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Usborne Opinions

Tagged: books, home business, reading

This topic has 15 replies, 16 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 10 months ago by alphabetika.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 16 total)

Author
Posts
May 2, 2010 at 12:11 am
waynesweakervessel
Participant
Anyone willing to share their opinion of Usborne books and if anyone is a consultant and can share even more info please feel free to do so 🙂
Thanks, Brenda
May 2, 2010 at 3:37 am
missceegee
Participant
My 6 yo son enjoys looking at the pictures, but I loathe reading them and none of the kids really enjoy them either. They do not fit the definition of a living book, IMO, but are more tidbits of factual information.
~ Christie
May 2, 2010 at 5:08 am
Anna Christine
Member
So glad to hear someones opinion on this…I was contemplating on whether or not to order some of them or not. I have heard several different opinions. Most people who like them lean more towards traditional schooling methods as opposed to CM or living books it seems. Thanks Christie.
Christie!
May 2, 2010 at 11:36 am
Nina
Participant
We feel the same as Christie… the kids enjoy looking at them but greatly dislike reading them (atleast together).
They give little, choppy info and go from one thing to another. I asked about them before… whether they were a “living book”. I didn’t think they were but it was nice to see someone agree. lol
May 2, 2010 at 1:00 pm
houseofchaos
Participant
Not our favorite either, for the same reasons already mentioned.
May 2, 2010 at 8:57 pm
RobinP
Participant
I have a few in my lending library, but only if it contains something I have no better resource for.
May 3, 2010 at 6:14 pm
esoloj
Participant
I agree with missceegee. My children enjoy the pictures but the information is very choppy. ~Erika
May 3, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Polly
Participant
Nope. Don’t like them! It’s like reading in ADD mode to me. Not pleasant.
May 4, 2010 at 12:43 pm
art
Participant
I was a consultant probably 15 years ago, so I have a lot of them in my home. I thought I would use them when I started to homeschool, but no. I agree with everyone else, and I don’t like the way they freely put drawings of people whose bodies aren’t as covered as I need them to be. It may sound silly, but they are just pictures of Egyptians or something and aren’t always dressed. Whether they went around that way or not, I don’t need it in a book.
That said, occasionally, we want something to whet our appetite for learning more about something, so I haven’t gotten rid of them.
May 5, 2010 at 4:33 pm
SweetMarie
Participant
I like Usborne for reasons that some of you don’t…lol…
I think the encylopedias do have short tidbits of information, but the photgraphs/illustrations are beautiful and captivating to go with it. I like this because I have a child that gets OVERWHELMED with too much text, even if I am reading it.
So Usborne works well for this, the small amount of information is there, the illustrations draw my child in…we end up having great narrations and then proceed to use the quicklinks they provide to get more information. As well as move into other books that may fall better under the catagory of “living books”
I think they work well to introduce young children to the non-fiction books, and aids in helping them use encycopedia type reference books with out it being intimidating. Older children 10 + may require more, but may still also enjoy looking something up in an Usborne encylopedia to ‘light the fire’. I use it that way too, if there is an independent study I’d like the older one to do. They flip through that and it gives us a jumping off point for a topic and then off to the library we go.
I also have a child who at 5 years old would not mind thumbing through something like “Handbook of Nature Study”. That child is not intimidated by text or large books. As for my other child, I think because of a few Usborne books and encyclopedia, he is now really appreciating where books can take him.
So they are working for us and leading into great living books. My children are still young though, and I can appreciate what others have found too. It is just nice to see my child who previously did not like to read, wanting to get more and more from the library now!

June 20, 2016 at 9:40 pm
Cortney
Participant
The only thing I have appreciated from Usborne are these are cards – https://d5085.myubam.com/p/1241/famous-paintings
We use them for art study, obviously and even my 3 yo loves to sit and look at them for a long time. But I agree, Usborne is just a bunch of little bites of info that drive my visually-over-stimulated brain crazy. LOL
June 21, 2016 at 7:28 am
Kelley
Participant
They’re just OK to me. I like the pictures, my kids are excited to look at them, and I agree that the “choppy” information isn’t overwhelming for my kids. The thing that drives me crazy about Usborne is that a ton of people I know are now consultants and I’m constantly getting bombarded with online party invitations…
June 21, 2016 at 10:16 am
HollyS
Participant
I think they have some good books. I’m not a fan of books loaded with snippets of information, but we have enjoyed some of their books. Their First 1000 Words books are more fun than a foreign language dictionary would be, especially for early elementary/middle school ages. My DD has an Usborne drawing/coloring book that has semi-finished pictures for her to complete. It’s much more fun than a regular coloring book. Also, they have some decent board books for preschool ages.
June 21, 2016 at 10:18 am
Monica
Participant
We have several that my kids like to flip through. We don’t read them aloud, though, because, as other people mentioned, the snippets of information don’t lend themselves to being read aloud.
June 21, 2016 at 11:25 am
MissusLeata
Participant
I agree with the majority. I really dislike the format. They are great for letting the kids look at the pictures, but horrible of I’m expected to read them out loud.

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