A week or so ago, one of my friends told me about a collection of books called ‘Bob Books.’ Our girls are about the same age so we’re always exchanging notes. Mom friends like this are priceless, right?

I got the first of three collections at Costco for about $11.

So frequently, starter book series end up having the occasional complicated word in them so they end up being frustrating for beginning readers. Bob Books build on each other gradually. They are specifically written to be progressive and establish reading confidence. And they’ve evidently been around longer than I’ve been alive, so please don’t think this book review is at all current or newsworthy.

We read the first one together and I helped her figure out how to sound out the words – just like the instructional card inside the box recommended. When it clicked, her face lit up in a way I’ve never seen. It brought tears to my eyes and I kept giggling like a crazy person. She read a book by all by herself. She went to bed that night smiling and said, “Mommy, I’m so proud of myself.” It just about killed me. It’s just the thing to give her the confidence to push further into the world of reading. She starts kindergarten on Monday {gulp}. I love that she feels like she’s a ‘reader’ and has had some practice with the basic concept of sounding out words and stringing them together into a sentence.

After she finished the first book, she asked to bring it to preschool the next day so she could read it to her teacher. Her teacher even let Avery read it to the class. She felt like a rockstar.

{Proud moment for all involved.}

I totally stole my friend’s idea and created a book-worm. Each time Avery finishes a book in the series, I have her write the title of it on a colored circle and tape it up on our fridge {soon to be moving to her bedroom because it’s growing at a rapid pace}.

She whipped through the first four books in about two days. Now we’re at about one per day. She reads it with me, then reads it with daddy, then reads it with me again. Then, we read it one final time in the morning and she’s got it down like a pro. After she finishes a color block, we re-read them before moving on to the next color block. There’s no forcing going on here. She wants to read them because she’s loving the feeling of accomplishment.

I wholeheartedly recommend these books. I’m not a teacher, but I’m a mom who loves seeing her kid do something that causes her to hold her head up high. Something that makes her proud and feel all that much more ready for kindergarten.

Now if only MOMMY could feel ready for kindergarten, then we’d be all set. Bob doesn’t help with that.

If you liked this post, then check out this and this and this and this.