Give Book Bucks for Valentine's Day!

Hello dear readers! Thanks so much for stopping by! It's been a slow start to 2014 blogging for me, but I'm hoping to pick things up soon. In the meantime, Melissa Taylor over at the amazing blog Imagination Soup has created an excellent idea for a Valentine's Day present! Printable "book bucks!" Just hop on over to her blog by clicking the picture above to save and print out your very own. Then you have an excuse to go to the book store with your child and let them pick their own book. As educational psychology and our own parenting instincts tell us, when kids have a choice they have more investment and excitement in their books. I also recommend cruising book stores after the holiday because they frequently mark holiday titles at 50% off. Then you can add to your collection of Valentine's books that you pull out every February like me! I know it came from my days as a teacher, but having a different tub of thematic books for each month/holiday/season keeps things exciting and alive for my son and myself! Happy reading!

Cute Christmas Books & Crafts from No Time for Flash Cards!

I love, love, love this idea from No Time for Flash Cards! If you have some quiet time this holiday season (or need to make room for some quiet time), these are great ideas to connect fun books with great crafts. We just got our Christmas books out a few days ago, so we've been loving remembering old favorites and discovering new ones. Since I'm lame and don't have time to wrap all of our books, I'm thinking of just putting a post-it number on each one and having a drawing each night for which one we get to read. Not quite as much fun, but it keeps things simpler for me and sometimes you just have to do that! 

Great Deal on National Geographic Little Kids Magazine!

I love to encourage parents to get magazine subscriptions for their kids. It's a great exposure to non-fiction plus all of the comprehension strategies like questioning and predicting. I find it's a nice way to force myself to read a different kind of book to my son every month or so. Reluctant readers also seem to respond better to fun magazines and comic books sometimes. Plum District has a great sale right now for a $12 year long subscription to National Geographic Little Kids and you can get another 20% off if you enter the code NovBestsellers. You can go to Plum District or click here to find the deal. We really like this magazine. It's nice and short for younger readers plus it comes with collectible animal cards in the middle of each one. It's also a great idea to ask for a magazine subscription for the holidays from relatives. It is so fun to get kids excited about receiving something to read in the mail! Amazon can also be a good place to get good deals on magazine subscriptions.

Some other good choices for younger kids are:

Babybug - great for little fingers because it's made of tougher paper
High 5 - younger version of Highlights
Ranger Rick Jr. - younger version of Ranger Rick
Turtle
Lego Club Jr. (free!! if you sign up at Lego.com)
Sports Illustrated for Kids - not super exciting for us and written for a little older than kindergarten level, but great if you have a really big sports fan in your family!

Happy Reading! Please share if you have other favorite magazines that I missed.

Great Idea for Books During the Holidays from Delightful Children's Books

I just read this great idea from the Delightful Children's Books blog about creating a book Advent Calendar this year. Love it! I hope you check it out. I had a friend who told me about something similar long ago where she would gift wrap all of the Christmas books and allow her boys to open one per night. But I like the idea of numbering them like an Advent calendar, too! I find myself looking for fun used holiday books all year round to add to our collection. It's great to get them from the library but it's extra fun to cultivate a collection of your own oldies but goodies. You could practically only collect Jan Brett books and you would be set. She has fabulous winter and Christmas themed books like The Hat, The Mitten, and Christmas Trolls.  My first graders always used to love to look for Hedgie the hedgehog in each of her books. She also has an outstanding author website at janbrett.com. Lots of coloring pages and info about her newest books. I hope that you are starting to collect at least a small amount of books to pull out for each major holiday. I keep mine in a file cabinet drawer and we pull out the new ones at the beginning of that holiday's month. That way, it keeps everything fresh and new while you provide another reason to learn new vocabulary and get excited about books. Happy Reading! 

The Measured Mom's Tips and Tricks for Teaching Emergent Readers + Great Battle Bunny Book Talk!!

To go along with the last post I did about finding those "easy" books for our earliest readers, I am thrilled to share an excellent explantation of emergent readers by The Measured Mom. She did a guest post about this on another great site, Teach Mama. Please go visit the post here and print out your free books! 

I think it's hardest for parents to understand the beginning reading process because when we think of reading, we picture a kid reading The Cat in the Hat or another kid's book. It's hard sometimes to see the value or interest kids will have in those teeny little boring books. Yes, I've had many a parent tell me those little books are boooorrrriiiiinnnnggggg. All I can tell you is that I have never thought those books were boring because I look at them as little treasure chests holding such great possibility for our little readers. Your attitude does play a huge part in your book choices and your child's attitude about books, so try to give the little easy books a chance. I must admit, they are getting better as educators realize that high interest subject matter is super helpful in engaging young children (especially boys!!). I also can honestly tell you that I have never had a child complain to me that those little books are boring. They get excited to actually be able to read a book and they don't seem to compare them to the bigger "real" books like adults do. So don't be afraid to show a little love to the emergent readers!

This also brings me to a new book I heard about over the weekend called Battle Bunny. 

The people on the radio station giving the review could not stop talking about how much they loved this book. It sounds hilarious and like a great idea to share with kids. What happens is that a child gets the somewhat lame book Birthday Bunny for his birthday and then he changes it all around to become Battle Bunny. It may be because I have a six-year-old boy who would completely love this book, but I can't wait to get it! Of course, the teacher and children's librarian in me cringes a teeny bit at encouraging children to color all over books, but in the right context it can be a great encouragement for imagination and writing. So, if you do end up wanting to change around some of those little books, you can always create your own versions! What is so genius about the author of Battle Bunny is that he actually has the whole Birthday Bunny book at mybirthdaybunny.com so you and your child can make your own version! So great!  For those of you who live close to me, I just ordered three copies. So the first two people to email me and tell me you read this post, I will give your child a copy for free!

Free Emergent Reader Collection from The Measured Mom!

I recently had a question from a mom about how to find "sight word" books or if they even existed. I told her that if you are reading really simple books, you will usually run into the main sight words quite a bit. I don't particularly like books that overuse them or make them sound unnatural. However, we are all so lucky that Anna over at The Measured Mom decided to create fabulous FREE printable books to focus on each sight word one at a time in a very accessible way. Such a great idea and perfect for beginning readers. Please check out her books by clicking on the picture above or right here! I suggest making a fun little book box of all of the books your child can read. Then once they've got a little collection, make sure they read one to you each night before you read stories to them. Happy reading!

Good Article on Creating a Literacy-Rich Home

Just saw this article on the Moms LA blog and thought some of you might like it. She discusses the top ten ways to create a literacy-rich home. I think she hit all of the top ideas with the exception of one. The author didn't mention the huge importance of kids seeing adults read. Have bookshelves and magazines lying around (note the pile of books I keep on my nightstand in the picture). Put your feet up once in a while and saying to your child, "I'm really excited to read this book right now. You can grab one of your books to read too!" Research has shown that both the act of having books, newspapers, and magazines around and modeling your own reading have a significant difference on reading achievement.

I would also say that creating a language-rich home is just as important to building literacy. Talking, asking questions, making predictions, and learning new words are all so valuable to a young learner. As Jim Trelease likes to say, you are pouring language into their ears. A child's vocabulary at the beginning of his or her schooling is a huge determiner of their reading success. So enjoy the Moms LA article and enjoy all of that talking and reading at home! Don't forget to put your feet up! Ooh, and please share your favorite tips if you have any!

New Way to Practice Sight Words from Frog Spot

I just discovered this fun blog from a teacher in Australia. She has a bunch of resources available on Teachers Pay Teachers as well as some freebies on her own website. Her Flip Flap Puzzle Paste worksheets are super appealing to kids (and to me!). Plus they're a great way for them to start to recognize words they need to know. She has super cute word family houses she's created and she even has them for numbers, too. If you visit her website, you can get the sight word sheet pictured below for free!

Great Handwriting Suggestions from Urth Mama

I just came across the Urth Mama blog's great post on handwriting apps. The only one I've tried is Wet-Dry-Try from Handwriting Without Tears, but they all look really good. Click here to check out her great reviews!

The other great find from her post is this stylus made for kids using the iPad! It's listed on Amazon here. I've been really wanting something like this so my son can practice his correct pencil grip while practicing handwriting.

Great Read Aloud Poster

Click here if you'd like a bigger, readable version to download:)