hi Fiona,

I am a primary school teacher & can only go by what I have given out for kindy homework. All the homework sounds normal, except the 12 extra words. That sounds a little steep. What kind of words are they? Sound families (rhyming words) or sight words (everyday words- mum, home, play school ..)

They are rhyming words.

I have a few questions about the book:
Does it have a level or colour on it? How many words on a page?

Its a photo copy of the book so no level or colour on it. The ones he has atm are 3 lines with about 8 to 9 simple words on each page.

To stop him from memorising the story, place a counter under each word. Ask him to touch the counter as he reads the word. This will make sure he is reading the words that appear on the page (not more or less).

If he is reading the sentence. for example;

'The girl played int he park'

You can ask questions like:

Can you find the word park?
Can you find the word that starts with 'g'?
Find a word that has a capital letter. What is it?
Also,
you can write the sentence. chop up the words and get him to put it back together?

Hope this helps. If you are still not sure, make an appointment with his teacher.
These are great idea's & I iwll try this.

DH is kinda obsessed about Evan learning to read. DH could read before school. (Mind you I am wondering exactly at what level, but who do you ask, His proud mother or DH who would only really remember what he was told KWIM?)
So I think DH is putting a little bit of pressure on Evan to learn & is worrying about why he isn't picking it up as fast as he did. Even though I have reminded him that while he may have been boy wonder as a child, I was in reading groups to help till yr 5.

I probably will try & make a time to speak with is teachers (he has 2) as there are alot of things we have no idea how we are meant to help him with it at home. we are kinda lost LOL