Now I'm Reading!: Animal Antics - Level 1 (NIR! Leveled Readers)

Like so many other parents, I did my research about how best to teach my child to read - sight word, word families, or phonics - and quickly decided that a strong foundation in phonics was best for our family.Then came the hard part, finding phonics based readers. So many series claim to teach phonics but really are just pushing sight word reading. Nearly all of the series based on popular characters are that way - a brief page at the beginning of the story that tells the parent what phonics concepts are introduced in the story and then a story that only uses those concepts a few times in sentences crowded with longer, more advanced phonics words. It's very frustrating for a beginning reader to have to keep stopping to ask what a word is. And it's frustrating to the parent to have to keep trying to teach a child that they CAN sound out words when the child is seeing so many she can't sound out yet.We tried the BOB books and found them to be just OK for us. While they are very much phonics based, with the child able to sound out nearly every word on every page, they are also somewhat boring. The pictures are very simple line drawings with little to no color; the stories are disjointed and need some explanation to help the child "get it". My daughter (4 years, 1 month) knew all of her main letter sounds and could sound out all of the words in the first 2 boxes of BOB books but she resisted reading any of them to me, often stopping in the middle of a story and refusing to continue. In addition to being worried about squashing a budding love of reading, I was worried about finding any slightly more advanced readers for her.Then we found Now I'm Reading. The pictures are cute and colorful. They add a lot to the story, making it possible for the child to "get" the humor and emotion of the story with just the simple words. And the words themselves are wonderful. Each story builds on itself, easing the child into reading a much longer sentence than a beginning reader otherwise might feel comfortable reading. For example, in "Fat Cat", the first page simply says "A cat." The next page adds to that with "A tan cat." Then we get "A tan fat cat." Every page after that refers to the cat that way and that cat is soon running in a race that he loses and his two friends come over to pat him on the back and cheer him up - all with simple 3 and 4 letter "short a" words. Most of the words follow the simple CVC pattern like "cat" and "fat" but some blends are thrown in as well - "glad" and "last" for example. Are there sight words? Yes, of course. It's nearly impossible to tell a story without "a" and "the" for example.Each set comes with matching stickers as well - 4 stickers for each story. The idea is to have the child read the story to you and once she does, she places one of the stickers on the inside front cover of the book. By the time she reads it 4 times, she has the confidence in her abilities to move on to the next book. I was certain that my daughter would NOT want to do this. In her world, stickers are for SHIRTS, sometimes charts, but never books. Well, she loves it. She is so proud to be able to earn a sticker and place it inside the book.What does your child need to know before starting Animal Antics? The child needs to know the main letter sounds of each consonant (c as in cat, g as in glad, x as in x-ray), the short vowel sounds, and needs to grasp the concept of saying each letter's sound and then blending those sounds into a word. Once a child can do that with simple words like "cat" and "pig", then the child is ready for these wonderful little readers.

I spent a while looking at the popular early reading book set brands, and finally decided on these. So far I am happy with the content of these books. They are just what I was looking for - books with easy-to-sound-out short vowel words without a lot of sight words or other rules (like double vowel or silent e). Many of the so-called early readers are too difficult for the very early reader. I'm sure we'll be there soon, but these are helping us make the transition. These books are great for phonics and sounding out words. Unlike flash cards (which we do supplement these books with - mainly for sight words), the books give my child a sense of accomplishment that he can read a book. One issue I have with any short, easy books (which generally have pictures) is memorizing the text. I have found using letter cards (1 letter per card) to spell out focus words in the book helps reinforce the concept of sounding-out, while keeping the words out of context. These books have filled a gap in my "teaching to read" resources by allowing my early reader to read a "real book".

I'm homeschooling my 5 year old, who is in TK, and just starting to read. I asked for advice from other homeschooling moms about books that were engaging but still appropriate for her reading level, as she finds most boring but is not yet able to read more challenging books.I was a little put off by the high price of these, and even more so when I saw how tiny the books were. Seriously it looks like the repurposed CD holders to make the set, that's how small the books are. But, to my amazement and excitement, my daughter has been picking up this booklet and willingly reading the books on her own. She got through the whole set within a few days. The stories are simple, but unlike BOB books or some other early reader lines, they're silly and fun and manage to have a little humor or surprise in them. And she actually enjoys the questions at the end. Will be buying more!

I own all the books in this wonderful Now I'm Reading series by Nora Gaydos. I can't say enough about how much I love these books! The author was an elementary school teacher and understands how children learn to read. The stories are perfect length for early readers, and amusing enough to hold their interest. Level 1 starts with simple 3-letter words and a few sight words, and each level builds progressively on the skills previously learned. Look at the back page to determine which level you think your child might be at. Most children in grade 2 would be able to read Level 4.The 10 books come in a nice hardcover case with magnetic closure, and includes a parent guide and 5 reward stickers per story. My children find this aspect very encouraging. At the end of each story are 3 comprehension questions. On the inside back cover of each story is listed the sight words and phonics combinations that are used in the story. I find this very helpful.

At first I couldn't figure out why the words were always on the next page in the kindle version, but then I saw it was rotation locked.

These books are wonderful for learning and a lot of fun for the kids too as they get achievement stickers as they work through it. Decent price, good learning materials and most importantly, keeps my daughters attention and makes her excited to learn to read!!

今現在、５歳の息子が夢中になって読んでいます。基本的なphonicsに基づいて、短い文章でかつ楽しい内容で、思わず吹き出してしまいます。絵もカラフルでとってもかわいいです。

Elsa and her mother read these stories every night! She loves the bright colour, pictures and simple learning involved.

On ne se troupe pas. Vraiment un ouvrage pour lecteurs débutans.