Reading help for 1st grader

Our elementary school shared the following about Cal State East Bay University Extension offering summer reading skills programs in Alameda, Oakland, and San Pablo. Call 1 800 903 0162 (M-F 5a-7p, Sat 5a-4p, Sun 7a-3p) to get all the details. Classes are taught by instructions from the Institute of Reading Development. They meet once a week for about 2 hrs for several weeks starting in June or July - depending on location. 

I strongly suggest having your child evaluated for a reading disorder. Being 'well below' in 1st grade is definitely a sign something may be off with their ability to learn to read. Our 1st grader was also behind, but super smart so we just assumed she'd catch up. Her teacher suggested we try tutoring between 1st and 2nd grade - for us that was a mistake, we lost time she could have spent being evaluated (she was a year later) and working with a qualified Educational Therapist who could have helped her earlier. The earlier intervention the better. Good luck!

My 1st grader was reading below grade level at the beginning of the year and his teacher asked that everyone reads 20 minutes a day as part of homework. Each night we've done this. He didn't love it at first but he made a lot of progress and now he loves reading. I'm not suggesting that instead of tutoring because I don't know what your situation is, but he's now reading at the max rating for all of his testing categories. We were so surprised how much of a difference 20 or so minutes a day has made. 

Hi,

I had the same thing with my kiddo. Usually over the summer we would get an educational therapist to work with them. This was expensive and difficult if you have camps going on too. Last year I hired a tutor via Outschool.com. This tutor was able to work with my kid on making sure to avoid the ‘summer slide’ and they are flexible as to your needs (ask your kids’s current teacher what they think your kid should be working on/or should know when moving up a grade). Because it was via Outschool, we were able to pick a time that worked for our family and my kiddo could enjoy camps and summer too :) Good luck! 

My son is very prize- and goal- motivated. If your kiddo is too, then this may help. 

His school has a Readathon in the spring, kids tally minutes read or listened to. We realized in kindergarten that he was super motivated to read as many minutes as possible for the month of the Readathon. All reading counted, whether he was reading books aloud, we read to him, or he listened to audiobooks (on the Libby app, the best!), so he started reading/asking to hear stories every chance he could. As soon as the contest was over, he dropped reading apart from our every night bedtime stories (which he’d mostly want us to read). 

So, to keep him motivated to read over the summer, I set up benchmarks for reading and prizes along the way. You could set up whatever goalposts and prizes make sense for you and your child. I think we did a prize for every 10 stories he read himself (we’d still read to him, but he only got a tally if he read himself.) I picked up a bunch of his-level books that school was giving away, from Little Free Libraries, and from the Public Library. If the book was longer, he’d get more than 1 point. Prizes included- a trip to the toy store with a $10 (pre-tax) spending limit, a lunch out with me, a movie and popcorn outing, etc. 

We read a whole lotta Lego books and Dogman, not my taste, but whatever got him reading! I also had to train myself not to correct him unless he asked for help. He really dislikes it when I interrupt his flow/attempts to work out the sounds himself. 
Lastly, the school Readathon has a Bingo sheet, with fantastic reading suggestions as Bingo squares, with a small prize for completing Bingo. Either the game idea, or some of their reading ideas might also be motivating. Things like: read to someone younger than you (my kid read to his cousin over Zoom), read while eating a snack (a cereal box counts!), read a book with your favorite color on the cover, read a book with a number in the title, read outside, watch a show with subtitles on, etc. (I’m a really huge fan of the Readathon, as you can see.)
Wishing you lots of good reading this summer!

Lindamood Bell is excellent! They are in Berkeley and I believe Walnut Creek as well. Have you had your child assessed for Dyslexia? I might suggest that if they are already well below grade level.