Are BOB books and/or flash cards worth it?

[Janeway]

I have tons of flash cards and BOB books. Some are handmedowns. Some are things I bought for a close family member and they gave back to use with the other kids. These books and flash cards have pretty much never been used. Am I wasting a resource by not using them and should make more effort to use them? Or wasting space and I should give them away? I am trying to declutter and preparing for a possible move next year so would like to reduce waste.

[Hobbes]

We have Bob Books and they've been great for very emerging readers. I don't use them for 'curriculum' though. They are just one of the few options an early reader can read truly on her own. I take out each level as it seems to fit and let them use at will. They often choose to read to me.

 

Haven't used flashcards, really.

[HomeAgain]

We never used them.  At least not for English.  I found the Bob books to be counterproductive to reading well, so we skipped them.  Some people swear by them.

 

If they're not your style, ditch them.  If you think you might use them, take a bit of time to go over them and see how to work them in. 

[Jackie]

My daughter learned how to read using only Bob Books, no reading curric. For her, they were certainly worth it. However, if you or your kids don't like them, they're just one of many possible resources.

 

We haven't much used flash cards, but again, that's more about whether they appeal specifically to you and your children.

[SeaConquest]

Not for us. My son greatly preferred buddy reading with Progressive Phonics, which is free. Bonus!

[shawthorne44]

We used them when DD was a very beginning reader.  We read before bedtime.  Default is one picture book or story from Daddy.  One bible story from me plus three other books/stories, plus an extra story for every book she read.  She read a Bob book most nights in the beginning.  They aren't great, but since they are free...   I do remember having to post-it-note the illustrations for awhile.  Because she'd look at the picture instead of the words.  Then the post-it-note was removed when she'd read the words on that page.   Like you I didn't have a complete set.  Just ones I'd bought $0.10 each at the Library

[SKL]

It depends on the child.  One of mine needed a lot of review to master words by sight, so flash cards and lots of easy readers were helpful for her.  My other kid's "beginning reading" days flew by so fast that it would have been a waste to have those materials for her.

[mumto2]

They were a favourite for both of my dc's. We used bits of other programs but I basically put them in order and we went through each one.

[HS Mom in NC]

I had one kid who really enjoyed Bob books for practice alongside Phonics Pathways.

[fourisenough]

The Bob Books worked very well for a brief window of time with each of my emergent readers. They were mind-numbing to the adults who had to hear four kids sound out "Mat sat on cat" (too many times to count over the years), but the phase where they were necessary/appropriate was fleeting, and then my kids were able to transition to early readers from the library. I say keep the Bob Books (assuming you have non-readers in your household) and ditch the flash cards.

[908874]

We used the first two sets of Bob Books after DS had learned his letter sounds using Star Fall. It worked well for us. We used them on their own during our pre-K school time (which was formally a saxon K math and bob books on a good day). Once he had read the two sets we moved on to do OPGTTR the rest of pre-K. We picked them up once in a while, but not often. My son grew bored of Bob books, but they were good for a while. I hope to use them with DD when she is ready.

 

Flash cards? My son likes them for sight words. We are using them in K... Never thought he would enjoy them. I used them as a suggestion to see if it would be ok and now we do daily sight word drill while he jumps or wiggles. He asks for them if I forget.

[sweetpea3829]

Both Bob books and flashcards served a purpose in our learning to read journey, but for both, the time period where they were used was fairly short.

 

I used flashcards for basic, high-frequency sight words.  I've used flashcards for developing fluency with word families (-at, -it, -ap, etc).  With my youngest, I realized that he was having a hard time decoding CVC words because he was reading the word family and then reading the initial sound (essentially decoding the word backwards), so I did some flashcard drills of onsets (ca, ba, da, etc etc).  That way he'd have the first part of the word down and then could decode the rest.  

 

We've used flashcards a bit with AAS.

 

Mostly, our time with flashcards has been fairly short.  Bob books have been an add-on for practicing reading and developing fluency.  But again, our time with them has been short.  

 

We could have done without the Bob books, using other early readers instead.  But I wouldn't want to teach reading without SOME use of flashcards.  That said...I made my own flashcards, depending on what was needed at a specific given time.  

[abba12]

We bought them but they seemed to introduce letters in a rather different order to my reading curriculum so I ended up dropping them in favour of the curric. I See Sam readers introduced the sounds more similarly to the curric (100EZ) so we've been using those.

 

I will say though, the new Bob Books tablet/phone apps are GREAT for early spelling skills. My daughter adored them. 

[Btervet]

Bob Books were worth every penny for us. We used them, along with I See Sam on the kindle, and 100EZ lessons to get my kid reading fluently. LOVE them. There was a big bump in difficultly (I think before set 4?) at one point, so we had to set them aside for a few weeks. 

 

We never used flash cards for words so no advice there.

[jer2911mom]

We had the Bob books and the Now I'm Reading books by Nora Gaydos.  We much preferred the Now I'm Reading books, which are similar in format but much more logical to me.

 

Hope this helps,

Kathy

[Alessandra]

My DC loved the Bob books because the had so many decodable words and so few sight words. They also stayed open easily, could be held in one hand, and were short enough to finish quickly. My DC were excited to be able to with NO help from mom.

[Holly]

I just bought my DD a set of Bob books so she'd have something she could read on her own.  So many of the "early readers" have such difficult words...I have no idea why they do this!  There is no reason to have 100s of sight words, when you can just hold off on the more difficult words.  No wonder so many kids struggle with reading! We stick to McGuffey readers and Bob books (or other easily decodable books) until they are reading for more challenging materials.

 

For flashcards, I usually make some with index cards cut in 1/2.  We use them for building words and learning letter sounds.  I find these very helpful, but I don't care for the dollar store type of cards with lots of pictures on them.  Our MCP phonics books also came with a nice, simple set.  If I had a plain set, I'd hold onto them.

[Cake and Pi]

I would ditch the Bob books if you aren't using them.  You can always check them out from the library later if you decide you want to use them after all.

 

Flash cards totally depend on the kid.  My kids folded our flash cards up into paper airplanes and some other origami-like creations....

[Petrichor]

We tried them from the library, but none of us liked them, so we didn't use them.

 

Keep what you have found useful, get rid of what you haven't. It depends on your teaching style as much as it depends on your kids.

 

I might keep the phonogram flashcards if you have more littles to teach reading to, and ditch the rest. 

 

 

[againstthegrain]

I think it is all about your teaching methods and your child's learning methods for reading. My children are dynamic opposites in their learning styles with reading...and much of their interests/personality.

 

My DS wouldn't touch an emergent reader. He wanted concrete phonics rules, with which we went to typical leveled readers right away and SLOWLY plugged through them. 

 

My DD found great success in Bob Books and other phonic emergent readers and we spent about 5 months on a variety of them before we moved gracefully into typical leveled readers.

 

I really think it's all about the teacher/student :)

[FO4UR]

I'm not a big fan of the Bob Books.  The only one of my kids who used and enjoyed them was the one who taught herself to read (and thus didn't need phonetic-controlled readers).  She colored them like coloring books and used them to play school.

 

 

The flashcards?  Maybe. They are cheap to re-purchase if you regret it later.  There are some games I play and sometimes those cards are a handy way of keeping track which facts need more attention.  I have used flashcards off and on since I began HSing.  If they are cheapo dollar store flashcards, declutter and move along.  If you have a nice set, I'd hang on to them.

[Bluegoat]

I have never had any luck with flash cards.

 

I found Bob books useful, as a few others have mentioned, for a brief period.  When my kids were just beginning reading instruction, they all found it a little tedious to just do exercises, and so the Bob books supplied something to change up the routine.  They felt like it was an accomplishment to read a little book with a narrative.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

We use the Now I'm Reading! series that PP mentioned. DS & I much prefer these to Bob books b/c they have real story lines & are funny!

 

I also got the entire HOP Kindergarten Classroom Edition app for free on Teacher Appreciation Day one year & we use that. It's excellent, but only goes to -ck endings so he's nearly outgrown it after 6mo.

[ikuradesuka]

Late to the party, but wanted to chime in because I've been pondering this myself.  I have a bunch of really nice flash cards...and a bunch of kids who couldn't care less.  I'm teaching my fourth and fifth to read right now, and none of my kids have benefited from flash cards.  Even the ones that have used them some, haven't transferred the knowledge from the card to the book.  We have enjoyed the Bob books, sort of.  We don't usually use them as "learning to read" books, rather the kids just like to read them after they get their feet under them in other ways.  My kids are usually on the younger end when they start trying to learn to read, and the Bob books don't allow enough spacing between the words to be clear for my kids.  At three, my oldest could read them if I isolated it one word at a time, but couldn't read it otherwise.  She did fine with some hand-me-down Sonlight readers with larger font, and larger spacing/margins.