I have to say – having worked on learning to read with two of my kids so far – the experience with them both has been so very different. How we have approached it and what works best for each of them is different too. No surprise there – right? I’m excited to see what it looks like with Henry when he’s ready to learn to read. Full disclosure – I am a consultant but that isn’t why I’m sharing this with you – I love and believe in this and I want you to know about it too. The Usborne Very First Reading Library has worked so well for them both that I’m excited to share this with you.

First of all – what is it? The Usborne Very First Reading Library is a set of 50 books designed to teach your child to read as you read with them. The first 22 books are from the Very First Reading series. These books are dual readers. You read them together with your child – meaning there are words for you and words for them. The early books only have a few words on a page and the number of words increases as you progress through the series until your child reads the entire book on their own. The rest of the books progress through Usborne First Reading Levels one and two.

In the back of each book is a parent section that shows the sounds you will be working on today. There are also a few games or puzzles for your child that focus on the sounds in that book.

The early books have two books for each set of letter sounds, allowing your child more practice and building confidence in their reading ability. You can also print out more games and a word bank to go with each book. When you go to the website, you can listen to the letter sounds.

I want to share some tips and how we use the reading library. To begin – go slow. Only a few minutes at a time. You want to make this experience fun and a bonding experience for the two of you. Encourage them when they make a mistake instead of giving them the correct sound or letter. With Maggie, we always read through the book a few times. When we finished, we would work through the puzzles and go over the word bank words if necessary. This is where it went very differently for Charlie. He prefers to read the word bank words first. Then he is ready to read through the book with me. For him, that seems less upsetting so we just roll with it. They both have learned to read using this system in different ways.

For added fun if we need extra work on the book we are on, I have printed out the word bank words twice and we play a matching game with the words. The kids like this, especially if I add in something like a penny or m&m with each correct match and reading of that word.

I cannot say enough about how much I absolutely love this set. I have told so many people about it and I cannot express enough how many friends have ordered it to teach their child to read as well. It’s simple. It’s rewarding watching your child learn to read. I have looked at and tried a few other programs just to see what we thought and every time – we came back to this one.

If we want to talk about cost – and I imagine if you are researching reading programs that you are – this is a great deal. It is a very comparable price, probably a better bargain than other reading programs you have looked at. Plus – if you book a party, you can get this for free or half-price so shoot me a message if you are interested in that option. I love this program so much and will absolutely be using it again with Henry. I cannot add enough to this post about what we love about this reading library so ask away if you want to know more.