Happy New Year! (School Year)

         Now that the new school year is started up it means that hopefully there will be a little more of a routine to both my life and my child's.  Since I am a teacher and my husband is also in the world of education, school is an important part of our lives.  Starting up with routines again, my son and I were able to go to the library this last week since we know we will actually be around for awhile and have a chance to read the books we borrowed.  This time we borrowed the most books that we have in all of our time of going to the library.  The magic number this week is 11!  The first day we brought them home my son grabbed his blanket and his book bag and began to take out a couple of books for me to read to him.  We read two books and then he pulled out more.  I really thought he was not going to want and sit and read all of the books, but we actually proceeded to read all 11 books that we got that very morning.  It surprised me a little bit, but when I mentioned this to my mom she said that it was a very familiar situation...only it was 25 years since she had seen it last.  I won't write about all 11 books in this post, but you can be expecting quite a few posts in the next week.
        Since my son is getting older he can now sit for a full length story and not just a board book.  We do still read the board books and he enjoys them, but we are definitely shifting the attention-span.  We started our reading session with Mr. Cookie Baker by Monica Wellington.  This books is great for helping children learn a sequence of events.  My son really enjoys looking at the pictures of all of the cookies once they are decorated.  The vocabulary in this book is simple enough, but still exposes young children to "kitchen" words, such as "mixes," "measures," "ingredients," and "recipe."  Of course, at the end of the book there is an opportunity to put the "kitchen" vocabulary to use.  The book provides four different cookie recipes to try out.  We haven't had a chance yet, but we will probably try one in this coming week.  Maybe when we are making the cookies and waiting for them to bake we will read this again so that the idea of making cookies becomes something that is more than just pictures in a book.  This book is in the category of: Hobbies and Sports.
       We also read, Counting Birds by Jing Jing Tsong.  This is a board book that emphasizes counting from one to ten.  Each bird that joins the others in the singing tree has a different sound so by the time you have all ten birds in the tree you are reading a very rhythmic verse of bird calls.  Watch out at the end for a different type of animal call!  This book is in the following categories: Counting and Number books, Sound Exploration, and Animal Books.