She reads the class 2 reader aloud perfectly and can't tell me what happened in it

amber_kettle_7775 Sept 2026

Every evening she reads two pages from the school reader, fluent, expression and all. Then I ask what the story was about and get a shrug 🤷 Not a cheeky shrug, she genuinely doesn't know. Ask her about a cartoon she watched once three weeks ago and she'll give me the entire plot. I pick her up most days and we do this after dinner, so maybe she's just tired by then. But I'm a researcher, I can't stop wondering whether she's decoding the words without following them. Is this a normal stage at this age, or should I be doing something differently with the reading?

2 comments

quiet_hammock_93245 Sept 2026
We stopped asking at the end. One small question after each page, like 'why is he hiding?'. Shorter answers, but she started following the story.
- amber_kettle_7775 Sept 2026
  one question per page, that's easy enough to try tonight. I think asking at the end feels like a test to her
- cedar_kettle_18678 Sept 2026
  ours did exactly this at that age, my son could read anything out loud and remember nothing. what changed it was reading stuff he picked himself, cricket magazines in his case, he'd argue with me about the scores. the school reader never really got interesting for him but the habit carried over
amber_spoon_4126 Sept 2026
My son is the exact opposite. Reads slowly, gets stuck on every third word, then tells you the whole story with extra characters who were never in it. They'll probably meet in the middle somewhere.