Books to learn to read

Why not have both? Some for reading and some for colouring. Sounds like they will need to be kept occupied. Also just books that you can read to them as it would help to develop their own motivation to learn to read for themselves.

I do have a selection of reading books, but I thought it would be nice to combine the two, and make the reading more interesting, some of the very easy reading books are to quote GD "not a proper story" and "boring"

Perhaps another option for you is to have some plain paper to hand. You could share a story, then suggest they draw:
Their favourite character
What happened next
Where the story took place
Someone else they would have liked to see in the story ...etc..

I built up a really good library for my own children through charity / second-hand book buying - loads now available online at very low cost too. I think regularly sharing a book shows reading is important. When we read to them, often without realising it, we are also teaching them that words go from left to right, that we turn the pages in a certain order and of course there are all the benefits of calm, close moments.

Sorry if I am stating the obvious - I am just a huge fan of getting children into books early.

wishing you many happy hours
xx

Imperfect27 - Like you I love reading with the children and they do have a good selection of books at home as both patients, like us, are avid readers. I do miss decent charity shops for children's books. We do have quite a selection on the children's book shelves here, but need to update and get new ones in English which are very expensive in Cyprus, and a lot of the on line sellers for some reason charge as much as the book to send to Cyprus, even Amazon. I do use the Book Depository ( which is free postage world wide) , but can't see into the book on that site or get reviews so would like a few recommendations, if that is allowed.

If you're looking for books for the children to read, is the 4y old in Reception? If s/he is you really need to find out where s/he is at in their phonics learning and get decodable books which can be read with the knowledge s/he already has. Failing that, stick to the colouring books and read lovely stories to them;, or find some books with very intricate pictures to find things in and to talk about.

If the 6y old is a 'free reader' in school then any simple books will do, but they, too, may still be needing decodable books at a more advanced stage of phonic learning.

I don't know how easy you would find them to get, but I find the many comics published by the BBC( CBeebies) are very good for both my granddaughter and grandson ( 6 and 3).They have stickers,games ,stories etc and lots are more boy friendly ( e.g. Tree Fo Tom). Perhaps someone could post them out to you?

Have a browse online with The Book People, based in Bangor, North Wales. They deliver internationally and have a huge range of high quality, cut price books.
Books from there my grandchildren especially enjoy include Dr Suess and Oxford Reading Tree titles, there are also so many others. They do activity books of many kinds too.
I don't know whether their postage charges are acceptable.
If the children are already using The Oxford Reading Tree at school you wouldn't want to use exactly the same titles but they do several parallel series some specifically intended for home reading.

Sorry - 'Dr Seuss'.
I so wish I could 'edit'!

I just looked at the international delivery charges and they are per item!
They do some books such as the ones I mentioned in sets. Presumably a set, however many books in it, would count as one item.

The DGD like the Marks and Spencer reading books (as well as Dr Seuss and Oxford Reading tree); they do a range of traditional tales as well as some fairy stories and have a question and answer bit at the end. I notice there is a M&S in Cyprus and wonder if they stock them there?

Thank you all for your information. Jamila - unfortunately M&S here only do clothes and a few food items, and more than double the price, being a franchise organisation. I think it may be back to Book Depository as long as I can find reviews elsewhere. Elrel - I will investigate The Book People. Also many of the suppliers seem to forget that Cyprus is in the EU and also try to charge VAT. I do have a friend visiting soon and can get her to bring a few books out.

I know the children will be in and out of our pool most of the day, but there will always be a time they need to just veg out by themselves and get out of the heat.

Thanks again to all Grans for the help and advice.

Have you thought of not buying books but printing out sheets and/or making your own books? You can find lots of printable worksheets on line- Jolly Phonics are good jollylearning.co.uk/gallery/
BBc CBeebies has stuff as well. There are also games to play on laptops etc.
You could make books from plain paper and get them to draw pictures, dictating any writing to you, you write it out and they copy.
Cheaper than buying lots of books.

This web site may give you some ideas both for books for them to read and for you to read with them.

Have you looked at the Letterland scheme? Fun characters and good for learners too!
Your lucky grandchildren having a pool to play in all day!