How Much Time Should You Spend On Reading?

Yura,
Considering your son’s young age, it is fine if he needs to take more than one week to get through a lesson. It is very important that he not be frustrated, tired, or upset while doing reading lessons. No one learns well when emotions are flowing!

While we usually recommend 20 minutes a day for reading, that is a general recommendation. For a child that is not yet 5-years-old, I would recommend no more than 10 minutes at a time, especially since he is also a wiggly learner. If he is enthusiastic about it, you could do two 10 minute sessions a day with a long active break between, but I wouldn’t stress it if he didn’t want to. Most students his age are still learning the ABCs, so he is already ahead of the curve. Taking it very slowly and keeping it lighthearted will pay off in the long run as he will associate reading with fun together time, and not something to be dreaded or make him cry.

For most students, reading the stories is the easiest part of the program, as the words are in sentences with context to help them anticipate each new word. It is like getting a hint for each word read. Reading the word cards and fluency practice sheets are more difficult because there are no context clues to help. They have to read each word with no hints. But we want students to be equally successful with reading words in context and in isolation; it ensures they have mastered all aspects of reading.

As for how to divide things up, check out this blog post A Typical Day with All About Reading. It shows how I divided up one lesson over a week or more with my daughter. It also shows how we devoted one day a week to just playing review games. It was something my child looked forward to and also gave her the extra review she very much needed for the word cards.

Students may need to read a word thirty times or more before they can read it fluently without having to sound it out! So, just know that some beginning readers do need a lot of practice and review. Here’s an article on How to Develop Reading Fluency that can help you understand the overall scope of achieving fluency. Some ideas that can help:

The Change-the-Word activities in the Teacher’s Manual are especially helpful for working on becoming faster with blending and paying attention to all sounds in a word. Change one letter at a time, starting with simple 3-sound words like: bat-sat-sit-sip-tip-top…and so on. They are also really helpful for working on consonant blends when you get to those lessons. You can do this activity for a couple of minutes every day.

The Word Cards allow you to track what has been mastered and what still needs work. Keep word cards in daily review until your student can read them easily, without needing to sound them out. Here are some fun review ideas for word cards. The Word cards will stack up as you go, so just rotate through a portion for 2-3 minutes each day and then pick up in the book wherever you left off previously. And here’s a fun little video explaining what to do when the cards stack up.

The fluency practice pages can be re-used as well. Our 16 Ways to Make Practice Sheets Fun blog post has lots of great ideas for making them more enjoyable. (And check out the comments as well–lots of fun suggestions in there!)

Students who struggle with fluency will also benefit from rereading the same story two or three days in a row to gain fluency and confidence. You mention he is reading the stories well. Do you mean fluently, not needing to sound out more than a few words per page? Buddy Reading can be very powerful in helping students who are needing to sound out most every word.

Rereading the stories will help accomplish these goals:
– Increase word rate
– Improve prosody. Prosody is “expressive reading.” It involves phrasing (grouping words into meaningful phrases), emphasis, and intonation (raising pitch at the end of questions, lowering pitch at the end of sentences)
– Improve automaticity (be able to recognize most words automatically without having to sound them out each time)

You can also do a variation of buddy reading called “echo reading.” You read a few sentences with full expression, and then your child reads the same sentences, matching your expression as closely as possible. Do this for approximately five minutes a day, or whatever is a comfortable length of time for your child. Add in lots of praise when your child shows even a bit of improvement.

The “Fun with Emojis” article gives an enjoyable way to work on reading with expression too. This can be a great way to make reading fun that also sneaks in some extra practice from the fluency pages or readers. Check out Reading with Expression for this activity and others.

I hope this helps, but please let me know if you need more ideas or have further concerns. I would love to hear how things are going over the next month or so.

You’re so welcome. ?

Mary,
Once a week really isn’t often enough to ensure success unless someone will be willing to work with your grandchild during the week as well. When Marie, the author of All About Reading, tutored she would not guarantee success unless students came 3 times per week or the parent worked with the child at home. If someone can commit to working with your grandchild for about 20 minutes a day most days of the week between your visits, then I think you can make a big difference for him or her.

Here is a link to purchase All About Reading level 1. Please let me know if you have more questions, need more information about tutoring with All About Reading, or need anything else.

Linda,
I think it’s just a human tendency to want to finish something completely before quitting; I know I’ve seen my kids beg to keep going even when they are making mistakes from obvious tiredness. Little by little, inch by inch, I remind my children!

What a great way to provide a well-rounded exposure to literature, Kiki! And I love how audiobooks are encouraging more chores in your house. ?