Talking all the time!

   My son has really started to talk more and express himself more in the last couple of weeks.  He is even talking while we are reading to him and he in now getting to the point where he repeats some of the words that are read to him. 
   Yesterday after nap my husband read him one of our latest picks from the library, Toot! by Kirsten Hall.  Because my son has really been into trains lately, we chose this book.  It is not the mainstream train character, which we also love, but it is still very sweet.  This book focuses on a little red train that saves the day because of his size.  Throughout the book there are various train sounds, such as "clickety-clack" and "choo-choo."  As we read the different sounds, my son would also try and say the sounds.  This book was such a hit after nap time that I also read it to him right before bedtime.  This book is in the categories of: Sound Exploration and Hobbies and Sports.

     Last night we also read Belly Button Book by Sandra Boynton.  This is such a cute book and focuses on a little hippo who calls his belly button his "bee bo."  As we read this book, my son was saying "bee bo" and attempting to say "belly button."  We also found his belly button and then he wanted to find Mommy's belly button.  Then when I would ask him where his belly button was, he lifted up his shirt and looked down at his belly button.  This book is in the following categories: Body Parts and Bath Time and Animal Books.

     The last book we read last night was Let's Go, Froggy! by Jonathan London.  My son LOVES to say "Let's go!" because it usually means that he gets to go outside and get in the car and then of course go somewhere.  This is the perfect book for my son because almost every other page says, "Let's go, Froggy!"  After I had read those words then my son would also say those words.  I especially love the Froggy series of books because I remember reading them as a child and reading them to my younger sister and using silly voices.  When the parents in the book say, "Frrrroooooggggy!" we always thought that was the funniest thing ever.  Well as I read that part of the book, my son was completely captivated by the sounds that came together to create the words of the book.  Froggy and his dad attempt to go on a bike ride and a picnic, but by the time they get everything they need they end up riding into the sunset...after they have their picnic in the front yard.  This book is in the following categories: Hobbies and Sports, Sound Exploration, Animal Books, Family, and Independence/Growing-Up.


It is clear that the time we spend reading with our son has already started to help his vocabulary and language skills!  Happy reading!

Big Bag of Books

So now that I have just received the e-mail notice saying all of those books we borrowed are due this week, I decided I had better post about the fun times we have had reading all of these books! I apologize in advance for the longer post this time, but if I don't do them all today they won't make it up here before I return the books.  The books this time will be posted in order of favorites, at least what I think my son deemed to be the "favorites."
 1.  Look at Me, I'm a Robot By Sebastien Braun - This was a very interactive book.  In each page there were spots cut out for both eyes and one spot for the nose as well.  As you read the book and it introduces the different kinds of robots, then you hold the book up to your face so that you can act like a robot.  My son thought this was probably one of the best things ever and thought it was REALLY funny when Mommy was the robot.  Such a great book to read and play with!  This book is in the following categories: Fine-Motor Skills, Lift-the-Flap and Touch-and-Feel, Sound Exploration, and Hobbies and Sports.

2.   Do Donkeys Dance? By Melanie Walsh - This is a very silly book that asks a question with each page and then answers it.  Some of the questions include "Do pigs buzz around flowers?", "Do chickens swim underwater?", and "Can a ladybug stand on one leg?".  As you turn the pages, you find out that "No [pigs don't buzz around flowers], bees buzz around flowers.  This was a book that my son was able to help me read, being that one of his favorite words right now is "no."  I could tell that he really enjoyed saying part of the book, even though he may not completely understand why he was saying his favorite word.  There is a little surprise question at the end, which I have to admit did trick me initially.  This book is in the following category: Animal Books.





3.  The Fire Engine Book Illustrated by Tibor Gergely.  This book does not have a specific author, but it is in the Little Golden Treasures series of books.  This one focuses a lot on the sounds that are heard at a fire station and how the fire fighters get ready to put out a fire.  The illustrations are really clear and colorful.  This is in the category of: Sound Exploration.

4.  Away We Go! By Chieu Anh Urban - This book covers a lot of material in about 20 pages.  Each page has a shape cut-out that is the focus shape of that page.  The use of combined shapes creates vehicles of all sorts and then the reader has to find the focus shape.  My son's favorite page, of course, was the train page and he liked to stick his finger in the square shape cut-out on the page.  This book is very colorful and could actually be used to teach or reinforce color learning.  This is also great for shapes or counting.  The other option, short of just reading it, is to focus on the vehicles and modes of transportation in the book.  This book is in the following categories: Colors, Counting and Numbers Books, Hobbies and Sports, and Lift-the-Flap and Touch-and-Feel.

  5.  Stomp! By Jeanne Willis and Paul Howard - Sadly, this did not make the top 3 favorites for my son.  I think that this was one of my favorites of the bunch we got this last time and I had a lot of fun reading it out loud to my son.  This little blue monster knocks on the door and wanders throughout the different rooms of the house trying to find something.  He bangs pans, squishes soap, boots footballs, and smashes plates.  He finally ends up in the baby's room and sees exactly what he wants.  Of course, the authors make you think he wants to eat the baby, but the baby and the monster come to an agreement about what each of them would really like.  Such a fun book to read.  This is in the following categories: Sound Exploration and Bedtime Stories.

   6.  Planes! By Charles Reasoner - This book is a board book and is definitely lacking a plot.  It starts off and sounds like there will be at least a semi-interesting plot, but the pages don't really seem to connect with each other, as far as their literacy.  This was picked by my son, probably because it had a picture of an airplane on the front and he is very into things that move right now, but he wasn't even all that interested throughout the four pages of the book.  Not a very captivating read, although it does repeat the phrase, "big busy" at least once per page.  This book in the category of: Hobbies and Sports.    

7.  Time to Say "Please" by Mo Willems - This book is by the same author who wrote the "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" Series.  This was a very cute book and a great way to teach children how to be polite.  It might be a bit on the blatant side with the little mice holding up the signs saying please every 2 inches, but it was still very nice.  My son has been signing the word please for quite some time now, but we are working on having him speak the words because not every person he meets is going to understand that patting his chest and sounding like Tarzan means "please" to him.  We will probably be borrowing this book again as my son gets older.  This book is in the category of: Independence/Growing-Up.   

Last and in my opinion, least:

8.  Winter Snow By Liesbet Slegers - This book briefly talks about some of the things you might see at winter time, like a coat and hat or bare branches.  I was really hoping this one had a natural rhythm to it and that it rhymed because it didn't really seem to have much more going for it.  I started reading it out loud and quickly realized that it had literally no "rhyme or reason" to it.  Because it doesn't snow where we live I was hoping it would go into more details about how snow feels and what it looks like to play in it, but most of the snow scenes were stand alone pictures that didn't seem that it would help young children connect to the idea of winter or snow.  Sadly, there is a reason this one is at the bottom of the list for both myself and my son.  Luckily, I do have still have some time before winter comes to talk with my son more about it.  For now, I will have to see if we can focus on fall and find some books that have pictures of real people doing things in the fall season.  This book is in the categories of: Seasons and Winter.

Again, sorry for the long entry this time!  I do want to let you know though, that from the last post when my son and I had read Mr. Cookie Baker, we actually made some of the cookies from the given recipes.  They were very good cookies and my son was very excited to stand on the stool and help Mommy in the kitchen.  His favorite part was dumping things into the bowl and watching the mixer!

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.

         

Trucks, Part 3 and a Little Bit of Culture

This last week, we finally got around to reading I'm a Monster Truck by Dennis Shealy.  This was the last book that is in the Little Golden Book "Freewheelin' Favorites."  Memaw actually was visiting and she had the chance to read with my son.  He was very excited to see the pictures of the monster trucks and he was making a lot of car noises while Memaw was reading to him.  This ends the journey for the truck books, at least until he finds something else that has trucks or any other vehicles in it.  This book is in the category of: Sports.


Here is the cover for the "Freewhelin' Favorites," which includes the three books from the last three posts.


Also, speaking of Memaw... she bought my son another book during her visit with us.  Tonight we read this book and it is called, Disney: It's a Small World - Color Our World.  This is by Elle D. Risco and the cute illustrations are done by Nancy Kubo.  We read this one exactly three times tonight before my son was convinced that it was bedtime.  Each page focuses on a single color and country.  The illustrations show a child from that country and then it proceeds to describe some of the things of the focus color that are found in each country.  An example of this is, "In the United States, Red is an autumn leaf, the barn down the street, or an apple ready to eat."  This alone would be enough for me, but each page also has a slide out panel on either side that lists some of the items of the matching color for the country.  My son can't quite pull out the panels on his own yet, but I would bargain that he could have this down with another 6 or 7 readings, which won't be hard to do.  This book is in the following categories: Lift-the-Flap, Colors, Identity/Self-Appreciation.  It is amazing to think that a book with seven pages fits so well into so many categories... and I am sure others would be able to find their own suitable categories for this book.

On the Road Again... AKA Trucks, Part 2

In our continuation of truck books, we read The Happy Man and His Dump Truck by Miryam tonight.  This book isn't quite as exciting as last night's read, but it is still a fun book.  The driver of the dump truck goes around and gives the different farm animals a ride in the back of his truck.  He is also a very friendly person and waves to all of the people he sees, well every time he waves his hand his dumper goes back and the animals go sliding down.  This is a book that introduces kids to animals and their sounds and focuses on the actions of the dump truck itself.  This book is in the following categories: animals, sports, and friendship.

Trucks, Part 1

My mom purchased a book to have at her home and when my nephew was in California this was THE ULTIMATE FAVORITE!  In fact, it was read so many times I have parts of it memorized and I can't help but here my sister's voice as she read it to her son.  Tonight we read, I'm a Truck By Dennis Shealy.  This is the first book in A Golden Book compilation that also includes two other stories about trucks, hence the name of the post... Trucks, Part 1.  This is a really fun story that is told from the perspective of a big rig who rides the highway.  The big rig, Big Blue Bill, talks about the different types of trucks that he comes across as he drives down the highway.  He also talks about the different jobs that each truck does.  Right now, my son is definitely in a "car phase" (and will probably be in this phase for quite a long time :) ) so this story is perfect for him.  He is very interested in the wheels on each of the vehicles.  Throughout this story there are a few instances where the main focus of the page is the funny words that Big Blue Bill says and my son does his best to mimic me as I read the fun sounds.  This book is in the categories of: Sound Exploration and Sports (for the purposes of this blog, cars and other moving vehicles are "sport-ish").

Building a Foundation

     I have always been under the impression that children need a strong foundation to build their education upon and I feel that that starts right at home.  One of the ways that I feel I am able to help my son build his foundation for knowledge is through the books that we read.  Now that my son is able to sit for longer periods of time, we are starting to get beyond the board books and more into the actual story books.  You could say that our latest read was inspired by this thought...
     This afternoon, right before nap we read, "Block City" by Robert Louis Stevenson.  This was originally published as a poem and was written in 1913.  Later, Daniel Kirk put illustrations with the words and that was what we read today.  The pictures are very vibrant in color, but still simple enough for a young child to thoroughly enjoy this book.  Because my son is really into blocks right now, this is the perfect book for him.  The rhythm of this poem is easy to follow and also seems to be the key factor in making this such a wonderful story.  So, here's to old classic poetry and one of my favorite authors, Robert Louis Stevenson.  This book is in the categories of: sound exploration and music/poetry books.