Dancing Bears users... readers?

[AimeeM]

Specifically for level A. I'm having a hard time finding some decent (not tacky, character themed ones, please!) readers that would dovetail nicely with this. DS6 is getting pretty tired of just drilling through DB-A and would like to "read something, please". Lol. 

 

ETA: Reading is still pretty painful for him, so right now he's only able to get through about 1/3 page of DB-A per day. I do think that if he saw the benefit (or, the light at the end of the tunnel - i.e. reading "real books"), he may be more motivated. I can't really blame him for not caring much for reading when it just seems like drill after drill, but I also can't deny that he's making more progress with this program than any other (and we've tried several before this).

[rachelpants]

I See Sam :)

[horsellian]

I'd second the I See Sam recommendation: they're the easiest readers I can think of, as the first few use about 6 sounds.  However, I'm not sure how the progression of skills compares to Dancing Bears.

[KSinNS]

We used the first couple of boxes of Bob books. Ds "broke through" on decoding right around the end of book a, and now can read Dr. Seuss or frog and toad. Oh, elephant and piggie are good too. Just tell him the words he doesn't know. The stories get better, too, as you get through the book.

[AimeeM]

I'd second the I See Sam recommendation: they're the easiest readers I can think of, as the first few use about 6 sounds.  However, I'm not sure how the progression of skills compares to Dancing Bears.

I'm looking at the first set, which is available for free. I think I'll use the free ones first, because I need to use the very end of the first set - he'll find these pretty easy. I wish I could see the phonics progression for the other sets, before I buy them.

[mmasc]

I'm not sure where that level falls exactly, but my DS6 just worked his way through Little Bear. It was his first book without the controlled vocabulary and he enjoyed it. It was much more repetitive (in a good way) than I thought it would be. When we came to a word he didn't know (there were many), I just told him. By the end of the book he was reading some of those words by himself due to the repetitive nature.

He also likes the I See Sam readers better than anything else.

[horsellian]

I'm looking at the first set, which is available for free. I think I'll use the free ones first, because I need to use the very end of the first set - he'll find these pretty easy. I wish I could see the phonics progression for the other sets, before I buy them.

 

There is a yahoo group you can join that has the progression for sets 1-3 in it's files section, I think: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Beginning-Reading-Instruction/info

 

And if you e-mail Dick on that group then I think he'll e-mail any set to you in pdf a few at a time.

 

Hope that helps you.

[FO4UR]

I would not go with phonetically organized readers.  That will not instill a love of reading.  

 

Keep up with the DB.  It does work wonders!

 

 

 

When we were going through DB, I start the McGuffey Readers once he was feeling a little confident.  We practiced the words listed for each story first, and then he read. He did better when he could practice the tricky words before reading the little story.

 

Then I found the Treadwell Readers.  These are so much more interesting!  They are real classic stories,  however, they are rewritten and organized so that the first stories in the Primer are easy and repetitive.  These are The Little Red Hen and such.  As the stories go along, the vocab gradually grows.  But things are not phonetically arranged...there is no "The cat sat on the mat." stuff.  For ideas on how to use the Treadwell Readers, I like the blog post by this CM momma.