Korrale4kq and Mandabplus3 thanks for your input to the discussion!
Korrale4kq - thanks for so much detail about your LO's reading journey, it was very insightful indeed. I am already seeing a strong trend of my DS wanting to read what interests him, in other words what he understands and enjoys. At the moment lots of animal books, particularly BK reader Day at the Zoo and Animal Sounds. I tried to follow your lead and head down to the library to see what readers we can pick up, I realise this is better than constantly buying books and waiting to see which ones DS will fall in love with. Intersting what you note about James' grammer, Douglas is still pretty monosyllabic except for when he's singing. I'm sure these things will naturally smooth out with time. I was thinking about using this
http://www.kumon-english-rrl.com/ as a way of stretching Douglas' reading level without using readers. I can already see that he gets impatient with a story if its not interesting, he's not liked the Bob books much, they seem to confuse him, but he can read other books just fine. Charlotte Mason suggests using rich literature to teach children to read and I'm sort of basing my home-preschool on her philosophies, so this idea appeals to me. Although I appreciate that it may mean slower progress because the stories are more complex. Do you think this sort of approach might break the plateau?
I'm planning to spend time doing more Montessori style activities (hands on) and lots of outings to engage his interest in the world, so that he has more of a background and general knowledge to use to understand our stories.