We Look

If your child is ready to read, I recommend you take they back to the place where many of us started...with Dick and Jane. If you read the books in developmental order (listed in the back of the book), the child develops confidence in reading. I bought the series for my granddaughter this summer (after her kindergarten experience). As she finished each book, I presented her with the next book. Start your child with the book "Dick and Jane, We Look". My granddaughter is going off to first grade with confidence and pride!! By the way, I am a college professor of early childhood education.

We purchased 3 paperback books over the weekend for our granddaughter who is entering into 1st grade. I was amazed that we are almost through with the first book. she really enjoys reading alone with her dolls. It was amazing to know she actually can read the story alone. the books are simple yet challenging for a beginning 1st grader. times may have changed but children are children and they learn how we use ( and still do) to, repetition. The smile on her face was worth the small price we paid for that secure feeling. That what all kids need. " the feeling of accomplishment".

Thirty five years ago when I was in kindergarten the first word I read from a Dick and Jane reader was "Look". The same is true for my child who is a kindergartner this year. The Dick and Jane readers which were originally published by Scott Foresman and Company in the 1930's-1960's are the best readers you can use with your children. The stories are fun and the artwork is beautiful. The readers begin with a series of small words and gradually the vocabulary increases so that the words are more complex as well as the sentence structure. Thanks to homeschooling parents requests for these readers they are now back in print.

and Friends." My daughter has been learning to read with the hardback book that was published more recently. I discovered this set of paperbacks contains very similar stories with the same set of limited vocabulary words. Some of the stories are very different than those in the hardback, but some are completely new. "Sally" is the only one of these stories that it very close to the hardback, so this set is not a waste of money.

Millions of Americans grew up learning to read with help from the Dick and Jane stories. The stories were the standard reading texts in first grade for several generations. Then in the mid-1980s the education elite didn't think the stories were very good anymore: they weren't multi-cultural and didn't reflect America. So, most of those texts are gone now. Though the stories are dated, they had become part of our cultural heritage, and it was bitter-sweet to see them go.However, many of the stories have now been released in a serial form of chapter books. Not all are in the series, but many are. Parents can now help their children learn to read using the same stories they learned to read with.WE LOOK is the Dick and Jane story I remember the best because of that one great big word, LOOK. Besides helping children read, the books also serve as a historical guide in illustrating how society has changed since they were first published (the clothes, cars, toys, etc.). The books are worth looking at if for no other reason than that.