What My Child is Reading

For our family, summer means lots of trips back and forth to the library.  The kids are a part of their school's summer reading contest as well as a few other contests in town so we like to keep a fresh supply of books on hand at all times.

Here's what we've been reading so far this summer:

Pinky:
I checked out The Complete Calvin and Hobbes for myself.  Pinky, who also loves Calvin and Hobbes, swooped in and grabbed the books before I had a chance to read them.  I can't argue with her love of reading or her love of Calvin and Hobbes.

 She also plowed through the sequel to My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish, aptly named - My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish: The Seaquel. 

Chaos:
Chaos and I are reading two new chapter books together.  The first is Galaxy Zack: Hello, Nebulon.  It's a beginner chapter book series about a boy and his family who move to the planet Nebulon.  The story depth is what you would expect with a beginner chapter book, but Chaos loved hearing about the new planet and the illustrations kept him engaged.

The second book was fun because we recommended it for purchase to our library - and they listened!  And let us be the first to check it out!  The book is The Pirates Legacy by Alain Surget.  It's the story of orphaned twins, Benjamin and Louise who run away from their Parisian orphanage and set out for freedom.  They stumble into adventure when they discover their long lost father is a legendary pirate.

Wild One and Sprout:
We picked up a few fun reads at the library this week.

Dot is a clever book with illustrations that are even more clever.  The kids asked me to read this one over and over.

Exclamation Mark is a book about finding your own voice and embracing what makes you uniquely you.  It's a fun book to read and even Pinky tried her hand at voicing all the different punctuation marks.

Mrs. Crump's Cat was a recommendation from Pinky!  It's a sweet story of a stray cat who finds its way into Mrs. Crump's heart - even though she has no need for a cat.

Z is for Moose wins for the book that made us laugh out loud the most.  Moose REALLY wants to be a part of Zebra's alphabet line up.  He's at times annoying, angry, and sad as the pages are turned.  It's a great ending though and definitely worth a couple of re-reads. 

What have you been reading lately?

Linking up to some of these great parties.

Summer Plans

It's summer vacation and once again I'm excited and motivated for another summer of learning with my kids! Here's hoping that the motivation lasts all summer and extends to regular blog posting!

To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to do much besides summer bridge books and flashcards this summer, but I changed my mind because of two things:

1. Wild One has a huge desire to learn to read.  And not just any books, but chapter books.  :)  I told her that we would take it one step at a time, but I just can't ignore her enthusiasm to learn!
2. I stumbled upon the "Alphabet in Simple Science" over at Memorizing the Moments.  If you haven't see it yet, you should definitely check it out!  After reading through the posts, I was inspired to try it with my kids!

I've decided to adapt the science curriculum that Kaysha at Memorizing the Moments has developed to make it work for all 4 of my kids.  For the younger 2, we will focus on letters and sounds and the introduction of science concepts.  For the older 2, we will delve deeper into topics and maybe even do some science notebooking (I've created some experiment observation pages that I plan to share).

In addition, Wild One will be working through the First Start Reading program with me.  In fact, the order that letters and sounds are introduced in this curriculum will determine the order that we tackle the "Alphabet in Simple Science" series.

As for the older 2, they will both be completing their summer bridge books as they do every year (I take them out for ice cream when they finish it).  Pinky has been struggling a bit with math this year, so she's also working on the Math Mammoth review books this summer.

 I also picked her up this book just to prove to her that math can be fun.  

We'll also be reading plenty of books, and I plan to continue our "What We're Reading" posts throughout the summer.

This summer we're finally trying out the Summer Challenge that Carisa created at 1+1+1=1 too!  I had fun stocking up my prize bucket and coming up with tasks for the kids to complete to earn a point.  I will share our prizes and challenges in another post.

Finally, I have taken on my own sort of challenge and am working on organization (a task that will take much longer than just this summer).  I started by listing 40 areas of my house that need to be organized using this printable from White House Black Shutters.  I plan to take them on one at a time and document befores and afters.  If I feel brave I may share those here too.

Well, that's another ambitious summer for us.  What are your summer plans?

What My Child is Reading

The weather is turning warm (sort of), so it's time to update our "what we're reading" list.

Pinky:
Pinky has been on a real graphic novel kick lately.  I love to check out the book recommendations at A Mighty Girl, and the Zita series caught my eye.  Pinky has read the first two books in one day and is patiently waiting for our library to get a copy of the third book.
 

I picked up Sketch Monsters on a whim.  A story about a girl who draws her feelings as monsters in a sketch book (who then escape and nearly destroy her town), it was a hit with Pinky.
 

Pinky's also in the midst of reading the Lunch Lady series and Timmy Failure (which she has deemed hilarious).
  

My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish was another quick and fun read for her.


Much to my delight she is also plowing through the first Harry Potter book.  We started reading it together, but when I wasn't home to read it to her one night she just continued on without me.
 

Chaos:
Chaos has really taken off in his reading lately.  After reading lots of Bob Books and readers from his school he was pretty excited to get his hands on some new books from the library.

We checked out the Fly Guy series on the recommendation of a friend and were not disappointed.  Chaos loved these books and the reading level is perfect for him.
 

We're also loving the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems.  Both Chaos and Wild One crack up at the stories (even Pinky has been seen with her nose in these books).


We just started reading Captain Underpants together.  It's not my type of humor, but is right up his alley.  Sometimes we have to stop reading because he's laughing so hard he can't hear me.


Wild One and Sprout:
We usually read to the little girls together so many of their favorites have been the same.

Another 'A Mighty Girl' recommendation, The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes, was a great read with a great lesson.


The Watermelon Seed was a short and funny book that they wanted to read over and over again.


Little Hoot was a cute story about a little owl who just wanted to go to bed early, but his parents made him stay up.  From the same author as Little Pea, this book is a fun story.
 

Fanny came in Wild One's Easter basket this year, and it has quickly become one of my favorite books.  When Fanny's mom won't let her get the Connie doll that all of her friends have, she sets herself to making her own Connie doll.  The result isn't perfect and Fanny is a little insecure about her doll at first, but she soon recognizes that her doll is different in a good way.
 

Linking up to some of these great parties!

What My Child is Reading

What we're reading during these cold weather days...

Pinky:
This winter it's been a struggle to get Pinky to choose to read.  She's much more interested in playing with her Legos.  Still, I've managed to find a few things that she's really enjoyed.

Calvin and Hobbes - Pinky has had a great time reading all of my old copies of Calvin and Hobbes.  We're on the waiting list for the complete collection from the library, and I may be more excited than she is to read it!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney - Pinky started this series over Christmas break and quickly read through all of the books.  I picked up the Dork Diaries from the library recently thinking she may enjoy those as well.  We will see.

A to Z Mysteries - Pinky is reading through this series at school during her reading time.  These are very quick reads for her, and she can read them quickly in the time she has at school.  She likes the mystery element to the stories.

Pompeii...Buried Alive by Edith Kunhardt Davis is not a book I would have picked for Pinky.  She typically shies away from nonfiction books so I was happy to see her choose one from the school library.  She has brought this book home more times than I can count now.  She is fascinated by the story of the erupting volcano burying a town.

Chaos:
Chaos has been making great strides in his reading recently.  In addition to the phonics and early readers that he's been reading, I've also been reading him some longer stories.

Three Tales of My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Ganett is what we're currently reading.  He loves the adventure and the illustrations in the story. 

Garfield books have been a staple in our house for several years.  It started with Pinky constantly bringing them home from the school library, and now Chaos is following in her footsteps.  I remember reading Garfield when I was a kid so it's fun to see that the stories and jokes are still funny to my kids.

Wild One:
Wild One still loves to read.  Reading time (and library check out) are her favorite parts of preschool.


Pete the Cat books are her absolute favorite (the other kids enjoy them as well).  I have found her walking around the house chanting "Did Pete cry?  Oh goodness no!  He kept walking along and singing his song..."

Sprout:
Sprout loves just about any book you will read to her.  She would probably even sit and listen to me read an instruction manual if I let her look at the pictures while I read it.  Of course, we do read her good books.  :)

Sprout is a big fan of the Brownie & Pearl series by Cynthia Rylant (especially this book with the car).  The stories are short and sweet with colorful illustrations.  She asks us to read these over and over again.

Linking up to some of these great parties!

What My Child is Reading

It's been a long time since I posted what my kids are reading!  Here's a few of our current favorites.

Pinky:
Pinky has continued to enjoy reading longer chapter books.  She still enjoys the Rainbow Magic series, but has branched out to try different series.

Judy Moody - She just started the Judy Moody series and has really enjoyed it.  I told her if she read "The Not Bummer Summer" I would let her watch the movie when she finished.

My Secret Unicorn by Linda Chapman- A series about unicorns?  That's really all Pinky needed to know about this book to be interested.  I have not read this book myself, but judging by the way Pinky's nose has been in it all day, I'd say it's a hit.

Babymouse - The Babymouse series was recommended to me by a teacher friend.  It's written as a graphic novel (something that is VERY appealing to Pinky) and tells the story of Babymouse - a mouse with big dreams and a wild imagination.  As soon as Pinky finished the first book, she grabbed another and asked if I would get more from the library.

Chaos:
Chaos continues to love his I Spy books and has really enjoyed reading super hero books as well.  He loves to read facts about all of his favorite heroes from his newest book, Meet the Marvel Super Heroes.

A few other books Chaos has been enjoying lately:

The Sandcastle Contest - Any book by Robert Munsch is bound to be a hit with kids.  His books are always fun, wacky reads.


Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown - I'm sure most people know the story of Flat Stanley.  Chaos even knew who he was without ever having read the book.  It was fun for him to learn how Flat Stanley became flat!

Wild One:

Wild One continues to love everything related to dance, so it was no surprise she loved reading Angelina Ballerina by Katharine Holabird.

When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang has also fascinated Wild One.  She loves watching Sophie get angry and then calm down.  She has been walking around the house quoting this book over and over again.

A few other books we have enjoyed as a whole family:

One by Katharine Otoshi is a wonderful book about standing up for yourself and others with an added lesson of counting and colors.

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Stieg is a classic about a young donkey who makes an unfortunate wish.

Hubble Bubble Granny Trouble by Tracey Corderoy is a fun story about a Granny who is quite different than what her granddaughter thinks she should be.  When granny conforms to the norms, her granddaughter realizes that she's quite bored with an "average" granny. 

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett - We picked this book up on a whim while at the library, and I was surprised at how much we enjoyed it.  It's a story about a girl with magical yarn who changes an entire town.  The illustrations in this book are just as wonderful as the story itself.

Summer Learning - Geography

Awhile back I read a blog post at Finally in First about a great activity to go along with the book Me On the Map.  You can read the original post here.


The story is told by a young girl who shows readers a map of her room, then continues, step by step, to show the larger picture: her house on her street, her street on a map of her town, her town in her state, etc.

This was a really fun way to begin to explore maps with the kids and to help them understand where they live in relation to the rest of the world.

Looking for more great Geography ideas?  Check out my Pinterest board:
Love of Learning - Geography