Have you ever seen the look of true pride in a child’s eyes as he or she triumphantly grasps a difficult new concept?

Reading is one of the best lifelong gifts you can bestow upon a child, and we at Bob Books fully appreciate those “aha” moments. It’s what we’re all about: breaking down the process of learning to read into progressive, easily digestible steps so that both you and your child can celebrate the victories (both small and large) along the way.

If you’re a parent, you’ve probably already figured out that learning to read does not happen overnight. The magic occurs when the child “gets it,” yet there’s so much that happens behind the scenes. Reading foundation skills such as speaking in full sentences, knowing the alphabet, shape recognition, understanding the sounds that letters make, sequencing and phonemic awareness are all key for reading readiness.

You have already been developing these skills by playing games and interacting with your child in your everyday life. Alphabet magnets on the fridge, drawing letters in sand or modeling them in clay, various arts and crafts projects; all of them have been developing reading readiness in various ways. Reading to your child and talking about the story helps build awareness of sequencing. Playing sound games, singing, rhyming – these all build phonemic awareness.

So, enjoy your time with your child and know that the minutes and hours you invest helping them learn about their world can be both fun and will build important reading and life skills along the way.

Do you have a magical Bob Books moment you’d like to share? Let us know.

Get ‘em while you can – you will not be able to find Bob Books Collections at Barnes and Noble, Amazon or your favorite bookstore. They’re only available at Costco, arriving in stores this week and available nationwide by 4/23. These special edition sets are just $9.99 and don’t stay in stock long, so be sure to get them before they’re gone.

The five Special Collection boxes contain the original Bob Books materials boxed and reprinted in beautiful, oversized, 8 x 8 inch format. Many customers enjoy the large format for small hands, and they love the terrific price offered by Costco.

• Collection 1 has 18 books, including all the stories from Set 1, and half of Set 2.
• Collection 2 has 16 books, including stories from half of Set 2, and all of Set 3.
• Collection 3 has 16 books, and includes all the stories from Sets 4 and 5.
• The My First Bob Books Collection has 24 books, including all stories from My First Bob Books: Alphabet and My First Bob Books: Pre-Reading Skills.
• NEW! Bob Books Sight Words has 20 books and 16 flash cards, including all stories from Bob Books Sight Words-Kindergarten and Bob Books Sight Words – First Grade.

Each box also contains bonus stickers, bookmark and door hanger.

Happy shopping!

Bob Books Collections (specially packaged large-format editions of Bob Books that only happen once or twice a year) arrive in Costco next week. Each set comes with a set of stickers. How should you use them?

As any parent of a young child will tell you, stickers are cool! Stickers can also serve as an effective motivator and a satisfying reward for a job well done. Stickers can also track progress. Some parents make or print our chart of all the titles in the foundation reader series (Sets 1- 5) and use a sticker to mark each book that is read. This can be motivating for homeschoolers and others who like to keep track of their progression through the series. Feel free to download and print out the graphic above if you’d like to use this at home.

We included stickers in the Bob Books Collections as a ‘little prize’ so that kids can show off that they’ve read the whole book. You can also let kids place their stickers into the inside cover of a book when it is completed. We encourage repeated reading of titles to build confidence and fluency. The stickers can mark how many times a book has been read and when to move on.

You can also use the stickers for plain ‘ol fun, letting your child put them on clothing, notebooks, craft projects … anywhere. However you decide to use the stickers, the aim is to make it a positive experience. Reading should be a rewarding time with your child, building memories for both of you. The stickers can serve as an effective reminder.

Other ideas for using Bob Books stickers? Let us know.

It’s just like that song: “You say phonics, I say phonetics . . .”

Not so fast.

They’re not the same. Allow us to explain.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, phonics is “the branch of linguistics concerned with spoken sounds. The correlations between sound and symbol in an alphabetic writing system; the phonic method of teaching reading.”

Whereas the definition of phonetics is “the study and classification of speech sounds, esp. with regard to the physical aspects of their production; the branch of linguistics that deals with this.”

Confused?

In lay terms, phonics generally has to do with the teaching method of beginning reading instruction, whereas phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds.

We’re going to go one step further and give you another term that perhaps the most relevance to you and the process of teaching your child to read. It’s called phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is the ability of the ear (and brain) to separate a word into its individual sounds. You’d be surprised what a challenge it can be to learn the individual letters in a word if you do not have good phonemic awareness. This is where you want to start with your child.

Here are a couple of phonemic awareness games you can play with your child to strengthen this skill as you prepare for beginning reading, courtesy of our friends at ReadingResource.net.

Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
Give students a word with 1-4 phonemes (sounds). Have them stand up and touch their head, shoulders, knees, and toes as they are saying the sounds in words. For example, the word “cat” would be /c/ (head), /a/ (shoulders), and /t/ (knees). A great active, phonemic awareness activity for helping students with segmenting!

Sound Scavenger Hunt
Working with a partner, have children find objects at school (or home) that begin with a particular sound. Cross off the letter and write the name of the object next to the letter. This is a great reading activity to see if children can not only find words with a certain sound, but write the sounds they hear in words.

Our ease of reading can be taken for granted if we don’t understand the skills we’ve mastered when we were just beginning. As we guide our children through learning to read, it helps that we understand the process. We can do this by supporting them through all the steps and helping them identify, hear and understand sounds in sequence.

So whatever stage you are focusing on — phonemic awareness, phonetics or phonics, it’s helpful to go slow and address each component one step at a time.

Do you have any reading tips you’d like to share? Let us know!

How Much Time Should You Spend Teaching Your Child To Read?

We get asked these types of questions a lot. How long does it take before a child is reading? As a parent, how much time and effort should I devote to the learning to read process? And finally: How do I know if I’m spending too much time?

We’ll start with the last question because it’s the easiest to answer. The wrong amount of time is when you push your child when both of you are cranky and irritated. Every kid (and parent) is different, so there is no “perfect” amount of time that is right for everybody. Some kids are natural readers and love the attention of showing off what they know. Other kids would rather be jumping on the couch than sitting down with a book.

We happen to think that 5 minutes per day is a great place to start, even for kids who are not fond of reading, and then you can work on extending the time from there.

For kids who are ages 3 or 4, you may want to stick with 5 – 10 minutes. Children ages 5 and older may be able to sustain a longer session without getting wiggly. If you child wants to keep going, great! Learning to read is a process that can take weeks, months or even years. Be patient and make adjustments as necessary so that you are both enjoying the process.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to read Is Your Child Ready For Reading? which offers a list of pre-reading skills your child should master before you begin the learning to read process. There are lots of active ways you can practice reading skills with your child as well. Ask your child to read traffic signs while you’re driving. See if they can find the letter “M” in market when you go shopping. Ask them to draw letters in the dirt or make them out of pipe cleaners or clay. Make skill building fun and game-like, not drudgery. Most importantly, set a pace that works for you and your child, and build books and reading activities into your daily routine. Before you know it, your child will be saying, “I read the whole book!” which is a magical moment for everyone.

What has worked for you? Feel free to share your reading tips and success stories here.

The new iPad arrives Friday and Bob Books and Learning Touch are celebrating by offering all Bob Books Apps at 50% off!  We’re also giving away 5 promo codes to 5 lucky winners!

Here’s How to Enter:

All you have to do is leave a quick comment below and tell us if you have an iPhone, iPad, or both. We’d also appreciate it if you’d “like” Bob Books and Learning Touch on Facebook.

Also… extra entries if you take our quick Bob Books survey!

Like Bob Books on Facebook

Like Learning Touch on Facebook

Follow @Bob_Books on Twitter

Follow Learning Touch on Twitter

Sign up for the Bob Books e-mail newsletter

The fine print:

This giveaway is open to all legal residents of the United States ages 18 and over. Enter by submitting a comment below. One entry per person. E-mail addresses will not be publicized online and we will only contact if you win the giveaway. No purchase is necessary. Five winners will be selected randomly via random.org from all valid entries. This Bob Books book giveaway ends on Friday, March 16 at 9 pm PST and we will announce the winners online shortly thereafter.

Before children learn to read on their own, they’re learning from you – everything from vocabulary building to sentence structure to story telling. And what better way to accomplish all of these things at once than through a delightful children’s book?

You’re already doing this at home and it takes just a few minutes a day. Here in the U.S. we have no shortage of books –new titles from award-winning authors line the shelves of local and national bookstores, we have excellent public libraries; heck, you can even find thousands of children’s books in fairly good condition at the local thrift shop or via Amazon.com’s handy used book sellers.

But what about the rest of the world? Literacy-based organizations like LitWorld, who just celebrated their annual World Read Aloud Day yesterday, bring our attention to the fact that 793 million people worldwide cannot read. It’s a staggering number; one that is easily taken for granted among the piles of worn and chewed on picture books that typically fill the average American child’s bedroom. While your kids may or may not be reading on their own just yet, there’s no question that you know they will.

So today, consider this. With the global economy more global than ever before, no child should have to grow up in a world without books, or denied the opportunity and magic of learning to read.

What can you do to help? Whether it’s donating to a literacy-based charity, volunteering your time, giving your extra books to a local school or organization, or simply taking the time to read to the young ones around you, you are part of the solution.

Let us know about your favorite literacy-based organizations and the causes you support and we’ll include them here.

Congratulations to last week’s winner, Caroline S. of Durham, North Carolina who won last week’s giveaway! We’re doing it again this week, so here’s another chance to enter.

This giveaway is celebrate the release of a new series of Bob Books: Bob Books Early Readers.

Bob Books Early Readers are 32-page Level 1 stories that contain short sentences, words that are simple to sound out, and no unusual spellings. Great for children who have mastered Bob Books Set 3, the Early Readers contain original Bob Books stories that are warm, friendly and wholesome. The New Puppy and Cupcake Surprise! are on sale now for just $3.99 each, but we’d like to get these brand-new books to you for free! We will be giving away both titles to one lucky winner this Friday.

Here’s How to Enter:

One winner each week will receive both The New Puppy and Cupcake Surprise! Please leave a comment below and share with us one of your favorite earliest learning to read experiences (either yours or one you witnessed from a child).

Extra entries if you take our quick Bob Books survey!

Here are a few more ways you can connect with the magic of learning to read and with Bob Books:

Like Bob Books on Facebook

Follow @Bob_Books on Twitter

Sign up for the Bob Books e-mail newsletter

The fine print:

This giveaway is open to all legal residents of the United States ages 18 and over. Enter by submitting a comment below. One entry per person. E-mail addresses will not be publicized online and we will only contact if you win the giveaway. No purchase is necessary. The winner will be selected randomly via random.org from all valid entries. This Bob Books book giveaway ends on Friday, February 17 at 9 pm PST and we will announce the winner online shortly thereafter.

We are thrilled to announce the release of a new series of Bob Books: Bob Books Early Readers.

Bob Books Early Readers are 32-page Level 1 stories that contain short sentences, words that are simple to sound out, and no unusual spellings. Great for children who have mastered Bob Books Set 3, the Early Readers contain original Bob Books stories that are warm, friendly and wholesome. The New Puppy and Cupcake Surprise! are on sale now for just $3.99 each, but we’d like to get these brand-new books to you for free! We will be giving away both titles to one lucky winner each week, from now until February 17.

Here’s How to Enter:

One winner each week will receive both The New Puppy and Cupcake Surprise! Please leave a comment below and share with us one of your favorite earliest learning to read experiences (either yours or one you witnessed from a child).

Extra entries if you take our quick Bob Books survey!

Also – here are more ways you can connect with the magic of learning to read and with Bob Books:

Like Bob Books on Facebook

Follow @Bob_Books on Twitter

Sign up for the Bob Books e-mail newsletter

The fine print:

This giveaway is open to all legal residents of the United States ages 18 and over. Enter by submitting a comment below. One entry per person. E-mail addresses will not be publicized online and we will only contact if you win the giveaway. No purchase is necessary. The winner will be selected randomly via random.org from all valid entries. This Bob Books book giveaway ends on Friday, February 10 at 7 pm EST and we will announce the winner online shortly thereafter.

Happy New Year! Here at Bob Books, we strive to make the learning to read process magical and enjoyable. Reading is one of the best lifelong gifts you can bestow upon a child, and we’re here to make the process fun and delightful.

So whether your goals are to focus on is kindergarten preparedness, to get a young one ready for preschool, or to work on some important early literacy and pre-reading skills this year, we have a few tips to get you off on the right direction.

1.  Read to your child every day. Who doesn’t love a great story? From babies to older kids, any time spent reading to a child is quality time. Research shows that even just 20 minutes per day can build early literacy skills, promote bonding, and increase listening and attention spans – all necessary skills for school and for life.

2.  Share your love of books by taking your children on a trip to a public library or bookstore, keeping books in your home and providing opportunities for your kids to see you enjoying reading – whether a daily newspaper, a magazine, the latest sci-fi thriller or an e-book download. Lead by example.

3. Make it a game. Reading and books are fun! Play around with language by coming up with on-the-spot games like “tell me everything you can think of that starts with the letter P…” sending the kids on a word treasure hunt around your house, tell a story using flash cards, have them stir up some alphabet soup, or sort shapes – all of these activities are easy (and basically free). The best part is that you’ll be helping them develop important pre-reading skills without your child even being aware of it.

4. Exercise patience. Refresh yourself on how to identify the signs of when your child is ready for reading, and introduce new concepts gently at your child’s pace. When your child first begins to take steps into reading, allow them the time to figure out concepts on their own and ask you for help. If your child is interested, pays attention, interacts with the book, and seems to have an idea of what you mean, then you are on your way to reading. If your child is wiggly, disruptive or gets frustrated easily, they may not be ready. Put the books away for a few months and try again later. Children learn at different rates. It is important to find your child’s rate, rather than your own, if you want your child to have a happy reading experience.

5. Praise often. There’s nothing more exciting than witnessing a child grasp reading concepts – when the words come alive on the page and the child makes the connection between letters and the sounds they make and then how letters form words that tell a story that they can read all by themselves! Offer plenty of praise for every milestone (big or small) and keep encouraging (not pushing) your child to gently progress to the next level. Here is a great video example showing some techniques you can use at home.

6. Keep going! We have some book recommendations for children who have “graduated” past Bob Books Set 5. For school-age children whose reading level has exceeded early readers and short chapter books, now is a great opportunity to talk to a teacher, librarian or bookstore owner and get even more recommendations. If

Looking for a great gift idea for the little ones in your life? The gift of reading is one of the best gifts you can bestow upon a child; it’s one that will last a lifetime. Whether the kiddos (your children or someone else’s) are just beginning to understand the concept of learning to read, or are nearly ready to read books by themselves, there’s plenty to choose from. Here are some of our top picks.

Refrigerator Magnets

What kid doesn’t love to mess around with magnets? Alphabet magnets can provide hours of fun for your preschool-age child (ages 3+). Meanwhile, they’re learning valuable skills like learning their ABCs, identifying colors and recognizing shapes.

Transportation Magnetic Blocks

You may think that your toddler is just playing around, but exploring shapes and patterns is a very important pre-reading skill. These super fun magnetic blocks allow young kids to make a duck, a cow, a scarecrow, or a bus, an airplane, a rocket, and more.

Dr Seuss Learning Cards and Shapes

Seuss it up in 12 oversized double-sided flash cards with games, activities, and illustrations that work on important pre-reading skills like color recognition and naming, shape recognition, matching, comparing and contrasting and special recognition.

First Words Flash Cards

These cards come in a sturdy storage box containing 12 cards with rounded corners. Each card has a photograph with touch-and-feel textures on one side, and information for the parent and child on the other.

FirstWords iPhone/iPad Apps

Our partners at Learning Touch have over a dozen learning apps for toddlers and preschoolers to choose from – everything from FirstWords Animals to FirstWords Japanese. And for Bob Books fans, be sure to check out the Bob Books Reading Magic Apps.

Cariboo Board Game

This award-winning board game is a treasure hunt game designed especially for young

Happy Holidays! As a way to celebrate the season, we thrilled to partner with Scholastic in giving away an entire Bob Books Library to one lucky winner!

The prize includes ALL Bob Books foundation sets, including Bob Books Set 1: Beginning Readers,  Bob Books Set 2: Advancing Beginners, Bob Books Set 3: Word Families, Bob Books Set 4: Complex Words and Bob Books Set 5: Long Vowels. Entering is easy. All you have to do is TAKE THE BOB BOOKS SURVEY and we’ll randomly select a winner next week. The giveaway ends on Monday, December 12 at 7pm EST.

ENTER NOW.

Additional ways to participate:

Like Bob Books on Facebook

Follow @Bob_Books on Twitter

Sign up for the Bob Books e-mail newsletter

The fine print:

This giveaway is open to all legal residents of the United States ages 18 and over. Enter by taking the Bob Books survey. One entry per person. E-mail addresses will not be publicized online and we will only contact if you win the giveaway. No purchase is necessary. The winner will be selected randomly via random.org from all valid entries. The Bob Books book giveaway ends on Monday, December 12 at 7 pm EST and we will announce the winner online shortly thereafter.

Did you know that 34% of children who enter kindergarten lack the basic language skills they need in order to read? Early childhood education is critical. What better way to foster research-based early literacy initiatives than supporting a worthy charity? ‘Tis the season for giving, so we’ve rounded up a list of our favorite non-profits.

1.  Reach Out And Read: By partnering with doctors, nurse practitioners and other medical professionals, Reach Out and Read programs are incorporated into the well-child pediatric and family practitioner visits beginning at the 6-month checkup and continue through age 5, with a special emphasis on children growing up in low-income communities. Even better: families that are served by Reach Out and Read programs have been shown to read together more often, and their children enter kindergarten with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills.

2.  First Book: Did you know that the majority of low-income families do not have a single book for their children? First Book provides over 18,000 free and low priced books to needy families every day. In fact, First Book has distributed more than 85 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income families throughout the United States and Canada.

3.   United Through Reading. Supporting the read aloud experience for military families, United Through Reading offers deployed parents the opportunity to video-record themselves reading storybooks to their children, creating positive emotional connections within the family and easing the stress of family separations.

4.  Room to Read. “World change starts with educated children.” Working in developing countries in collaboration with local communities, Room to Read promotes gender equality in education and develops literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children.

5.  Children’s Literacy Initiative. Providing professional development, literacy services and children’s books in nine eastern states plus Washington, DC, the Children’s Literacy Initiative works to close the literacy achievement gap among disadvantaged children in Head Start programs and other early learning and classroom settings.

What are your favorite charitable organizations that support early learning and literacy initiatives?

Sight words are common words that appear again and again in your children’s reading material. Knowing these words “by sight” is essential for reading fluency. Here is a fun way to engage your kids in the concept of sight words. Perfect for a rainy afternoon!

The following is a guest post via our friends at Toddler Approved. Enjoy!

Materials Needed: Paper plates, small pieces of paper, scissors, a marker, painter’s tape, clear tape, and Bob Books Sight Words: Kindergarten .

Directions:

1. Create a spider web on your floor using painter’s tape. You can make it as big or as small as you’d like.

2. Grab a few paper plates and your scissors and help your toddler start cutting into the paper plate to create spider legs. (Our spiders looked more like crabs than spiders, but oh well!)

3. Next, write three sight words from your Bob Books onto three pieces of scrap paper with your marker. (We only focused on three words at a time because we didn’t want my son to be overwhelmed. Older kids could definitely do more.)

4. Then, tape the scrap paper words to the tops of the spiders.

Now that you have your spider web and your “sight word” spiders, you are ready to drop the spiders onto different spots on the web and start the activity.

The activity can be done in a lot of ways. Here are two of the ways we tried it using our Bob Books:

Spider Web Read Along

Read the story aloud and stop reading anytime you get to a sight word. Have your child walk toward the correct “sight word” spider while balancing on the tape spider web (This was tough for my son!) Next, have your child pick up the “sight word” spider and read the word. Keep reading until you’ve worked your way through all of your sight words.

This method helped us work on listening and identifying sight words when we heard them, which is an important step when working on reading comprehension.

Words in Action

Walk around the tape spider web and try not to fall off (I did this with my son). Take turns picking a sight word to find and say the word aloud. For example, when my son said “can” I had to walk around the web, find the correctly labeled spider, pick it up and yell “I can!” with my arms in the air. (When I was in gymnastics as a little girl, we had to yell “I can!” when we completed a gymnastics move. He thought it was funny.) We came up with body actions for each sight word (jump= jumping up and down, on= we had to stand “on” the spider, can= yell “I can”). We also made up sentences while we walked around the web using our words. For example, when it was my turn and the word was “jump,” I said the sentence, “I like to jump on the trampoline.”

We worked on expanding our sentences and adding more detail. We also worked on correctly using the sight word in context. It was silly AND educational, so we had a lot of fun.

Do you have an activity or success story you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you. Let us know.

Boo! Halloween is almost here and no doubt the kiddos are getting excited. What better way to share the fun of the season than with a great book or two… or five! Here are our favorites for preschoolers (and kids of all ages), from sing-along silliness to scratch and sniff smelliness.

The Spooky Wheels on the Bus by J. Elizabeth Mills

This humorous sing-along (to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus”) is sure to be a hit in your house, especially when your kids start making up new verses.

Boo Who? A Fold Out Halloween Adventure by Lola Schaefer

Kids will have fun with the riddles and unfolding the pages for a giant surprise!

I’m Looking for a Monster by Timothy Young

A clever novelty pop-up book full of adventure, silliness– and lots and lots of monsters!

Snappy Sounds Boo by Beth Harwood

Eek, what was that sound? This book makes a lot of them, from a ghost train to owls hooting to creepy organ music. Each page plays different sounds. Scary and fun!

The Spooky Smells of Halloween by Mary Man-Kong

Read and smell! Apples and cookies (mmmm…); skunk (ewwww).

Halloween Scratch and Sniff by Elizabeth Spurr

Another fun scratch and sniff book. This time with the delicious scents of candy corn, licorice, lollipops and pumpkin pie.

When I first started chronicling my then two and a half year-old son Wilson’s learning to read adventures back in 2009, I thought for sure he’d be reading in a few years.

It’s been a few years. He isn’t reading yet.

But we’ve gone through some pretty important early literacy stages. First there were the unexpected adventures we experienced when we started with one learning activity and ending up on another, the developmental milestones of alphabet recognition and the delightful word explosion, and then the fun and antics that can happen when you involve an older sibling in the process. We’ve had a few battles and power struggles over the types of books that are being read (trucks, anyone?) so we took a slower approach, as a result, working on skills like pattern recognition and matching. We turned some of the concepts into simple activities and games.

So here’s where we are now. Wilson still loves books. He’s attending a Pre-K program five days a week and loves school. He knows his shapes. He knows the alphabet. He can point to signs like “STOP and “No” and tell me what they say. Every night he asks us to read his Bob Books to him. We have all the foundation sets at home as our older daughter Elizabeth (now 8 ) successfully learned to read using the series between the ages of 4 and 5 with few setbacks or hurtles. She’s a fantastic reader and takes a book with her wherever she goes; that’s how much she loves to read. Wilson? He just wants to be read to. I know he understands that the letters on the page form words and that certain letters form different sounds. He can spell his name. He passes the Bob Books “How to Tell if Your Child Ready to Read” checklist! But still, he refuses to read.

I know it sounds really obvious, but one of the biggest realizations for me as a parent is that my two children are not alike. They learn differently. They have different personalities. Different interests. Different willpower. The process of learning to read and the journey I’m sharing with Wilson is not at all like the one I experienced with Elizabeth. And that’s okay.

Every day we’re getting closer. I’m learning to be patient and to enjoy the process however and whenever it comes. It’s difficult for me to reconcile my eagerness in wanting to push him to read (because I honestly think he can) with letting go and letting it happen on his own terms. It’s hard. The one thing I keep coming back to is this: I love to read. Elizabeth loves to read. My husband loves to read. Our whole family shares a love for books. Wilson, in his own time, will learn to read and will love reading too. It’s one of the best gifts I think I can ever bestow upon a child. So why would I try to ruin it for him by forcing this milestone? That’s what I love about Bob Books. It’s a gentle, simple approach. There isn’t anything that needs to be forced or hurried and I know that Wilson appreciates the books just as they are.

Reading will happen for Wilson, perhaps sooner than I think. I’m looking forward to the day when he has that magical ah-ha moment, when everything clicks and comes together. My video camera is ready.

- Allison

It’s week two of our Scholastic back to school promotion!

Sight words are common words that appear again and again in your children’s reading material. Knowing these words “by sight” is essential for reading fluency. We want your kids to ace their sight words so we’re giving away two sets of Bob Books Sight Words to one lucky winner! Bob Books Sight Words: Kindergarten and Bob Books Sight Words: First Grade. Entering is easy. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling us why you think your child is ready for Bob Books Sight Words and we’ll randomly select a winner at the end of the week.

More ways you can participate with Bob Books:

Like Bob Books on Facebook

Follow @Bob_Books on Twitter

Sign up for the Bob Books e-mail newsletter

Take the Bob Books survey

The fine print:

This giveaway is open to all legal residents of the United States ages 18 and over. Enter by submitting a comment below. One entry per person. E-mail addresses will not be publicized online and we will only contact if you win the giveaway. No purchase is necessary. The winner will be selected randomly via random.org from all valid entries. The Bob Books book giveaway ends on Friday, September 30 at 7 pm EST and we will announce the winner online shortly thereafter.

Is your child ready to read? We are excited to partner with Scholastic in this back to school promotion to raise early literacy awareness and get your kids reading! We’re giving away two of our most popular Bob Books sets: Bob Books Set 1: Beginning Readers and Bob Books Set 2: Advancing Beginners to one lucky winner. Entering is easy. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling us why you think your child is ready for reading and we’ll randomly select a winner at the end of the week.

More ways you can participate with Bob Books!

Like Bob Books on Facebook

Follow @Bob_Books on Twitter

Sign up for the Bob Books e-mail newsletter

The fine print:

This giveaway is open to all legal residents of the United States ages 18 and over. Enter by submitting a comment below. One entry per person. E-mail addresses will not be publicized online and we will only contact if you win the giveaway. No purchase is necessary. The winner will be selected randomly via random.org from all valid entries. The Bob Books book giveaway ends on Friday, September 23 at 7 pm EST and we will announce the winner online shortly thereafter.

The amazing thing about little kids is that that even if they don’t appear to be learning, they are. When you read, talk or play with your child, you’re stimulating the growth of their brain. It really is that simple! Hearing stories, handling books, playing with blocks—it all adds up to early literacy. With each interaction, your child is learning important pre-reading skills such as vocabulary development, sound awareness, reading comprehension and letter recognition.

Here are a few tips to engage your child in early literacy activities:

Read to your child every day. Even if it’s just for a few minutes. Even if your toddler forces you to skip pages or puts teeth marks on the board books.

Talk about the pictures. Ask: what’s happening and why?

Talk about the story. See if your child can tell you what happens next.

Point to words. Run your finger along the words as you read them.

Make it a game. Ask your child to point to certain objects. Use funny voices or make sound effects when telling the story. End story time with tickle time!

Early literacy is what children learn and know about reading and writing before they actually read and write. Early literacy skills develop in the first five years of life. By the time a child is three, his or her brain circuitry is basically developed, which is why it is important to form positive learning experiences and attachments as early as possible.

Have fun with your toddler and, as always, let us know if you have any tips you’d like to share.

Image credit: Thanks to Val and our friends at Look, Listen and Learn for allowing us to use this photo.

Little details can make a big difference when you’re helping your child take his or her first steps into reading. As an example, I just had to share this wonderful video by blogger Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, because there are so many good things happening.

Take a look.

As you get started, here are some things you’ll want to keep top of mind.

1. Environment. This little diva is in a comfy chair, sitting up straight, and focused on what she’s doing. It really helps her pay attention when there’s not a lot of clutter, its quiet, and she has your undivided attention. Take time from your busy day to clear your space, and hers, so you can both give 100% to what you’re doing.

2. Pronunciation. I love that this girl pronounces her words so carefully! This is a wonderful indication that she is sounding out the words and not memorizing. She has not been instructed to read this way, but does it naturally as a product of her learning. If she reads the book several times, her pronunciation will become more fluid. At this stage, careful reading is an excellent indicator that she is right on track.

3. Fun. At the end of the story, she has fun saying, “Who, who, whoooo??” She has read and been entertained by the story. It is great when a child succeeds at a new task (reading) and enjoys it! We want kids not only to learn to read, but to love to read. Giving them a story that pleases them is so important.

4. Length. She was able to read the whole book in just over a minute. As her skills grow, she will read longer books. At this early stage, it is fantastic that she can achieve success in a short and satisfying time.

With a little foresight and planning, and the right tools, you too can make your child’s first steps into reading a fun and satisfying experience.

Have any tips you’d like to share? We’re always interested in hearing about your reading success stories, so just let us know!

Looking for some ways to integrate early learning into your summertime routine? Here are a few low-cost (or free – depending on what you already have in your house) activities you can do at home, on the road or at the pool.

Alphabet “Soup”
This is a fun activity that you can do with older preschool-age kids.  The “soup” is made from everyday items and objects you have around the house.

What you’ll need:
Magazines, newspapers, junk mail
Scissors
Bits of yarn or string (for “noodles”)
Miscellaneous objects (non choking hazard-size for younger kids)
A bowl
Large spoon or ladle

What you’ll do (part 1):
Instruct your child(ren) to find all the letters of the alphabet within the magazines and newspapers. Larger print is best, although not necessary. Cut out each letter (smaller children will need assistance) and place inside the bowl. Your cut out letters can also be used for labeling household items, finding a match in a particular book you might be reading or spelling new words.

What you’ll do (part 2):
Next, spend some time going through the papers in search of food items they would like to include in the “soup.” Cut those out as well, and place in the bowl.  Now add the “noodles” by cutting up medium-sized pieces of yarn or string, and add anything else (miscellaneous household objects) your children would like to add to the soup. Mix everything together and stir. Now the soup is ready to serve!  You can either move onto part 3 or save the “soup” for a rainy day.

What you’ll do (part 3):
Give each child a large spoon or ladle and ask them questions about each spoonful: What are the letters in your spoon? What sound does each letter make? What else is in the soup? What letter does it start with?

R is for Road Trip: Are We There Yet?
This activity is great for would-be backseat drivers and/or bored kids in the back of the car.

What you’ll need:
Construction paper
Popsicle sticks (washed)
Crayons or pens
Glue or heavy-duty stapler

What you’ll do:
Prior to your trip, work with your kids to make the “road signs.”  Using construction paper and crayons or markers, create the correct shape and size for popular signs such as “stop,” “yield,” “merge,” etc.  Alternatively, each child could make a sign using a few of their favorite letter(s) of the alphabet. Glue or staple the signs onto the Popsicle sticks. While on the road, instruct your children to wave their signs every time they see a matching road sign, and have them say the name of the sign. For the next few miles, ask them to look for other signs that contain words with the same letter, i.e. Look for all of the signs with the letter S in them, such as State Park, Rest Stop, Museum, etc. Repeat the words back and talk about what sound the letter makes in each word. Don’t have time to make signs? Simply make a game out of looking for different letters on road signs or pointing out the words on signs that they know.

P is for Pool
Teach the alphabet and rhythmic breathing at the same time.

What you’ll need:
Access to swimming pool or other body of water
Swimsuit
Goggles (optional)
Supervision (mandatory)

What you’ll do:
Learning how to blow bubbles and hold one’s breath under water is a critical water safety skill. Swimming instructors will frequently have kids “bob up and dow

Got a young one heading to the “big school” this fall? It’s an exciting time! There’s so much to do this month in preparation, from shopping to paperwork to getting a vaccine or two. But then there’s that other looming question: is my child really ready? Given the national attention on school readiness and the achievement gap, you might worry that your child might fall behind before they’ve even started. But here’s the deal: teachers are hoping your child will show up on day one not being able to read or recite the entire alphabet, but to have developed strong social and emotional skills, like the ability to share and listen. Scholastic, in interviewing teachers around the country, gives parents the real scoop in Ready for Kindergarten? Five teachers tell you what preschoolers really need for next year.

It’s chock full of great info on what kindergarten teachers are really looking for. Here is a list of the top readiness skills; to find out more about each one, be sure to read the entire article.

• Enthusiasm Toward Learning
• Solid Oral-Language Skills
• The Ability to Listen
• The Desire to Be Independent
• The Ability to Play Well with Others
• Strong Fine-Motor Skills
• Basic Letter and Number Recognition

How about you? Got a back-to-school tip you’d like to share? Just let us know.

Guest Post by Gina Osher of TheTwinCoach.com

The start of the school year is right around the corner! This time last year I was pretty nervous as our children were going to be starting preschool for the first time. Worried about my children’s sensitivities as well as how I might handle the transition, I decided to approach preschool the same way I tackle most things in life: I researched, I picked people’s brains, read books, and then I attacked the problem. Here’s what I’ve learned.

First day of preschool!

BEFORE SCHOOL BEGINS

1. Read with your kids

Books are an amazing way to help children with any type of change in their lives from traveling somewhere new to potty training or even starting school. The best book we found is called “Llama Llama Misses Mama” and it’s about a little llama going to school for the first time and being sad that mommy isn’t there. In the end he learns that mommy always comes back and that he can love school and mommy. This book was a HUGE hit in our house (and we subsequently bought the other two in the series).

2. Connect with other families

The second thing we did was to make sure we were able to connect with other families whose children would be in the same class as our kids and made a few play dates before school started. This allowed our children to feel as though they already knew a couple of kids on the first day. Plus, it allowed us to get to know some of the other parents as well and we were able to really bond before those hectic days of rushing through drop off and pick up.

3. Engage kids in a special back to school ritual or craft

The third thing that we did before school started was to make a book for each of our twins about themselves. This idea was actually given to me by our fabulous preschool director. Each child in the class had one so that when they got homesick the teachers could pull it out and let them see it; additionally, it gave the teachers some insight into who each child was. The book included pages titled: “This is my family,” “This Summer I…”, “After school I like to…”  and “My favorite things.” I loved making these books photos and collage and all sorts of crazy scrapbooking stuff, but really you can make it simple; the kids will love seeing photos of grandma and grandpa or their best friend or their dog.

4. Go shopping!

The last thing we did (the most superficial, but still helpful) was to buy the kids a few new clothes and a new lunch box. The clothes were mostly for our daughter who is very visual and gets excited about putting new things together. The lunch boxes were exciting to them because they only get to use them for school and they felt like big kids carrying them and showing them off.

ONCE SCHOOL STARTS