Customer Reviews

Bob Books Set 3- Word Families

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was excited when I read the first book in this box set. It was very simple, and my beginning reader will be able to handle it. I thought books 2-8 would progress slowly to become a bit harder, or they would all be that easy. I was wrong. After book 1, there are words like polliwogs, turnips, cunning, supper, and stunts.

I didn't like the activity books. The directions are so unclear. Here are just SOME examples. One of the pages says "draw a line to the correct name"...FROM WHERE? Then it says "Give Polly a lolly-pop". They could have just said "draw a lolly-pop for Polly". It says "Where did they go? To the ---- ----- with two blanks. Well if you read the story, they went to a shop, not to "the" a shop. Circle the polliwogs simply says "how many polliwogs?" and there is one polliwog with the words Circle 1 next to it, two polliwogs with the words Circle 2 next to it, and so on. Doesn't make sense! One page says to draw some alligators, but there is no room to do so. Then there is a page to draw a line to a matching word/picture. There are four pictures and 8 words...Are you supposed to draw a line to the pictures too? That is how a lot of children's books are set up...match the pic to the word... not word to word...at least not with matching pictures all around the page. The funny bunny page says to color the border yellow over blue. Many pages say to color the border. I think kids would rather color pics...the borders seem boring...and yellow over blue?? Maybe if they elaborate..."to see what color you get" it would make more sense.

The worst part is the dotted lines they use for letters...they want the kids to trace it. They put big dots and starting points, as many handwriting books do. BUT they put the big dots in all the wrong places...encouraging kids to pick up their pencils and stop mid-letter or create letters in awkward ways...NO NO NO! My son has so much trouble with letter formation and has always been taught to start at the dot when tracing, etc...if he sees this book it will confuse him. The dots are in the wrong place for r,g,h,k, and u!

I say ditch the activities books...they are too small for little hands with poor crayon grasps any way. If you could get someone to write them who knows how to write activity books, then MAYBE...but they are still too small. When I saw they came with activity books, I thought it would be ideas for parents..like questions to ask, games to play, etc. Also, they could make the reading part a bit easier...more sight words and three letter words, less polliwogs.

My 5-year old has all 3 sets of these books. Set 1 is for beginning readers (very simple words) and set 2 works well for little children who can manage sounding out short words; Set 3 is likely best for an advanced Kindergartner. My daughter loves to read to me now, and these are perfect for that. Short and sweet books.

These are my childs favorite reading books. She's five and asked for sets 4 and 5 for Christmas. Very well put together. It uses repetition for sounds and word groups. Good short sentences that aren't insulting to age level. Much more than "See the cat." The pictures are good in that they don't give away the sentences...the child still has to READ the words.

My daughter and I loved the first two sets in this boxed set. The previous ones were very easy and got just a little bit harder with each book so as to not discourage my daughter with too many rules. Granted, eventually the harder rules should be introduced, but since the first 2 books eased in at just the right pace, I would think this set would be the same. Not so--they move way too fast and teach a rule but then throw in a word that goes against that rule. My daughter refused to try to read anymore after the 2nd book the first night we got it because they were so frustrating. I also think the activity books are not that great--totally would have rather had those 2 books spread out the rules that they are trying to shove in the other 8 books.

The first book introduced "y" at the end of words as in floppy, "ed" as in stopped/begged, and "er" as in after. This isn't a big deal, but a lot of new rules to try to described to a new reader who is used to just adding ONE consonant sound each book.

Book 2 continues teaching the y at the end of the word and also continued words ending in "ed" as in flapped and bobbed. It also introduced "ew" as in flew. ALSO introduced "sh." ALSO introduced "ies" as in pennies. Again, much too much new rules before the child had time to get a grasp of what was taught in the previous book. The point of the series (I thought) was to make children proud of reading and excited they can read "all by themsemves!" How are they supposed to when each page you have to describe a new rule?

Book 3 continues with the absurd rules and changes of sounds. "Mama Frog and Papa Frog." Why not just say Mom, or Mum, or even Mommy since we are learning words end in y? Dad, Pop, Daddy! The a's in mama and papa are different from what the child has been accustomed to in both book sets one and two (a "regular" short a at is at, map, pam, etc). Again, not a HUGE deal when looked at alone, but in addition to all the new rules, it is very discouraging to yet again not be able to read the page without a correction from the parent.

Book 3 also spews out "polliwog," I suppose to teach i sounding like ee? Again, unnecessary and discouraging to the child. Also introduced is "ir" in bird. Also long i as in hide and dive. AGAIN--teaching long i's would be GREAT if that was the only new rule to concentrate on in the whole book.

For some reason I can't find book 4 right now so cannot comment specifically but I do remember that it introduces "ar" as in car. It also throws in "started" which is pronounced differently that the child has become accustomed to in the previous books as in popped, stopped. Easily could have caused less confuses by saying "the car did start." not "the car started." Again, that is all I remember off the top of my head right now from that book.

Book 5 and 6 finally slow down and there are almost no new rules--just a "toes" that needs to be said with a long o. Finally time to practice without having to keep track of new rules.

Book 7 introduces ing and ung, which again I think could be held off, or in the very least only teach ONE at a time. It also says "carrot" which is completely different sounding compared to what they have learned from the previous books. They JUST learned "ar" as in car and here they go throwing in another word that does not follow that rule.

It was just very disappointing if you are used to the previous BOB books. I feel like these books needed to be spread over 2 sets so the rules could be introduced one or two at a time and gave the child time to successfully use the rules they are learning before being thrown another rule. I absolutely adored the previous sets because there was only one or two new sounds introduced each book--it gave my child just the right amount of challenge to not discourage.

I like the Bob books, but the last two "books" in this set are activities books (like word matching) rather than story books. I would rather have more books for my kids to read.

We love the bob books at our house. My son just turned 4 and had completed the first two sets, so I bought set three and the kindergarten sight word set. Set three is quite a bit harder than the first two sets. The kindergarten sight word set is much easier than set 3, so we are going to do that set first and then move on to this one.

As a 1st grade teacher, these books are indispensable for my emerging readers who still need a short, quickie book that allows them to focus their skills on basic decoding and sight words. The pictures are a delight and the kids feel very comfortable with these.

I teach Kindergarten, and these little books are just perfect for beginning readers. Also, although the pictures are very simple line drawings, the text and drawings are clever and often humorous.

My daughter was having a hard time reading. When the books arrive, she started reading immediately. It was amazing. I totally recommend Bob Books to beginnger readers.

THIS IS A GREAT PRODUCT. I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS TO ANY PARENT WITH A KINDERGARDNER LEARNING TO READ.