Teaching your child to read and write - best books to order

[Boobz]

I have two DDs aged 4 and 5. We live in Rome and for the past year they have been attending a French/Italian/English preschool where all the "lessons" have been taught in those languages. It was based on the Montessori played based learning system, and whilst they have had lots of fun and picked up another couple of languages (to a certain level), they didn't do any structured reading or writing (Italian children don't start formal education and therefore reading and writing until 6, in the main).

They have recently started at the Lycée and have all their lessons in French, and will continue in the French system until they finish school. They have a tutor twice a week to help them with their French reading books, but are still not reading on their own.

I would like to teach them to read and write in English and am looking for some good books to help teach me to teach them how to do it. I am completely new at this, so am trying to get some opinions on here for which books would be a good starting point.

Can anyone post any names of books/authors which you think is a good place to start?

Thanks.

I love Jelly and bean, it's a phonics based system. My DD who is 4 has made great progress with it.

We liked the songbirds books as it is very phonics based, not sure if book people deliver abroad, but they generally are very competitively priced. Also used read write inc app and alphablocks on cbeebies website/app.

Just checked and theyodo international delivery .... for a price. Alternatively if you have someone to receive it in uk and collect from you could add ort levels 1-3 not quite as good in my opinion but lots of books to practice on. 1-3 is roughly reception level and 4-6 yr 1 but children do progress at different rates. I used the apps to make sure that my and his pronunciation was correct and he just read lots of books. All children are different though and it has taken dd2 4yrs to make the same progress as ds has made in a year.

Thanks everyone for the recommendations - I am coming to the Uk in a couple of weeks so can order them there and take them back with me. Super helpful, thanks.

The jolly phonics activity books are a great way to introduce children to reading and writing in English. I suggest you get the CD of songs to learn the letter sounds

jollylearning.co.uk/

I think that starting off with decodable books is best. I would ignore 3bunnies advice about buying stages 1 to 3 ORT because you can get a lot of ORT books for free from www.oxfordowl.co.uk Save your pennnies for buying decodable books.

Oxford reading tree books are not decodable and do not fit in with how modern British schools teach reading. I think tht ORT are great from about stage 3. Rather than buying ORT books you can use the website

www.oxfordowl.co.uk and view 250 books for free.

Good decodable books are dandelion readers, Songbirds, Jelly and bean and Ruth Miskin books. You can sometimes get second hand books off ebay.

Wow thank you ReallyTired - that's brilliant! I will start looking through your links today - thanks every so much.

Dandelion Launchers from Phonic Books offer a systematic approach to reading not found in some other schemes. I would also recommend the Sounds~Write app (first units are free and who initial prog only a few pounds) perfect for beginners.

Have ordered the Activity Books (1-7) and the Jolly Songs CD from Jolly Phonics, and the Dandelion Launchers Units 1-3 to get us started.

Thanks for your help!

I have another question. Would you try and teach the 4 and 5 year old together, or separately?

My ds learned to read with the book The Reading Lesson: Teach Your Child to Read in 20 Easy Lessons, it's really good.

In answer to your last question, I would do the writing with them both together, then the reading one at a time so it's more relaxing for them and they take more in.

I would teach them together

Use Step by Step devised by Mona McNee. Phonics made simple with free materials on the web. I taught 16 year old boys to read and write within 30 teaching hours

Peter & Jane!