Children’s Book Week 2016

My son loves reading time.  He goes to our spot, grabs a book out of our book bin, covers himself with a blanket and calls me over.  He excitedly points to the things in the book that he knows and describes them in full detail.  He inquisitively asks me about the things he doesn’t know so he can learn about them too.  We usually spend about 10 minutes longer on a book just talking about the pictures.  It’s a great way to not only teach him about new things (and how they work) but also to broaden his vocabulary.

This week is Children’s Book Week and we have some pretty cool books from the library.  My son is really into trucks, so of course I got him a few truck books.  One that I thought was awesome was Alphabet Trucks.  For each letter, we stated the letter name, made the sound of the letter and said a word that corresponds with that letter (ex. F, fff, fff fox).  That book took a long time to read, lol.  I was a huge Richard Scarry fan growing up, so I was really excited to share one of my favorite childhood authors with him.

Cinco de Mayo and Mother’s Day are right around the corner so it would be fun to add a few festive books.  Guess I’ll be swinging back by the library.  Did you know that some libraries will let you check out as many as 75 books at a time?  I used to wonder who would need that many books until our last book haul was about 25 books, so I could see needing that many if you have multiple children.  Hit the library and challenge your LittleReader to a book reading contest!  What books are your kids reading this week?

3 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day

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I’m not a fan of celebrating holidays.  The whole thing just seems like too much work.  Spending a bunch of money buying decorations, searching tirelessly for ingredients and competing with other consumers for the last ham at the grocery store, cooking a ton of food, and having a messy house all for just a few short hours.  Still, it wasn’t until this past Christmas that I realized just how important celebrating something is.  Having a child leads me to revalue the joy and togetherness that holidays bring into our lives.  Simply because we are alive, well and happy to have each other.  It doesn’t have to be one of the traditional holidays, but it should be something that is important to our family.  I’d like for my son to have fond memories of a special day that we got together and did something fun for a good cause.  So we’re starting our own traditions!

Mommy Can LearnEarth Day is this Friday and while it isn’t a homemade holiday, what better reason to celebrate than the solitary planet that homes us and provides us with food, water, and air!  Here are 3 ways that we can do a little good for our planet that does so much for us.

Teaching your kids about sustainable living

Reading books to kids is the best way to teach them about, well anything!  Learning about the importance of sustainable living is a great way to get kids involved and thinking about preserving our planet at an early age.  And once kids take an interest in something new, they’ll be sure to remind us to do our part as well.  Here are 4 great books to get started:

Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth

Disney Go Green: A Family Guide to a Sustainable Lifestyle

The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling

The Earth Book

Earth Day activities

Earth 911 – Cool DIY projects with reusable materials.

Education World – Earth Day lesson plans and projects – great for homeschoolers!

TinkerLab – 50 Earth Day activities for toddlers and little kids.

Utilizing sustainability sites

Freecycle – A great resource for donating and receiving free reusable goods to avoid using landfills.

Healthy Home Economist – A list of organic, non-GMO, Monsanto-free seed companies.

I Want To Be Recycled – Everything recycling!

Local Harvest – Find local farms, farmers markets, co-ops, CSAs and even pick-your-own fruit gardens.

What do you have planned for Earth Day?

 

It’s Dr. Seuss’ Birthday!

We all know that reading is a vital component to a child’s learning and development.  Reading a good book can make you laugh, teach you something, or enable your mind to escape into a fantasy land.  And for many people, their love of reading started with Dr. Seuss.  Over the last 70 years, Dr. Seuss has written over 60 children’s books.  His first book, And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, was rejected 27 times before being published in 1937.  What a great lesson in perseverance, determination and purpose to teach your kids.  The sky is the limit and education is their spaceship.

The best example for reading that your kids have is YOU!  Turning off the TV and picking up a book will show your kids that reading is important and fun.  Take them to the local library, get a free library card and let your LittleBookWorm pick any books they deem interesting.  Reading doesn’t only have to happen at night; in the morning, after school or keeping a few books in the car are great times to squeeze in a little reading.  Reading just 20 minutes a day can increase your child’s love for reading and their vocabulary too!  So in honor of an author that has brought reading into so many of our lives, take some time to read a few books to your kids tonight.  And if you’re big on celebrations, why not throw a Dr. Seuss party?