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Great Resources: Bob Books

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Monday, July 28, 2014

  Both my kids are in elementary school, so the days of learning to read are not far behind us - actually in the case of the younger one they are still upon us.  For him reading is an agonizing process of sounding out each letter and then putting the sounds together into recognizable words.  We have finally gotten to the point where he recognizes certain words or letter combinations, and I think he is about to cross over from reading the sounds to reading the actual words - all he needs is more practice.
  And so, Bob Books have been an important part of his reading program these past few months.
  Bob Books are designed to be a stand-alone reading program which introduces young readers to each letter sound.  In the first set of books, the students learn the typical sound a letter makes (so the letter C has the hard K sound [cat] as opposed to the soft S sound [cell]) as well as all five short vowel sounds.  Each set has 10 to 12 little books with short sentences and simple pictures to help beginners read by context - the picture shows what is happening in the text.  Each book adds new letters and sounds.  The boxed sets build on each other introducing students to increasingly more complex sounds and words until students are able to read both short and long vowel words.  Each story is about 12 pages long, though the books get longer as the student progresses.  Both my kids and I like that the books are fairly humorous - it helps keep reading lessons from being tedious.

  The Bob Books (bobbooks.com)website has a lot of information about how to use the program along with supplemental materials.

  That said, I have never used the program on its own.  For both my kids I have used Bob books as supplemental reading material.  For both of my children I have chosen reading programs that are more tied to phonics lessons and workbooks.  I tend to be a "by the book" kind of person and I wasn't confident that I could teach my kids to read using the more organic approach offered by Bob Books.  

So why do I love Bob books?

  Because it is hard to find readers that only use short vowel words.  As big as the "Easy Reader" market is, there are very few books that focus on words for the very youngest readers - those with short vowels, and only a few sight words.  Bob Books are fairly inexpensive and fit the need for short vowel words.  The first set of 12 books uses only short vowels.  The books have been a great supplement to our regular reading program and have the added bonus of allowing kids the sense of accomplishment that comes with reading a whole book by themselves.

  I highly recommend Bob Books to anyone with beginning readers.

Please note: These great resources are not paid endorsements.  We just like to pass along the books and materials that we find helpful in the classroom.

Got a great resource of your own?  Let us know in the comments section.  We are always on the look out for interesting products!

  

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