by SusanM
Learning how to read is an important stage in your child's education. This is because reading is essential to daily living and later success in school.
But knowing the best books to help your child learn to read is hard. Why? Because despite there being lots of children's books available only some are good for a beginner reader.
When we think of a children's book the first thing we think of is a picture book. We also think of well known books like Horton Hears a Who by Dr Seuss. These are wonderful for giving children a love of books, But they aren't for a beginner reader. This is because these books were written to be read aloud to children. So they have actually been written for adults or older siblings to read and younger children to listen to. Story time is an important step in learning to read. But once children are ready to try reading books themselves they need other sorts of books.
Beginner readers need books that are especially written for children learning to read. Books written for children in their first stages of reading are carefully designed for this purpose. The number, length and type of words are all chosen to suit young readers. The page designs are also created to make reading easy. The type is bigger and spaced further apart to make it easier for children to work out the words. So beginner books take your child by the hand and gently teach them about reading.
A gentle approach to reading is important because reading is hard work. Taking away the harder parts of reading (like small sized type) leaves just the essentials for your child to work out. They can focus on recognizing the letters and words, learning how to pronounce them and understanding the story. This will make reading more enjoyable which will encourage them to read more - and as we know practice is a big part of reading well. This also helps children to learn to read faster because your child only has to work on what they need to know at this stage.
There's a wide selection of early reader books by good publishers such as the "Step-into-Reading", "Scholastic Readers", and DK Readers just to name a few. (All these beginner book series are available from Amazon.) These series books are written about subjects of interest to children like animals, dinosaurs, cars and other high interest areas. Giving your child a beginner book about a topic they love helps them learn to read because it makes it feel less like hard work. This encourages them to read the whole book.
Early reader books are also essential for your child's reading because they are graded into stages or levels. Pre-Level 1 is the very first stage. They then move from Level 1 to Level 4 or 5. Once your child can easily read books at one Level you can pick some books from the next Level up and so on. This is easier than trying to pick books that don't have a Level ranking.
By using this Level method you can naturally help your child learn to read by taking things in a step-by-step way.
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| Biscuit's Day at the Farm HarperCollins |
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| Dancing Dinos Go to School Random House Books for Young Readers |
Many people know about the great Dr Seuss. The legendary children's book author. But many people don't know that not all Dr Seuss books are good for beginner readers.
Many of the Dr Seuss books were written to teach children important social messages. These books were written for adults to read to children. These are amazing books that discuss topics like intolerance and the environment in a very child-friendly way. But they aren't meant to help your child learn to read.
The "meaning books" of Dr Seuss include some of his most loved works like Yertle the Turtle and Horton Hears a Who. They should be part of every child's library for story time. They are just too hard to be used for a beginner book.
Luckily there are many beginner books by Dr Seuss. These are essential for learning to read because they help your child learn about phonics (or the rules about how words and letters sound). Yet Dr Seuss knew how to give these phonic skills to children in a way that would be good for learning and fun for kids. The silly rhymes that Dr Seuss is known for hides these phonic lessons so your child will be learning how to read without even knowing they are learning.
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| There's a Wocket in My Pocket! Random House Books for Young Readers |
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| Dr. Seuss's Beginner Book Collection Random House Books for Young Readers |
There are other beginner books that have been helping children to read for decades. The Berenstain Bears are a well known favorite. The most popular ones for beginner readers are: The Big Honey Hunt, The Bears Picnic, Bears in the Night and the Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree.
The books of P. D Eastman are also a good choice for your child. P. D Eastman is the author of well known beginner books like Are You My Mother?
You'll also find lots of classic beginner books in the "I Can Read It All By Myself Beginner Books" series.
Amazon has all these books in stock. You can also read reviews online to help you choose which children's books for learning how to read would be best for your child.
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| Bears in the Night Beginner Books |
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| Are You My Mother? Random House Books for Young Readers |
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Comments
Same here. I still love libraries now :)
I love all of these children's books! Some of the happiest times of my life were spent in libraries when I was a little kid.