Just one more... please!

   This afternoon right before nap, I was reading with my two-year old.  I told him we would read two books.  That quickly turned into four.  I couldn't resist when he asked for "one more book, please," and "other book, please."  So, we chose a total of four from the library bag. 
  We started with School Bus by Donald Crews.  This is the author of Freight Train, which is also a favorite in our household.  This book is very simple and talks about the routine of a school bus on a regular school day.  The buses start empty, get across town, pick up children, and drop them off at school.  It also shows the children being picked up to be brought home and ends with the buses in their "home" in the bus yard.  This book is in the following category: Hobbies and Sports - Specifically Transportation.
  We read Down by the Station by Will Hillenbrand.  I read this just as if it were a regular story book, but in my head I couldn't help but "sing" the words.  I don't know if I am really not with it, but I didn't realize there were additional verses to this song beyond the basic, "see the little puffer bellies."  If there are other verses I feel really silly since I am a music teacher.  If there are not other verses and this was just the author's adaptation of the song, then I feel a little better about myself.  This book focuses on the basic song, and has the written music on the last page, but also mentions different animals that are along the path of the train.  The conductor picks up a variety of baby animals and then takes them to the zoo where a group of children come to see and play with the animals.  I really liked that the proper names for each of the baby animals was mentioned.  This book is in the categories of: Hobbies and Sports - specifically Transportation, Animal Books, and Songs.

   Elmer's Special Day by David McKee was next in our reading this afternoon.  This book is part of the Elmer series.  My toddler found this book fun for a couple of reasons: 1) he is obsessed with elephants right now, and 2) he made his daddy a father's day card with a sponge-painted Elmer the elephant on it so it was familiar to him.  The animals in Elmer's world are preparing for the parade for Elmer's Day.  The elephants get to paint themselves in fun patterns and colors and Elmer is the only elephant who can appear in "elephant color."  The other animals want to be included in the special day and everyone gets a chance to decorate themselves in fancy colors and patterns.  This book is in the following categories: Animal Books, Friendship, and Identity/Self-Appreciation Books.


 
   The last book we read this afternoon was Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni.  This is one of my favorites from when I was a child.  Little Blue and Little Yellow are friends that have a lot of good times together.  They have so much fun that at the end of the day they give each other a hug...resulting in a color change to green.  After some confusion among the parents, they are able to realize what has happened - - - that blue and yellow make green!  This book is a great book to introducing primary colors and how they mix to create other colors.  This book is in the categories of: Colors and Friendship.

Summer Reading!

   So, in the last post I mentioned about maybe getting another post up in the week after that post.  That didn't happen because instead my family was welcoming our new son into the family.  With all of the visitors and family that was here, not to mention changing the dynamics by adding another person to the household, it just didn't happen.
   In the last few weeks we have been reading lots and are involved in a couple of different summer reading programs.  Our county library unfortunately does not have their toddler reading program available at this time (it's supposed to be available in November... or so I have been told) like they did last summer.  This year my two-year old is "reading with the big kids."  We started this program and only are required to read one book each week.  In our house, that is definitely not a problem since we read books everyday.  One of the things that I am trying to do is encourage our two-year old to say some of the phrases in the books that he is familiar with and that we have ready probably 20 times (or more).  (We are definitely now into the phase of repeat-readings of books --- which is not a bad thing.)  Most, if not all, of the books we have documented for the first 5 weeks are already mentioned and "reviewed" on this blog in other places so I will just briefly mention them.  We have read "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss, "Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister, "Fish is Fish" by Leo Lioni, and "It's a Small World - Color Our World."  The first week didn't need a book recorded and the focus was on the process of signing up for the program.
  The other summer reading program we are involved in this year is through a website called wegivebooks.org  This was a website that I heard about through an e-mail that I receive because I am a teacher.  This website has e-books for children available at any time.  (*Note: These do not work on iPads because it requires Flash.)  There are three different reading levels on this website that are designated by age groups: 0-3, 4-7, and 8-10.  Our focus is clearly the 0-3 age group.  Each week I receive an e-mail that links me up to the book for the week, along with a printable activity and usually some type of online game.  The books that we have read for this program so far are: "Spot Loves His Daddy," "Let's Look: Dinosaurs," "Baby Max: Sandbox," and "See How they Grow: Pony."  So far we have had a lot of fun with this reading program.  Plus, I love that there are other things to do that focus on the books that have been read.  (By the way, this is a FREE program!)
   Today we went to the library and got a new set of books to borrow.  There were a lot of people there today, probably because it is summer and it is something to do that doesn't require being out in the heat.  When we first got there my two-year old started looking around, not quite sure where to start, and then walked straight towards a book called, "My Bus" by Byron Barton.  Since he is absolutely crazy about buses right now, we had to check this one out.  This is a simple book about a bus driver that picks up cats and dogs and then takes them to various modes of transportation.  As the driver picks up the cats and dogs, he counts them.  This book also focuses on ordinal numbers up to four and I think it is great for children to hear these words to help them with sequencing.  This book is in the following categories: Hobbies and Sports - specifically transportation, Animal Books, and Counting and Numbers Books.




   Another book that we checked out and read today is, "I Love Trucks!"  This is also a very simple picture book that talks about the various kinds of trucks that can be seen on the road.  While the illustrations in this one are not amazing, I liked them because they were simple enough for toddlers to view without getting overwhelmed.  This book is in the category of: Hobbies and Sports - specifically transportation.  (You can see we have a running theme so far with this set of books, which wasn't done intentionally on my part, but possibly that of my toddler.)

   Just had to mention too, that my husband thought it was great that every time my son pulled a book off the shelf that he really liked that he sat right down on the floor, opened the book, and began looking at the pictures.  I suppose that is the teacher in both of us coming out --- getting excited that our son is willing to drop anything and everything to read a good book!

   We have 11 or 12 books that we borrowed this time and I am going to try really hard to get them all posted...no guarantees that it will happen in a super-timely manner, though.

Lots to Catch Up On and a New Addition!

Things have been so busy and crazy around here.  Looking at the date of my last post, I now realize partially why I haven't been very good about posting.  Back towards the middle October I found out I was pregnant with our second child.  This pregnancy has been fine and hasn't given me much trouble, but it is very different being pregnant with a toddler running around!  Recently my husband and my mom had the opportunity to take son to the library (which we haven't done in months, due to just being busy).  They picked out quite a few books so this is going to be a bit of a longer post.  However, the main focus of this post is on three books that focus on becoming an older sibling in anticipation for the baby that will be joining us sometime in the next couple of weeks (assuming he is a timely child).

1)  I'm a Big Brother by Joanna Cole
This was one of my favorite of the big sibling books that was picked out.  It talks about how the older sibling can help with the new baby.  The words in this were written simply enough that my son was a focused listener, but they also meant something to him.  This book is in the categories of: family and independence/growing-up.


2)  I'm a New Big Brother by Nora Gaydos
This was also a very nice approach to becoming an older sibling.  This one actually focused on the idea that big brother also gets some special alone time with Mommy and Daddy, but that the family has now grown bigger and includes one other person.  This book was a great reminder to me that I will very shortly have two children who will equally need their own time with Mommy and Daddy, as well as time spent together and helping as a whole family.  This book is also in the categories: Family and Independence/Growing-Up.


3)  There's Going to Be a Baby by John Burningham and Helen Oxenbury
Unfortunately, this was my least favorite of the new sibling books that had been checked out.  This is a mix of a wordless picture book and a regular children's book with words.  The illustrations in this book seemed a bit odd to me.  I did like that this book takes on the idea of a conversation between mother and child, but it seemed a little bit negative at times.  Also, the end of this book doesn't actually show the new baby has arrived, but it does have the child's grandfather bringing him in to see the new baby.  Definitely not my favorite and probably not one we will read again, although it did focus on becoming a new sibling.  This books is also in the categories: Family and Independence/Growing-Up.



4) Bear's New Friend by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
This book is part of the Bear Snores On series.  This book is a sweet way of introducing children to the idea of accepting new friends, despite the fact that their characteristics might include being really shy.  This book brings in all of Bear's animal friends and they all learn to welcome the new friend withe ease.  This book is in the categories of: Animal Books and Friendship.







5)  Meeow and the Little Chairs by Sebastien Braun
At first glance at this book, I thought it was very odd but the saying is definitely true to not judge a book by its cover.  It was very cute and focused on a cat that gets all of his friends together to line up chairs in train formation.  Apparently, my son was lining up the small chairs at the library when they went together and the librarian found this book for him and said it was perfect.  It is in fact, quite fitting for my son who loves making trains out of chairs, blocks, and anything else he can manage to make look like a train.  The different friends are animals and their names are the sound that they make.  Each friend has a different color chair and they each play a special part in the train.  There is one page where Meeow has something in his backpack which is a bell for the sound effects on the train, but I love the fact that my son says it is a corndog.  (To be fair, the handle does sort of look like a corndog when that is the only part you can see.)  This book is in the following categories: Animal Books, Colors, Sound Exploration, and Friendship.



There are more books from this session to the library, but I will catch up on those in a couple of days.  Maybe now that it is summer time again and I am not working, maybe I will be able to keep up on this better.... we will see how becoming a family of four affects me, too!