Reading

When I was about 12 years old, we lived across the street from this AMAZING lady, Gina Erickson (this is beside the point, but she had lost all feeling from her legs down in a car accident (the drunken mayor hit them-NOT charged), but learned to walk anyway. The accident left her unable to have children so she adopted 3).

Gina got her Masters degree in phonics, reading, or early childhood development. Anyway, during the summer I babysat her kids for couple of hours about 3 times a week while Gina went into the basement to write these books! I remember very vividly the first time she brought them over and gave us a copy of the first set. They are called, "Get Ready, Get Set, Read" books. (Gina C. Erickson, Kelli Foster)

Well, my kids are on the cusp of reading. They know their letters and sounds, but I have really struggled with most early reading books because they are really too advanced. I've always remembered Gina's books. There are 5 sets. Each set has 7 books--5 that introduce a word family and 2 that are "bring-it-all-together" books which use the all the words families. The books are so cute and inventive with titles like "The Bug Club," "The Sled Surprise," "Sometime's I Wish," "Frog Knows Best," etc. Each book introduces a word family like ug, ed, ish, etc. and has very limited sight words. All of the word family words and sight words used in the book are found in short lists at the back so you can practice them. The great things about these books is that although they are simple, they aren't babyish like 'Meet jane, see jane run, run jane run'. My kids really like the stories. Many of them are funny or have unexpected endings.

I can't describe the joy my kids felt during the last month when they've finally read a book ALL by themselves. This has been a confidence builder for me as well since I have no experience at all teaching reading. I would highly recommend these to any of you with preschoolers, Kindergarteners, or any other prereaders! There are 5 sets--which I bought, but would recommend starting with set 1 or 2 which introduce the short vowels. There is also a really helpful teachers manual with ideas for teaching sight words and each of the word families. Happy Reading!!

I bought mine on this website and got a small discount for purchasing all the sets and teachers manual, but I think you can get them through Barnes and Noble as well.