D.K. asks from Richmond, IN on January 11, 2012
Learning to Read : Beginning Readers Recommendations
My little guy is learning to read! He knows the alphabet. We have done phonics, word building, and he knows about 60 sight words. We have done the first 6 stories on The Starfall website. I want to get him some beginning readers. I've found some information on the following readers: Now I'm Reading by Nora Gaydos, First little readers by Scholastic, Bob Books, and the Starfall homeschooling pack. Has anyone used these readers? Do you have a favorite series? Do you know of other beginning readers? Has anyone purchased the starfall homeschooling pack? It seems a bit pricey. I don't mind spending the money if it is worth it. The task of teaching my son to read falls on my shoulders. I have some teaching experience. I taught English as a foreign language for 10 years. I know how to lesson plan. My son is my first student who is a native speaker of English, so I'm in a new ball game so to speak. We live in Japan. I definitely don't want him learning English from a Japanese teacher. We haven't sent him to preschool, and he will start Japanese kindergarten next year in April. I'd like to be past the hardest hurdles of learning to read by then. He is very interested in reading, and has many story books. He loves story time!
I can't get books written in English from our local library. We are living in Japan. We do go to the library once every two weeks for books that our son can read with Daddy. My husband is Japanese. Any books we have in English, we get from Amazon or my family sends them to us. We really like reading! We have a 30 minute story time in English in the afternoon daily. We also read 2 books inEnglish and 2 in Japanese at bedtime. I am blessed that my mother loves reading and is constantly sending us books for our son.
More Answers
K.B. answers from Pittsburgh on January 11, 2012
It sounds like you are on the right track, and I'm sure your experience helps. I used the Bob Books with my son and they are a good first step. They have two or three sets of 12 books each. Once you get through those, I would say move on to easy readers aligned to his interest. For example, we have Hotwheels phonics books and level 1 books. There is also a series of books called Henry and Mudge that are easy readers but a little more advanced. Good luck!
1 mom found this helpful
A.G. answers from Dallas on January 11, 2012
I'm an English teacher, and our home is full of books. We read to our boys constantly, and they learned a ton that way, but when it came to actually teaching them to read, I loved the Bob Books.
A.W. answers from Kalamazoo on January 11, 2012
My favs are Go Dog Go and Hop on Pop.
L._. answers from San Diego on January 11, 2012
Go for www.time4learning.com
Their language program is fantastic. As for books themselves, just hit the library every week :)
K.N. answers from Cleveland on January 11, 2012
I really prefer usborne over scholastic, for everything from early readers on up. I remember my kids reading all sorts of Usborne books when they started learning to read.
K.C. answers from Los Angeles on January 11, 2012
Mo Willems writes a very cute series of Elephant & Piggy books that my son has been reading.
Anything Dr. Seuss is great, too.
Other fun books are the Froggy Series, all the Little Critter books, anything else by Mo Willems
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