DD and reading... again!

[mummynoseynora]

Some of you may remember (but probably not ) my random wafflings about DD and her reading over the last 6 months or so. The last update was that she has got the hang of blending words- she is able to sound out allsorts now and tonight alone read:

hat
cat
dog
mat
is
at
mop
fab

we have started working on the as her first 'tricky' word, and she is getting the hang of it too

I saw mention on mumsnet today of the site 'reading chest'. Has anyone used it? Is it worth it? DD would REALLY like to try reading actual books, but most of her stories are more 'fun' so she just see's lots of words and doesn't want to try... I thought maybe getting some of the first bookband books might be the way to go?

If it is a good idea - does anyone have a voucher code or anything??

thanks :)

bump?

If you use Reading Chest then stick to the phonic decodable book schemes they stock.

You might like to use these too:

www.speld-sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105&Itemid=182
Australia-SPELD provide 47 free books online which follow the Jolly Phonics GPC introduction order. N.B. a few of these books contain words that some teachers/parents may not like young children to read e.g. 'bum' and 'spat'

Reading Chest is very good, highly recommended by me, great customer service too. I would say invaluable over the summer holidays, especially if you are not near a library.

How old is she?

thursday she is 4.4 - starts school in september

thanks maverick and lovecheese

I use reading chest, and chose it for the phonic schemes as DS1 wasn't getting on at all well with look and say.

The easiest phonic schemes at the earliest stages are Floppy's Phonics and Phonics Bug. The Big Cat Phonics ones are lovely, but at each stage we found they had harder books than the other two phonics schemes.

Yes, I have a voucher code and will pm you.

Have you got a Works near you? DD loves going in there and choosing her own books. She started off with the level 1/2 biff,chip and kipper books about a year ago. She's 4.5 now and nursery send her home with books from the attached school. She's now on level 7/8 and loves reading. So yes working through bands does work (IMO)

She sounds like she is in a really good position to learn quickly when she starts school. Personally I wouldn't do anything. Very early reading books are mostly very boring and since it's only a couple of months until she starts school I would just practice what she's already learnt a bit.

Do they have any reading scheme books in your local library? If she's really keen to try some books it might be worth having a look. Ours has a couple of schemes, including the phonic Songbirds.

I have used Reading Chest and found it useful. Would agree with noid that the different schemes do differ a bit, even if you choose phonic only books, with Big Cat phonics harder that the others. You can look at sample pages on the Reading Chest website to give you an idea. But at this very early stage of learning to read we found it better to stick with just one scheme so that sounds and tricky words were introduced in a more structured way. We found the Jelly and Bean books good for this. If the library doesn't have anything and she really wants to try some books (and you can afford it and think it's worth the money!) you could maybe buy a pack of those? 'A' series would probably be what you need.

many thanks all :)

Noid thanks for the info - really sorry but I found a discount code last night and registered so can't use your code, thanks anyway!

Have now shrunk down my selections to just fiction and using floppy phonics and phonics bug.

Typically the first books have been selected and posted, but we'll give them a go anyway and see how we get on. We have decided to try it for this month at least and if she does enjoy it then decide from there

If Reading chest do Read Write inc phonic readers then they might be worth a try. The first ones are all very simple phonic words but the children I teach seem to really like them as the stories are humorous.

If you've time, have a look at 7 minute

This little 4 year old had had some ear problems during his babyhood and was still in 'sounding out' mode - but then quickly moved onto to fluent reading. It's the fun, curiosity, building little narratives that's important - together with instilling a synthetic phonics habit - and stamping hard on any 'guessing'! The enjoyment of little children reading books with story-lines they can engage with is very infectious. There are 48 of these 'little books' -
www.piperbooks.co.uk