ORT at home

[samanthar]

is this bearable? keep buying sets form the book ppl like ladybird ohonics and all the goose on the loose etc things and i find them a pain to read and that cant be good vibes even though hide it well. many thanks

You'll soon tire of ORT too , and beairng in mind many schools use it you could face it for many years to come ....

Depending on the level of your dc the Jolly Readres (often good deals on ebay) and Jelly and Bean are much more exciting and tap into the phonics teaching schemes very well, including the new Government scheme Letters and Sounds.

The Red Nose readers and Collins Big CAt Phonics from Book People are fun too for early readers, and i was recommended some by Arnold Lobel

ORT can be tortuous until the Magic key series at Level 5+, when they get a bit bearable!

my kids love reading the ORT ones.

they really love them

My kids loved the ORT and I must admit I did too. There's a lot of humour in the pictures and tehy get a cracking good story in a few words. One of my favourites was the one where they held a barbecue in the rain - the family is just SO real. e bought the lot, and i'm saving them (don't tell DH)now in the loft for my grandkids (yeah, I know....)

I wouldn't read 'scheme' books to your children. I would stick to rich, deeply textured children's books which elicit discussion rather than decoding. They will have plenty of scheme books at school and for some children they can kill the passion.

thanks rapunzelle, more or less my sentiments. can't bear cat in the hat have only managed recently to see the point of apple tree farm...but am finding that they are in a between age and as i find sitting down very painful i really wanted unisex ideas as dc twins, at present, share reading time with us. i know 10 mins with one each is better than 20 together as inevitably they compensate for each other...or as is now the case she is actaully recognising a few words where as he is reciting
we have exhausted rawberry shortcake/topsy and tim/apple tree farm /all the mog and all the inevitable alex scheffler. also much against my better judgement have emaberked upon a princess poppy collection but these will be for treats/starting school/christmas and b-days. very tricky to find boy equivalents though,harry and dinosaurs
is fine but dont like bob the builder,charlie and lola and all the other merchandisey stuff (is that an adjective i fear not!) etc et al quite liking paddington but as said the age 4-5 is a funny one if you go into waterstones etc there are all the 2-4 books and then it seems to lurch to these collections of phonicy stuff. and as to letterland.grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. thanks for reply pls write some more rapunzelle as had forgotten that words like 'elicit' exist! grey matter, is ,here, alas, petrified in all senses and as ever the dish has run away with not so much the spoon but is has eloped on the subordinate clause train...so thabnks if you got this far.

If you want unisex stuff that you can dip into for 10 mins or so dare i suggest Enid Blyton - The Wishing Chair, Faraway Tree etc. My dd loved these at this age, and she could pick out some simple words.

Also have you thoguht about non fiction - these books are great for both sexes and dipping into. Again when they are a little older they will read them themsleves.

I have just started reading Teddy Robinson www.amazon.co.uk/Teddy-Robinson-Stories-Kingfisher-Classics/dp/075341211Xto DS (nearly 5). It's his first "non picture" type book and he loves it. I know the Amazon review says it's aimed at girls but he loves it. Each short chapter is a different story, oh yes and it was written in the 1950's so lovely language.

great thanks for ideas will look out for these also they have quite liked paddington though a bit abridged

Hi Samanthar, Your post made me smile :-) My own grey matter on the wane as pregnant again! If only I could remember where my keys are.

I ama teacher and have had to bite my tongue HARD not to dictate too much which books we read at home. My daughter 4 uses jolly phonics books to read by herself (have taught her using a synthetic phonics method and these are decodable so she can access them) She likes 'chapter books' for bedtime reading. We had a period of rainbw fairies (though that confession cuts me to the core!) and we are mow a 1.3 of the way through James and the Giant peach.

My son 2.5 likes 'harry' 'Charlie & Lola' and any books which mention 'poo'

They will both sit together and listen to stories on CD e.g. Winnie the Witch or Litle Tiger Tales (Book people do a great set of these) This is great becaue my son just istens and my daughter follows the text in the book.

Good luck finding something you can all enjoy.