Favorite Books: June 2018

These boys love to read! We check out as many books as we can from the library, and the kids still cry on our way out because we can't bring ALL the books home! We use our library extensively, we typically only buy a book if we've checked it out from the library and loved it enough to make it part of our home library. These are the books we've wanted to read over, and over again this month!

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We observed our caterpillars become butterflies this month, so this book was, of course, a staple in our home! My 2-year-old loves this book so much because he can recite it! Simple words, a predictable pattern, great pictures! Perfect for every age. 

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My 5-year-old is obsessed with the Magic Tree House series. We have yet to find a book in the series that we didn't enjoy. They are beginner chapter books that still include illustrations every few pages. The stories are intriguing and educational. Camden especially loved this one because he's been to Pompeii and seen Mt. Vesuvius. 

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This will accurately tell what my boys have been struggling with this month! They don't always listen to me when I try to teach them to share, or be respectful. Reading is a great way to teach a lesson without lecturing. If they're fighting about something, all I have to do is start reciting a few lines from the book. It immediately makes them laugh, and then they remember what happened to Fuzzy Llama when the friends weren't sharing nicely. 

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Little Blue Truck is the best! The sweet little truck teaches an incredible lesson about treating everyone around you with respect and kindness. Animal friends, and a little humor thrown in. We LOVE this book!

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Richard Scarry is an incredible author! Mr. Rabbit isn't looking where he's going, and gets stuck in the cement. The townspeople come up with some very clever ways to get him unstuck! Even as an adult, I was belly laughing the first time we read this book together. It is perfect for those beginning readers!

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Mr. Popper and his penguins are so entertaining! Mr. Popper is infatuated with the Arctic, and is very surprised when a penguin shows up on his front door! 

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Sometimes I forget that the classics I've read a million times are brand new to my children! The Little Red Hen is a great book to encourage children to help each other!

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We love all the National Geographic Kids readers! This Butterfly one was perfect to read while we observed our real-life butterflies. The level 1 readers are a bit more difficult than the level 1 readers form other brands, but the pre-reader level is great for those emergent readers! These books are packed full of information and interesting facts!

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This book has a musical quality to it when you read it. I find myself reading it in a hushed, soft tone. It's all about the animals that come to life when night falls. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful! 

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Once you've read this book, you'll look at water differently. It simultaneously follows the stories of Salva, and Nya in South Sudan. Salva was forced from his country as a young boy, and spent many years in refugee camps or walking in the desert. Nya spends every single day walking to the water hole to supply her family with water. Their stories are incredibly humbling! This is the kind of book that will change you! 

How I Taught My Preschooler To Read

There's obviously not just one method or age to teach a child to read, but this is the way WE decided to teach our preschooler to read.  

The very first step in learning to read is being read to a lot. A lot, a lot! Camden has always been obsessed with books, so getting him interested wasn't difficult. When I read to him, he would demand that I follow along with my finger as I read so that he could see the word as he heard it out loud.

Last summer, Camden was really interested in learning to read, and kept asking me to teach him. I was, honestly, terrified to teach him to read. It seemed like such a daunting task, and obviously a very important life skill to learn. It's very overwhelming to start from scratch!

After reading tons of positive reviews, we decided to try out Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The first 10 or so lessons were terribly painful. I felt like I was fumbling through, hesitating too much in between sections, and couldn't get Camden to take it seriously. 

To encourage Camden, I created this incredibly basic sticker chart book. A total of 100 lessons, and after each group of 10 lessons, we celebrated! Sometimes, we celebrated with ice cream, or a new small lego set, or with some special one-on-one time. He was very motivated to add new stickers to his chart each day, and it helped him learn to count. After our reading lesson each day, he would flip through the sticker book and count to 100. He effortlessly learned to count to 100 from this. 

Once he had learned enough sounds to put together a few words, the reading lessons changed from being torturous to enjoyable. I remember very clearly, the day he learned to read, "read it." He read the very short sentence, jumped on his chair, announced, "I'm a reader now!!" Then he ran over to the bookshelf to grab his very favorite science book. He was disappointed he couldn't magically read EVERY book, but it was still the confidence boost he needed. Knowing he could read just a few words helped him know that he could continue to learn more words. From this point on, Camden would beg us to do more reading lessons. 

When I first got this lesson book, I flipped to the end lessons and thought, "there is no way he will be able to read these passages in just 100 days." I stand corrected!!

We supplemented with these easy-to-read BOB Books. Each page has a very short sentence. It was great to have a section of books that Camden could read from if I wasn't able to sit down with him. It was very encouraging for him to be able to read a whole book! 

Once we finished our 100 lessons, we moved onto the level 1 Step Into Reading books. I looked at a lot of leveled readers, and most of them were still too difficult for Camden to read. The Step Into Reading books were easier and they interested him more because there are a lot of books with popular cartoon characters. 

The pre-reader National Geographic books are also great! My boys love non-fiction books, and it is great for Cam to have science books he can read on his own. 

Now, he's reading anything he can get his hands on. This shark book has been his favorite for a while.  We've stopped following any kind of lesson plan or workbook, and instead we make sure to read a lot through out the day. We have a designated reading time after lunch, but that's rarely the only time we read. Most of the books we read from are from the library, we only buy a book if it's one we absolutely love and read over and over again. 

Happy Reading! 

Favorite Books: May 2018

I love finding a book that I can't put down no matter what else is going on (or being destroyed)! Even more than that, I love when my kids find a book that they can't get enough of or want to read a million times over again. These are the ten books that we've wanted to read again, and again this month!

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Chris Van Dusen is one of our family's favorite authors! His writing is almost musical because of the rhythm and rhymes. We recently discovered The Circus Ship, and we can't get enough of it! This is one of those books that my kids never get tired of listening to, and I never get tired of reading. Their very favorite page is finding all fifteen circus animals hiding on the little island. 

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All of the Dino-Sports books are great, but Dino-Baseball is our current favorite. It is written so cleverly, but the illustrations are my favorite part! It is too funny imagining dinosaurs playing sports. I love seeing a tiny compsognathus playing against a giant brachiosaurus! 

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My husband's third grade teacher read this aloud to his class everyday after lunch. Matt said he couldn't wait for lunch and recess to be over so he could get back in the classroom to hear what happened next. John Midas has been given the "Midas touch" and everything he puts in his mouth turns into chocolate. He quickly realizes this might not be as fantastic as it seems.  Matt loved being able to read this to our 5-year-old! We also enjoy pretending that our vegetables turn into chocolate at the dinner table! This is a great book for teaching kids the importance of eating healthy food. 

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 These National Geographic Kids books are very quick reads for adults, but they pack in a lot of interesting information and beautiful pictures. After reading this a few times, Camden was able to read them on his own. He is obsessed with all creatures, but spiders are especially interesting to him. 

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 The Wild Kratts books are really great for my emergent reader! There are new words like "predator" or "camouflage," but the language is very simple and easy to read based on the picture clues. Camden is obsessed with the Wild Kratts show, so naturally, he loves these books too. 

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Everything written by Eric Carle is amazing, but this is a great book for my spider-obsessed little ones. The spider is working very very hard while everyone around him wants him to play. 

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The boys are trying their very best to convince me that we need a pet; I think that's why they identify with this book so much. Camden really wants a dog! I love the irony of a family of frogs going to a pet store to pick out a family pet. 

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This is my 2-year-olds very favorite book! He reads it to himself a dozen times as he falls asleep at night, and demands we read it several times a day. The main character is getting ready for bed while pretending he is Batman. The illustrations are so perfectly done because the little boy mimicks whatever Batman is doing. Like, Batman cleans up the city by locking the Joker in jail, while the little boy cleans up his toys and locks his toy box.  

 

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Camden and Brayden are the best of friends and the worst of enemies. We try to get two of everything, because I'm tired of the bickering and fighting over toys. Anytime the boys start arguing about a toy, I remind them of what happened to Llama Llama when he wasn't sharing. It's been great to apply to our daily lives! 

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This book was my personal fave this month. I love the Read Aloud Revival podcasts, but reading the book helped me gain a much greater understanding of the importance of reading with my children. I felt encouraged and empowered to place books as the center of our family and home. We have always made reading a priority, but after finishing this book, I've been more conscious about making sure we get time to read together. 

Happy Reading!