The cubs box that we tried was all about festivals. There was an interactive board book about Chinese New Year. Smallest Child absolutely loved this book. It was really vibrant and a great way to start off learning about different world festivals. There were also craft ideas to help them learn about Christmas, Diwali, Chinese New Year and Hanuka. The boxes included all the resources to do the crafts. There’s also some additional activities in the box, instructions on how to use the resources and a recipe to make some bear biscuits.

Camilla Macoun is a mother of three and Founder of The Bear Can Read, a subscription service for families with children aged 2-7. When I originally wrote my review for The Bear Can Read there were boxes for 2/3 year old, 3/4 year old’s, reception, year 1 & year 2. Now they’ve added an independent reader’s box as well. I originally brought the 3-4 year old’s box for Smallest Child (3 & 3 months) but I was also gifted a 2-3 year old’s box to compare the two. Now Smallest Child has started school we’ve set up our own subscription at the 4-5 years level. What’s in the cubs box? (2-3 years)

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Your child’s teacher might ask your child to read words that have sound buttons, or to write sound buttons under a word. So how does it work? I have spent my whole career in publishing, but the last 10 years I worked as a children’s educational publisher. After writing my MA thesis on early literacy, and researching the importance of establishing reading habits from a young age and what a huge difference it makes if parents are involved to support reading at home, I knew I wanted to build my career in children’s publishing. The Bear Can Read, a subscription service delivering bespoke early literacy and phonics bundles to children aged 2-7 so that parents can support them at home, was an idea that bubbled away a couple of years until I finally took the leap. Did you ever sit down and plan your career? When your child is learning each set of sounds it is really important they have access to books that closely match their phonics knowledge. There is a big difference between phonics books and popular storybooks. Sharing stories is an important part of developing a love of reading, however, when children are learning to read they need access to books that match their phonics knowledge. The Bear Can Read brings fun and focus to children’s reading – 10 to 15 minutes every day makes all the difference. By far the best children’s subscription we’ve had (and we’ve done a lot of craft and baking ones previously).

Teaching phonics can be quite daunting, both for you and your little one, therefore we want to help you every step of the way to make reading both fun and educational.We are big readers in this house, and we always have been. Smallest Child is currently too small to read but she loves having stories read to her. The Bear Can Read is a reading subscription box for children aged 2 upwards. Each box is tailored to the reading stage of the child. It includes books and additional resources to help your child in their reading journey. Our aim is to make reading levels and targets totally transparent, so parents always know how their child is doing. We want to take the pressure off teachers by giving families access to the very latest and most stimulating phonics materials – at just the right reading level – at home. Today, we will be covering sound buttons. While your child learns to read phonics, you’ll probably come across words that are written like this, with dots and dashes underneath the letters:

In the word ‘night’, the long ‘i’ sound is spelled with three letters, ‘igh’. So, we put a dash under all three letters, to show they are a trigraph – three letters that make one sound.Independent readers are independent thinkers, and once your child has mastered the skills of reading, they will be able to access ideas, stories and information from right across time and all around the world. They’ll be able to read and understand information in every area of the curriculum and learn about any subject that interests them. Independent readers find far fewer barriers to future success, whatever direction they take in life. My 3 year old is just getting into the worksheets, but absolutely loves all the stories and books that come in her parcel every month. The addition of a character to support the stories is a wonderful touch. Not sure which level your child needs? Have a look at our bear clubs and see what's included in the boxes. 4. Read with enjoyment

There’s an arch between ‘o’ and ‘e’! This is because o-e is a digraph – but the letters are split up, so we can’t just put a dash under them as usual. The arch over the top shows that o-e is a split vowel digraph – together, ‘o’ and ‘e’ make the sound ‘oa’. But the letter ‘m’ comes in between them to split them up! You know about digraphs – now meet trigraphs! For our youngest club members aged 2-3 (Cub) and 3-4 (Teddy) we focus on the skills they need to be developing at home to keep pace with early learning goals. Tailored progress

Once you join your child will receive a bundle of books and activities delivered to your door each month. Just let us know the book band level your child uses at school to start or we can sensibly place your child based on their age, school stage and the time in the school year (see our handy chart). We will work with you and tweak their reading level until it is just right. Targeted practice We have been subscribing to That Bear Can Read since Christmas. These beautiful boxes of literary joy arrive every month to the delight of my 2 children (ages 6 and 3). There is the perfect balance of educational material and gifting. I think it’s really important to pursue something that you’re passionate about and know there is a problem that needs fixing. When it comes to building the solution and having confidence in what The Bear Can Read does, I know how important it is to get phonics books that help children learn to read in the same way they are taught in school into the hands of young children. I know how critical it is to get the level of the book right so the child doesn’t feel frustrated or bored, and I know what an incredible impact getting this right can have on a child’s attainment across all subjects (and their happiness levels). I’m so passionate about making it easier for parents to support their child’s reading at home (as a mum of three myself I love our message of ‘open the box and you’re on your way, together we create readers’) and this mission has been my compass for the last 15 months. Have you ever had a mentor or career coach? For me, I think the curation of these collections is fantastic, with a good mix of fiction and non fiction, and for younger ones providing themes and concepts that support their development outside of Reading and Phonics. Camilla has 16 years’ experience with educational publishing, with in particular expertise in children’s reading and phonics. During her career Camilla has worked at Ladybird, Penguin Random House, Pearson and Oxford University Press. Camilla commissioned then managed Pearson’s best-selling reading programme, Bug Club. As a Senior Publisher at Oxford University Press Camilla was instrumental in developing Oxford Reading Buddy, a ground-breaking virtual reading service for primary schools.