Bob Books

Joseph is teaching Austin how to read using Bob Books. He worked as a reading tutor when we first came to Louisville, so he has taken the initiative to work with Austin. I couldn't be more thrilled!

Each box of Bob Books has twelve little books that build upon one another. The first book only uses four sounds M, A, T, S. Austin is currently working on Book 1 and Book 2 and has great enthusiasm.


I recently read something from The Well Trained Mind that changed my perspective on teaching a child to read and write.

Some good phonics programs insist that you combine writing with reading and tell you not to progress on until the child is able to both read and write sat, fat, bat, from dictation. I think this tends to frustrate very young readers. Your goal is to get the child to read quickly, easily, and early. Many children are ready to read before they have the muscular coordination to write as fast as they can learn to read. I have done the reading and writing drills separately until first grade. Teach one letter (always do capital and small letter before going to next letter) at a time.. you can just go through the alphabet, or you can follow the order in your primer, going back to the beginning with the writing, but forging ahead with the reading. It is important to closely supervise the forming of the letters in the beginning. It is more work to break incorrect habits later.

I was encouraged to read this. Austin, for example, has very poor fine motor skills. He cannot color in the lines or draw recognizable pictures yet. However, he shows enthusiasm for reading, and he knows all his letters and their sounds. We are foraging ahead with reading. His motor skills will catch up.