MEGA Early Readers Comparison | Abeka, BOB Books, Usborne My First Reading Library, and MORE!

[@marysmemoriesinmotion8537]

I really like using the Abeka curriculum and readers. I was also taught with these books, and enjoyed them. I still remember several of the stories. 😊

[@SevenInAll]

I think we often have fond feelings for the books we learned on as children! My mom used Sing, Spell, Read, and Write when I was a kid, and those hold a special place in my heart!

[@RussellsLovingLife]

I love the parent side/kid side early readers books! We love the BOB books too.

[@SevenInAll]

The parent reads/child reads books are a fun approach to that stage.

[@PlanPrepPray]

The diversity of the journey is what is beautiful I agree

[@SevenInAll]

Yes! That's the whole point behind homeschool!

[@VivaLuisyana]

Excellent examples! I believe that books like these were the reason behind my love for reading! Spanish was my first language and my mom and I would watch Family Feud and read short books like these to build our English vocabulary. I’m definitely on the lookout for these gems now that I have my daughter.

[@SevenInAll]

You're smart, already building a book collection are your little girl grows! Books are my favorite thing to buy for my little boys--the two year old is already in love with books, and the 11 month old is slowly warming up to them, haha!

[@FaithFueledLiving]

Thank you so much for the comparisons! I’m an Usborne Books & More consultant, and Im trying to help people find the right books for them, whether it’s usborne or not. So, this was very helpful! Thank you my friend!

[@SevenInAll]

Oh, that's really cool! Here, Usborne books are sold in a couple of bookstores...not all, just a few, so you have to know where to go. I sometimes forget that they have a different model in the USA or other countries, but that sounds like a lot of fun. Books are probably one of the most fun things to buy or sell...

[@ourthriftyhomeschool]

I like the Bob Books! I always loved how they would give my kids confidence in being able to say I read a whole book without being overwhelmed!

[@SevenInAll]

haha, that "I read a whole book!" feeling is real!

[@keeperofmyhome]

I’ll check out Life if Fred! Thanks for sharing!!

[@SevenInAll]

They are so funny--humor is a pretty big priority to me in homeschool. It motivates the kids!

[@LivingWithEve]

This is so awesome! I wish I had a video like this when I was first starting out. I struggled to find the perfect reader constantly!

[@SevenInAll]

I think it's really hard to understand all the differences when you're just looking at the covers!

[@wildlingsacademyhomeschool8081]

This was great, there’s so much more out there than I realized. However I still have no idea which direction to go in! 😂 I do really like the Usborne readers. Which do you think you’ll start with?

[@SevenInAll]

Sing, Spell, Read, and Write is a really thorough phonics/LA program, and I expect I will most likely use that curriculum for the really solid initial "learn to read" progression, which means working through those readers when the time comes for my boys. I think I would use both the Usborne readers and the Life of Fred readers for the fun/building interest in reading element--those are the two I would go for for actual interesting and fun books to read. First the Usborne early readers and Life of Fred a bit later.

[@lishieandfamily]

The sing spell read books looks so good, I wonder if I can find them here will be so helpful for my 4 year old, he starts kindergarten next year (prep year before grade 1/year one not sure what you call it there)

[@SevenInAll]

Sing, Spell, Read, and Write is an older program (I read these books when I was a kid!) but it's still out there. Yes, we do the preschool, kindergarten, first grade progression. I feel like each country has a slightly different name.

[@MandieHeartsLife]

This has been my biggest area to work on with my younger twins. Kindergarten public school didn’t give them the greatest foundation. So I feel like this year I’m starting fresh with homeschool for them. I’ll be looking into the Usborne books. I’ve heard great things about Bob Books not sure if I’ll go that route though. This was super helpful. Thanks so much💕

[@SevenInAll]

Thanks so much for watching! I'm really glad it was helpful!

[@PlanPrepPray]

I am actually looking for more early readers to add to our collection. We love bob books now though. You definitely gave me some ideas to add to our collection

[@SevenInAll]

Thanks! I think having a couple different options can be a really good thing because the last thing you want, when learning to read, is boredom. Sometimes something "new" is enough to help motivate a reluctant reader.

[@MommaonMission]

We used the Usborne ones and Bob books as a supplement as my boys were learning to read. They really helped with practice and confidence!

[@SevenInAll]

Yes, it's all about practice at that beginning stage!

[@mylittlehomeschoolinthewoods]

I've never seen the Usborne books before, I need to look into those! We've collected a lot of the Abeka readers over the years, they're really great books!

[@SevenInAll]

You could probably tell that our set of Abeka readers has seen some pretty heavy use...my guess is those are probably well above a decade old, haha!

[@mylittlehomeschoolinthewoods]

@@SevenInAll Yeah a lot of ours look like they're fixing to fall apart ,lol!

[@HomeSweetHomeschoolLife]

This was definitely epic. You shared so many wonderful things.

[@SevenInAll]

Thank you!

[@kimrankin6369]

I really appreciate this video. I am homeschooling a nonspeaking (airway problems, has a tracheostomy) 11 year old who has other multiple disabilities. He is has a global delay so he is not at grade level, but I do see progress in learning to read despite not being able to audibly sound out words. We do a lot of work on developing his inner reading voice. What seems to be working well for him is to decode by finding word family association to key words he has learned. So for example - he can decode "bring" because it is associated by word family similarity to a word he knows "sing." Can you recommend beginner reader series that might fit with his strengths? So many decodable beginner readers really rely heavily the CVC sounding out and that skill is still developing for him. He would see the association of FAN to CAN before he would go letter by letter to decode F...A...N. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you have!

[@SevenInAll]

It's fantastic that you've been able to identify what's working and that you've identified word families as a key. I can't think of any beginning reader series that focus on word families specifically...I'd suggest searching on Teachers Pay Teachers to see if anyone has created printable word-family based readers?

[@ItCameFromAVlog]

This video is such a great resource! There's a very overwhelming amount of options when it comes to teaching your kids to read. I'm currently using the Teach Your Child to read in 100 Easy Lessons with my 4 year old. He's doing rather well and we're on lesson 8 right now. My mother in law got me a Bob's books collection but it just looks... Ok.

[@SevenInAll]

Yes, I agree that there are! I know many moms swear by the Bob books but...I will admit that I'm not personally the biggest fan. haha! I sometimes struggle with patience for early readers.

[@elizabethlotus4214]

Great examples, it's fun to see all the options

[@SevenInAll]

Thanks!

[@OurHomeschoolCastle]

These are all great books! I’ve never heard of some of these❤️ I will definitely look into the Usborne books

[@SevenInAll]

There are a ton of options, and it can definitely be overwhelming to new homeschoolers. I hope that by showing the differences, people will be able to figure out which fits their style and needs the best.

[@ItsAWanderfulLife]

I just recently fell in love with Usborne books and I'm so mad that I was late to the party lol.

[@SevenInAll]

haha, they have some really, really fun books. I'm pretty such Usborne is basically an endless selection...

[@DayToDayMom]

Such a great comparison video! Im going to have to try usborne & Life of Fred next!

[@SevenInAll]

Those are my two favorites for early readers that are actually fun and interesting!

[@mommyonthemove25]

Great comparison, I have some of the Bob books.

[@SevenInAll]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@MichelleGayScienceTeacher]

Great resources! Thanks for sharing!!

[@SevenInAll]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@lishieandfamily]

This is such an interesting video !!

[@SevenInAll]

Thanks!

[@ItsAWanderfulLife]

The key words readers look cool and different!

[@SevenInAll]

They are definitely completely different from the phonics system that is typically used nowadays, but the sight word reading approach does work well for kids who just aren't understanding phonics.

[@HSingMomto5Kids]

I know you mentioned curriculum with some of these sets. Did you just use the books to teach reading without the curriculum? My older kids learned to read with Abeka curriculum. I've used so many curriculums depending on the child. My current child I'm using Bob Books for. She is 5 books in on set 1. Today I pulled out a Dick & Jane Book and she really struggled with lots of guessing. So I'm curious if you just used reading or anything else that maybe you even suggest with the Bob Books or of what you did. I really want to avoid buying curriculums. I also want to make the best choice on helping my daughter to read as well. Thank-you for this video.

[@SevenInAll]

There are definitely those kids who can pick up reading solely from practicing reading with leveled readers (I was one of those kids, ha!) but in general...I think most kids benefit a great deal from some kind of guided phonics "Learn to read" curriculum of some sort, to thoroughly cover all the quirks of English phonics and all the tricky words. I personally am not a big fan of Bob Books, we were handed-down the set and have used them a little bit, but I feel like they're tough to use for complete reading instruction. Our family has long used a very thorough phonics curriculum that is quite old and maybe out-of-print, which is Sing, Spell, Read, and Write, so I feel like that's not very helpful. Because it's hard to get the student books for that curriculum, I may end up trying something new when my boys are old enough to learn reading.

[@lishieandfamily]

those preschool readers look really good too

[@MitchellsonaMission]

We love the McGuffy eclectic readers

[@SevenInAll]

I remember those from when I was a kid!

[@missrayishat]

If a child has completed the entire BOB book series, would you recommend the Life of Fred set? or would it not be enough of a challenge? Also, is a child considered a first-grade reader once they have completed the entire BOB books series?

[@SevenInAll]

I believe that the entire BOB book series is intended to cover all major phonics "rules" and that you can consider that the child is reading by the time they have mastered the series. Some kids may still need to grow in confidence with reading other texts (The Life of Fred readers are quite interesting and entertaining, but there are very few words on the page). You can also just look for all of the leveled "beginner reader" series out there that are intended for kids who get the idea of reading and phonics but who don't have the reading stamina for chapter books yet. i.e. "I Can Read" series, National Geographic readers, etc.

[@missrayishat]

@@SevenInAll Thank you so much for responding. Ok, that sounds good! We are currently almost done with the "complex words" set and will only have one set left after this. I'm also having a hard time figuring out what grade level of reading he would be considered once the set is complete (kindergarten, first, or second). I a leaning waaaay towards continuing to homeschool because I feel we have made so much progress with reading and math and fear that it won't be the same if he attends kindergarten at a public school. Thank you again.

[@PlanPrepPray]

Definitely an Epic video

[@SevenInAll]

hahaha, thank you! I know my idea of "epic" might be different from others, lol!

[@keeperofmyhome]

Yup, it’s Epic! 👏🏽💕

[@SevenInAll]

Aww, thanks!

[@sklanguage589]

My six year old would love those books from Sing Spell Read Write. This video was a bit long for me. The intro was four minutes long, and it showed a lot of readers.

[@SevenInAll]

I agree, it's a really, really long video. Sing, Spell, Read, and Write is an older curriculum, probably the one my family has used most consistently for 20+ years. The main benefit of it to me is that I've had all the song memorized since childhood, which makes it all too easy to teach.

[@sklanguage589]

@@SevenInAll The readers from it look really good. My six year old likes books like those.

[@user-gz5nf3he3v]

The singsong read and write books is it normal to pay $139 for the 17 bucks ? I can’t seem to find them cheaper anywhere else.

[@SevenInAll]

Unfortunately, I think the first set of readers from Sing, Spell, Read, and Write may be out of print, I think it can only be found on the re-sale market. I have seen the second level set of readers (that's for around 2nd grade-ish) from Rainbow Resource for about $130-something, but the set that I show in this video...I didn't realize that it doesn't seem like they can be found anywhere as a complete, new set. Sorry!

[@thelittlesimplethings7842]

The Bob books have coordinating workbooks. To go with all their book sets

[@SevenInAll]

Yes!

[@EverydayBlessings]

The life of Fred books look great

[@SevenInAll]

They're a lot of fun...and sometimes...I really want something fun. haha!

[@abuzarhamza]

we are using Learning Dynamics

[@SevenInAll]

Thanks for sharing!

[@MeganMarie1]

We have multiple early reader series as well. 😅

[@SevenInAll]

For me, the biggest benefit of having multiple series is to keep it from getting too boring for "mom." I have a strong tendency to get bored of early readers. And if I'm bored, I'm not as patient and not as motivated to sit and listen as they learn to read. Having some variety helps ME. haha!