oxford reading tree - why are they called such odd names?

[lingle]

does anyone know/have a theory why the children are called Biff Chip and Kipper?

thank you!

not that new - my youngest is 19 so he stopped doing ORT about 12 years ago

OMG. I'm actually looking forward to reading Floppy is a daft dog today with DS #3 tomorrow to check out the spooky man and glasses, completely passed me by in fact I might go and raid his book bag now

'Bath Mwlsyn' tonight for us. What is the dog called in the English version? Do you think the glasses are in the Welsh version too? I'm sadly now anticipating the fun of looking when we read tomorrow

Kewcumber, the mum, I know, who wears that much blusher?

Do'h, from the post above mine I'm guessing Floppy is the name of the dog .

the dog is called floppy wonder what he named that after

. Who the creepy caretaker guy?

self portrait, apparently! you know the guy that is always hanging suspisciously over the fence
what is the welsh dog called, then?

Mwlsyn! I have to read with DS3 with DS2 near by so I can look up and check with him I'm helping pronounce stuff right. I was really shocked that English children had the same books in a different language until I realised that Coeden Ddarllen Rhydychen meant Oxford Reading Tree, this is my third child working through it too . All those MN threads about the books and I never realised they were the same ones because of the different names. Biff and Kipper look really alien to me when I see it in print.

do you have a separate system for phonics in wales? cos the language has very distinct origin, I imagine the phonemes are different?

I know a 5-year-old Biff. And he's a boy!

I have yet to meet Floppy in real life though.

F'rinstance dd ...

ooh I've met a few floppies

Totally different to English, letters only have one sound so no ambiguity, 'w' is a vowel and 'ch' 'dd' and 'll' are letters in their own right in the alphabet. When you've got the hang of that it's much easier than learning to read in English, honest. I think they are starting to do a Welsh version of phonics now but won't affect mine as they can all read. They don't learn English until year 3 when they fly through fortunately.

I've met a few Floppies too...

at meeting a few Floppies!

thanks, lost, that's interesting!

Oh and 'ff', 'rh', and 'ph' but no 'j' or 'k', sorry I'm only learning myself. here. I'm still more embarrassed that I didn't realise that we did the Oxford Reading Tree like everyone else, I've missed so many threads where I could have felt inferior about my children's reading ability

Just explained the concept of 'my child is 6 months old and reading level 7 on the ORT is this normal?' and stealth boasting to DH, as a primary school teacher he is most amused. (We don't start reading round here until at least year 1 as a rule)

Ferguson, thanks for resending me that link!

I'm rather surprised by the profiles of the characters they give and the personalities they are supposed to have. I hadn't picked up any of that by level 5. Does this mean the books are naff? Alternatively, does it mean that I'm reading beyond my level, probably due to a misguided pushy parent in my house? Must I go back to level 1 even though my mum thinks I should be a free reader?

Maybe children are supposed to pick up the Christopher/Kipper thing by osmosis? Or is it like one of those naff aimed-at-adults-over-the-childrens'-heads in-jokes?