Tag Archives: childrens

Munchkin Monday: What I’ve been reading with my (almost) 5-year-old

Obviously, I love to read. I always have. I apparently taught myself to read at age 4, and my oldest daughter has done the same. People keep asking me, “How did you teach her to read?” and I wish I could say I taught her, but I didn’t, at least not really. Of course, I’ve encouraged her every step of the way. On her first birthday, she could recognize and say the letter “W” – but we didn’t push it on her! I distinctly remember my husband holding her in the hallway of our apartment on her first birthday and her pointing to each letter on his GW t-shirt and asking “what’s that?” So, he answered. And she learned “W.” We’d take her to the zoo and she was more interested in the signs than the animals. At age 2, we’d lay in bed with her each night and “talk about a letter,” meaning we’d say a letter and she would tell us words that started with that letter… Basically, she’s just always been interested and she’s super smart and a fast learner. Over the past 6 months or so, she has progressed from recognizing individual words to reading on her own.

So, now what do I offer her to read? About a month ago it became apparent that she could pick up any picture book we own and read it. So then what? I got her some books at a yard sale and she amazed  me by reading even the books marked as being at a second grade level. So then we went to the public library and got some more. She’s excited that there’s a whole new shelf from which she can pick out books to read, generally those marked “Early Readers.” Here’s a sampling of what she reads, on her own or aloud to her sister, or to us:

  • Fancy Nancy books, such as Fancy Nancy and the Mean Girl (an I Can Read Level I book). These are fun because Nancy uses “fancy” words for things, introducing lots of new vocabulary.

Fancy Nancy and the Mean Girl (I Can Read Level 1) by [O'Connor, Jane]

  • Are You Still Mad? This is the second-grade-level book I mentioned above. The librarian tells me the reading levels are all assigned by the publishers and there’s lot of variation, so who knows whether this is true.

Are You Still Mad? (Reader's Digest) (All-Star Readers) by [Weiss, Ellen]

Then we have our read-aloud time, too. Of course, sometimes I read the above books to her, but she has really enjoyed me reading chapter books out loud to her. Our most recent read was an abridged version of The Wizard of Oz from the Great Illustrated Classics series (pictured below). We’ve also been reading some of the Magic Treehouse books (just yesterday we started Pirates Past Noon for the second time), and even The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (is this appropriate for a 5-year-old?)! I have to say, I am truly enjoying this! It’s a little hard, because my 2.5 year old is NOT into the chapter books, but I love when we can snuggle up on the couch and read together and talk about the story! Soooo fun 🙂

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I’m looking forward to many more years of this, with all of my kids!

What do you read with your kids? Do you have any suggestions of what to read (or NOT to read) with a curious 5-year-old?

Munchkin Monday (er, Wednesday): Book Review – Zoom Boom Series

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So I wrote a whole post on this series and then deleted it because it was nonsense. Essentially, while I REALLY wanted to love these books, I just didn’t care for them too much. I usually make an agreement with authors that I won’t review books I think deserve less than three stars (I’m just not interested in writing a bunch of negative stuff in general, but really… we’re talking about PEOPLE here and their work – I don’t like to trash it). In this case, while I received the books from the author for free in exchange for a review, I communicated through Word Slinger Publicity and didn’t make my standard arrangements. So, here’s my review saying I didn’t like the books.

You are, of course, entirely likely to have your own opinion on the matter so here’s a quick bit about the books and why I didn’t like them. You can decide whether or not to read on your own and form your own opinions!

The Zoom Boom series (the first three published stories, out of 16 written by the author, are pictured at the top of this post) is a series of stories for children ages 3-7 centered around Zoom Boom the scarecrow and his friends who live on the same farm. As advertised, the stories aim to tell the adventures of Zoom Boom as he spends his time rescuing his animal friends and the farm’s pesky crows when they get into trouble. Written by a grandfather and school bus driver and published by a small Christian publishing company, the stories are intended to teach children “lessons from everyday life which will help them make wise choices, and be nice to others,” according to Word Slinger Publicity’s marketing material promoting the books.

When I received the books in the mail, they were accompanied by a letter from the author describing his intentions in writing the books. Unfortunately, his letter was more compelling than the stories themselves. Overall, the books do strive to teach valuable lessons such as safety in “Be Careful” and valuing others despite their differences in “Be Tidy, or Not?” However, the biggest drawback is that each individual book really tries to do too much. “Zoom Boom” introduces all the characters that (I presume) we will meet throughout the series, with their strengths and flaws but doesn’t tell us a story. “Be Careful” and “Be Tidy, or Not?” each tell snippets of a story, but include too many unrelated lessons. I also get squirmy about phrases like, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness, I always say,” but that might just be because I am messy and don’t clean my house nearly enough…

In any case, the character is a good idea, but the ideas need to be demonstrated–actually shown through stories–rather than just stated.

Two stars.

Munchkin Monday: Are You My Mother?

 

One night last week, my two year old wouldn’t go to sleep. To prevent her from waking up her very tired four year old sister (with whom she shares a room), I took her into my room, brought a stack of books, and snuggled and read with her for a bit. It didn’t help with bedtime, but it was really nice, and it gave me a chance to pick out some books we hadn’t read in awhile.

One of those books was Are You My Mother? (Beginner Books) by P.D. Eastman. We got this book as a baby shower gift before our oldest was born, so I’ve read it bunches of times over the past four and a half years and even heard it at a few library or bookstore story times. Basically, it’s the story of a baby bird who goes looking for his mother, as she wasn’t in the nest when he hatched because she was out getting food for him. He encounters other animals as well as cars, boats, etc., asking each, “Are you my mother?” before he reunites with his mother in the nest. I have to say that until this week, I was generally indifferent to it. I thought it was a good enough story, and fun to read every once in awhile, but it wasn’t one of my favorites. Actually, I think I had an annoying association in my mind from a Barnes and Noble story time I went to a few years ago – every time I read the book, I pictured the woman from the story time and heard the story in her voice. Annoying. Plus, I thought it was awkward to read with a lot of repetition and an irritating lack of contractions.

In the past week, though, my opinion has changed a lot. My two year old LOVES it. She calls it “the bird book” and asks for me to read it on a daily basis. She even “read” it to her dad today 🙂 Reading it with her has reminded me of how into the story my four year old was when she was younger. There is something really appealing to little ones about the story – they get emotionally invested in the baby bird’s quest for his mother, and it’s really endearing.

Outside of the story line, I hadn’t realized what a great book this is for new readers. My four year old can read – though not unexpected from her, it’s pretty amazing. It just blew me away to hear her read the majority of the story aloud just the other night. Listening to her and helping her with new words, I realized how wonderful the aforementioned “annoying” repetition and lack of contractions actually are for her. This may seem obvious to some of you, but hey, I’m new at this.

Anyway, I highly recommend Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman. It’s a great story for little ones as young as two, and it’s a good one to pull out for those preschoolers or kindergartners learning to read. So, five stars!

Buy the book: Are You My Mother? (Beginner Books)

Rating: 5 stars!