Bob Books - Set 1: Beginning Readers Box Set Phonics, Ages 4 and Up, Kindergarten (Stage 1: Starting to Read): 01

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A common theme across many of the photo books we’ve reviewed is that the saturation on the image used for the front cover seems to be pushed up. However, the Bob Book’s cover was by far the worst example we saw of it. With the original photo graded with warm oranges, the final cover had an unfortunate you’ve-been-tangoed vibe that significantly detracted from the book as a whole. Over night, the Maslens were inundated with phone calls. The books had entered the spotlight, and parents eager to help their children learn to read wanted Bob Books. “By that time we were going crazy,” Bobby Maslen says. “We knew the potential was much more than we could handle ourselves.” The Maslens turned to a major publisher of children’s books, Scholastic, Inc., for help. Today, all five sets of Bob Books written by Bobby Maslen are available to children all over the world, thanks to the partnership that was developed with Scholastic. While the 'AIO' function only advises that "Crop, aspect ratio, red-eyes, etc. will be corrected if necessary", it appears that it also affects the saturation of your photo as well. We would recommend that you turn this function off to avoid your cover becoming over-saturated.

Each set is organized into stages: Reading Reading Readiness, Stage 1: Starting to Read, Stage 2: Emerging Reader and Stage 3: Developing Reader. Our most popular app continues Bob Books’ commitment to bringing kids a satisfying, successful first reading experience, with easy first steps, wholesome values, phonics-based methodology, authentic hand-drawn illustrations, and engaging stories.These books introduce your child to the alphabet, sounds, word families, and much more with simple phrases like "Sam sat" or "The cat ran zig zag" that make use of repetition. In fact, these books are often the very first ones children can finish on their own, which instills confidence in their own abilities and encourages them to want to continue reading on their own.

The genius brainchild of a teacher, the BOB Books series is designed to help children easily build basic reading skills, without it feeling like a chore. Bob Books Set 3: Word Families ( ISBN 0-439-84509-2) includes consonant blends, endings and a few sight words. The game includes twelve scenes for a total of 32 words to read and spell using phonics. Four game levels provide increasing literacy challenges to preschoolers and kindergartners as they play. All of the content has been vetted by teachers and literacy experts. Bob Books went on to become a Children’s Book-of-the-Month-Club selection, and the series was adopted by homeschoolers and Montessori teachers. Articles recommending Bob Books appeared in The Washington Post, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and regional newspapers and magazines around the country. In 1993, USA Today ran a story about Bob Books. Based on beloved stories from Bob Books Beginning Readers, these phonics-based games will show your child how to:

My First Bob Books: Pre-Reading Skills ( ISBN 978-0545019224) teaches reading foundation skills: shapes, patterns and sequencing. Your favorite Bob Books story characters in engaging animations encourage children in kindergarten and preschool along their path to literacy. Teachers, parents, homeschoolers, and librarians love Bob Books’ powerful use of phonics in our stories for young readers. Kids love the simple drag-and-drop gameplay. Illustrator John Maslen is a watercolor painter and architect. He holds signature status in the National Watercolor Society and several other art organizations. He also received an American Institute of Architects Honor Award. Once your child has mastered readiness skills, they can begin to practice blending sounds by sounding out simple words. These sets give opportunities for sounding out words and will reinforce letter sounds needed for blending. The simple stories are also education-minded, with topics like shapes and basic patterns. These book sets teach letter recognition and letter sounds. Learning these skills are crucial for reading and sounding out words, so it is important that this is the first step. These books are simple in design and language, and can be used with any age group.

The measured changes from one book set to the next really helps to build strong foundational skills with each step. Learning to read in this way creates fluency, which is the ultimate goal, and gives children many opportunities to have successful reading experiences and build their confidence. You can go at a gradual pace with each set to make sure that your child has gotten down each targeted skill set so that they can expand upon it as they move through the stages. My First Bob Books: Alphabet ( ISBN 978-0545019217) teaches phonemic awareness, written to help tune children's ears to the sounds letters make. Bob Books Sight Words: Kindergarten ( ISBN 978-0545019231) introduces sight words at the kindergarten level. Though it is great to have extra tips of the trade when teaching reading, some of the hints in these books can be a bit confusing. For example, in the “W” book, it instructs adults to help sound out the “W” sound by saying “WUH.” While it is so common to exaggerate a letter sound this way, it can be misguided. A “W” sound does not actually include an “UH” sound in it, and it could be teaching a child to add extra letter sounds where only a single sound belongs. This is where the science of reading can become a bit complex, especially for children who are struggling with blending sounds. For adults who are less experienced with teaching reading skills, hints like this can possibly be misleading and cause more confusion for a new reader down the line. 3. Artwork

The first Bob Books were individually hand-drawn for Bobby Lynn Maslen's students. When it became too cumbersome to make books for each child, she persuaded the school to print 300 copies. This eventually led to more sets, a cottage industry and self publishing. Millions of kids have learned to read with Bob Books. Now children in preschool and kindergarten can explore the alphabet, learn new words, and practice phonics with our newly updated, award-winning app! Reading becomes more complex in these sets as they introduce new rules and ideas around reading while building on fluency and reading cognition. These sets include more advanced vocabulary, longer stories, and different sound patterns, like long vowels. By the end of this stage, the goal is for your child to be fluently reading Before the first step The Bob Books became a Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club selection and the series was adopted by home-schoolers and Montessori teachers. In 1993 USA Today ran a story about the Bob Books. [1] “By that time we knew the potential was much more than we could handle ourselves.” [2] Scholastic Inc. became their publisher in 1994.