Nap time was over. My son crawled up on my lap, he was bored.
First, I offered to read him a book, then I suggested, he read to ME.
He loved the idea. We dug out the old set of Bob Books my daughter used while learning to read and got started.
If you aren’t familiar with Bob Books here’s the description of Set 1 from Amazon’s website:
“Teach a child letter sounds with Bob Books Set 1! With four letters in the first story, children can read a whole book. Consistent new sounds are added gradually, until young readers have read books with all letters of the alphabet (except Q). Short vowels and three-letter words in simple sentences make Bob Books Set 1 a fun confidence builder. With little books, come big success. (TM)”
They’re cheap too, the whole set of a dozen Bob Books was less than $10 total.
Since he already knew his letter sounds and Bob Books are mainly phonics based, he was able (with a little bit of my help) to start reading books, by himself! Each book may only have five or six different words in them, but hey, to a kid it doesn’t matter if it’s 7 pages or 700 pages, a book is a book. We had a great time. We sat together for probably an hour or so reading the same five or six books over and over again until his little sister finally woke up from her nap.
I think they have an app now that you can download and use on a phone or tablet too, as an alternative to the regular books, but my son is already exposed to enough screen time as it is. It’s nice to see him HOLD A BOOK and TURN THE PAGES, two things that get lost in the digital world.
If you’re looking for something to help you get your kid started reading, I would recommend these. They are cheap, fun and effective.
This is not a paid endorsement. I just like them, that is all.
-Pete