Biff, Chip and Kipper Books - Worth It?

maman

Interesting post @annabanana82. You're right that talking about the pictures is a very important starting point. Sadly, many children have little access to books or ever see adults reading. Children need to learn the vocabulary of books like cover, page etc. Some come into school thinking you have to swipe pages. ☹️ I'm not knocking digital knowledge but books are important too and how to hold a pencil, use scissors, dress, hold cutlery...... 

rach_k

Oxford Reading Tree has ranges of books that are designed for home use, so it's unlikely that the nursery or school your child attends would have them, but they use the same levels/bands and the same methods etc.  My children loved the Songbirds books by Julia Donaldson and you can often get them quite cheaply from places like The Works or ebay.  

I wouldn't buy the same books that might be used in school as your child may end up reading the same books again.

Teapot55

I’d echo what @Savvy_Sue said. 
The best books are the ones that a child likes - whether it’s because of the pictures, the story or the characters. 

My own child decided a year before school that she wanted to read & demanded that I teach her to read an awful cheap story book with cartoon characters. The English was stilted and used strange long words. It wouldn’t have made any sense to a small child.  But she’d chosen that one. 

So, in a flash of inspiration we rewrote the story in the gaps on each page. She looked at the pictures and told me what to write. I did have very neat writing in those days! (Possibly we just did a few pages at a time - whatever she felt happy with?) Then I’d point to each word as I read the story. Because she’d decided she wanted to read and because it was her story it wasn’t long before she was joining in. 

anotheruser

barbiedoll said:

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! 

Really fully appreciate this reply.

We already have quite a few series - all the Thomas books (several copies as I'm a collector), Mr Men, Little Miss, How My Body Works (remember those?!), all the Horrible Science, Horrible History and Horrible (something else, I can't remember now).  But we also have a selection of Munch Bunch (not the yogurts!), plus older Ladybird books - easily over 500, closer to 1000 individual books on our shelves.  I'm a big fat of Pat Hutchens and Alan and Janet Alhberg too.

But I wouldn't say reading the stories at home and at school would be boring.  Said child could enjoy the book again or work out that it's not a very exciting story.  But it's likely when he comes round to reading those books at school, at home we'd be reading something else anyway.

I really value books and reading so perhaps I am getting ahead of myself a little.

68ComebackSpecial

I did buy the huge box set of the Biff, Chip and Kipper books because our daughter loved reading them - particularly the "mystery" stories higher up the scheme. These were her favourite books in Foundation/ year 1 - along with Dr Seuss and anything by Julia Donaldson. Apart from the school one we've never used the library as ours is one where you have to know what you want and order it in rather than perusing the shelves. Fortunately the school library and the class libraries were very well stocked and the teachers were always very helpful at suggesting books which would both interest her and stretch her reading. As she's grown out of books we've donated them to school to add to their resources. 

maman

I'm sure your child will be absolutely fine @anotheruser. They have the advantage of being surrounded by books at home and a parent that reads. Some children are lucky if they have an Argos catalogue! Although most love to look at the toys section. 🤣

68ComebackSpecial

maman said:

I'm sure your child will be absolutely fine @anotheruser. They have the advantage of being surrounded by books at home and a parent that reads. Some children are lucky if they have an Argos catalogue! Although most love to look at the toys section. 🤣

Sadly, the Argos catalogue is no more. How are children supposed to choose their Christmas presents now? 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53592591

maman

68ComebackSpecial said:

maman said:

I'm sure your child will be absolutely fine @anotheruser. They have the advantage of being surrounded by books at home and a parent that reads. Some children are lucky if they have an Argos catalogue! Although most love to look at the toys section. 🤣

Sadly, the Argos catalogue is no more. How are children supposed to choose their Christmas presents now? 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53592591

Oh no! Yet another reason for children to increase screen time. ☹️😉🤣

Bluebell1000

Another vote for Julia Donaldson here! My children really enjoy those. We have a couple of the Biff etc books, and while they do really enjoy them, I don't! It should be something you like (or at least can tolerate) for reading aloud. We still have some Munch Bunch stories that I read when I was little.