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Beginner readers  

post #1 of 29
9/12/08 at 10:25am
Thread Starter 
My dd and ds are learning to read but I don't have any readers for them to practice. Are there any that would be good and aren't too expensive? I looked at the BOB books and wasn't really impressed with them and the McGuffey readers and Starfall go a little too fast. Any suggestions?
post #2 of 29
9/12/08 at 10:47am
My favorites for my dd were the Word Bank ones- they start with just 50 words in the book or something like that, and the stories were really cute, they are from the "I'm going to read" series. Here:
http://www.amazon.com/Im-Going-Read-...227108&sr=8-11

We also love the early Dr. Seuss books. Good luck, finding the perfect early readers for you child can be really a challenge- there's a huge variety of what "early readers" are considered. We got a Level one book the other day (another brand) and it had some really big words in it, that didn't seem level 1 to me at all.
post #3 of 29
9/12/08 at 11:07am
i know bob books aren't impressive (to put it mildly), but they are very easy for a beginner reader and give great confidence imo. we used them in the beginning along with homemade books. i would write the books and illustrate them for my dd (only using words that i knew she could read). she is now reading the dick and jane books, & we are starting to get easy readers from the library. in the beginning, however, the dick & jane books would have been very frustrating and hard for her.... & the dr. seuss books were too hard as well. my dd really struggled though at first... so bob books were perfect last year. my son is now learning to read with them too. open court reading has very simple books as well - but i think it's expensive (my sister gave us readers my niece used in ps).

sorry i'm not much help.

good luck.
post #4 of 29
9/12/08 at 11:12am
oh, "decodable little books" is another one you may like!!
post #5 of 29
9/12/08 at 11:14am
We just go to the library and pick up whatever is interesting. If it is too hard for them to read, I read with them and help.

We never put any particular focus on learning to read, instead choosing to spend gobs of time reading.

My now 5 yo taught himself to read almost a year ago by doing this. My 9yo we tried 'everything' with, but he really didn't start getting good at reading until we switched away from 'learning to read' and went back to just reading.

I have found with both of them that just turning them loose to choose what's interesting to them at the library is most effective.

HTH,
post #6 of 29
9/12/08 at 6:11pm
how about the oild standars

hop on pop

red fish blue fish

put me in the zoo

are you my mother

green eggs and ham

and so on -- look any of them up on amazon and they link to you to a ton more.

Aimee
post #7 of 29
9/12/08 at 11:43pm
Check out Nora Gaydos books. They are cute and imo good beginning books.
post #8 of 29
9/13/08 at 12:56am
One thing I did with my dd when she was learning to read, We read together, She read the words she knew and I filled in the other words. We followed along w/ our finger. I pretty much knew which words she didn't know so I knew when to give her a second to remember the words she did know. She loved it because she was able to "read" her favorite stories, with just a little help from mom. And by me pointing to a word and saying it, she picked up words more quickly.
post #9 of 29
9/13/08 at 1:04am
Do you not have a library nearby. That would be my suggestion. We would be seriously broke if it weren't for the library.
post #10 of 29
9/13/08 at 2:20pm
We are LOVING Bob Books. We tried them from the library before buying the set. I'm new to this to though... I'll be watching your thread!
post #11 of 29
9/13/08 at 2:24pm
Dd really likes the Dick and Jane readers.
post #12 of 29
9/13/08 at 2:25pm
my 4yo taught himself how to read this summer using starfall he is using www.headsprout.com right now and loves it! he does get stuck on directions because he is so young and sometimes needs to go over something several times before he gets what it's asking him to do, but he can read!!! as bonus headsprout comes with paper books and he thinks that's the greatest. they are kinda like the BOB Books. (which btw are mainly used for learning word recognition not for the story line)
post #13 of 29
9/13/08 at 2:30pm
oh I wanted to add he is really into the STEP INTO READING series
http://www.amazon.com/I-Like-Bugs-St...1326922&sr=8-1
post #14 of 29
9/13/08 at 9:32pm
I downloaded a whole bunch of books from http://www.readinga-z.com/guided-rea...ed-reading.php when they had a special. I really like them, they start easy and go up to quite difficult. Plus, you can get an idea of what grade level your child is at if you want/need to know that.
post #15 of 29
9/13/08 at 10:55pm
We love BOB books. They are simple and like a previous poster said, they do help build confidence quickly. That said, you might want to think about whether you want phonics readers or sight-word readers. There are both out there. (Personally, we like the phonics readers as you can build upon prior knowledge of a particular word family and apply it to new words.)
post #16 of 29
9/14/08 at 12:56am
We also LOVED the Bob books! We got the first set for my son about a year ago when he was 4, but he didn't really have much interest in them at that time. Around 4 1/2 though he knew all his letter sounds, was starting to sound out short 3 letter words, and could read some sight words so I pulled them out again. He read through the entire first set (10 books) all on his own in one sitting! He was soooo proud of himself and told his dad to bring home the second set that night. He did and he read through that one the next day. Set three was finished a week later and we worked on set four and five over the summer. We never finished set five and just went on to early ready books which he picks out on his own at the library or bookstore. All this happened in the last 3 1/2 months. I just followed his lead and we work on what he is interested in at the time. I did get some ideas from here though and went ahead and bought the Frog and Toad and Little Bear early reader sets which are great. Frog and Toad are harder then the Little Bear books (more like early chapter books).
post #17 of 29
9/14/08 at 2:59am
Seconding Dick and Jane readers.

Seconding making your own books. I do this with my 4 yo. He tells me a story and I write it down pretty much word for word. Then we look through clipart and old magazines and stickers, etc. to find pictures to go with the story. He loves it and I think it helps him understand the value of using written words for communication. At least that's what I tell other people. Mostly we do it because it's fun.

Seconding just getting tons and tons of different books from the library. We check out about 20 each week. No way could we afford to buy them all.
post #18 of 29
9/15/08 at 9:43am


what are the bob books?

post #19 of 29
9/15/08 at 9:56am
http://www.bobbooks.com/

you can buy them used at amazon.com or homeschoolclassifieds.com super cheap.
post #20 of 29
9/15/08 at 10:11am
thanks
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