Exploring Chapter Books

After making two recent trips to the library to explore children's reading materials (and ease up on my Amazon.com spending), my oldest son (just turned 4 in Oct.) and I have given more early readers and chapter books a try, and I have a better sense of what he likes.

The most important observation is that at this time, he prefers books to have pictures on every page. He also grows impatient if there is a longer paragraph with only a small picture. I was wondering and possibly dreaming that my young-four-year-old could listen using only his imagination but we're not there yet. However, he is very much interested in longer stories (as long as we start early enough -- and we need to work on that and giving ourselves more time in the bedtime routine).

He enjoyed a Breyer Stablemates book called Snowflake -- although he urged me to skip the text-only pages, the illustrations held his interest well and we got a pretty good sense of the story anyway. (I love horses and although the story has all female characters, I think my son enjoyed it too!) Snowflake is a level 3 reader and now we'll be exploring more 2's and 3's before moving up. We did a level 4 last night that was much too much text and not enough images.

I was surprised that A did not enjoy the picture only books we've tried so far. He instructs me to read the words and seems disappointed there are none. We'll try again when he's a little older.

I've got my copy of The Read-Aloud Handbook
ready and hope to use it next time as a trusty guide for future library adventures.

Lots of giggles reading Dick and Jane Jump and Run

I was surprised last night when my oldest and I read a borrowed library copy of Dick and Jane Jump and Run before bed.  It really gave my son the giggles!  He immediately asked to read it again, saying it's a funny book. 

Who knew that Dick and Jane would be a hit?  Not me.  As a modern mom who grew up in the 70's and 80's, I had the impression of Dick and Jane being terribly old fashioned, patriarchal, non-diverse and somehow very wrong for today, just too simple and old.  (What is weird is that I'm fine with traditional roles and lifestyles but still I felt this strange gut resistance.) Maybe it's the little perfect blonde kids or something else about it that made me want to reject Dick and Jane.  However, my mother in law collects old 1950's schoolbooks and has some Dick and Jane in her collection.  I thought it wouldn't hurt to check one out at the library, and I considered that the word repetition would be a good experience for my oldest (almost four years old).

Enough of my weird bias.  My son loved it.  He seemed to enjoy the repetitive words and he also loved Puff (the kitten) and Spot (the puppy).  He also laughed at all the lines and pictures with "funny, funny", as in.... (illustration of Spot running away with a stick) Oh, oh, Spot!  Oh, oh, oh.  Funny, funny Spot.)  As a read aloud, I got to work on my vocal interpretation to make the story more interesting, which was fun for me too.

On our second read, I tried to persuade A. to read some of the words but he refused.  We will try that again when he's more awake and after more reading.  The kids' votes count -- Dick and Jane Jump and Run is a hit in our house, and anything that gives my son sweet giggle fits is welcome by me. I'm over my bias. We may need to add this one to our collection.

Read with Dick and Jane: Jump and Run (Dick and Jane)

The Lunch Box Surprise

"I love to share!"
-My four-year-old during a reading of The Lunch Box Surprise

The Lunch Box Surprise is an early reader book that is part of the First Grade Friends series. We got our copy as part of our family's exploration into "first reader" type books for my almost four-year-old. Out of several we have read, The Lunch Box Surprise is a clear favorite with a great message.

The First Grade Friends are a group of first graders (all with names that rhyme!) and the stories are about their experiences. In The Lunch Box Surprise, Sams mother forgot to pack his lunch, and he feels sad and mad. The other children choose to share their lunches with him, and Sam has a great lunch after all. The story details each child's lunch, which also gives a nice representation of the variety of foods that people eat. (Maybe my kids will get more enthusiastic at dinnertime -- my oldest does seem more curious about foods during our reads.)

The only downside I've found to The Lunch Box Surprise (and the First Grade Friends) is that the rhyming names are difficult for me to read-aloud -- I think I do better with Fox in Socks than with these kids' names -- Sam, Pam, Jan, Dan, Kim, Max.... (I think!) It sounds simple, but it's more challenging than you would think!

Overall, we are very pleased with The Lunch Box Surprise and recommend it as a good book for reading-aloud to preschoolers and as a first reader.

Slinky, Scaly Snakes!

I made a conscious effort to expand my sons' reading materials with more non-fiction topics after reading part of Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius that deals with reality, imagination and fantasy.  I wanted to get away from books that have talking dogs, etc., or at least, provide more of a balance between the talking dogs and real-life topics.  

I also wanted to give my oldest some slightly more advanced reading materials / pre-reader types of books.  One of our selections is Slinky, Scaly Snakes!  A DK reader book (Level 2).  

He loves it.  And I'm happy to report that a non-fiction book has sparked his imagination!  He proudly proclaimed that three wiffle balls were his snake eggs, and that he was the mommy snake and I (mom) was the daddy snake.   It is also very cute when he has pulled out the book and said we haven't read it in a long time when our last read was two nights ago. 

The book has good photos of snakes. It covers snakes' hunting, killing and swallowing prey honestly, and shows snakes eating eggs, rats, and a gazelle.  OK, that's kind of icky, but it is how nature works, and it hasn't frightened my son at all. 

There is a mystery photo in this book I am trying to figure out.  Can anyone help decipher what this photo is?   It is on page 23, and the previous page talks about egg-eating snakes, and one that is eating a bird egg.  The text reads:

The egg makes a big bulge in the snake's body.

The egg breaks inside the snake.

Then the snake spits out the shell.

See the bottom photo? It looks like a clear bubble on top of something and I can't tell if it's part of the snake, or the egg, or what exactly is shown.  Any ideas?  I might have to email the zoo and ask for help.

The fish, amphibian and reptile building is one of my son's favorites at the Milwaukee County Zoo, and so I was hopeful that Slinky, Scaly Snakes! would be a hit, and it is.  

I encourage families to explore non-fiction and science books to enhance your children's collections.

DK Readers: Slinky, Scaly Snakes (Level 2: Beginning to Read Alone)

Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius

Searching for First Reader books

My oldest son is showing more interest in words and reading, so I'm on the hunt for easy and first reader type books to share with him. He loves a book called Drip, Drop by Sarah Weeks, part of a collection of books called I Can Read.   So I'm going to explore these types of books.  I'm not sure if we'll discover new favorites, but I promise to share the best of the bunch.
Drip, Drop (I Can Read Book 1)