The very very earliest easiest reader--please recommend!

[pehp]

My sweet little guy is really starting to gain some momentum with reading. I am taking it very slowly and right now I just write short, funny sentences (using a variety of 2 and 3 letter words he can sound out easily) on a whiteboard. We have a great time with things like "the big fat pig ran" and stuff like that. Don't ask me why; he thinks it's hilarious.

 

Anyhow, I'd LOVE to find a good reader for him to work through--something with very simple words (VERY VERY easy/early) but something that is at least somewhat engaging. We've already read a couple of applicable pages of Hop on Pop together. I really want him to taste the victory of being able to read the majority of a book himself. But the readers have to be *seriously* easy!

 

(Are the BOB books boring or worthy?)

 

I'd love any suggestions you can give. Thanks!

[redsquirrel]

I would use Bob books, but it's not like I have vast experience with very early readers.

 

And they are boring to me...but my little ones were mighty proud they could read a book!

[NotAVampireLvr]

Dick and Jane books come to mind. Also, Step Into Reading Level 1 books are VERY basic and there's a wide variety. Scholastic has leveled readers.. A & B books would work I think. I haven't really looked at BOB books yet.

[kbpaulie]

We liked Bob Books the first set b/c there was a sense of accomplishment. But I'm not sure if I had to do it over that I'd spend the money on the Bob Books. We read them 1-2 times and then never looked at them again and they take off so quickly that they sometimes don't need all the Bob levels.

 

There are books at Starfall.com that you can print out for free. I remember I had to do quite a bit of searching to find them.

 

I've also found this site to be most helpful and a great start. You can print free early reader books and worksheets. http://www.progressivephonics.com/~suzettew/

 

And they're hard to find used, but if I had to spend my money I'd look for the early reader books published by k12. Sometimes you can find them used on ebay or elsewhere. There's about 30 of them and this would get you through K & 1st grade material.

 

Yeah, I know I was SO frustrated when my guys were ready to take off and the "early reader" books were not actually phonics based books.

[petepie2]

My DC both loved Bob Books.

[Mrs Twain]

I started with all of the Easy Reader Dr. Suess books I could find at the library. You will have to help with some of the words, but they are very entertaining and fun to read. They also make your child feel like he is reading a *real* book (rather than some sort of early reader that looks more like a brochure than a book IMO).

[Maus]

funphonics.com has the Sizzy books for free.

[staceyobu]

My kids love BOB books.

[MerryAtHope]

Sonlight's Fun Tales were well-liked here. You might also look at Run, Bug, Run and other AALP readers. Have fun, I love their excitement at this age!

 

Merry :-)

[mudboots]

I highly recommend the Nora Gaydos "Now I'm Reading" series. I bought the Animal Antics set. The first half of each book builds a sentence, using quite a bit of repetition. The second half of the book finishes the story with the same vowel sounds, but less repetition.

 

For example, the first four pages of the first book are:

A cat.

A fat cat.

A tan fat cat.

A tan fat cat ran.

Then it tells a story about the cat's pals who help him get to the finish line.

 

Book #2, the short-o book, starts with "A dog. A hot dog." and so on.

 

When my kids were very young, I reinforced the words with lower-case refrigerator magnets.

 

The illustrations are fun and colorful. My daughter really giggled at the Fish Gift book. (Fish Gift is number 8 out of 10, when simple blends are introduced.)

[Hedgehog]

Sniff has just finished all the boxes of Bob Books. The pace suited him perfectly and he loved the achievement of finishing a box - partly because on completion of each box he got given more Lego ;) Whatever works!!

[Dmmetler]

Starfall-

 

Downloads in black and white http://www.starfall.com/n/N-info/download.htm

 

Order in color

http://order.starfall.org/k/shop2/index.html

 

If you can get a group together and order at bulk rates, it's MUCH cheaper.

[mytwomonkeys]

we loved the bob books here. there is an app for bob books too, although i've never used it. we like the sam books a lot too. hth

Edited March 8, 2012 by mytwomonkeys

[Staceyshoe]

If you don't mind online books (or print them), Progressive Phonics is a really nice option (free too!),

[Aurelia]

Bob Books or I See Sam readers might work.

[Bloggermom]

We really like Sounds Like Reading by Brian P. Cleary

[MrsBear]

I highly recommend the Nora Gaydos "Now I'm Reading" series. I bought the Animal Antics set. The first half of each book builds a sentence, using quite a bit of repetition. The second half of the book finishes the story with the same vowel sounds, but less repetition.

 

For example, the first four pages of the first book are:

A cat.

A fat cat.

A tan fat cat.

A tan fat cat ran.

Then it tells a story about the cat's pals who help him get to the finish line.

 

Book #2, the short-o book, starts with "A dog. A hot dog." and so on.

 

When my kids were very young, I reinforced the words with lower-case refrigerator magnets.

 

The illustrations are fun and colorful. My daughter really giggled at the Fish Gift book. (Fish Gift is number 8 out of 10, when simple blends are introduced.)

 

:iagree:

[trlt]

We used Bob Books, which my dd liked. We also used the big orange Dick and Jane book, which she loved. The only thing about the Dick and Jane book is that it is not in order from easy to hard, there are easier stories in the back so you may want to go there before you get to the harder stories.

[EKS]

We used Bob Books, but the I See Sam readers are good too. Actually the Primary Phonics readers are good as well. But it is very difficult to make readers that contain only CVC type words engaging.

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

so I will add one more favorite here...

 

HOP on POP by Dr. Seuss.

[Haiku]

My dd hated the BOB books. She read one or two and said, "These aren't books!!" and refused to read any more.

 

My ds loved them and thought they were hilarious.

 

Tara

[sbgrace]

We loved I See Sam (links in this post for free ones to print/use) and/or Progressive Phonics (free too). My boys loved the characters and silly stories. Both are phonics based and 100% decodable (in the case of progressive phonics the student read parts are 100% and for I See Sam the entire thing is 100%). So they are strong phonics based readers and are very gradual. Given they are free you could look at them online or even try them out to see if he likes them. My guess is he will! :001_smile:

[Serenade]

My boys liked the Biscuit books. There is a whole series of them. While they may introduce a few new words, my boys were able to read these with more ease than others because most of the words are simple, and I remember with the first book at least, the story followed a pattern with some repetition. The story was still interesting and it felt like a real book. These were about the simplest books I found. There don't seem to be a lot of good books out there for the earliest readers.

[2_girls_mommy]

Bob books.

[yucabird]

My daughter didn't enjoy the Bob Books until she became a better reader (At that stage we used them for fluency.). She loved Sam.

[Pamela H in Texas]

What a great thread :)

 

My 3 and 4 year olds love the Bob books.

I See Sam books seem very similar, imo.

 

My 6yo loved the Progressive Phonics books.

Everyone has been ho-hum about the Starfall books, but we use them.

 

Off to look at some other things mentioned :)

 

ETA: I wanted to say that when my daughter was little, I would make her little books. They were usually about life, family, etc so a lot of sight words ("Jacob and Kimberly like to play cars." "Kimberly likes to help feed her little brother, Tyler."). But you can do it with phonics also, of course. Maybe something like, "Kimberly hugs the mom. Mom hugs Kimberly. Kimberly hugs the dad. Dad hugs Kimberly. Kimberly hugs Tyler. Can Tyler hug Kimberly? Kimberly hugs the dog. Sophie cannot hug Kimberly. Kimberly loves her family." Okay, this is off the cuff and obviously I'm not very good at it! I better work on it since I have some littles it'd be fun to do for :)

Edited March 8, 2012 by 2J5M9K

[momtoamiracle]

my son loves the Animal Antics books.

 

also, go to starfall.com - they have a section of reading simple words.

 

 

we like the Biscuit books too.

[Iucounu]

A couple of easy early readers by P.D. Eastman: "Go, Dog. Go!" and "Big Dog, Little Dog". He might also like Melissa & Doug See & Spell and LeapFrog Fridge Words.

[peacefully]

.

[Bula Mama]

Bob books are pretty fun!

 

My boys both really enjoyed Pathway readers and the first one is quite easy. It introduces new words as sight words really well in a very systematic way so that dc can add in larger words pretty quickly because they're repeated a lot.

http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/item/2-140/?list=Pathway_Readers_Grade_1

[mo2]

Bob books, Nora Gaydos, or I See Sam, and then Dr Seuss's Big Blue Book of Beginner Books (also Green and Red).

[blondeviolin]

I vote for I See Sam. My 4yo is in the beginning stages of sounding things out and these are perfect for him.

[Mergath]

I'll second the Hop on Pop Dr. Seuss book. I just picked up a copy because they had Dr. Seuss books on sale at Walmart for five bucks each, and it's perfect for the level dd is at right now.

 

We also have two little box sets of Scholastic readers that dd likes. Each set has books leveled one through five, though all the levels are very easy, and comes with an audio cd. We found them at the thrift store for two bucks a set.

[TLC]

My ds enjoyed Nora Gaydos "Now I'm Reading" series much more then "Bob" books. He thought they were funny and enjoyed being able to read outloud to me.

[JenniferLynn]

I'm using the Bob Books 1st collection with my 3YO twins. It is working very well. They love to read an Actual Book and I usually end up copying OPGTR on a white board b/c they aren't thrilled with that actual, physical book.

 

I taught my 5YO DD to read using OPGTR and the entire Bob series. Initially I got them from the library but I couldn't always get the ones I wanted when I needed them. For only 1 child though, I'd recommend relying on the library. Buying made sense for us with 3 kids.

[Tracy]

I highly recommend the Nora Gaydos "Now I'm Reading" series. I bought the Animal Antics set. The first half of each book builds a sentence, using quite a bit of repetition. The second half of the book finishes the story with the same vowel sounds, but less repetition.

 

For example, the first four pages of the first book are:

A cat.

A fat cat.

A tan fat cat.

A tan fat cat ran.

Then it tells a story about the cat's pals who help him get to the finish line.

 

Book #2, the short-o book, starts with "A dog. A hot dog." and so on.

 

When my kids were very young, I reinforced the words with lower-case refrigerator magnets.

 

The illustrations are fun and colorful. My daughter really giggled at the Fish Gift book. (Fish Gift is number 8 out of 10, when simple blends are introduced.)

 

:iagree: I used these with dd when she was almost 4yo. She loved getting the stickers that come with the books. By the time she was 4.5yo, though, she didn't need them anymore and had graduated to library books.

[JessReplanted]

I have used the I Can Read It! readers put out by Sonlight with all 3 of my kids - (along with Abeka's method of teaching reading - short vowels, consonants, and then blending the two).

 

http://www.sonlight.com/1R16.html

[pehp]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thank you all SO much for these incredible responses. I can't wait to take the time this weekend to sit down with pen, paper and Internet and determine which ones to try first for my little guy.

 

I appreciate all of the input--there are so many great suggestions here, and they look so promising. Thank you so much!!!!

[myfatherslily]

Hot Dog! Mine needed help with a few words, but they both loved it! Also, Big Egg by the same author.

[Momling]

Dick and Jane books come to mind. Also, Step Into Reading Level 1 books are VERY basic and there's a wide variety. Scholastic has leveled readers.. A & B books would work I think. I haven't really looked at BOB books yet.

 

Dick and Jane aren't going to be phonics based -- but they're great for sight words and repetitive language. We also liked Elephant and Piggie...

[LivingHope]

I really like the McGuffey readers. You can see the primer here at google books:

http://books.google.com/books?id=5QYCAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=mcguffey+primer&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0oxbT7TvO6WOigLc-dGuCw&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=mcguffey%20primer&f=false

 

The boxed set can be purchased from cbd.com

[LucyStoner]

I am going to put in a plug for Brand New Readers. These are similar to BOB books in that the come in box sets but the illustrations are much nicer and the stories are more engaging and funny. My son loved them when the time was right as did all his little buddies who I passed them down to.

[kitten18]

I didn't see this mentioned.

 

The Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten books are very good and filled with cvc words. You can sometimes find cheap sets on ebay.

[Ottakee]

I would go with the I See Sam books as others have mentioned. They move VERY slowly and give LOTS of practice with each new sound and word (but you can go through the books at his own pace). They also keep things like b and d, p and q far apart in the instruction so one is mastered before the other is taught.

[momma aimee]

:lurk5:

[mammaofbean]

My dd hated the BOB books. She read one or two and said, "These aren't books!!" and refused to read any more.

 

My ds loved them and thought they were hilarious.

 

Tara

 

 

this, exactly.

[mammaofbean]

I am going to put in a plug for Brand New Readers. These are similar to BOB books in that the come in box sets but the illustrations are much nicer and the stories are more engaging and funny. My son loved them when the time was right as did all his little buddies who I passed them down to.

 

my dd loved these. she will still talk years later about how funny they were. they are all sight words, but great for the "I read a real book!" feeling that gets kids to want to learn to read.