Author Topic: Best reading kits/tools/book sets for preschoolers?  (Read 1633 times)

El_Viajero

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Best reading kits/tools/book sets for preschoolers?
« on: August 21, 2018, 10:41:08 AM »
When I was three years old, my parents got me a box full of books from the World Book Encyclopedia company. There was a book for each letter of the alphabet. You'd listen to a cassette tape, which was basically the audio book, and "read" along with the actual book. There were also puppets and stuff in there that looked like the book characters. According to my parents, I got a bunch of stuff for Christmas that year, but all I cared about was this book kit – and it really helped me learn to read!

I'm looking for a modern day equivalent for my 3-year-old. He already loves being read to and will sit around and "read" his favorite books to himself. He's really just reciting the story as he remembers me having read it, of course.

Anyway, Hooked on Phonics has this, which looks promising, but I haven't done much actual research on what's out there: https://www.hookedonphonics.com/product/complete-learn-to-read-kit-with-bonus-spelling/

Any suggestions?

kiwi

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Re: Best reading kits/tools/book sets for preschoolers?
« Reply #1 on: August 21, 2018, 12:01:24 PM »
Take a look at the "bob books" series. Kids can almost teach themselves to read from this series.

AMandM

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Re: Best reading kits/tools/book sets for preschoolers?
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2018, 12:03:08 PM »
Are these the books that you had? https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Letter-People-SKILLBOOKS-Nos-1-27/163207998095
If so, you could buy them and record yourself reading them.

My kids' learning to read was greatly helped by Hop On Pop and Dr Seuss's alphabet book.  We also used a variety pf other alphabet books on different themes. I sought out ones with high quality illustrations on interesting topics.

El_Viajero

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Re: Best reading kits/tools/book sets for preschoolers?
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2018, 01:06:27 PM »
Are these the books that you had? https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Letter-People-SKILLBOOKS-Nos-1-27/163207998095
If so, you could buy them and record yourself reading them.

My kids' learning to read was greatly helped by Hop On Pop and Dr Seuss's alphabet book.  We also used a variety pf other alphabet books on different themes. I sought out ones with high quality illustrations on interesting topics.

Ha! No, but I do remember those from my kindergarten class. Mister M with the Munching Mouth, FTW! It looks like these are World Book books, so maybe I'm conflating my memory of my in-home reading kit with the series they used at my school.

Take a look at the "bob books" series. Kids can almost teach themselves to read from this series.

This looks promising. I will research more. Thanks!

CindyBS

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Re: Best reading kits/tools/book sets for preschoolers?
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2018, 04:51:12 PM »
Talk to your librarian.  Our library has a little section within the kids section that is just for the super beginner readers. 


Freedomin5

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Re: Best reading kits/tools/book sets for preschoolers?
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2018, 11:23:52 PM »
Khan Academy Kids is a free app created by the Khan Acadmey people. It focuses on letters, numbers, sequencing, patterns, left/right, critical thinking, emotion recognition, reading, science (learning about nature), music, movement, etc. DD is four and loves it.

I also like Leo’s Pad to develop executive functioning skills. It was created by Stanford early education researchers.

We also bought several preschool workbooks for DD to practice writing her letters and numbers. I need to sit beside her for those though since I need to read the instructions to her.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2018, 07:41:22 PM by Freedomin5 »

kanga1622

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Re: Best reading kits/tools/book sets for preschoolers?
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2018, 11:33:57 AM »
I believe kids will learn to read when they are ready.

Our oldest taught himself to read when he was 4. He had a LeapFrog little electronic game thing that had the alphabet and talked about what sound each letter made. He got that for his 2nd birthday and knew everything it had to teach within months. Then we got the Hooked on Phonics app (for free through some special offer). He adored it and played certain modules over and over (There was a Pig was a huge favorite). One day he got a set of easy reader site word books and read all the titles to us as soon as he saw them. Completely blew us away as we thought he had been just memorizing his favorite books.

My youngest had all the same items available but they didn’t interest him. He is now 5 and recognizes his capital letters and a few lowercase letters. He’s been to speech therapy where he had extra exposure to certain letters and letter sounds. He’s just not there yet with reading. We figure he will probably figure out a few basic site words (it, is, I, we) before the end of this school year but won’t push. No sense making him hate reading by pushing too hard. He loves to have books read to him so we try to do several short books a day and incorporate some early reader books for word repetition.

 

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