Biff, Chip and Kipper Books - Worth It?

anotheruser

While learning to read is a fair way off, thinking of investing in this set of books.

Are they any good?

I remember they were at my infant school but this was 20+ years ago. Are these still the same stories? Or have they been edited (thinking about some of Enid Blyton's books)?

Any others I should consider?

Savvy_Sue

They were used by our sons' schools, and as school reading books go, we enjoyed them - definitely an improvement on the ones I remember - even third time round. However, I'm not sure I'd buy them for home use, in case the children ended up at a school which used them, had already worked their way through them, but were forced to re-visit at length. Because if I remember rightly, they're from the Oxford Reading Tree, and there are 'branches' - so the school might feel the need to ensure that 'the programme' was worked through properly, in case some of the important branches were missed out. 

I think the best books you can get are the ones your children love, and rather than formal reading schemes just inspiring a love of books would be the way to go. If your children WANT to learn to read, I believe they'll find a way - DS2 effectively taught himself from the cereal packets on the breakfast table: I was too mired in PND to realise he was doing it so really gave him no 'help'. 

We paid to get the Dr Seuss books, two a month, and they were almost universally amazing - once we'd got all the Dr Seuss ones, there were a few 'story books' based on real animals which didn't appeal so much, but then what can match the original Dr Seuss? I can still quote bits of several of them. 

We also had a few Letterland books which again, I enjoyed, but you might meet them in a 'formal' setting and that might cause issues. 

By the way, you can still get the books I had at school: AVOID Janet and John would be my final bit of advice ... 

FluffityBunny

I wouldn't bother buying the the Chip, Biff and Kipper books, during reception class your child will work through them.  I bought loads of Ladybird First Readers from Poundland when my little girl was 3 years old and she first of all loved having them read to her and by the time she was 4 she was reading them to me.

Spendless

I wouldn't buy them either.  If they then attend a school that has the same books then they are likely to be bored of them.

 I hate to say this but the school reading system did their best to put both mine off reading. Son who was a late reader and put on a implementation programme to help with this at Infants with great success, then found when moving to Junior school they insisted they read every single book in the colour 'band' before progressing. I ended up pointing this out at parents evening that the school chip and biff book he was on was a world away from Roald Dahl's Matilda that was his home reading  book. Teacher disagreed with me and supported the school system, with the consequence DS couldn't be bothered going through the schools system and just read at home. I likened the system to a librarian insisting I read every single Enid Blyton story before being allowed to take Charles Dickens out. Daughter who was an early reader, had a similar experience but not till she got to Secondary school.   

Buy all means buy books but ones you think your children will  enjoy. I still love The Tiger who came to tea. 

barbiedoll

It's really easy to buy books for your children, that you liked, or remembered reading when you were young, but their taste is likely to be very dfferent, and that lovely set you purchased when having a fit of nostalgia, will be sitting on your bookshelf, barely touched, when your kids are in their teens!

You'll get a feel of what they like, when reading a bedtime story each night. I used to pick up books from charity shops, and we belonged to our local library, which was a godsend when we couldn't afford to spend much on expensive books at the time. My son had some lovely books bought for him as presents, but some of them were never even opened, he just didn't like the look of them. He loved the Mr Men series, some of the old Ladybird fairy tale books (the Three Billy Goats Gruff was an old one of mine, he loved it too and we still have my original copy!) and if I never see another Thomas the Tank Engine book, it will be too soon. I also used to buy him a comic or two each week, I  kept many of them and when he was old enough, he was allowed to go to bed and sit up reading for an hour, with a big pile of comics on his bed if he didn't want to read a book.

I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, to make sure that our children are reading novels as soon as possible. Any reading is good, at one stage, my kid loved "facts and figures" books much more than a long story. His reading was always above his age expectation according to his school, but he rarely read a whole book in one go, although he would read a newspaper at home and he loved reading take-away menus for some strange reason! 

Silvertabby

Savvy_Sue said:

By the way, you can still get the books I had at school: AVOID Janet and John would be my final bit of advice ... 

That did make me laugh!  I was taught to read by Janet and John - "See Janet helping  mummy in the kitchen, see John helping daddy mend the car".  

bouicca21

Just read to them.  There are some great children’s books out there, why stultify things with embarking on a reading scheme.  Children who enjoy books will soon want to read them for themselves.

As I t happens way back in the age of the dinosaurs when reading schemes were what schools did, I remember having to read through every book in the scheme before I was allowed to read anything else.  It didn’t matter that I could read, I still had to ‘prove’ it.  

My two were at a primary school that didn’t have a reading scheme which was so much more fun for them - and all the kids learned to read very quickly. I hate the way reading schemes have come back into fashion.  It’s a one size fits all solution.

Savvy_Sue

Silvertabby said:

Savvy_Sue said:

By the way, you can still get the books I had at school: AVOID Janet and John would be my final bit of advice ... 

That did make me laugh!  I was taught to read by Janet and John - "See Janet helping  mummy in the kitchen, see John helping daddy mend the car".  

My scarred memory remembers no such excitement. "See the dog. Run, Janet, run. We will run." Only Janet had more than one syllable ...

Another thing it's worth saying is that if your children see you reading, it will help. DH remembers really struggling with reading, then one day saw his mum sitting reading, and asked what she was doing. When she said she was reading, it suddenly dawned on him that 'reading' was more than 'reading your book aloud while someone else listens' - you could read in your head, to yourself! Has barely had a book out of his hand since ... 

maman

I'd steer clear of the structured reading scheme type books for out of school. Just keep sharing books with your child and talk to them! Look at the pictures, discuss the stories, ask your child's opinion on the characters and how they might feel.

I'd choose some of the picture books by authors like Julia Donaldson. They are written in rhyme which, I've found, really helps non professionals to read with emphasis and expression. 

I think Monkey Puzzle is one of my favourites. By other authors Giraffe's Can't Dance or the brilliant It's the Bear by Jez Alborough.

littlegreenparrot

Why not just start going to the library every week or two and choose a few together?

I have been told that as a small child I threw the Janet and John reading book across the room and declared I didn't care and wouldn't read it. Was clearly not impressed with those but read everything else voraciously. 

strawb_shortcake

If I remember correctly I learnt to read with the Roger Red hat books? Certainly the earliest ones I remember from school. 

We did buy the biff, chip and kipper books for my eldest before he started the infants, and promptly returned them as I had no idea how you were meant to teach a child to read when the books had no words?? I have since now learned the reason behind that. 

We did always read a lot with all of our children, and can remember one of the key workers from preschool mentioning that it was good that my children understood that a book told a story and wasn't just a picture book, I found this really perplexing at that time and now I guess quite a sad fact that either children have no access to books or the access they do have is presumably hampered by their parents or guardians