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I have found that my son does really well with a reading paragraph worksheet. Basically, it's a one pager, with a short paragraph and then a few questions below it that measure comprehension. He can easily see it has a beginning and an end, as opposed to a book that can (in his view) go on forever.

@looch: Ha! Yes, it's definitely useful, particularly in this context.

We read every night as part of our bedtime routine. The younger kid is in bed and we typically have about 20 minutes of dedicated reading time. We sit on my bed together and I watch her read and do any corrections needed as well as coming up with the comprehension questions at the end. It's morphed from being time that I spend reading to her to time she reads to me. It's not perfect as some days she's really tired and it's a struggle, but it's the one time that's consistent for us everyday.

If we have more time or she's just really struggling I'll read and she will usually start reading a long at some point in the book.

@T.H.O.U.: my DD brings a levelled reader home every night but because she's so tired after school sometimes we do it in the morning after breakfast. She's fresh and it makes a huge difference in her patience as well, and DS has to be out of the room because he's way too distracting. She sits at our breakfast bar, and is motivated by me getting to write in her reading log (that goes back to school). She has a list of things that we say out loud before starting to ensure she is ready to read. It's laminated and provided from school.

We of course do bedtime books as well, but she only reads those if she asks and isn't too tired (and are appropriate to attempt!)

@T.H.O.U.: That's a bummer. My girl is currently reading "Level E", but most books that we own aren't leveled in the same manner. I would ask the teacher if they have books to send home or if they can give a list of books that would be appropriate. LO can read books that are more advanced than she receives, but for some reason her teacher isn't successful in seeing this at school. So we hammer on the books that come home.

@T.H.O.U.: Teacherspayteachers.com is an amazing website where teachers post resources! Some are free ) You can find leveled reading passages I am sure that would be great for her!

Also maybe do a theme each night:
Monday: Make words Monday where she practices Making Word families: Give her the word CAT and see how many _AT words she can write: Ex: bat, sat, mat, ......

Tuesday: Tell me Tuesday: Have her Tell you a story (read to you)

Wed: We read Wednesday: You read a sentence she echo reads and re read it to you (helps with fluency)

Thursday: Talk Thursday: Read sight words to you

Fri: Free day where she picks one??

Keeping it brief 5-10 mins a night? or even in car

@T.H.O.U.: Start with the BOB books. If they're doing a phonetic program in class, those will be pretty complementary. Go sequentially and have her read them until the point where she stops breezing through them/needs more help, and then you'll know approximately where they are in school. There are a lot of sets of BOB books, so you might find that she flies through one entire set, but there are more and they get harder as you go.

I wouldn't bother with the books labeled "Level 1" in most of the early readers section of the library/bookstore until after she's at least about halfway through the entire BOB collection.

@T.H.O.U.: are you reading to her each night before bed or do you not have time for that either?

At bedtime, I have DD read a book to me (these are like Bob books but Pinkalicious) and then I read to her. 2 books, done.

Also on bath night we practice sight words while she is in the tub and I add some new words to help with learning to sound them out

@T.H.O.U.: here you go

https://www.amazon.com/Pinkalicious-Phonics-Box-First-Read/dp/0062352156/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486151639&sr=1-4&keywords=pinkalicious

@T.H.O.U.: Is she in a reading group at school? I would ask if her teacher can send home whatever they're reading at school, even if it's just one night a week. This is basically what my DD's teacher does, and it's very helpful to make the connection between what's happening in the classroom and it gives me an idea of the progress she's making. As for finding time to read, it really is hard. Maybe you can plan some built-in reading time during weekend mornings. I'll admit that we are very inconsistent about doing "homework" on weeknights. She has a monthly math caldenar that she usually completes over a course of 3 random days during the month, and we read to her at night but she is able to read fluently and silently to herself so she often reads to herself after we read to her. I probably only make her read out loud a couple times a week. It's definitely a challenge to fit it in and I SAH and only 1 other LO!

Oh, does she like Elephant and Piggie books? Those are often pretty simple with a lot of repetition but they're actually entertaining.

Our teachers at our school are fairly seasoned and I'm not sure who bought the books. But every kid in Kinder (100+ kids) has a book buddy bag and gets two books sent home. I've seen some of the books are scholastic and some are fairly old. We have read many of this style of books...
https://clubs.scholastic.com/guided-science-readersand%238482%3B-spring-set/9780545463973-rco-us.html?cgid=N_6

https://clubs.scholastic.com/guided-science-readerand%238482%3B-pack-%28aand%23150%3Bd%29/9780545819176-rco-us.html?cgid=N_5

I really think the most important thing is that she enjoys reading. She will learn a ton just by you reading to her. My son and I will often alternate pages or character i.e. He reads elephant and I read piggie. Or I'll just pause a one word and he'all read that one...

@T.H.O.U.: So, to answer a few questions first...my son's main teacher is also a first year teacher. I was concerned about her ability to have materials, but that is addressed by the fact that there is a lead teacher that kind of keeps everyone on track and provides materials.

Before I begin, I wanted to mention something that the principal said at one point...that reading isn't something that comes naturally to all humans, like spoken language. It clued me in to the fact that some of us have to work at it, while some of us might pick it up easier. It also was comforting to hear them talk about the literacy program across the district and the state...they have invested a lot of time and money into choosing the programs and materials because they understand the importance of being able to read in today's world.

In terms of literacy, there is a full time Literacy Specialist at the school. It is her job to work with at risk students as well as to provide support to the teachers in terms of materials. I spoke to her for about 45 minutes in January, she was a fountain of knowledge.

There are also several programs that the school district pays for, RAZ kids is the reading program. It has leveled books that the kids can both listen to and read aloud for "points" to build robots or some crazy stuff. There is also a program you can purchase, it's called GetEpic. For about $5 a month, you have access to a ton of books, again, at all levels. Might be worth looking into for materials.

I found a sample of some material that came home, they seem to use Primary Phonics. Look it up on amazon. I know the subject matter isn't so fantastic, but the words are chosen so that a reader can be both challenged and accomplished at the same time.

Classroom instruction for reading specifically is done via Power Teams. This means that the kids are grouped according to ability, in our case they use DIBELS to measure them. There are 6 kinder classes and each teacher has a level. The kids across the 6 classes are grouped, meaning that they may go to another class for this instruction. I think this is key, because there is no way one teacher can successfully address all the different reading levels that might be present in once class, not to mention the different types of learners! A book comes home about twice a week. Then, there are the comprehension worksheets I mentioned before. Those come in the homework package (all 6 classes of kids get the same packet).

One more thing I found to work was a game called Pop for Sight words by Learning Resources, again, found on amazon. My son didn't react well to traditional flash cards, but for some reason, this game made him excited to learn them.

Lastly, I would ask about what kind of screening they do for kids with learning disabilities. It's never to early to know what you're dealing with.