I can not reccommend the Jelly and Bean reading books enough....

[DrNortherner]

My ds is 5 and in 1 week he has gone from a reluctant struggling reader to a confident wanting to read boy!!!

He was struggling on ORT and still on level 1, a friend who is a Primary teacher reccommended J&B so I ordered the first set.

He is flying through them, I am honestly amazed. Honestly. I had to tell you all.

are they phonics based?

where did you order from?

DrNortherner thanks for your post. I am just deciding which set of books to order. My DD is bringing home shocking old ORT books which I can see are going to get her no where fast. I have borrowed some Songbird phonics books from the library and like your ds she is so confident and wants to read and write all the time!

I would second this post - I have all of them (built up over time) ordered from here

First I bought them for my dd so we started about half way through, then ds needed something very simple when he first started so we got the earleir ones too.

They are definitly phonics based and do not introduce the trickier digraphs until quite a long way on - perfect for my ds who did not grasp these until he age 4.5, altho he had been reading for over a year by then.

I found Marlene Greenwood (the author and illustrator) really helpful - she told me exactly which set to buy for dd when I spoke to her.

I loved having pictures of the inside pages on the website too, meant I could get a really good idea of the number of words per page etc

And of course the stories are enchanting and the illustrations of the two cats and their chums are gorgeous.

Sorry, should have said first - well done your ds DrNorthener.

Isn't it a wonderful moment when they can do it and moreso, they KNOW they can do it and revel in their new found skill

Oh yes the look on his face when he reads a whole book by himself is priceless. Everytime we get on to the next book I think he might struggle, but no, he's off!!!

Thanks for the recommendation, am very interested for my 4 yr old ds. So what did you get, the A series? Am going to order now!

I would start with the A series and the B series - they run pretty much together, then move onto the 'extra' sets.

They pretty much move on in difficulty in the order on the website page (if you put the A and B series level). My dc preferred the 'cat' books rather then the pig series but enjoyed them all.

The final books have some wonderful stories - there is one called 'The Scarecrow' which is the most beautiful little story I have ever read.

Are these just reception level?
my Ds is 7 and struggling, but he's on level 7/8 reading wise, do these books go up to that?

Well done to DrNortherner's ds.

I think that Jelly and Bean are brilliant for the early stages. Although I think children need a variety of decodable books.

My son really enjoyed the the Jolly Readers, in particular the non fiction. However I don't think the Jolly Readers are good for for the very early stages. The progress too quickly in difficulty.

Once a child has gone through the reception series and the B series then the yellow level of the Jolly Readers are good. Ruth Miskin books are good as well, but I have only tried the yellow level.

I must emphasize that I think the higher levels of Jelly and Bean books are excellent books as well.

I really must learn to stay off these threads for the sake of my purse.

Thanks to various recommendations here I've just spent over £20 on-line on more books for ds1 as all we have had so far from school are ORT books with no words. He could read before he started school in September but it's half-term already and his teacher didn't know he could read until I told her just before half-term started. I know they'll get there in the end as a class but he wants to read for himself now, at bed-time, story books read by mummy are just not wanted at the moment.

At home he's done ORT Songbird phonics first 2 levels (written by Julia Donaldson who wrote "The Gruffalo" etc) and I was looking for more cvc word type books with a few tricky words thrown in to ensure we stay away from "look and say" word learning and don't conflict with the teacher's phonic methods in due course.

Jelly and Bean look lovely books too.

I know what you mean about reading threads like these being expensive. I reckon I must have spent at least £100 on various educational or general fun books for my son over the past five years. Its worst than cloth nappy addiction.

Still its a lot cheaper than paying for something extortionate like Kumon Maths or private tutoring. There are other dreadful schemes like Dore that cost thousands of pounds and still leave the child unable to read.

I think that my best buys have been "The Jolly Phonics Handbook" although the Jelly and Bean books and "Write from the Start" are a close second. I am sure that its partly thanks to Mareline Greenwood (the author of Jelly and Bean) that my son loves reading.

I wish that our local library had a selection of good quality decodable readers.

I agree, costs me a fortune too, but I hope to be able to sell them all on e bay in a bit so recoup some of my investment.

And I agree, it is no more than 6 months Kumon, and most definitly worth it. I spend a fortune on books for me, so cannot really do less for the dcs

Jelly and Bean are fab, dd2 has them in reception

Hello, I know this is a very very old thread but I was just about to Oder the jelly and bean books for my dd1 having had a good conversation with them over the phone. But they are so expensive! So if anyone has now finished with them and wants to sell them on, would you PM me please? Thank you!