AIBU to think they should have checked with MN before naming their children?

[TEEARDIS]

My P1 son has brought home his first Biff Chip and Kipper books.

Being from America I did not read these at his age.

AIBU to think their names are ridiculous and their mum should have check the baby name boards before naming them thus?

There was a Chip in that sit on 'Kate and Akly' that was American wasn't it?

No, the writers of Buffy are American. We have no Biff and his magic key in America.

*sitcom Kate and Ally

I have taught Reception for 6 years.
I have read these books for 6 years.
I thought Biff was a boy!?!

She looks like a boy except she has very long hair.

I had a teaching practice in the class of a teacher who actually read ORT books at story time, ffs - can you imagine?! Needless to say, I didn't learn a great deal from her.

I went though school reading the Biff, Chip and Kipper books. Now my sons are bringing home the exact same books. Thought I was rid of them :(

I always thought they were strange names to use.

I remember having a reading series as a child with gazelles and antelopes.

I thought it was Chuck that was short for Charles?

Be VERY GLAD if your kids are into the Oxford reading tree - it's the system that every prep school in Britain uses and it is far and away (the most annoying) and best reading system so far.
The grammar can be argued with (they use the Oxford Comma which I find disgusting) but it DOES work and as they progress through the books and the stages you will suddenly see (at about 7yrs) your kids reading fluently and with expression.

The names are easy to learn in Y1 and once kids identify with the characters after one or two easy books they stick with it.

Do it yourself, say them out loud: "Biff, Chip, Kipper" - easy things to say out loud if you're five and the whole point of the books is that they are read out loud to teachers and then to parents.

Looking back over YEARS of these books (three kids, eldest 14, youngest 7) which I have equally loved and hated and complained about to the publisher on occasion, I have to say that the politics are just about OK, the approach to the world is fairly "christian" or neutral and the notions and "morals" they teach are pretty good.

Forget the names, stick with the system, it honestly works if you put in the effort.

I'm not Christian. Can I complain about the stupidly named characters now?

The names aren't very easily decodable, though, are they? I know the series was written before phonics became the in thing but Chip has /ch/, kipper has /er/ and the double P and Biff has a double letter too.

I've just ordered the songbirds ones for DS which actually progress in a decodable way and look interesting and good. I'll let you know if we get on them - we are out of the UK so he's not learning at school.

get on WITH them.

I absolutely bloody hated Billy sodding blue hat, Roger red hat etc. Those books were the bane of my life. I didn't get off them till I was 7 and bored senseless!

Janet and John here. I quite liked ORT, much better than the early Ginn books.

PaperMover- Ben was the dog, Meg the hen, Jip the cat, can't remember the rat's name for the life of me! To be fair, the books did look like they were 40 years old, and the last time we had a tidy up of the bookshelves they got thrown out.

MiniMonty- I have to say, I don't think ORT is a very good reading scheme for children with SEN. I work with children aged between 4 and 7. ORT (at least the original part of it) relies on sight vocabulary and picture clues. The children with SEN that I work with struggle as they cannot remember the vocabulary that they need. If given a book with 'Mum and Dad and Biff and Chip and Kipper' in, they can work out the names from first letter and picture, but cannot recognise that the word 'and' appears 4 times on that page. If they can't recognise that, how can they then extend their knowledge to be able to read 'sand'? (Which is how most of use learned to read words that we haven't come across before, by comparing with words we have come across)

With phonics, particularly something like RWI (or even Letterland), which forms strong connections between the letter shape and its sound, the child can read 'a n d and' every time they come across the word. And over time, they will become quicker and quicker until they are reading the word automatically.

Deb! The rat was Deb! I just remembered, it drove me nuts because I had a child with dyslexia who couldn't get his head round the fact that it wasn't bed.

Ds3 (7) loves them. We are reading the time chronicles at the moment. They are actually quite exciting.

Did anyone else read Lolly & Pop? I did in Reception but then moved schools and no one else has ever heard of them!

To CrohnicallyTired

I agree - ORT is not a good system for SEN kids.

My personal view is that kids in the UK go to school FAR too early, are pushed and bullied into formal education LONG before they can have any real benefit from it and being allowed to play and have a childhood then learning it all in a year once they are seven is a much preferable approach.
I talk to my MP - she stares back at me blankly...

To volestair
I said "Christian OR neutral" Not Christian and therefore neutral and if you've ever scratched the surface of any of these stories you will quickly realise that while they are not preaching anything, they are certainly advancing the WASPy modern Anglican approach to the world.