Dick and Jane Fun with Our Family

After using this book for less than a month, my four year old is already reading. She is learning new sight words everyday from this book, reading the book, and street signs everywhere.

The Dick and Jane books, published from the 1930's through the early '70s, are nostolgic, charming and sweetly illustrated. They're a great little piece of history both parents and children can enjoy. However, it should be noted that the current publisher, Grosset & Dunlap, has publicly stated that these titles are offered for their entertainment value only and shouldn't be used as teaching tools. The language used in the D & J series, with its oft-repeated, simple words, was part of the "whole-word" approach to teaching reading, which was pilloried in "Why Johnny Can't Read." And indeed, decades of research have shown that phonics is the approach that works. It is with good reason that California abandoned "whole-word" teaching methods early on and current federal standards specifically require a phonic-based curriculum. So buy, read and enjoy, but when your child needs a leg-up with his/her reading, turn to phonics instead.

This book is great for your beginner readers. I purchased this book because I learned how to read off of the Dick & Jane books. To my surprise half of the book is filled with stories about two twin girls Pam & Penny who are African American. I was happy to see this. My six year old son loves reading these stories. I have had this book about 1 year now. My six year has learned his beginning words and now is excelling in much larger words. If you want your child to have confidence in reading, these books are great to have to start them off. Why oh why? did they take the Dick & Jane Books out of the schools.

This is a great volume for home-schoolers or just nostaglia. This volume along with Fun Wherever We Are reprints the pre-primers from the 1960s edition of the Dick and Jane readers. Some stories are from the 1965 multi-ethnic version, while others are not. Still with a little careful sequencing one can follow the original sequence of stories to teach reading vocabulary. Antiquarian copies of the same books are expensive, some these reprints would be great for home-schoolers.