Submit Ideas
You – our wonderful Bob Books parents, grandparents, teachers, friends and children – have so many terrific ideas and creative ways to use the Bob Books. Thank you for sharing them with us and with the Bob Books community.
New ideas are always welcome. Click the button in the top corner to send an email. Photos, YouTube clips and audio clips are all invited.
Teaching Reading with Bob Books
After opening her tutoring business in 1991, Brandy began searching for programs to help children improve their reading skills. When she found Bob Books and began using them with her students, she was thrilled with the results! She has written a wonderful blog of day-by-day tutoring instructions, using Bob Books with her four children. You'll find creative ideas, gentle instruction and lots of helpful hints. Teaching Reading with Bob Books
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KNOCKING DOWN SIGHT WORDS
Momma Bloggers extraordinaire Kristina and E.J. at Toddler Approved have created a number of cool activities to enhance learning with Bob Books. They write: "Grab your party blower and start reading! Every time you find a sight word in the book, read it, talk about what it means (we liked to reference the pictures), look for the matching sight word on the play-doh container, and knock it down using the blower!"
For details of this and other Bob Books inspired activities, head over to Toddler Approved for details.
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USING MANIPULATIVES FOR LETTER RECOGNITION
Having taken many many classes in Early Childhood, working with young children for over 6 years and knowing my child, I knew [he] could not jump right into reading the first [Bob] Book even though [he] knew the sounds each letter makes.
So, I started with Set 1 Book 1 and wrote the letters that were in the first book on a piece of paper (upper and lower case). I had my son tell me the sounds it made and write that letter next to it (upper and lower case). After he wrote the first letter I would use a manipulative such as interlocking small foam alphabet letters (found at the dollar store). I would let my son find the foam letter, punch it out and then trace the letter all the while saying the sound.
Once my son did this for all the letters in the first book we then made words with the foam letters. I wrote down all the words that could be made and then I would say one of the words and have him try to make that word with the interlocking foam letters.
On the first day I actually showed him the word and all he had to do was find the letters and put them together. After all this was done my son would take a break. After the break he would actually read Bob Books Set 1 Book 1 with my help.
I worked on the Book One set one for about 5 days, each day using either the same or a different type of manipulative to keeps things interesting. Here are some of the different types of manipulatives I used:
- Foam interlocking alphabet letters
- boggle letter cubes
- scrabble letter tiles
- shaving cream
- Alphabet Letters
- Interlocking Foam Mats
- the game What’s Gnu?
- play dough, and
- cutting out letters from newspapers or magazines.
- Julia in Louisville, Kentucky
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Reading Reward Chart
I just wanted to let you know that I have been using the Bob Books to teach my children to read for many years. It would be wonderful to see a chart that the children could print off that listed all of the Bob Books- they could color or mark each one off as the read them!
-- Mom of Many Blessings, Jane S
To print the Reading Chart, right-click on it and open in its own window. It fits an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.
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Picture rewards
My wife has cut out construction paper and covered each picture in the books. Then the reward for reading a page is getting to see the picture. My son Carson loves it!
-- Tony
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How to organize your books
We love our Bob Books. The box they come in is handy, but once we had all seven sets it was too hard to keep them organized. My low-tech solution was to put them in a plastic shoebox. The size is 7-1/4” x 12-3/4” x 4” deep. As you can see, it fits perfectly. I used the cardboard packing that comes in the Bob Books boxes to make the dividers (if you haven’t thrown it away already.)
Sometimes my kids get really involved in organizing the box and getting everything in its right order. I figure I’ve done pretty well if I can get them into their correct section. The covers have a color-coded circle on the front that helps a lot.
-- Lynn K, Seattle
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When your child completes a book
Even as an adult there is a sense of accomplishment upon finishing a book. For a child, that feeling is magnified wonderfully. And for a beginning reader, there is ecstatic glee for having managed to make it from the front cover to the back: “I read it! I read a book!” As a father of two 6-year-old extremely identical twins, I’ve enjoyed using Bob Books to teach them – one at a time – how to read.
To enhance their sense of accomplishment, whenever one child manages to read a Bob Book perfectly (or close enough) I write their name and the date on the inside cover: Clara read this book perfectly on … When they read the book a second time, their name goes in again, with a star. In this way we are working our way through all five boxes of Bob Books, first one daughter signing in, and then the other. Of course, for me, the books become more valuable with each name and data I’m able to inscribe. This works so well that my older daughter, who is 8, has me do the same with all of her books. She has a special shelf in her room for the books she’s completed, and although she could easily write in her own name and date she insists that Dad do this for her. It's a nice way to create milestones.
-- Grant F, Seattle, Washington
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What to read after Set 5
My wife and I love your books for our son Carson. He was 4 years old when he read the Bob Books.
Now that we’ve finished Set 5, I believe there's no lack of reading material. My son just turned 5, and he's reading at a mid-second grade reading level. He goes through 12-14 books per week, and we have a seemingly endless supply of books. Early readers tend to like to read a lot, which causes a great deal of work for the parents.
Get very comfortable with your library. Our library (like many others) is networked with a large group of libraries, so you can request books from other places. Our library has a nice website where you can do all your book searches and book requests online, so you spend a relatively short period of time at the library itself.
Here are some sources we use.
Series Books:
1. Danny and the Dinosuar, and other books by Syd Hoff
2. Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel
3. Little Bear books by Elsa Holmelnd Minarik
2. Curious George series
3. Clifford the Big Red Dog series
4. Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer
5. Dr. Seuss books (ranges from very easy-to-read to 2nd or 3rd grade reading level)
6. Amelia Bedelia books
7. Books written by Audrey Wood
8. Books written by Martin Waddell
9. Aggie and Ben; Good Dog, by Lori Ries
Our library has a binder containing the local school system's reading list by grade level. This book list goes beyond the school's required in-school reading. It's possible other libraries have something similar. You may ask a librarian about this, or the elementary school(s) may have a list of possible reading material.
Step Into Reading books are a great resource, and most of these books can be found at the library. http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/books/step/
Sonlight Curriculum has a fantastic list of readers. Their books are listed by reading level. It's a Christian-based group. Most of the books in the Readers section are just interesting stories. They also have a good list of books about world cultures, history and geography. You can go to www.sonlight.com and order a catalog from them. Many of these books you also can get from the library.
Sheridan Worldwise, www.wwise.com, has a nice list of science literature from Pre-K to 8th grade level. Many of these books you can find at the library.
--Tony
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Bob Books at the Library
We love libraries that make Bob Books available to children who are just learning to read. Here is an idea to help make Bob Books easier to shelve. (Some Moms like this idea to keep all their books together, too.)
Purchase Bob Books in their current format (little books in a box). Purchase a 2" CD clamshell from your favorite library supply company. (Demco product number WE15305260 is 2" and includes an outer vinyl sleeve.)
Recycle or discard the CD sleeves. Punch the Bob Books to fit the two metal binder rings, and bind into the clamshell.
Then, simply cut the Bob Books box apart, and insert the disassembled box sides into the outer vinyl sleeve.The box front fits in front, the left spine fits in the spine, and there is just enough room to fit the right spine and the back into the back sleeve.
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Writing practice
At our preschool, there is a writing exercise before progressing to the next book. The instructor writes some sentences from the book, but leaves a blank for one word in each sentence. The child then writes in the missing word. If the child’s handwriting isn’t well-developed, she might be given word choices in order to circle the correct choice, and then proceed to write the word in the blank using the circled word as a guide. This exercise is devised on-the-fly using each child’s “writing book” (a set of blank writing templates used for a variety of exercises).
See a sample of the exercise completed after my daughter read the book Jig and Mag from Set 1.
Aj at 
