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ORT Songbird Books

18 replies

jmspbro · 03/04/2011 13:32

My DS1 is in reception. The books he brings home to read include the Chip, Biff and Kipper series, as well as the Songbird series. However I do take issue with some of the Songbird series, depicting negative attitudes and rudeness.
'Fish and Chips' depicted the character being fed up and giving up. After reading it, DS1 said he was fed up (at being told to tidy his room), a behaviour we had to iron out of him.

Another Songbird book depicted a situation where 'please' and 'thank you' would be appropriate, but were not. (After being able to say their names, toddlers are taught please and thank you, aren't they!) If the stage of the book was such that the phonics of 'please' was not covered yet, then do not depict the situation!
In another book, the main thread was for characters to say 'Buzz Off' to each other. Hardly appropriate for a 4 year old.
After the Fish and Chips book, we did comment in his log book. The teacher replied that negativity was part of the reading experience and that we should discuss the rights and wrongs of the book blah blah etc.

As a parent, I have enough opportunities to discuss negative behaviour with DS1 as part of his growing up. I really do not need the school to provide further examples in the form of reading material at this time in his life.

What I do now is simply screen the Songbirds books, and do not use them if I feel the content is inappropriate. We have our own books which we supplement his home reading with.

Sorry to rant on here, but have other parents come across this? or am I being a little too picky about it?

OP posts:
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HouseTooSmall · 03/04/2011 13:37

You are going to have problems later on if you are worried about the content of songbird books!
I have on occasion queried suitability of books but re concerns of age appropriate stuff.
Think you can say 'oh thats rude/ cheeky' etc and you and your son can be aghast together.. My ds very shocked by Horrid Henry books but enjoys them.

MollieO · 03/04/2011 15:36

Don't whatever you do read Captain Underpants books if you think Songbird books are rude. Personally I wouldn't be concerned. I'm sure you are quite capable of ensuring your Ds doesn't mirror the behaviour he reads about. Reading them (and Horrid Henry and Captain Underpants) hasnt turned my 6 yr old Ds I into a delinquent!

mrz · 03/04/2011 15:43

I feel sorry for Ron Rabbit all those complaining customers Grin

IndigoBell · 03/04/2011 16:40

And I thought I'd heard every complaint about reading book there was Grin

Madsometimes · 03/04/2011 17:57

I think Song birds are great. They taught dd2 to read, and were far better than the look and say books that we had to use with dd1. Lots of humour in them too.

ZombieComforts · 03/04/2011 19:10

Huh? My three-year-old was attempting, this morning, to sound out d-u-ck in the sentence "muck it up for duck" and inadvertently sounded out f-u-ck. Now that was a rude reading book :)

muffinflop · 03/04/2011 19:14

I'm with Ron Rabbit too, poor thing. How ungrateful are his customers!?

It's just a book. If this upsets you then you're in for a very bumpy ride on the education rollercoaster

oxocube · 03/04/2011 19:17

My advice is to get over it Smile. Songbird books encourage phonic development. I find them dull to listen to (am a teacher) but wouldn't take issue with the content.

oxocube · 03/04/2011 19:20

I have a parent in my class who comments on every reading book I send home eg 'We didn't like this book, we found it rather uninspiring. I can hazard a guess that it wasn't the 7 year old who objected Wink

Bonsoir · 03/04/2011 19:23

I hesitated between Songbirds and Jelly & Bean when looking at phonics books for my DD. Jelly & Bean are a million times nicer!

MillsAndDoom · 03/04/2011 20:47

IIRC as part of the extension work in the back of the book, discussing the storyline is one of the activities.

If you feel so strongly, then this is your opportunity to discuss the storyline with your DC about the characters manners (or lack thereof).

Unless you really want to give the teachers a laugh and mark yourself as a tricky parent then I really wouldn't mention it to the school

hocuspontas · 03/04/2011 20:54

Grin at indigo!

Can you imagine how hard it is to write a book using basically cvc words? I think the Songbird books pull it off pretty well.

What would you say about the Ginn books? Look. Here. Look! Look! Come here. No, here. No pleases or thank yous. Disgusting. Grin

ZombieComforts · 03/04/2011 21:17

hocus the first Ginn book is just: "Look. Look. Look. Look. Look. Look. Look".

And it's downhill from there. Somehow, through some twisted genius, they have constructed 24 books containing the same set of 20 initial words. And I had thought it stopped there. But lo there came level 2 and another 20 words were introduced like a slow toenail extraction over another 24 books. I await level 3 with trepidation...

hocuspontas · 03/04/2011 21:25
Grin

Actually green and orange band Ginn are ok IMO. Maybe I have been brainwashed by then though...

PatriciaHolm · 03/04/2011 22:21

The next few years of primary reading are going to be eye-opening, OP!

PoppetUK · 03/04/2011 22:40

A balance of being exposed to some things that aren't quite to your standards is healthy. Your child is old enough to have a discussion about what you think is ok etc so there is no reason to be avoiding these books. it's just like an extension of explaining something else you might do differently to others.

blackeyedsusan · 03/04/2011 23:02

Zombiecomforts, you should try reading the damn things 30 times... fortunately I moved schools a lot and used different schemes so didn't have to repeat ad infinitum.

perhaps parents should gang up together and ensure that these books have a higher than normal accident rate, prize for the best one... mmmm wondering whether to let dds book bag spill open just as the dumper truck is delivering to the building site next door....

woodlysmum · 05/04/2011 22:51

Ron Rabbit is a legend in our household- we love 'Fish and Chips' and 'Ron Rabbit's Big Day'. Infact we were gutted that Ron Rabbit doesn't feature past Level 3!

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