It's only when you actually SEE a 'Janet and John' reader, c.1968 that you realise that ORT isn't so bad!

[miljee]

You've probably seen a couple of these reissued in the nostalgia section of bookshops, the yellow and orange ones. You recall your learning to read days and flick one open and lo!

"Look, Janet" said John.
"Look, John" said Janet.
Janet and John look. The dog looks.
Janet, John and the dog look".

Give me
"Suddenly, the magic key began to glow.." any day!

'Oh' said Chip.
'Oh Fuck!' said Biff.
'Oh Fuck off!' said kipper.
'Oh fuck off, not again' said Mrs May.

Have to say my son got on much better with Peter and Jane over the early ORT ones. Having random harder words they were meant to guess at from pictures really destressed him. He felt bad that he didn't know them, when he thought he was meant to. However he flew through the first 6 levels of Peter and Jane and looked proud and happy when he finished a book. For him it worked better that if they were meant to be learning the first few simple words like "look" then they were the only words in the book.

I spoke to his teacher and she said it was fine if he did their reading scheme at school but we carried on with Peter and Jane at home. As it was better for him to be reading than refusing! I'm glad to be reading books with him now that aren't on any scheme ;)