Reading books

[Mama1980]

Hi I am home edding my 4 year old son. I am not pushing anything formal at all but my son is desperate to read so I joined reading eggs and he loves it. Fast forward 8 weeks and he can sounds his letters, put them together and figure out worlds by sounding them out. I was just wondering if anyone had any good recommendations for basic books for him to read, he likes to practice himself but is getting frustrated that the ones we have-and we have a lot- are either too hard - rumble jn the jungle or too easy ie cat sat on the mat -for him. Does anyone know of a good title or series?thanks as always your help is much appreciated.

My DS loves those old BBC puddle lane books. You can't buy them new but I got lots from ebay. The blue ones are the easiest. They are old fashioned though but my DS found them interesting. He didn't like the more scary ones but he is quite sensitive and I wouldn't have thought other children his age would have been scared. If that does worry you avoid the ones with Griffle or Gruffle in the title

DD2 used to like the gold star reading books which we got from tesco - no idea if they still do them. Different levels had different colours, I seem to remember. She enjoyed them and they got her reading.

Usbourne - the farmyard series (sorry but I can't remember the name). It is EXCELLENT as it has a simple bit for the child to read then a more difficult (and interesting) bit for the adult to read. Co-reading is the best way to learn and these dual books mean the child gets to read and follow a more complex and exciting story. Puddle Lane also follows the same principle so they are also good, the usbourne ones might be easier to get hold of. Also (DARE I SAY IT???) my two really do like the biff and chip Oxford Reading Tree books. DS2 (aged 2 but sounding out words) is obsessed with them and tends to follow me around all day clutching a pile of them. My two are probably unusual in that though! The ORT read at home series can usually be bought very cheaply on the Book People site (which I really recommend). I would also recommend starfall.com which is a free site with phonics practice and little books with moving graphics. DS1 learned to read with it.

Piper Books have really good series that run from there very basic Beginning Readers 1 through to independent, and help my DC1 who, like yours, was frustrated that he couldn't read a whole book himself. They're quite good, well priced, and really boosted his confidence and love of reading.

Thanks everyone I will look into all of those suggestions. He carries books around all day practicing but get so frustrated that he can't do it himself thanks again appreciate the help

Usborne also do some phonic reading books - there's one about a cat (and yes, there is a mat involved!)

shop.scholastic.co.uk/products/86719?gclid=CJbc7b3s168CFYsntAodRj-HAA

We used a pile of the ladybird books, which DD loved, got them second hand from ebay! Plus I trawl the charity shops for books!

Also in case you want to use the oxford reading tree books...
Oxford Owl
...offers a selection of their books, which anyone can access for free!

We found the library didn't offer a lot at the lower stages when DD first started reading but now only a couple of years on they seem to offer a bigger selection, may not be true for all libraries but certainly worth a look, especially as books are expensive when they often only want to read the really early books once or twice. Ones to looks out for that we found helpful: series with a turquoise tadpole on the spine; or series with bars on the spine in pink, yellow or blue and 1,2 or 3 bars depending on difficulty, which also comes as a phonic version; or series with a childs head poking over the top of an open book (book cover in host of colours for difficulty level).

Each reading scheme teaches words in a different order, have difference sentence structures etc so it's best to read as many different schemes as possible so that they don't become a reader only able to cope if you give them one scheme! Plus there is a series of easy non-fiction books on bodies, food types (and something else) which DD enjoyed.

Plus if you hunt through 'picture books' you will notice that they come in a range of levels, so your DS could have a goo at some of those! I used to encourage DD to read the words she recognised as I read a story to her, let her practice some things without feeling upset by not knowing all the words!!

Looks like some useful links.