First Reader Suggestions (Homeschooling)

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My 5 year old is really wanting to read but is having a hard time concentrating on the words and needs short quick stories with the words before the story.

I have been looking for a really good first reader like our old "Dick and Jane" primers we used. I like how they listed the words at the beginning of the story and then the story repeated those words.

I checked Ebay..yep they have tons of them...but did you ever dream that our old friends Dick and Jane are selling in the $100's???? Oh my gosh..we are collector items now!

Any suggestions for books simular with only a few sentences per story and listing the words prior to the story? Thanks a million!

-- Karen (mountains_mama@hotmail.com), January 24, 2002

Answers

Response to First Reader Suggestions

Bob's Books are easy, small format, gradually increasing in difficulty. They come I think 5 to a box,

Bob's books

-- Sandie in Maine (peqbear@maine.rr.com), January 24, 2002.


Response to First Reader Suggestions

O.K. that link didn't work try this one:


-- Sandie in Maine (
peqbear@maine.rr.com), January 24, 2002.


Response to First Reader Suggestions

O.K., I am batting athousand....here's the old way: copy and paste....

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-0599456- 9981712

-- Sandie in Maine (peqbear@maine.rr.com), January 24, 2002.


Response to First Reader Suggestions

Jeesh! If that doesn't work, go to amazon.com and search books for Bob's books.....I better go get some coffee!

-- Sandie in Maine (peqbear@maine.rr.com), January 24, 2002.

Response to First Reader Suggestions

O.K., that's better, maybe I can be cherent now. If your child is showing definite signs of wanting to read, take his/her favorite book, and read it over and over and over, and when you think you can't stand it anymore, read it again. The woords will "click", then he/she can move on to another book. Look for small words everywhere. Words like "a" and then "the" try and stay away from words that mean something else backwards like "on" until the child is more familiar with how words work. Most important of all is DON'T PUSH, wait for the child to indicate whether he/she is ready for more.

Make a fun game of finding "her" words everwhere, on cereal boxes, in the dictionary (make it a big one..they need to learn "their" words are in grown up books too!), and in the newspaper. Make it tactile, get a cookie sheet and sprinkle salt sugar or flour on it and let the child draw "his" word on it. Use dough and make a bread version of her word, etc.

I envy you, your child is just on the brink of a temendous discovery...the new words will begin to be learned faster now, make a tree of construction paper and hang it up, add a new leaf for each new word as they are recognised.....but remember, no pushing!

Ahhhhh....for those days....

-- Sandie in Maine (peqbear@maine.rr.com), January 24, 2002.



I personally think its a mistake to try to 'teach' reading with just some kind of special reader, like the schools do. Fill your house with books, buy gobs of em, and go to the library at least once a week and let your child participate in the choosing. There are a million childrens wonderful story books out there. I just gave away four huge boxes of em to Goodwill, since my kids are teens now. (Except the ones they refused to part with for sentimental reasons!)

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002.

You can also get high-quality books VERY reasonable if you order through Scholastic books. They have a 1-800 # I will try to find. When you call them, explain that you homeschool and would like to receive their "Firefly" (preschool) and 1st grade level catalogs. I used to be a classroom teacher, and was able to order lots of great items! When I stopped teaching, I continued to receive the catalogs. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if it is for the individual or not. Perhaps you could say you would share the order forms with other homeschooling moms? Call and see what they say. There is only a $15.00 min order (plus you get free stuff for ordering) and free shipping. I would recommend Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You hear?. I'll try to think of more title- I know there are hundreds, but my brain isn't working! :+)

-- briches (vesely@webtv.net), January 24, 2002.

Don't know how much phonics your child alreay knows, but a great book to start with is "Teach Your CHild to Read in 100 Easy LEssons" by Siegfried Engelman. Check on Half.com for a used copy.

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002.

The book listed above 'teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons' is just great. My 4 year old daughter is about half way thru it and I can't believe how she can sound out words so easily. She is starting to pick out and sound out words everywhere. She tried to do more then one "lesson" a day and can't wait for the next one. We bought our new one for cheaper then the used ones! With shipping it was about 18.00.

-- shari (smillers@snowcrest.net), January 24, 2002.

I bought the same book, didn't like it, and never used it. I guess different things work for different people. We love Abeka's Blue Back Speller for learning phonics, and we love the old readers.

I enjoy garage saling, and have picked up most of our readers that way. I like the Up and Away series, Our Town, and such. We also had some simpler readers, like Pug, and one about two goats, Nat and Tat.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), January 24, 2002.



Pathway Readers hands down here!

-- wt (none@none.com), January 24, 2002.

I have a new copy of teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons...I loved it and now that im done with it ... I would be willing to sell it...email if interested

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002.

I used Alphaphonics for my last two. The only thing the child needs to know is the sounds of all the letters. It starts with two-letter words, then three, four, etc. Very basic, no bells and whistles, but it's so simple.

-- gita (gita@directcon.net), January 24, 2002.

My son is 5 and is using the 100 Easy Lessons book. He's about a 3rd of the way through and can read all the words so far. He also has the Bob Books and we check out tons of easy reader books from the library. It is so much easy to teach reading when they actually want to learn.

-- Anita in NC (anitaholton@mindspring.com), January 24, 2002.

Hi Karen< This is expensive(even on ebay-homeschool stuff sells like hotcakes there!)but worth EVERY penny.I'd suggest you try to get Sing,Spell, Read & Write . It is GREAT! I've been using that with my 5 year old daughter since September and she is able to read(and read well)most words she comes across-even multisyllable words such as countryside,instruction,filigree,commandment,etc.She has been able to read with expression and comprehension to boot.Also,there's a gem of a book lingering around entitled "Why Johnny Can't Read and What You Can Do About It" awesome book! Well worth the hunt for it.I can't recall the author right now(I've lent my copy to a public school teacher friend of mine,along with my SSRW video.She is seeing great results with supposedly "slow" kids,btw.)I used this book alot in the early weeks of teaching her.

PS the SSRW kit comes with 17 readers.Starting from very simple short vowel words.They are quite cute-especially the short U book -Gus the bug is adorable.

Hope this helps.

blessings,

-- Tracy Jo in southeastern Ohio (tntneff@ifriendly.com), January 24, 2002.



If you want a lesson type 'learning program' we did very well with Christian Lights Learning to Read set. It isn't to expensive. Of course you would probably want to be a Christian to use it as the Reader is mostly Bible based. Anyway, it starts with recognizing differances, then teaches phonics (not even teaching the name of the letter until the sounds are mastered) after a handful of sounds are learned then the reader is introduced, one story per page, using only what they have learned so far. They feel very successful. I felt it gave my daughter a very strong foundation. She is now 2nd grade reading the little house books in less than a week in her free time etc.

-- Novina in ND (homespun@stellarnet.com), January 25, 2002.

We used teach your child in 100 easy lessons and it was wonderful. The stories are goofy but the kids seem to like them. After finishing that we moved onto Pathway readers, they are published by Mennonites and are stories relating to life on a farm. Each story has a moral and they follow the Bible without pushing their beliefs. They go from pre primer through 8th grade. Once your child is in the 4-5th grade, Busy Bees and More Busy Bees are excellent stories about when grandchildren stay a summer with their grandparents and the lessons they learn while there, also centered around a farm. You can find the Pathway and Busy bee books through the Book Peddler and you can call for a cataloge at 1-800-928-1760 The Bob books are wonderul too, and you should be able to find them at your local library.

-- Kelle in MT (kvent1729@aol.com), January 25, 2002.

We used the Ready for Reading Series now being published by Barnes and Noble -- they beat Bob's books hands down!!! No comparison, perfect for what you need.

You can find them at any Barnes and Noble Store. Or you can call, the Barnes and Noble order line 800-843-2665. The author is "Laura Callahan Busch" - they are called "Ready for Reading! A Learn-to-Read Series" -- then there's the Ant Series and the Caterpillar Series , two boxed sets of 12 books each, and more coming, I just read.

These books were published for years and years as "The Little Readers Series" - and they were FABULOUS! I used them 20/17 years ago and actually taught my kids to read with them. My whole family used them, all my friends used them, our schools used them. They were everywhere. They were so good, in fact, that when Bob's books expanded a few years ago, the authors copied a lot of the Little Readers techniques and story ideas.

The cool thing about them is the reader puts in his own name or anyone he wants as the characters in the stories. My kids adored this - it kept them going, they would ASK me to read a book.

Anyhow, I understand they are publishing two sets at a time of the original series, started with the first two last fall (Ant and Caterpillar), second two will be released soon, I hear. If anyone can find the Buterfly and Canary books I'd love to know about it. I have a friend with a granddaughter now who is on the search for them.

Good luck!

-- Marie (order@web-street.com), April 09, 2002.


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