Chobie's New Bob Books

Have you heard of Bob Books? Apparently Bob is the new Dick and Jane, at least according to the product review page on Amazon.

A homeschooling mom friend of mine recommended these to me, explaining that they were so simple they practically guarantee success even for the newest readers and her son found them hilarious. So I decided to give them a try with Chobie.

First, like the truly frugal shoppers we are, we tried some from the library, starting with the pre-reading skills set.  Chobie liked them. He loved sitting down and reading an entire set (12 books) in one sitting. This doesn’t say too much though, because Chobie delights in reading just about anything. He did like the pre-reading skills set better than the alphabet set though.

After the success with the prereading books, I went for it and got the first three sets of books.

Chobie has done some reading before, but only about 20 words. He was able to sit down and read the first book. He found it HILARIOUS. He cracked up when Sam sat on Mat. He needed a bit more help with the second book, but was doubled over with laughter when Mat sat on Sam.  Maslen truly understands  the 4-year-old sense of humor.

We made a little chart to keep track of his reading progress. The stickers are not so much rewards as they are a visual representation of what he has done.  The chart is somewhat graph like, so we’re blending in just a bit of math with the visual representation.

Do you have any brilliant ideas for beginning readers? I'd love to hear about them or see links to your posts in the comments.