Question regarding sight reading

[jbasscase]

What would be a good sight reading book for an 8-year-old who's played piano for three years? 

This particular boy started with me at age 5.  We started Piano Adventures primer right away, and within a month or two we started working on some Suzuki pieces as well.  He liked the Suzuki so much that I had his parents purchase the CD.  He really took to the Suzuki, and it has been a struggle all along to keep him practicing his reading.  I've been so frustrated with him lately, that I feel like starting over almost completely in a new set of reading books, and really making sure he understands it.  At the same time though, I feel like that would be very boring for him, because he's currently in Suzuki 2 and he really likes those pieces.  He has developed a wonderful ear and a beautiful feel for music, which I am very proud of him for- but I feel I need to get to this reading problem right now.

He's really good at flashcards too, but when it comes to seeing the notes on the page, it's like he draws a blank.  He still gets his right and left hands mixed up.  Sometimes, we'll spend over half of the lesson saying the notes out loud of a piece he's working on, and we get very little else done.

I myself, can identify with his situation, as I studied Suzuki for 12 years growing up.  I learned to play most anything by ear, but didn't become a decent reader until high school.  My particular Suzuki teacher stressed reading very little.

Any ideas of a good book for him?  I'd like to stay away from playing in positions this time around (he's pretty good at that, but I can tell he's not actually thinking of the notes).  I haven't gotten much of a chance to look around, but are there books that don't use finger numbers?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
Jen

[chopiabin]

I honestly think you're doing pretty well. Do you remember learning to sightread? If you started later, then you remember that it doesn't all come at once - it takes learning pieces to develop the skill.

I think that you should just keep going over them with him - at the beginning of each lesson ask him to do two quick excercises. Give him a staff witha scale written out and ask him to write in the letters and pick them out on the keyboard, etc. At age 5 it's more about exposure to the ideas of reading music and the various letters. With playing and continued exposure, I'm sure he will develop the skill well.

[abell88]

With a student like this, I would try (at first) to emphasize the idea of "landmark" notes, and reading by pattern. So, in the treble clef he should always be able to recognize middle C, G, "high" C (3rd space) and high F. Show him how intervals and patterns work -- if you know your starting note you can follow the patterns/intervals.

Music Tree uses this method -- maybe get the early books and work through them very quickly (not replacing his current repertoire, just as an additional thing). Some of the pieces in Music Tree sound a bit odd, but if you assure him that it's just a temporary thing and he will gain skills that will help him learn the stuff he likes even quicker,  he may go along with it willingly.

There are also sight reading books available; for example Frederick Harris Music's Four-Star  Sight Reading series.
frederickharrismusic.com

[xiaodandan]

You might give the following ebook a try,

https://infopool.novabooks.hop.clickbank.net Reading Music Notes With Ease

My daughter loves to play piano,  but she had difficulty to learn the music notes.  I purchased
this ebook for her and she loves it. She's having so much fun with it and memorizes the notes.