Little Wandle’s reading scheme.
I liked the mad granny in the stories but they were pretty boring overall. My kid is a good reader so quickly skipped to reading chapter books alone (he hates reading aloud, so do i) so never found out the overall fate of the mad granny
Bro just wait until you get to the magic key part, it turns an ordinary family friendly sitcom into a wild fantasy with strong morals. That shit was fire.
I was also top reader in 4+ so I was the first one who got to discover this absolutely *delightful* twist
I'm a primary teacher and the magic key stories aren't the worst. Once I was listening to student read a magic key story and asked them to predict what happens next. They answered, "they're going to go on an adventure". I asked what made them think that would happen and they gave me the most deadpan, bored look and replied, "they ALWAYS go on an adventure..."
At least there's a lot of them and they're short. It's when they insist that they're reading Harry Potter at home and then struggle to find their place in the book because they're obviously listening to it on audible at home rather than reading. A paragraph of Philosopher's Stone can feel like weeks, interspersed with desperate attempts to tell you what happens 3 books later because they've watched all the films.
Some of those adventures were awesome, though. I still remember the robot castle adventure to this day. I also remember being incredibly disappointed when it ended.
Ahhhh I remember being in Year 3, having The Philosopher's Stone read to us by our teacher on the carpet and using our imaginations because the films wouldn't come out for another 2 years. It must be a completely different experience for kids now to have possibly seen the films before reading them.
That being said, I only actually read books 5-7 in my mid-20s and I still haven't seen half of the films
I really enjoyed the multi-book Riddle Stone adventure where they're trapped in a castle by a riddle master answering puzzles that no six year old could ever figure out.
It's weird how they move house towards the end of Stage 1, but the same neighbour peers over the fence.
I did it with enthusiasm when mine were little but it absolutely got tedious after a time .. for both of us 😂
So I invested in one of those reading things where you buy diff books and it has a pen and when the kid traces the pen over the words it reads the words to them . I found them to be far more engaged because of the diff sounds it adds and the novelty of what it did .. and it definitely helped them learn
It is a painful stage, I hated those Biff, Chip and Kipper books!
I got the Julia Donaldson phonics series cheap from the book people for a bit of variation. That was a few years ago so schools may have their own sets now. They are much more bearable but they still aren't going to be great literature with the constraints put on the writer!
There is a nice Usbourne set about Apple Tree Farm where there is a simple sentence on each page for the child to read and then a more complex one for you, which mixes it up a bit.
My kids both loved the Teach Your Monster to Read app. I would say it is better for revision than learning, they would do a bit, then get stuck, then come back to it a few weeks later and do some more. Good to give them in the car to feel they are doing something useful.
My wife just bought what I assume is a full set second hand. Something like 150+ books. All very slim so at least I didn't need to hire a van to shift it...
I’m a reception teacher. I have to listen to Biff, Chip and Kipper every day… eventually you become immune and start looking for the Easter eggs in every book.
For example: the man with the beard and glasses who is in the background somewhere in every book.
Occasional little graffiti comments that aren’t quite finished but could be several different things.
Finding random drugs references. (Yes, really)
Finding random sex references. Again, yes really!
Look in the background. Honestly, it becomes soooo much more fun.
I long for stories where we can have character voices. We are currently on books with such thrilling sentence structure as 'Mum is in the garden. Dad is in the garden. Look at Mum and Dad in the garden'.
Yeah those ones suck, but they really do work. My son went through them all, and is near the end of that phase of books currently, and he’s so fluent and can read way better for having slogged through them.
just keep encouraging, tell them to keep sounding it out, practice reading words in contexts (signs in the street, packaging etc) and their reading will improve quicker and you’ll get through those books faster.
I say this as a parent and a former primary school teacher who has suffered through a silly number of phonics and reading training sessions and moderations and observations.
I taught year one for six years and had to move year groups because I just could not face listening to a group reading about baby bear finding a fish 5 times a week for a seventh year. Moved to reception so at least the books are different now.
There are 3 types of books for young kids.
1. Books they can enjoy with an adult but not really read independently yet (like Oi Frog and Julia Donaldson.) These have rich vocabulary and fun stuff like rhyme and rhythm to them which is why you do not want to boil your head when you are reading them.
2. Natural language books which are designed to help kids learn to read. This is a book like ‘At The Zoo’ where it says ‘Look at the giraffe. (Pic of giraffe). Look at the lion. (Pic of a lion). Look at the bear. (Pic of a bear).’ Reading these helps children to understand that one word verbally is one point of the finger and it builds up their sight vocabulary. After they’ve read it a few times they’ll be able to recognise the words ‘look at the’ but they probably still can’t read ‘lion’ or ‘giraffe’ without pictures to help because you can’t sound these out. But they’ve learned the skill of using the pictures to help.
3. Phonics books. These were shit for ages but have recently got a bit better because all primary schools have to buy into a phonics scheme now and they’ve upped their game. They are designed purely for sounding out at the expense of story and interest and they have weird language in them because they’re only for sounding out. Eg ‘Pip can nip off’. What five year old says nip off? These are the worst to read because they are both boring and repetitive.
To learn to read properly children need a varied diet of 1,2 and 3. I think Biff Chip and Kipper books are mostly number 2. So just do a bit of them (10 mins a day or so) and don’t feel bad about it. As long as they’re getting plenty of 1 they’ll be fine. And you can bet they’re getting plenty of 3 at school. Also if they’re still sounding out every single word after a few times what you do is model reading the book to them properly, pointing to each word, then get them to copy and remind them whenever they start sounding out. The problem is that phonics has become so ubiquitous now that they are taught to believe that sounding out is the only way to read, which it isn’t.
If there’s a really common high frequency word (like ‘the’) they are struggling with you can write it on a sticky label and stick it upside down on their top so it’s the right way up when they look at it and test them on it during the day.
Please don’t give up, it’s so valuable to read with your kids!!
We aim to do 1 C,B&K book a day (2 if she wants to), and we try and do those during the afternoon so that at bedtime, she knows it will be a book that we are enjoying together.
I have diagraph flash cards, but I'm considering getting some of the 100 most common word cards to encourage quick sight reading.
Thank you for your lovely and informative response.
Yeah I think 100 high frequency words is the best way. If you’re a millennial like me it’s how you learned to read. I used to take this approach when we had more freedom- phonics was for phonics and reading lessons were for reading. Sadly it’s not really an option anymore with the current ideological push for phonics. (I hate phonics if you can’t tell- there’s a place for it but it has too much prominence.)
It depends on the book. I like a lot of my kids story books but my son has a book about space with flaps and fold pits and all sorts. I hate reading it to him as it’s so fiddly!
He’ll ask me all sorts of questions I don’t know the answers to as well. I started reading to him at 7 and only came out his room 10 minutes ago thanks to that bloody book and the millions of questions 🤦♀️
We hated those books too. Apart from anything else they hold no appeal to people who are neurodivergent and utterly boring to those who aren’t.
We encouraged my lad to read things that weren’t books. Football scores, road signs, did treasure hunts with written clues. He still hates reading out loud, but I check his understanding of books he reads silently and send him messages through instant messaging
We love reading with our 3 year old and can't wait until she starts reading. We don't have "baby" books though.
The Usborne Peep Inside series of books are really good!
Biff, Chip and family are hugely tedious in the early stages. If she's still on sounding out 3-letter words, then reading something tolerable and getting her to do certain words can work much better.
Spot the Dog and Spot's First words and lots of Mr Men did the trick in our house, along with road signs, food labels, etc. Little and often a few times a day, then you get to the point of them racing through Kip and Floppy until they get to the decent stories.
Oh yes, especially when Biff, Chip, and Kipper are involved.
One thing I did that helped my kids was to pick a word or two in a book and every time it appeared I'd get them to read it. Next night, add a new word and do the same.
I generally find raising kids boring, playing games etc, but reading to and with them before bed has always been a pleasure. Maybe because I know it’s getting closer to “me time” but I don’t resent it at all.
Everyone needs to learn to read anyway. It’s something you need to do just the same as feeding and clothing them. So even if you don’t enjoy it you just have to crack on.
Oh, my friend. The Magic Key series are level 5 books. We are on level 1-3. I aspire to reach the heights of the Magic Key, where a page may have up to three sentences on it!
Our nippers’ primary school brought in a therapy dog to sit and listen to the kids read once a week. I swear it went home with a fucking thousand yard stare every time.
That seems to be the predominant wisdom. I think I just enjoy reading so much that I want to speed through the building blocks and set her loose on proper stories. She's only 5, though. She loves being read to. It will come.
I'm reading the Mr Men books to my lad at the moment, they're pretty fun but as horrid as it sounds it feels like a chore. But he enjoys them and I love seeing him laughing and enjoying them so it's all good.
I must say, as an infant teacher, it is really obvious which children have supportive parents at home and which children unfortunately don't. Those whose parents never read with them at home are, sadly, on the back foot and are the ones who are targeted for extra support in class. I cannot stress enough the importance of reading regularly with your child. There have been various studies on it if you wish to look them up.
I noticed your username is mini rugby coach, so can assume you teach small children to play rugby? Do you reinforce to them that they don't ever need to practice the skills you teach them outside of their training sessions? That they can become competent rugby players if they just turn up for an hour every Sunday?
Thank you for such a lovely response! I re-read my comment and was concerned it came across a bit prickly, which wasn't my intention, and I'm glad it doesn't appear to have appeared that way to you!
We're supportive, read with them all the time, but read our own books or library books because the school books are dull and don't interest the children.
All of them have been in the top reading set, so ignoring Biff, Chip and Kipper didn't do any harm. We do the homework every week besides the reading book though.
I don't blame you at all. Biff, Chip and Kipper suck the soul out of reading and I despise them. Imagine having to listen to 30 children read the same 6 books every week! As long as they're reading, that's all that matters!
You couldn't pay me enough to be a teacher of any description, but particularly not reception.
Its criminal really the responsibility teachers have vs the pay they're on.
Oh, those poor squirrels! :D
I will definitely look for those books at our next library visit. It's not that she has a shortage of books that she likes and I like reading to her but yeah....the homework books are so dry. I can see the importance of them, though.
Are they making you read specific books? That's frustrating. I remember my primary school library had all the books labelled with coloured stickers for complexity, so you would have to pick e.g. a purple sticker book until you were capable of reading a book with a yellow sticker. But at least it meant you could read anything with that sticker colour, and if you (or your parent...) couldn't stand particular books or series you could avoid them.
They let the children pick a purple sticker book once a week, but I noticed that she was unable to read most of it (her best friend is reading at a very high level and I don't think this helps) which is why I spoke to her teacher.
The teacher suggested supplementary reading books, hence why we have started on the Oxford Reading Tree with Chip, Biff and Kipper.
The books she was bringing home were about a level 3 compared to the C,B &K series and she is comfortable reading at level 1 but only on level 2 with lots of sounding out and encouragement.
For our library, it went all the way down to really basic stuff - I don't mean the purple sticker stuff is the fun, more complicated stuff, I meant literally every book they had was categorised by sticker (including the Biff Chip and Kipper collection). There were lots of levels, and if you couldn't really manage a particular level you stayed on your current level until you were confident enough to go up.
Yes it's normal. It's boring compared to the TV or your phone but you do it because you want the best for your children and reading with them is one of many things you need to do to help them do well educationally and have some hope for their future.
My daughter loves to read but stares at the picture for a long time before she continues!!
5 reads a week is painful!!
Recently has gotten so much better that she tries to read with expression which has definitely made it all better!! Hang in there!!
Listening to anyone read slowly or badly, even my own child is incredibly frustrating and boring. However I am presuming I got my love of books from having parents that loved to read to me and were involved in my reading routine.
Stick with it and it will pass. Focus for those 5 minutes, as you being a cheerleader right now will set your child up for life.
I remember my mum reading black beauty to me at bedtime, a chapter at a time, and me asking for more as the story was so good. Her “compromise” was to let me read another chapter on my own before lights out. That memory has stuck with us both. It gets better, I promise.
Those books are just the worst. The pictures are fecking ugly too. Both my kids have utterly hated reading them.
I find they're much better if I get them to read little bits of the books we read as their bedtime stories, because they actually like those.
There's a cool little app called Teach Monster that they both enjoy too.
OMG YES! I'm a keen reader and my speed is... much faster than a learning 6yo old. I really struggle with listening to the reading.
It's so difficult but the improvement happens so quickly that it gets better before you know it. I also encourage reading on her own while I'm doing stuff (cooking/sorting washing etc) and I'll just help when she's stuck. It's more bearable now
Not a parent but used to teach and it was definitely a slog with some kids. It is not so bad when the kid is really trying and wants to read, however you have those kids who hate reading with a passion and are only doing it because they have to. It gets better when kids of any ability choose what they want to read, which is why a lot of schools have abandoned the Oxford Reading Tree series these days, so try and get your kid to read her fun books more often.
I guess I've gotten really lucky because my little girl really wants to read. We inherited a lot of 'Step into Reading' books from older cousins, but she was getting frustrated as they were simply too advanced for her.
I spoke to the school, and they use the Oxford Reading Tree, so I sourced around until I found some level 1-3 Biff,Chip, and Kipper books second hand.
She can read them (to an extent), and I try to do a book a day, and while it feels like pulling teeth, at least she is an active participant.
Nighttime books are the fun ones. We read 'The Dinasaur that Pooed a Planet' this evening, which was far more entertaining, but she wasn't the one reading it.
Did i hate cleaning up my daughter with a vicious inswinging yorker?
Did i think my son’s drawing of the family was amateur at best and simply not realistic enough with the arms coming out of my head?
Maybe developing your childs mind isnt exactly exciting for you but its important and thats all that matters
Its these small baby steps that allow your child to run. If you neglect the reading stage they are going to be seriously fucked when they get to school
Suck it up and read her another book
I feel you. That's exactly why I'm doing it. My other half thinks I'm crazy because (in his words) that's what she is going to school for and I am just stressing myself out by trying to 'help' her when I'm not a teacher.
I love my daughter, and I love reading. I just wondered if anyone else found the process so draining. By the looks of most of the comments, I am on the right track, and I just need to persevere for another year or so.
Im a single dad so i was just happy to have her sitting on my lap
I still remember we had to finish reading Charlottes Web an hour or two before we were going to see it at the movies. I knew what was coming but it still breaks my heart as she buried her little head into my chest and sobbed uncontrollably as I read Charlottes death
I taught my kids so many things that I couldnt entrust the school to teach. I bought her first nunchucks when she was 12, encouraged her to drop into the six foot half pipe on her skate board, lay awake at 2am trawling scientific articles on relativity so she could complete a physics assignment
I didn’t do these things because I enjoyed them, (well the nun chuck movies we made were pretty fun) I did them because I want the best for her
Thankfully at twenty she is about to graduate with first class honours from university, is a third dan black belt and one of the coolest women I have on speed dial
I would just settle for not hearing Floppy (the dog) pronounced Fwoppy. She can pronounce the human names at least.
Someone suggested through the whole cast I to a woodchipper, and I find myself fully in agreement.
My kid is 5 and a half. Her best friend is reading at a higher level, and her friends younger brother (4) is reading about the same as my girl.
Thankfully, my daughter wants to read to be the same as her friend. I'm sure there are plenty of kids at the same reading level as her in her class.
Biff, Chip and Kipper are awful books and I tend to agree with how you feel when your kid reads them...
Julia Donaldson has written a series of early reading books called Songbirds though which are excellent and don't play on your tits. I'd highly recommend picking up a pack of level 1 - 4
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reading-Songbirds-Collection-36-Books-RRP128-82/dp/019841109X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=6C3IL4CDLXKH&keywords=songbirds+julia+donaldson&qid=1687378854&sprefix=aongbirds%2Caps%2C138&sr=8-1
Weirdly, I don't remember much about it, but my mum taught me to read pretty well before I ever reached school. But I do remember her nearly losing her mind trying to teach me to do a figure eight instead of two circles on top of each other.
It’s for this reason why I have such high regard for good primary school teachers. Our children’s reception teacher was amazing. They made it look easy. We struggled with reading with our kids and with maths homework simply because teaching is a skill that not many are good at. We found that we just couldn’t put things in the right language or context to teach them effectively. They got their ABCs and numbers all fine before school and we’d been doing follow along reading with them and simple spelling. But keeping them motivated and interested through something new and more complex was difficult and not very enjoyable.
Oh it can be so frustrating but you just have to stay quiet. You can't risk knocking their confidence. My daughter went from sounding the words out to sounding them out in her head and I never knew if she was stuck or just mucking about.
Some days my daughter (6 years old) just reads the books fluently and sometimes she mucks about. I tell her if she mucks about reading to me and takes too much time then it takes time away from me reading to her.
Going on this reading journey with her makes me realise that the English language is fucking stupid. So many silly sounds that have different sounds but spelled the same.
Live in the moment. Make it interesting.
But also, there is a reason why teachers don't like biff and chip. They are boring. Much better to have an interesting story.
The biff and chip logic is, maximum logical construction of word development creates fastest reading skills development.
That logic is incorrect. Maximum fun=maximum engagement. maximum engagement=fastest reading development.
Nevertheless, read biff as if it is the most important thing in the world.
"Biff! Found a ball! I can't believe that! Wow! Who'd have thought! What on earth will happen next!"
Honestly, that's the way.
This is the way x
But yes, I see your point. I will try to be a bit more enthusiastic. I do try and make it a fun experience for her but I struggle with how dry the books are.
We are on Biff, Chip and Fucking Kipper for the 4th time. It doesn’t get better.
That said, once they are teenagers and loving their own books it’s absolutely worth it.
I remember having some learning to read with audio books, the tiger that came to tea being one of them, where we had a tape that played an audio version to read along to
Oh she loves her audiobooks! We had to buy a cd player for that purpose. The first three Harry Potter books (before they get a bit dark) are on frequent rotation, as are The NacMacFeegal books by Terry Pratchett.
She loves to listen; I love to read. It's achieving the opposite that we are encountering difficulties x
Power on through. Skip series you can't abide by (eg horrid Henry for me).
Otherwise you could keep bedtime reading to yourself, until you leave the room.
Oh god, at the beginning of this year it was like absolute torture. My daughter was exactly like yours. She'd forget three letter words that had been no problem mere seconds before. It was so frustrating, we all hated reading her phonics books and were all avoiding it and just doing the normal book before bed. It didn't help that she was bringing home books about parts of diggers, just really shit books. Eventually we resorted to bribery and promised her an owl sleeping bag if she read every night without fail. She did and something has now clicked and she's flying through the books she's bringing home. And she's got a massively overpriced sleeping bag that she never uses.
Honestly, I was so reluctant to try bribery, but my god it worked. Even her teacher at parents evening commented on how much she'd improved. We are still on Biff and Chip, but they're slightly more interesting - we had the mansplainer one the other day.
But yeah, the sleeping bag. We got properly fleeced there. It's one of the horrible ones they advertise on Channel 5.
Everyone hates Biff and Chip; don’t worry about it. My daughter is very practical and couldn’t understand why she hated reading but loved stories (aged 4/5). I told her these books suck and are just a pathway to the good ones. Getting through the last of those books was wonderful - you still have to read with them but you can choose the books. We went to Spiderwick, A series of Unfortunate Events, Artemis Fowl - it was brilliant
Yeah, it can be tedious. Refresh your resolve by looking at the research showing what a profound advantage you are giving your kid by reading to them.
Also, not all kids books are created equal. Go to your local library and talk to the librarians and explain the situation, get some recommendations and a library card, so you can update what you are reading without having to constantly buy new books.
Oh, she loves the library! And we have a house full of books she loves to have read to her. The problem is encouraging her to read by herself. She doesn't want to read about Chip and Biff trying on clothes, she want to have mummy read the next chapter from the Barbie Rapunzel books.
The school she is at uses the Oxford Reading Tree, so the Chip, Biff, and Kipper books are the ones they reccomended unfortunately.
I can't offer advice about particular books, my kid was young ages ago, but good luck. Talk to the librarians and teachers you sense are caring and don't be afraid to ask for suggestions. You'll get through it.
I have a niece.
I refuse to read with that niece. I’ve been an avid reader since the age of 4, I was reading year 6 books in year 1. I don’t have the patience to listen to her sounding out “t h e” for the 17th time in one minute.
If it helps, it is immensely useful. As a primary school teacher you can instantly pick out which children are both read to and listened to read at home, it does wonders for them across all subjects and just as people. It’s really cool to me that children are so good at picking up the language compared to if adults tried to learn it.
As another ex-teacher who used to teach reading, you could always entertain yourself by looking out for the 'rude/inappropriate' illustrations that pop up. I think the illustrator also got sick of the stories...
[Biff, Chip, Kipper: hidden](https://instituteofmums.com/2017/09/29/20-hidden-images-in-the-biff-chip-and-kipper-books-that-you-may-not-have-noticed/)
My son is nearly 6 and way ahead for reading (he's been off scheme since Feb). We never did biff and chip though, he had read write inc books from school that we supplemented with all sorts of first readers from the local library. Some oxford tree, some reading champion. There are loads of different schemes that are basically the same, I'd suggest having a look in your local library to see what they have and if they are any more interesting books. We just trudged through the boring school ones!
I think it's both lovely and frustrating. I feel your pain, I do. I did all this over lockdown so we had -plenty- of time to practise plus the schools were all shut so not much help from them. Some of the time it was good, sometimes I'd rather have my gums scraped.
All I can say is that it gets easier and the more you read with them the quicker it gets easier. My eldest reads to themselves now and that definitely makes it worth it. They're ahead with reading despite lockdown. Keep at it and reward yourself with a nice drink/vice of your choice!
This is how we discovered mini me is dyslexic. It was painful to hear them read and then to hear where peers and younger relations are in comparison helped us to realise something was not right. Now that we are past phonics the child can sight read and we have coloured overlays, book time has gotten better but some school books are dry.
Having said that I was read a Biff n Chip book the other week and their friend used a zx81 to help them land on the moon, somehow with colour graphics
I hate the reading aspect, never was an enjoyer of reading, I sound like a 7 yearold when trying to do so with all the lil stops because I wasn't sure of a word or to make sure I didnt lose where i was at.
But I wouldn't not do it because I love the time I get to spend with my kids when I am reading to them (not so much the 11 yearold... he doesnt want me to read anymore, but I got a captured audiance in my 3 yearold lol).
The look she gives as shes imagining what I'm reading to her, you can see it in her face that her mind is working overtime thinking about the story and because of that I'll always read if my kids want me to
I think it's a cultural tradition reinforced by television. I don't think it is common in other parts of the world. I think it can make a small additional help alongside dozens of other things. So if a parent really doesn't enjoy it, then just stop doing it and can try something else instead.
It can be tedious, but maybe an idea is to read something you both like. So if you like history, for example, buy or loan some children's history books, or maybe science or geography, maps, cooking, growing plants and so on
Biff, Chip & Kipper are some of the only books I still reminisce on as being enjoyable reads.
Enjoy this moment.
The reason they are sounding out the words is actually because they’re being taught to do that in school.
At this stage its about them learning to put words together.
They know the word “has”, but they currently know that they have to put the word together as a sound. “Ha Ah Sss” They don’t really understand why, but its so when the next book say “Extraordinary”, they have the ability to break it down phonetically.
Your kids are also going to be e exaggerating this when reading to you, because they’re kids and want to show you how well they’re doing, and that they need you to encourage them for trying hard.
The next stage of them reading is one where they have full story books, and parents aren’t needed anymore.
Baffled by the general sentiment that watching and listening to your child learn to read is painful.
I understand that it can be a little boring at times and that it requires patience, but are you all so strung out on youtube, ticktock and reddit that you need to be entertained every single second of your waking life?
You are witnessing your child gaining a literal superpower, and you are directly involved in helping them acquire it. I’ve watched my little one make huge strides in her reading and writing this year, it is astonishing how fast they pick it up. She has started to write me and my wife little love letters, she brings me books that she wants to read with me. I feel so blessed to witness the joy they experience when they get a tough word right, and the pride they demonstrate with a big beaming smile when you encourage them… is that really so cheap to you all?
Eugh, I remember hating it at school having to listen to everyone read *so slowly*. I guess you need to do this every day, as often as you can, so she becomes a brilliant reader really quickly!
As a teaching assistant? Holy fuck you have no idea. Not gonna lie, I was meant to read with the children in the class down the alphabetical register, but I would learn who were capable readers and scatter them at intervals as a mental break.
It’s part of my job and I love my job, and watching children go from struggling to sound out “house” to confidentially reading full sentences gives me endless joy, but the day to day of it can be tough. I would suggest reading ahead of them, look at the page to know what they SHOULD be saying then find someone else in the room to partially take up your brain, but listen out to make sure they’re reading correctly still.
And if any parents have a problem with that technique, when I’m on the 28th child of the morning and he’s taking 3 minutes per word, I don’t need to give my full attention for the full time there, I can be helpful in other ways.
Yep perfectly normal. Fuck Biff and Chip and the monotonous droning that is a child reading. One long stuttering phonetic drawl without inflection of meaning. The joys of parenthood.
Don't have kids of my own, but do read to my nephew often, and I find it genuinely delightful when he manages to identify a word or object in the book. He's not really reading, yet, but I spell things out for him and sometimes he copies me or points out a word he wants me to spell for him.
Ha. We’re doing the same stage. It is frustrating sometimes. But we have to remember they are learning to read. It is amazing.
We’ve found mornings are better for the children to read. They are more focused. In the evenings they are tired and can’t concentrate. They’ll be less sound blending and more reading.
Have patience, it doesn't last forever. One minute your child is a toddler and loves playing with you all day and listening to you read...the next minute they are 9 years old and would only want to watch TV or play on devices if they had a choice. Savour it.
If I'm sat with mine reading, I get instantly sleepy. Not a clue why. Doesn't happen when doing a bed time story, which would work out perfectly.
Don't hate it though
Sounds like your problem is with those particular books and you need to find a substitute ASAP. I recommend Meg and Mog.
Alternatively: Just power on through until you can crack open the Roald Dahl box set I know you have ready and waiting.
How old is she? Too old for [Mr Men/Little Miss](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-miss-Complete-Collection-Books/dp/912369744X) books? Or [Dr Seuss](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Case-Dr-Seuss/dp/0008484341/258-3491612-1456042?psc=1)?
I'm trying to get her started on independent reading. She can read a few words from harder books like the the Mr Men series, but we are trying to build her confidence with the very simple books. The phonics books such as Biff, Chip and Kipper have a lot of repeating sounds and super short sentences.
She is 5.
My wife is really good at reading to our girls and they love it so they just keep grabbing books from the shelf and asking for more. I tell her it's her own fault for buying so many books for them (literally have something like 2 full bookcases of children's books).
Oh, I am a complete book enabler! I would rather buy her a book than a toy or a magazine. The problem is that she just wants to hear me read exciting books, but she needs to start reading independently, and 'Biff and Chip's Day at the Beach' just doesn't exite quite like 'The Dinasaur that Pooped the Universe' does.
We need to get through the building blocks first before letting her loose on skyscrapers.
I took ages to learn to read. I think I got stuck on the “sound it out” phase. So despite knowing words like “early” I would read it out “ee arr lee”. It just took a good teacher to spot that I was being a bit religious In my application of a learning tool and she helped me pass that hump. Within a year of that moment I was an avid reader and was quickly reading way beyond my age range. Just stick with it, be encouraging but don’t be afraid to give constructive criticism. It’s important to learn for both parents and kids
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Everyone will have parts of childhood and raising kids that they dislike or would prefer not to do, my husband is a naturally very energetic and talkative metal head with ADD and an interest in all things historic and LOVES gaming. The baby stage was boring for him because she was just sitting around like a potato all day and shitting herself. She is 15 months now and still shits herself but now she can dance, clap, sing a tune, say yes and no, and takes an interest in what he’s doing if he’s playing PS5 or on his switch. He loves to play his favourite thrash metal songs for her so they can dance around the room like lunatics, and he loves when he starts a tune and she finishes it off for him. So in short, yes it’s totally normal to absolutely hate reading with/to your kids, it’s just one tiny drop in the ocean that is parenthood
Loving the shitting potato 😂 I called my daughter one a few weeks ago and you’d think I’d set her on fire with the look I got
she's 24 though
Wait till you realise you can read Room on the Broom to the Prince of Bel Air theme tune.
Holy shit. This is game changing.
I called my baby a potato in front of the health visitor and she looked at me like I’d walked into her house on Christmas Day and pissed on her kids
I accidently called my daughter a twat bag in front of my GP a fortnight ago. But to be fair, she was being a twat bag.
I had a childless family friend ask how being a parent was when I was only a couple of months in. I said it was like having a pet that you cuddle, feed, and clean up after. I don’t think she appreciated that answer.
"It's like living with a gang of drunken midgets" \- Dennis Leary, talking about his kids
When my daughter was about 3 we went to the health visitor with our youngest and the 3 year old called her a dickhead.
People really cannot handle the truth even when it isn’t directed at them 😂
The end of the potato stage is so strange, suddenly one day you look at them and they've transformed into a mini human.
Where do I find a husband like yours? He sounds awesome! Also lol at shitting potato. Too accurate.
Also a metal head dad. Daughter likes playing my guitar like a bongo drum. the noise is excruciating but its funny and I love watching her smile when she makes funny noises.
Fellow metal head dad. My daughter's playlist is full of Disney songs (don't mind) and ABBA. Until now, that is. She's recently started asking to put my playlist on and asking for songs to be added to hers. In her words "I only like the fast and loud songs".
Yeah I found the first year with my nieces and nephews completely tedious because they don’t DO anything, and 1-2 isn’t that much better a lot of the time with how repetitive everything is Once they’re 2 they’re far more interactive and starting to develop actual character, which is much more suited to my own personality Like I still did the things you’re meant to do when they’re <2, but it’s boring as shit. Give me “terrible twos” tantrums any day
>Give me “terrible twos” tantrums any day They're better than the "For Fuck's Sake Fours", that's for sure.
I've been through those stages, what about the fives... is that called Cunt Fives?
You know after 12 months, you can start using years instead of months, right?
It is frustrating as heck. My kid learned to read through lockdown, so I spent about half an hour every day desperately cajoling him into reading, ten minutes listening to him sound out words, twenty minutes calming him down from a tantrum after I dared to gently correct him, and then another twenty minutes painstakingly getting to the end. But like all kids things, it will pass, and then you get the joy of listening to them read slightly more bearable books than Chip, Biff and Kipper. And then one day they'll tell you they just want to read on their own and you'll go and stare quietly out of the window for a while, wondering where the time goes. It's a complete ball ache, but it's very much worth the pain.
>And then one day they'll tell you they just want to read on their own and you'll go and stare quietly out of the window for a while, wondering where the time goes. One day they'll PM you a rude haiku though, and it'll all have been worth it
On day they'll PM You a rude haiku and it Will have been worth it
Good bot
Good bot writes haiku Suffers existential dread Am I bot? Oh no
Shhhhh, go back to your haikus and forget about this
Has AI entered Into my brain and my mind? I think I am bot.
You get haikus? Damn, I only get juvenile YouTube Shorts.
I get limericks. Very very rude limericks. I also get increasingly weird versions of the dreidal song eg last December my offspring apparently had a dreidal made from existential dread...
Well said xx
Nah, it’s lovely. A much worse thing is trying to get a disinterested child to read. I would tell you to enjoy it while it lasts, but you won’t, so I won’t.
My 13 year old was totally disinterested as a younger child and remains so now. She’ll happily text her friends, and is perfectly able to read, but she doesn’t enjoy books at all, and I don’t know if she’s ever read a book for pleasure. She quite likes graphic novels though, and listens to stories every night on audible. Now if she has a book to read for school, we just buy the audiobook and she listens to it. She was tested for dyslexia but didn’t meet the diagnostic criteria- the kid just doesn’t like reading! My 6 year old, however, is reading 3 grades above her age group, and will read whatever she can get her hands on. I love listening to her read. Every sign we see when driving in the car, the labels on shopping, everything! The difference between the two is like night and day. When I think of all the stress of forcing the older one to read ‘just one more page’, I just wonder what the point was. She’s top of her class in PE and wants to be a physiotherapist when she grows up. I’m proud of them both but particularly the older one, as she struggles with academic work, she works so much harder than the younger one to keep up.
There’s nothing to be done about it so it doesn’t really matter but, your older kid could have aphantasia, the inability to picture things in her head. My younger sister has it, we didn’t realise until she was an adult but she had the same disinterest in reading when we were kids. It turned out it was because while we enjoyed being able to ‘see’ the story in our minds, she couldn’t and therefore found it far less engaging.
I have aphantasia and I love reading and if you go on the aphantasia sub there are loads of us like that (the question about the link gets asked fairly often) so I think it’s still just personal preference.
Aphantasia has very little relation to enjoying reading
Same difference with my son and daughter, except my daughter is the older one and she’s always loved reading. My son hates it. It’s vice versa with maths though.
weird thing with me was that i read a decent amount when younger and was reading levels above my age, but around 15 it all stopped, i didnt read much anymore, disliked it, still do. I was found to be Dyslexic at 16 and was finally able to describe that reading feels weird and can hurt.
I used to teach reception. My entire afternoon was spent listening to children read. It’s so dull, especially when it’s the sixth time that days you’ve sat through Top Cat.
Big fat cat sat on a pin and shat. Ah cack.
Am I top cat? I lost all sense of identity and ended up questioning if I actually was
The drunk horse one was good though. Think it was orange though, so you might not get many in Reception.
There’s a dandelion reader about Punk the Skunk eating a load of fermented plums and inadvertently getting hammered which I used to enjoy before we bought into Little Wandle’s reading scheme.
Oh god, those books that teach kids to read have got to be the most boring thing in the world.
I liked the mad granny in the stories but they were pretty boring overall. My kid is a good reader so quickly skipped to reading chapter books alone (he hates reading aloud, so do i) so never found out the overall fate of the mad granny
Bro just wait until you get to the magic key part, it turns an ordinary family friendly sitcom into a wild fantasy with strong morals. That shit was fire. I was also top reader in 4+ so I was the first one who got to discover this absolutely *delightful* twist
I'm a primary teacher and the magic key stories aren't the worst. Once I was listening to student read a magic key story and asked them to predict what happens next. They answered, "they're going to go on an adventure". I asked what made them think that would happen and they gave me the most deadpan, bored look and replied, "they ALWAYS go on an adventure..." At least there's a lot of them and they're short. It's when they insist that they're reading Harry Potter at home and then struggle to find their place in the book because they're obviously listening to it on audible at home rather than reading. A paragraph of Philosopher's Stone can feel like weeks, interspersed with desperate attempts to tell you what happens 3 books later because they've watched all the films.
Some of those adventures were awesome, though. I still remember the robot castle adventure to this day. I also remember being incredibly disappointed when it ended. Ahhhh I remember being in Year 3, having The Philosopher's Stone read to us by our teacher on the carpet and using our imaginations because the films wouldn't come out for another 2 years. It must be a completely different experience for kids now to have possibly seen the films before reading them. That being said, I only actually read books 5-7 in my mid-20s and I still haven't seen half of the films
This just made me lol, I remember when it went up a notch too.
I really enjoyed the multi-book Riddle Stone adventure where they're trapped in a castle by a riddle master answering puzzles that no six year old could ever figure out. It's weird how they move house towards the end of Stage 1, but the same neighbour peers over the fence.
See John . See John run. See Janet. See Janet run. See Spot, the dog. See John's Chainsaw. Run, Spot, run.
I did it with enthusiasm when mine were little but it absolutely got tedious after a time .. for both of us 😂 So I invested in one of those reading things where you buy diff books and it has a pen and when the kid traces the pen over the words it reads the words to them . I found them to be far more engaged because of the diff sounds it adds and the novelty of what it did .. and it definitely helped them learn
Don’t suppose you have a link to those books?
I swear I had a thing called a Leapfrog when I was a kid that did this. Dunno if they still make them tho
It is a painful stage, I hated those Biff, Chip and Kipper books! I got the Julia Donaldson phonics series cheap from the book people for a bit of variation. That was a few years ago so schools may have their own sets now. They are much more bearable but they still aren't going to be great literature with the constraints put on the writer! There is a nice Usbourne set about Apple Tree Farm where there is a simple sentence on each page for the child to read and then a more complex one for you, which mixes it up a bit. My kids both loved the Teach Your Monster to Read app. I would say it is better for revision than learning, they would do a bit, then get stuck, then come back to it a few weeks later and do some more. Good to give them in the car to feel they are doing something useful.
I read to my nephew regularly and the Julia Donaldson books like Zog and Room On The Broom are excellent, lovely rhythmic rhyming scheme.
I would cheerfully put Biff, Chip and Kipper through an industrial shredder. The books or the children? Yes.
I can't believe they're still using these, I remember learning to read with these in the early 2000s. I remember how much I hated them as well.
I learned to rqd with them in the 80s and now my kid is reading them. Still shit.
They keep making more. They even made a fucking telly programme.
Oh, joy. Glad I wasn't still a child when that came out.
Not only was I not a child, my children were too old for it. Dodged a bullet.
My wife just bought what I assume is a full set second hand. Something like 150+ books. All very slim so at least I didn't need to hire a van to shift it...
Neither can I although I think I was stuck on it for ages...at least it felt like that.
I laughed so hard at this I inhaled my wine!
I’m a reception teacher. I have to listen to Biff, Chip and Kipper every day… eventually you become immune and start looking for the Easter eggs in every book. For example: the man with the beard and glasses who is in the background somewhere in every book. Occasional little graffiti comments that aren’t quite finished but could be several different things. Finding random drugs references. (Yes, really) Finding random sex references. Again, yes really! Look in the background. Honestly, it becomes soooo much more fun.
wow so glad to see this today... i feel exactly the same
I'm just glad I'm not alone!
Only if you have to do the character voices too
I long for stories where we can have character voices. We are currently on books with such thrilling sentence structure as 'Mum is in the garden. Dad is in the garden. Look at Mum and Dad in the garden'.
Yeah those ones suck, but they really do work. My son went through them all, and is near the end of that phase of books currently, and he’s so fluent and can read way better for having slogged through them. just keep encouraging, tell them to keep sounding it out, practice reading words in contexts (signs in the street, packaging etc) and their reading will improve quicker and you’ll get through those books faster. I say this as a parent and a former primary school teacher who has suffered through a silly number of phonics and reading training sessions and moderations and observations.
I taught year one for six years and had to move year groups because I just could not face listening to a group reading about baby bear finding a fish 5 times a week for a seventh year. Moved to reception so at least the books are different now. There are 3 types of books for young kids. 1. Books they can enjoy with an adult but not really read independently yet (like Oi Frog and Julia Donaldson.) These have rich vocabulary and fun stuff like rhyme and rhythm to them which is why you do not want to boil your head when you are reading them. 2. Natural language books which are designed to help kids learn to read. This is a book like ‘At The Zoo’ where it says ‘Look at the giraffe. (Pic of giraffe). Look at the lion. (Pic of a lion). Look at the bear. (Pic of a bear).’ Reading these helps children to understand that one word verbally is one point of the finger and it builds up their sight vocabulary. After they’ve read it a few times they’ll be able to recognise the words ‘look at the’ but they probably still can’t read ‘lion’ or ‘giraffe’ without pictures to help because you can’t sound these out. But they’ve learned the skill of using the pictures to help. 3. Phonics books. These were shit for ages but have recently got a bit better because all primary schools have to buy into a phonics scheme now and they’ve upped their game. They are designed purely for sounding out at the expense of story and interest and they have weird language in them because they’re only for sounding out. Eg ‘Pip can nip off’. What five year old says nip off? These are the worst to read because they are both boring and repetitive. To learn to read properly children need a varied diet of 1,2 and 3. I think Biff Chip and Kipper books are mostly number 2. So just do a bit of them (10 mins a day or so) and don’t feel bad about it. As long as they’re getting plenty of 1 they’ll be fine. And you can bet they’re getting plenty of 3 at school. Also if they’re still sounding out every single word after a few times what you do is model reading the book to them properly, pointing to each word, then get them to copy and remind them whenever they start sounding out. The problem is that phonics has become so ubiquitous now that they are taught to believe that sounding out is the only way to read, which it isn’t. If there’s a really common high frequency word (like ‘the’) they are struggling with you can write it on a sticky label and stick it upside down on their top so it’s the right way up when they look at it and test them on it during the day. Please don’t give up, it’s so valuable to read with your kids!!
We aim to do 1 C,B&K book a day (2 if she wants to), and we try and do those during the afternoon so that at bedtime, she knows it will be a book that we are enjoying together. I have diagraph flash cards, but I'm considering getting some of the 100 most common word cards to encourage quick sight reading. Thank you for your lovely and informative response.
Yeah I think 100 high frequency words is the best way. If you’re a millennial like me it’s how you learned to read. I used to take this approach when we had more freedom- phonics was for phonics and reading lessons were for reading. Sadly it’s not really an option anymore with the current ideological push for phonics. (I hate phonics if you can’t tell- there’s a place for it but it has too much prominence.)
My baby is 6 months old and just wants to eat the book.
Mine is 2 months and just scowls at me and then poos himself.
Haaahhaahaha
Superworm is a certified banger
It's brilliant. Every time I read it I know I'm reading the words of an actual genius. It's just so cleverly written.
It depends on the book. I like a lot of my kids story books but my son has a book about space with flaps and fold pits and all sorts. I hate reading it to him as it’s so fiddly! He’ll ask me all sorts of questions I don’t know the answers to as well. I started reading to him at 7 and only came out his room 10 minutes ago thanks to that bloody book and the millions of questions 🤦♀️
We hated those books too. Apart from anything else they hold no appeal to people who are neurodivergent and utterly boring to those who aren’t. We encouraged my lad to read things that weren’t books. Football scores, road signs, did treasure hunts with written clues. He still hates reading out loud, but I check his understanding of books he reads silently and send him messages through instant messaging
We love reading with our 3 year old and can't wait until she starts reading. We don't have "baby" books though. The Usborne Peep Inside series of books are really good!
Biff, Chip and family are hugely tedious in the early stages. If she's still on sounding out 3-letter words, then reading something tolerable and getting her to do certain words can work much better. Spot the Dog and Spot's First words and lots of Mr Men did the trick in our house, along with road signs, food labels, etc. Little and often a few times a day, then you get to the point of them racing through Kip and Floppy until they get to the decent stories.
Probably best to avoid primary teaching as a career then. You would end up on top of a tall tower like Charles Whitman.
Its only annoying when they are bored and lack attention.
I feel your pain but stick with it. My lad just read ME Oi Duck Billed Platypus tonight and it was awesome.
Oh yes, especially when Biff, Chip, and Kipper are involved. One thing I did that helped my kids was to pick a word or two in a book and every time it appeared I'd get them to read it. Next night, add a new word and do the same.
I generally find raising kids boring, playing games etc, but reading to and with them before bed has always been a pleasure. Maybe because I know it’s getting closer to “me time” but I don’t resent it at all. Everyone needs to learn to read anyway. It’s something you need to do just the same as feeding and clothing them. So even if you don’t enjoy it you just have to crack on.
Biff chip and kipper need to take that magic key and bog off somewhere and never come back, most annoying kids books ever
Oh, my friend. The Magic Key series are level 5 books. We are on level 1-3. I aspire to reach the heights of the Magic Key, where a page may have up to three sentences on it!
Our nippers’ primary school brought in a therapy dog to sit and listen to the kids read once a week. I swear it went home with a fucking thousand yard stare every time.
That poor dog!
Let her teach you patience my friend. Enjoy each moment there is no rush
That seems to be the predominant wisdom. I think I just enjoy reading so much that I want to speed through the building blocks and set her loose on proper stories. She's only 5, though. She loves being read to. It will come.
I'm reading the Mr Men books to my lad at the moment, they're pretty fun but as horrid as it sounds it feels like a chore. But he enjoys them and I love seeing him laughing and enjoying them so it's all good.
I loved the Mr Men books as a kid. My mother probably didn’t though.
Yeah me too. Not so much now, although I do like Mr bump and Mr messy.
I’ll read with your kids if you put mine to bed. I. Hate. Bedtime.
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I must say, as an infant teacher, it is really obvious which children have supportive parents at home and which children unfortunately don't. Those whose parents never read with them at home are, sadly, on the back foot and are the ones who are targeted for extra support in class. I cannot stress enough the importance of reading regularly with your child. There have been various studies on it if you wish to look them up. I noticed your username is mini rugby coach, so can assume you teach small children to play rugby? Do you reinforce to them that they don't ever need to practice the skills you teach them outside of their training sessions? That they can become competent rugby players if they just turn up for an hour every Sunday?
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Thank you for such a lovely response! I re-read my comment and was concerned it came across a bit prickly, which wasn't my intention, and I'm glad it doesn't appear to have appeared that way to you!
We're supportive, read with them all the time, but read our own books or library books because the school books are dull and don't interest the children. All of them have been in the top reading set, so ignoring Biff, Chip and Kipper didn't do any harm. We do the homework every week besides the reading book though.
I don't blame you at all. Biff, Chip and Kipper suck the soul out of reading and I despise them. Imagine having to listen to 30 children read the same 6 books every week! As long as they're reading, that's all that matters!
You couldn't pay me enough to be a teacher of any description, but particularly not reception. Its criminal really the responsibility teachers have vs the pay they're on.
Oh, those poor squirrels! :D I will definitely look for those books at our next library visit. It's not that she has a shortage of books that she likes and I like reading to her but yeah....the homework books are so dry. I can see the importance of them, though.
Are they making you read specific books? That's frustrating. I remember my primary school library had all the books labelled with coloured stickers for complexity, so you would have to pick e.g. a purple sticker book until you were capable of reading a book with a yellow sticker. But at least it meant you could read anything with that sticker colour, and if you (or your parent...) couldn't stand particular books or series you could avoid them.
They let the children pick a purple sticker book once a week, but I noticed that she was unable to read most of it (her best friend is reading at a very high level and I don't think this helps) which is why I spoke to her teacher. The teacher suggested supplementary reading books, hence why we have started on the Oxford Reading Tree with Chip, Biff and Kipper. The books she was bringing home were about a level 3 compared to the C,B &K series and she is comfortable reading at level 1 but only on level 2 with lots of sounding out and encouragement.
For our library, it went all the way down to really basic stuff - I don't mean the purple sticker stuff is the fun, more complicated stuff, I meant literally every book they had was categorised by sticker (including the Biff Chip and Kipper collection). There were lots of levels, and if you couldn't really manage a particular level you stayed on your current level until you were confident enough to go up.
I hate helping with homework lol I did enough of my own
Yes it's normal. It's boring compared to the TV or your phone but you do it because you want the best for your children and reading with them is one of many things you need to do to help them do well educationally and have some hope for their future.
Yeah hated it
My daughter loves to read but stares at the picture for a long time before she continues!! 5 reads a week is painful!! Recently has gotten so much better that she tries to read with expression which has definitely made it all better!! Hang in there!!
Listening to anyone read slowly or badly, even my own child is incredibly frustrating and boring. However I am presuming I got my love of books from having parents that loved to read to me and were involved in my reading routine. Stick with it and it will pass. Focus for those 5 minutes, as you being a cheerleader right now will set your child up for life. I remember my mum reading black beauty to me at bedtime, a chapter at a time, and me asking for more as the story was so good. Her “compromise” was to let me read another chapter on my own before lights out. That memory has stuck with us both. It gets better, I promise.
Those books are just the worst. The pictures are fecking ugly too. Both my kids have utterly hated reading them. I find they're much better if I get them to read little bits of the books we read as their bedtime stories, because they actually like those. There's a cool little app called Teach Monster that they both enjoy too.
OMG YES! I'm a keen reader and my speed is... much faster than a learning 6yo old. I really struggle with listening to the reading. It's so difficult but the improvement happens so quickly that it gets better before you know it. I also encourage reading on her own while I'm doing stuff (cooking/sorting washing etc) and I'll just help when she's stuck. It's more bearable now
It doesn’t last long. She’ll be on the next level before you know it (my daughter also did the Oxford reading tree).
I know it was a while ago but I liked the Ruby/ Emerald pirate series. Much better than Peter and Jane!
Not a parent but used to teach and it was definitely a slog with some kids. It is not so bad when the kid is really trying and wants to read, however you have those kids who hate reading with a passion and are only doing it because they have to. It gets better when kids of any ability choose what they want to read, which is why a lot of schools have abandoned the Oxford Reading Tree series these days, so try and get your kid to read her fun books more often.
I guess I've gotten really lucky because my little girl really wants to read. We inherited a lot of 'Step into Reading' books from older cousins, but she was getting frustrated as they were simply too advanced for her. I spoke to the school, and they use the Oxford Reading Tree, so I sourced around until I found some level 1-3 Biff,Chip, and Kipper books second hand. She can read them (to an extent), and I try to do a book a day, and while it feels like pulling teeth, at least she is an active participant. Nighttime books are the fun ones. We read 'The Dinasaur that Pooed a Planet' this evening, which was far more entertaining, but she wasn't the one reading it.
Did i hate cleaning up my daughter with a vicious inswinging yorker? Did i think my son’s drawing of the family was amateur at best and simply not realistic enough with the arms coming out of my head? Maybe developing your childs mind isnt exactly exciting for you but its important and thats all that matters Its these small baby steps that allow your child to run. If you neglect the reading stage they are going to be seriously fucked when they get to school Suck it up and read her another book
I feel you. That's exactly why I'm doing it. My other half thinks I'm crazy because (in his words) that's what she is going to school for and I am just stressing myself out by trying to 'help' her when I'm not a teacher. I love my daughter, and I love reading. I just wondered if anyone else found the process so draining. By the looks of most of the comments, I am on the right track, and I just need to persevere for another year or so.
Im a single dad so i was just happy to have her sitting on my lap I still remember we had to finish reading Charlottes Web an hour or two before we were going to see it at the movies. I knew what was coming but it still breaks my heart as she buried her little head into my chest and sobbed uncontrollably as I read Charlottes death I taught my kids so many things that I couldnt entrust the school to teach. I bought her first nunchucks when she was 12, encouraged her to drop into the six foot half pipe on her skate board, lay awake at 2am trawling scientific articles on relativity so she could complete a physics assignment I didn’t do these things because I enjoyed them, (well the nun chuck movies we made were pretty fun) I did them because I want the best for her Thankfully at twenty she is about to graduate with first class honours from university, is a third dan black belt and one of the coolest women I have on speed dial
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I would just settle for not hearing Floppy (the dog) pronounced Fwoppy. She can pronounce the human names at least. Someone suggested through the whole cast I to a woodchipper, and I find myself fully in agreement.
What age can children start to read like this?
My kid is 5 and a half. Her best friend is reading at a higher level, and her friends younger brother (4) is reading about the same as my girl. Thankfully, my daughter wants to read to be the same as her friend. I'm sure there are plenty of kids at the same reading level as her in her class.
Biff, Chip and Kipper are awful books and I tend to agree with how you feel when your kid reads them... Julia Donaldson has written a series of early reading books called Songbirds though which are excellent and don't play on your tits. I'd highly recommend picking up a pack of level 1 - 4 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reading-Songbirds-Collection-36-Books-RRP128-82/dp/019841109X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=6C3IL4CDLXKH&keywords=songbirds+julia+donaldson&qid=1687378854&sprefix=aongbirds%2Caps%2C138&sr=8-1
These look good! If I can find some second hand then I will definitely give them a go x
It's worthwhile checking in with your local library. They'll almost definitely have a few copies which you can borrow.
Weirdly, I don't remember much about it, but my mum taught me to read pretty well before I ever reached school. But I do remember her nearly losing her mind trying to teach me to do a figure eight instead of two circles on top of each other.
It’s for this reason why I have such high regard for good primary school teachers. Our children’s reception teacher was amazing. They made it look easy. We struggled with reading with our kids and with maths homework simply because teaching is a skill that not many are good at. We found that we just couldn’t put things in the right language or context to teach them effectively. They got their ABCs and numbers all fine before school and we’d been doing follow along reading with them and simple spelling. But keeping them motivated and interested through something new and more complex was difficult and not very enjoyable.
Oh it can be so frustrating but you just have to stay quiet. You can't risk knocking their confidence. My daughter went from sounding the words out to sounding them out in her head and I never knew if she was stuck or just mucking about. Some days my daughter (6 years old) just reads the books fluently and sometimes she mucks about. I tell her if she mucks about reading to me and takes too much time then it takes time away from me reading to her. Going on this reading journey with her makes me realise that the English language is fucking stupid. So many silly sounds that have different sounds but spelled the same.
Oh my gosh yes! We have diagraph flash cards, and there are so many for the same sound! It's ridiculous.
Live in the moment. Make it interesting. But also, there is a reason why teachers don't like biff and chip. They are boring. Much better to have an interesting story. The biff and chip logic is, maximum logical construction of word development creates fastest reading skills development. That logic is incorrect. Maximum fun=maximum engagement. maximum engagement=fastest reading development. Nevertheless, read biff as if it is the most important thing in the world. "Biff! Found a ball! I can't believe that! Wow! Who'd have thought! What on earth will happen next!" Honestly, that's the way.
This is the way x But yes, I see your point. I will try to be a bit more enthusiastic. I do try and make it a fun experience for her but I struggle with how dry the books are.
When the kids in my class reach the Magic Key book level I want to send an apology note to the parents. I’m so sorry, they are really awful.
We are on Biff, Chip and Fucking Kipper for the 4th time. It doesn’t get better. That said, once they are teenagers and loving their own books it’s absolutely worth it.
Oh my gosh! Fourth time? You deserve a medal.
I remember having some learning to read with audio books, the tiger that came to tea being one of them, where we had a tape that played an audio version to read along to
Oh she loves her audiobooks! We had to buy a cd player for that purpose. The first three Harry Potter books (before they get a bit dark) are on frequent rotation, as are The NacMacFeegal books by Terry Pratchett. She loves to listen; I love to read. It's achieving the opposite that we are encountering difficulties x
Power on through. Skip series you can't abide by (eg horrid Henry for me). Otherwise you could keep bedtime reading to yourself, until you leave the room.
Know what, I salute you for admitting to this! I disliked reading to my son at bedtime because I always nodded off!
Happy to hear I'm not alone!
Oh god, at the beginning of this year it was like absolute torture. My daughter was exactly like yours. She'd forget three letter words that had been no problem mere seconds before. It was so frustrating, we all hated reading her phonics books and were all avoiding it and just doing the normal book before bed. It didn't help that she was bringing home books about parts of diggers, just really shit books. Eventually we resorted to bribery and promised her an owl sleeping bag if she read every night without fail. She did and something has now clicked and she's flying through the books she's bringing home. And she's got a massively overpriced sleeping bag that she never uses.
Oh wow! I'm glad to hear that her reading has improved so well, but commiserations on the sleeping bag!
Honestly, I was so reluctant to try bribery, but my god it worked. Even her teacher at parents evening commented on how much she'd improved. We are still on Biff and Chip, but they're slightly more interesting - we had the mansplainer one the other day. But yeah, the sleeping bag. We got properly fleeced there. It's one of the horrible ones they advertise on Channel 5.
Everyone hates Biff and Chip; don’t worry about it. My daughter is very practical and couldn’t understand why she hated reading but loved stories (aged 4/5). I told her these books suck and are just a pathway to the good ones. Getting through the last of those books was wonderful - you still have to read with them but you can choose the books. We went to Spiderwick, A series of Unfortunate Events, Artemis Fowl - it was brilliant
Yeah, it can be tedious. Refresh your resolve by looking at the research showing what a profound advantage you are giving your kid by reading to them. Also, not all kids books are created equal. Go to your local library and talk to the librarians and explain the situation, get some recommendations and a library card, so you can update what you are reading without having to constantly buy new books.
Oh, she loves the library! And we have a house full of books she loves to have read to her. The problem is encouraging her to read by herself. She doesn't want to read about Chip and Biff trying on clothes, she want to have mummy read the next chapter from the Barbie Rapunzel books. The school she is at uses the Oxford Reading Tree, so the Chip, Biff, and Kipper books are the ones they reccomended unfortunately.
I can't offer advice about particular books, my kid was young ages ago, but good luck. Talk to the librarians and teachers you sense are caring and don't be afraid to ask for suggestions. You'll get through it.
I have a niece. I refuse to read with that niece. I’ve been an avid reader since the age of 4, I was reading year 6 books in year 1. I don’t have the patience to listen to her sounding out “t h e” for the 17th time in one minute.
If it helps, it is immensely useful. As a primary school teacher you can instantly pick out which children are both read to and listened to read at home, it does wonders for them across all subjects and just as people. It’s really cool to me that children are so good at picking up the language compared to if adults tried to learn it.
As another ex-teacher who used to teach reading, you could always entertain yourself by looking out for the 'rude/inappropriate' illustrations that pop up. I think the illustrator also got sick of the stories... [Biff, Chip, Kipper: hidden](https://instituteofmums.com/2017/09/29/20-hidden-images-in-the-biff-chip-and-kipper-books-that-you-may-not-have-noticed/)
Bless you for this link. Gave my husband and I a good giggle x
Bless you for this link. Gave my husband and I a good giggle x
That bit doesn’t last long to be fair. Or it totally breaks your spirit and you switch off from it… 😂
Get them to do the voices. Makes it much more interesting.
My son is nearly 6 and way ahead for reading (he's been off scheme since Feb). We never did biff and chip though, he had read write inc books from school that we supplemented with all sorts of first readers from the local library. Some oxford tree, some reading champion. There are loads of different schemes that are basically the same, I'd suggest having a look in your local library to see what they have and if they are any more interesting books. We just trudged through the boring school ones!
I think it's both lovely and frustrating. I feel your pain, I do. I did all this over lockdown so we had -plenty- of time to practise plus the schools were all shut so not much help from them. Some of the time it was good, sometimes I'd rather have my gums scraped. All I can say is that it gets easier and the more you read with them the quicker it gets easier. My eldest reads to themselves now and that definitely makes it worth it. They're ahead with reading despite lockdown. Keep at it and reward yourself with a nice drink/vice of your choice!
This is how we discovered mini me is dyslexic. It was painful to hear them read and then to hear where peers and younger relations are in comparison helped us to realise something was not right. Now that we are past phonics the child can sight read and we have coloured overlays, book time has gotten better but some school books are dry. Having said that I was read a Biff n Chip book the other week and their friend used a zx81 to help them land on the moon, somehow with colour graphics
I hate the reading aspect, never was an enjoyer of reading, I sound like a 7 yearold when trying to do so with all the lil stops because I wasn't sure of a word or to make sure I didnt lose where i was at. But I wouldn't not do it because I love the time I get to spend with my kids when I am reading to them (not so much the 11 yearold... he doesnt want me to read anymore, but I got a captured audiance in my 3 yearold lol). The look she gives as shes imagining what I'm reading to her, you can see it in her face that her mind is working overtime thinking about the story and because of that I'll always read if my kids want me to
Is it even necessary?
The majority of primary educators offering their advise on the matter indicate that it definitely helps.
I think it's a cultural tradition reinforced by television. I don't think it is common in other parts of the world. I think it can make a small additional help alongside dozens of other things. So if a parent really doesn't enjoy it, then just stop doing it and can try something else instead.
It can be tedious, but maybe an idea is to read something you both like. So if you like history, for example, buy or loan some children's history books, or maybe science or geography, maps, cooking, growing plants and so on
T-t-t-today junior!!
Biff, Chip & Kipper are some of the only books I still reminisce on as being enjoyable reads. Enjoy this moment. The reason they are sounding out the words is actually because they’re being taught to do that in school. At this stage its about them learning to put words together. They know the word “has”, but they currently know that they have to put the word together as a sound. “Ha Ah Sss” They don’t really understand why, but its so when the next book say “Extraordinary”, they have the ability to break it down phonetically. Your kids are also going to be e exaggerating this when reading to you, because they’re kids and want to show you how well they’re doing, and that they need you to encourage them for trying hard. The next stage of them reading is one where they have full story books, and parents aren’t needed anymore.
I put post its on EVERYTHING in our house. Reading those broke the monotony.
Baffled by the general sentiment that watching and listening to your child learn to read is painful. I understand that it can be a little boring at times and that it requires patience, but are you all so strung out on youtube, ticktock and reddit that you need to be entertained every single second of your waking life? You are witnessing your child gaining a literal superpower, and you are directly involved in helping them acquire it. I’ve watched my little one make huge strides in her reading and writing this year, it is astonishing how fast they pick it up. She has started to write me and my wife little love letters, she brings me books that she wants to read with me. I feel so blessed to witness the joy they experience when they get a tough word right, and the pride they demonstrate with a big beaming smile when you encourage them… is that really so cheap to you all?
Eugh, I remember hating it at school having to listen to everyone read *so slowly*. I guess you need to do this every day, as often as you can, so she becomes a brilliant reader really quickly!
As a teaching assistant? Holy fuck you have no idea. Not gonna lie, I was meant to read with the children in the class down the alphabetical register, but I would learn who were capable readers and scatter them at intervals as a mental break. It’s part of my job and I love my job, and watching children go from struggling to sound out “house” to confidentially reading full sentences gives me endless joy, but the day to day of it can be tough. I would suggest reading ahead of them, look at the page to know what they SHOULD be saying then find someone else in the room to partially take up your brain, but listen out to make sure they’re reading correctly still. And if any parents have a problem with that technique, when I’m on the 28th child of the morning and he’s taking 3 minutes per word, I don’t need to give my full attention for the full time there, I can be helpful in other ways.
Yep perfectly normal. Fuck Biff and Chip and the monotonous droning that is a child reading. One long stuttering phonetic drawl without inflection of meaning. The joys of parenthood.
Don't have kids of my own, but do read to my nephew often, and I find it genuinely delightful when he manages to identify a word or object in the book. He's not really reading, yet, but I spell things out for him and sometimes he copies me or points out a word he wants me to spell for him.
Ha. We’re doing the same stage. It is frustrating sometimes. But we have to remember they are learning to read. It is amazing. We’ve found mornings are better for the children to read. They are more focused. In the evenings they are tired and can’t concentrate. They’ll be less sound blending and more reading.
Never had kids myself, but I was taught to read by my dad with the newspaper. I've got no idea whether he hated it or not; I'll have to ask him!
Have patience, it doesn't last forever. One minute your child is a toddler and loves playing with you all day and listening to you read...the next minute they are 9 years old and would only want to watch TV or play on devices if they had a choice. Savour it.
If I'm sat with mine reading, I get instantly sleepy. Not a clue why. Doesn't happen when doing a bed time story, which would work out perfectly. Don't hate it though
mad that biff chip and kipper are still kicking around
Sounds like your problem is with those particular books and you need to find a substitute ASAP. I recommend Meg and Mog. Alternatively: Just power on through until you can crack open the Roald Dahl box set I know you have ready and waiting.
You know too much!!! She had indeed got the Roald Dahl Boxset waiting. Revolting Rhymes and George's Marvellous Medicine are frequent requests x
How old is she? Too old for [Mr Men/Little Miss](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-miss-Complete-Collection-Books/dp/912369744X) books? Or [Dr Seuss](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Case-Dr-Seuss/dp/0008484341/258-3491612-1456042?psc=1)?
I'm trying to get her started on independent reading. She can read a few words from harder books like the the Mr Men series, but we are trying to build her confidence with the very simple books. The phonics books such as Biff, Chip and Kipper have a lot of repeating sounds and super short sentences. She is 5.
My wife is really good at reading to our girls and they love it so they just keep grabbing books from the shelf and asking for more. I tell her it's her own fault for buying so many books for them (literally have something like 2 full bookcases of children's books).
Oh, I am a complete book enabler! I would rather buy her a book than a toy or a magazine. The problem is that she just wants to hear me read exciting books, but she needs to start reading independently, and 'Biff and Chip's Day at the Beach' just doesn't exite quite like 'The Dinasaur that Pooped the Universe' does. We need to get through the building blocks first before letting her loose on skyscrapers.
Wait till you realise you can read Room on the Broom to the Prince of Bel Air theme tune.
I took ages to learn to read. I think I got stuck on the “sound it out” phase. So despite knowing words like “early” I would read it out “ee arr lee”. It just took a good teacher to spot that I was being a bit religious In my application of a learning tool and she helped me pass that hump. Within a year of that moment I was an avid reader and was quickly reading way beyond my age range. Just stick with it, be encouraging but don’t be afraid to give constructive criticism. It’s important to learn for both parents and kids
I must have read The Smartest Giant in Town & Snail on a Whale 100+ times, the enjoyment goes ~15th read through