children’s books

Reading with toddlers: rereading the same book over and over… and over again

Recently, we’ve been obsessing over the original Very Hungry Caterpillar book. Like, I’m not even exaggerating when I say we read it ten times last Sunday. We even got to the point where I was so sick of reading it over and over that day, that I let Bella watch YouTube videos of caterpillars turning into butterflies for an hour. Oh and guess what? Thanks to YouTube showing related videos, my toddler found… that’s right, you guessed it… a video of someone reading the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar! Yay! As if I hadn’t had enough already. And instead of me reading it ten more times I got to hear someone else read it 5 more times. At which point I was caterpillar’d out and it was bedtime for Bella. The resulting toddler meltdown was almost comical with her sobs of “I want paterpiller (caterpillar)”.

Now of course, this is not a new thing. Our trusty standby and all time favorite, The Cat in the Hat, is read so often that we’ve literally memorized it. And we’ve read The Little Red Hen so many times that the last page fell out.

But the funny thing is, I’m not even mad. Yea it may get mind numbing after a while, but toddlers learn a lot through repetition and I couldn’t be happier that story time is one of her favorite daily activities… and that she wants to spend time with ME. Just to see her wide grin when I sit and listen to her “reading” the same book back to me is worth it.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s abc

Happy Sunday! Or happy whatever-day-you-are-Reading-this! So, my daughter Bella immediately spotted this book at Barnes and Noble the other day because she’s a huge fan of the original Very Hungry Caterpillar Book and even though we have several other abc books, I bought it because I typically have a rule that I never say no to buying a book (within reason). Well we brought it home and have been going through it everyday for the last couple weeks and I have to say that I didn’t expect to like it this much.

Bella’s thoughts:

She likes the paterpiller (Caterpillar) and the letters. “It’s so funny”.

My thoughts:

I love the bright colors because it instantly draws the eye to the page and Makes it easy for a two and three year old to focus as you read through the letters. Since the book features the same Caterpillar and art work from the original book, it makes it easily recognizable and I appreciate that for Bella who loves the original book. Another thing that I love is the fact that each letter takes up most of the page. I was getting really tired of books that feature the letter and then a picture of some sort and some words because often it distracts a small child from the main point, which is the letter. But what I love most about this book is that it is all lower case letters. Most of what they read is in lower case and it is often recommended to begin there. Of course, the kids are going to learn all their letters regardless, but if I can help my daughter become a confident reader in any way, I will try.

The one thing I didn’t like about this book was the height of the letters. In trying to make the letters cute and chubby, some of the letters are not tall enough. As an example, Bella is constantly confusing d and a because the tall part of the lower case d is not that tall so it looks a bit like an a and I can easily see why she keeps making that mistake.

All in all it’s adorable and engaging for a little one who’s interested in “doing letters” and learning to read.

A Place for Pluto

Bella and I are still chipping away at her 1000 Books before Kindergarten goal (though I am the absolute WORST about logging our books… and so despite reading 2-3 books minimum per night, we’ve only logged around 200 in the last few months) We still have our old favorites, but we’ve acquired many new books recently. And this book is among our favorites recently.

Brief synopsis: In this book, we meet Pluto (yes, THAT Pluto) when he’s part of the famous nine. He’s the smallest and furthest planet from the sun but he’s proud to be part of that elite group. Until… he finds out he is no longer considered a planet and thus is no longer part of the famous nine. He’s devastated and sets off through the galaxy to find out who he really is.

Mom’s thoughts: Ok so this book is heckin adorable. Aside from the beautiful color illustrations, the story is super cute as well. The story itself is good, but I like that it also teaches kids about belonging. It also has the added bonus of teaching kids a little bit about our galaxy. I found that it is entertaining enough that I don’t feel like pulling my hair out after reading it REPEATEDLY.

I’d say the intended age group is probably the preschool and up crowd, but the story is so engaging and the illustrations so adorable, that Bella (who is 2) has sat through MULTIPLE readings. Did I mention that I have a two year old and that we have to do everything repeatedly? 😆

Bella’s thoughts: Bella says “I like it”. (And we all know toddlers are brutally honest)

Til next time, Happy Reading.

A Dr Seuss birthday

It’s been two weeks since my last post and there has been a lot going on but we managed to include some bookish activities and lots of reading in that time frame. We started off with Read Across America Day, my birthday, Bella’s birthday, a milestone in 1000 Books Before Kindergarten and culminating today with my wedding anniversary.

It is no secret that Dr Seuss is well loved in our home so for Read Across America Day we went to a Dr Seuss celebration at our local bookstore and got some prizes and books for Bella. (My birthday was also spent at the bookstore where I purchased some books I will haul soon) It was also Isabella’s 2nd birthday and as her favorite story of all time is the Cat in the Hat, we celebrated Dr Seuss style.

I had some blue poster board and thought it would be fun to try and recreate her favorite book’s cover as a prop for her birthday.

I was also able to make a centerpiece with some pictures I printed off the internet and some pages out of her first copy of the book which she destroyed as a baby.

She absolutely refused to get into her party dress but loved the little Cat in the Hat hair clip I made so at least there’s that.

The party was a success and as we asked for books in lieu of cards, she received a nice new stack of books to add to her collection and all signed by people who love her.

Now that most of the festivities are over I will be back with some review posts and discussion posts. Thank you for joining us for our fun Dr Seuss parties. Happy reading!

February wrap up

I’m probably the only one who will comment on how February seemed to drag but I felt like it did. I did some reading this month and it felt like this month was much more about quality than quantity. Some months I fly through 10 or more books but this month I read 5. Though I may have read a smaller number of titles, it was still a great reading month for me, as I read a couple that I have been meaning to get to for years and I enjoyed everything I read. Even the book I liked the least was still a book I’d recommend.

So without further ado, here are the 5 books I read in February:

Since I have already reviewed or will soon review all of these, I will not include mini reviews. Instead I will briefly mention a couple.

Longest book: The Luminaries. All 600+ pages

Shortest book: Utopia. All 85 pages.

Favorite book: Tied between The Little Prince and The Luminaries.

Least favorite book: Eternal Life

Book I’d be least likely to recommend: A Study in Scarlett

So that’s it. A quick wrap up of the books I read in February. I would recommend all of them. If you have read or plan on reading any of these I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Til next time!

The Little Prince: my thoughts

If you have a Netflix account, you’ve probably seen the trailer for The Little Prince recently. It looked so adorable that I wanted to watch it and since one does not simply watch the movie first… I had to read it of course.

A brief synopsis:

A pilot who unfortunately has grown up crash lands in the middle of the desert. There he meets a little boy from another planet. The boy tells the story of how he fled his planet because of his love for a rose. In telling his story, the little boy reminds the pilot of the magic of seeing the world through a child’s eyes and the dangers of losing that magic when you grow up.

My thoughts:

So I really loved this book.  The entire book was just whimsical and magical.  I love how even though the pilot is a grown up, he remembers the feeling of drawing a picture that the adults just didn’t understand and the feeling has stayed with him.  When he meets the little prince, he meets a child who understands perfectly.  The pilot is an adult who hasn’t fallen into one of the typical categories that other adults in the story have.  The little prince is just charming and I fell in love with him as a character.  He lives alone on his planet and his only friend on his planet is a single rose.  After having a disagreement with his rose, he leaves his planet and passes through many other planets.

On each planet is a single adult and I loved how each of them embodied a different adult characteristic that children just don’t understand.  For instance, he meets one man on a planet who spends all day and all night counting the stars because he “owns them”. When the little prince asks why he needs to count them, the man informs him that it is very important to calculate numbers so he can own more.  Another man on another planet spends all his time preening and looking for someone to admire his clothes.

It is a little difficult to put into words all the things I loved about this book, but I loved both the pilot and the little prince.  The love the prince had for his rose was very sweet.  I would definitely recommend this book to children and adults.  This was one of the few books in recent months that I’ve given 5 stars.

Thank you for joining me once again and if you have read this or plan to read this, please let me know what you thought or think…

Until next time, happy reading!

You force your toddler to read?? In which Nicky rants… just a bit.

Not very long ago, someone said to me “Wow, she really DOES love books” (referring to my daughter Isabella) and I thought to myself “WTF did you think I was lying?”

For Christmas several of our relatives and friends asked what shows and tv characters she’s into so they could buy gifts and I was honestly stumped. She has never been interested in tv and to date has never sat through any toddler tv show (sometimes I envy those parents who can put The Wiggles on tv and sneak away to take a shower or make dinner). I suggested dogs (because she fangirls at any dogs she sees) and books. The response was a little depressing. I heard everything from “I don’t want to get her books…. I want to get something she’ll play with” to “You can’t give her books for Christmas!” And this really upset me because I know my children (nobody commented that I didn’t suggest books for Junior… it was only Bella) and I know that books are the one thing you can’t go wrong with her.

I know that while Junior is a casual reader, Bella is likely going to be a reader like me.

Not that I or any parent should have to explain ourselves but this is not me forcing books down the child’s throat. She is literally fascinated by stories and the pictures in her books. So I thought I would finish out with several reasons why I think she is going to be a reader so I can direct any more well meaning people to this post instead of wasting my breath.

  1. She loves the quality time during story time
  2. She sees that it is my main form of entertainment and she tries to emulate me
  3. Even when someone is not reading to her, she will often be sitting in her room flipping pages
  4. She sits through a whole story…and wants more
  5. She’s fascinated by bookshelves and is always pulling my books off my shelves and hers off hers
  6. She is not exposed to much television because only my son is really into tv
  7. While I am cooking she will usually bring me a book and command me to sit down and read it to her

Now by no means am I saying books are better or that my kid is some genius because she likes books. And I’m not saying that she doesn’t also play. I’m just trying to point out that it IS possible for kids to prefer books.

Oh and we received a ridiculous amount of toys from both sides of the family. I am so thankful we have family who are able to send anything at all but I can’t help thinking how much unnecessary money was spent. Only my dad and my husband’s stepmom followed my advice and sent only books while a couple of others sent books in lieu of cards which I suggested later. And while she occasionally will rock on her rocking horse or pretend to make food in her kitchen, a lot of the other toys sit largely neglected (and taking up space) and the ones she plays with religiously are the books she got. This just goes to show that parents always know their kids best.

If you have read to the end of my rant, I thank you. This was a lot rantier than I wanted it to be. Til next time.

1000 Books before Kindergarten

We recently moved and discovered that we had a library very close to the house which is of course, very awesome news. I had recently been there a few times by myself and got myself a new library card and I decided that I would bring Bella with me next time. While we were there, it came to my attention that our library is enrolled in the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program. We had been doing a paper log version of this but our librarian informed us that it is a nationwide program and we could log books online and get little prizes for different milestones.

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First trip to our new library

So since Bella is showing every indication that she’s going to be a reader, I thought it would be fun to incorporate this with our paper log so we signed up with our library and started from scratch.

 

The goal is to not only create early readers, but to enjoy a positive family activity together every day.  A thousand books may seem like a lot of books, but in reality it is achievable within a few months.  Reading just 3 books a day with a child will bring you to 1000 within a year. Something I wasn’t aware of when I grabbed the paper logs from our old library is that repeating books totally counts.  I really wish I had known that earlier because there are days when Bella brings me the same book 5 and 6 times a night to read to her.  We would have been at goal last year. But that’s fine and we are loving every minute of story time.

Over the course of last week, we read and logged over 25 books and so she earned her first prize-(a library card holder and lanyard) which she was super excited about even though she doesn’t understand yet what it is.

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Mommy using Bella’s first prize to hold car keys

If you’ve read this far I thank you for joining me! Stay tuned for updates as we hit each milestone.

You can find out more about the program here. 

Grover Learns To Read

Anyone with kids will know how once a child finds a favorite anything, whether it be a movie, a song, or a story, they will want to watch, listen and read to said item REPEATEDLY. Bella has quite the little collection of books but she seems to be favoring two lately. The one we will be discussing today is this copy of Grover Learns To Read that I found at the thrift store a few months ago.

A brief synopsis:

Grover loves books and his favorite thing in the world is when his mommy reads to him at night. His mom mentions that he will soon be learning to read on his own and when he is able to read words at school he is terrified because he knows that once he can read books his mommy will no longer read to him. So he tries to stop learning to read. One day, to stop a baby from crying he reads her a story without realizing he could and runs home to tell his mom his achievement. When Grover tells her how upset he is that she won’t read to him anymore she assures him that a mommy will never stop reading to her child but now he can read more books.

I’ll admit that I bought this book hoping Bella would like it because I loved the Grover books as a child. When I first bought it she was to young to sit through the whole thing and preferred books with a single word on the page but now she is bringing this book over to me constantly and sits through the whole story… usually twice in a row. She loves that there are pictures of books in the book and currently makes me read it to her several times each day.

So this one is a clear win for us and if you are looking for a book to read to a child that you won’t mind reading a couple times a day I cannot recommend this one enough.