These simple phonemic awareness "learn to read" books are taking over my house. :D
(HUGE thanks to Cari from Bookscoops for introducing us to them!!)
I don't have a picture, but the first set is a bright red/pink color and there's also an orange set and a yellow set... and it seems they're out of print. So you'll have to check with your library! :D
Anyway-- Boo has been working through these... we're on book 5. Really we could be a lot further, but with potty training Mommy hasn't been too focused on such things. Go figure.
The books are simple, with repetitive text that focuses on the same words, adding only one or two new words per book. They've been a great solution to the "how do we teach reading?" question at our house.
Granted, we have to be careful-- Boo is a memorizer.... so there's always the chance that she's just memorized the book. To combat this, we write out the words out of context to make sure she recognizes them still.
The funny thing? Mister wants desperately to read now too. He wants to pass off the books and made Daddy help him "read" several of them the other day. :D
What prompted this sudden reading explosion? Well, we went with Cari and her daughter to the library a few weeks ago and Boo watched while her friend read a book to Elliot, a labradoodle (however you spell that). That's right, the library here has a program where you can come read to a dog. (They use therapy dogs from the local children's hospital, I think.)
And let me tell you, to Boo this was a VERY cool idea. And she wanted to do it too. So she suddenly had great motivation to learn to read. :D
I couldn't pass that up-- we signed up for March. We get to read to Rusty in just a couple of weeks. Hopefully I get to go... if I go into labor before the 13th, Daddy or Grandma will have to take her. Whatever happens, I'll post about how it goes... :D
Have you seen this game? It is based on a British tv series called alphablocks. I find it funny (I love the O block who is always saying "ooooh!"). K is obsessed with it, and wants to play it endlessly this week. "O say 'oh!' because have 'O' on it!'" He is really good at site reading, considering his age (27 months), and knows all of his letter sounds, but I'm still trying to get that idea of stringing sounds together to "click" for him, and this is a fun way to start. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/#/lb/alphablocks/alphablocksgames
ReplyDeletePS That dog reading thing totally cracks me up, but we have never gone to watch.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't seen that one. Sounds cute... maybe we'll all try it later on. Might be too easy for Boo and too tricky still for Mister. I don't let him anywhere near my computer.
ReplyDeleteIt's really cute to see the little kids reading to the dogs. And you can tell it really builds confidence.
As you get to the later stage games, the words they spell are five letters or so, so I think she'd like it. And they both might just like the video part of it.
ReplyDeleteOh that would be good. We'll have to try it!
ReplyDeleteBritt - So glad Boo liked it. My daughter L-O-V-E-S going to read to the dogs. We have been doing it for almost a year. Here is the link to a post I did about the Reading Education Assistance Dogs or R.E.A.D. program. http://bookscoops.com/2009/04/28/reading-education-assistance-dogs-or-read/ They even go into schools and it has helped thousands of children gain the confidence they need to read.
ReplyDeleteAlso the early primers are called Reading for All Learners you are talking about are my favorite and believe me I have looked at a lot, a lot of early primers. Most are okay for the first little while and then they jump so far in difficulty that the child can get very frustrated. I am thinking of doing a post on these books sometime and they were developed out of Utah State, here's the link http://www.iseesam.com/products.htm
Thanks for the link Cari! I was trying to find the books on Amazon and they seemed to be out of print.
ReplyDeleteI just wish you could actually put them on hold! We have such a little library that they often don't have whatever we need in. I've been to like 4-5 different libraries to fill in gaps!