Some of the most memorable children’s books are the ones that make you laugh. I recently gathered a long list of laugh out loud book recommendations from friends, social media, and our local librarians. Together with my ten- and eight-year-old I have narrowed the top Laugh out Loud Children’s Books down to six selections, which…
Kindergarten is a special age for many reasons. Kids are learning to recognize sight words and write their letters, figuring out how to use scissors, and going on some of their first field trips. Regardless of where you live, every kindergarten class experience will include reading time. It takes a special book to capture the…
It is always such fun for me when I introduce some of my favorite childhood books to my own children. I love to watch their reactions to the stories and illustrations to see if they like them as much as I did. My childhood favorites include several books by husband-and-wife team Audrey and Don Wood,…
Jennifer Garner is known and respected across the country not just as an actress, but also as a mother. I am a fan of hers, so when she shared a few of her favorite children’s books on Instagram, I immediately added them to our reading list. Since then, several of her recommendations have become family…
I was introduced to Julia Cook through a social media page for kindergarten teachers and two particlar books caught my eye. The thing that impressed me the most was how both of them reinforced positivity over negativity. This is such an important concept when dealing with young children. The best advice I ever received as…
The two books that I’m going to review today are from the group of books recommended by our local children’s librarian, Jo. These two really don’t have much in common other than they both have animals as a theme. But I really wanted to share them with you since I found them to be delightful…
I’m excited to introduce you to our guest blogger, Jo, the local librarian that recommended the books I’ve been reviewing the past few months. Jo is a lifelong resident of our small town in rural Iowa. She has a husband of 40 years, three grown children and five grandchildren. Jo recently celebrated her 25th year…
In this day and age you hear a lot about how so many young adults don’t know how to solve problems because their parents never allowed them to encounter situations where they needed to figure things out on their own. I’ve heard people say that millennials don’t know how to handle rejection or failure because…
One of the most important things that I learned during my 36-year career as an early childhood educator was the importance of phonological awareness activities. Phonological awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language. Simply put, it includes activities such as rhyming (cat/hat), segmenting (the word cat is broken up by…
My brother-in-law is a dentist, and always stresses the importance of developing good oral hygiene habits in children from early on. So as first time parents, we began practicing good oral hygiene care with our daughter when she was only weeks old, rubbing a soft washcloth over her gums during at each bath. But the…
THE ROUGH-FACE GIRL by Rafe Martin, illustrated by David Shannon There are over 1,500 versions of the Cinderella story, but this one, The Rough-Face Girl, is truly my favorite. This one is an Algonquin Indian Cinderella, and actually a part of a longer traditional story. The Rough-Face Girl takes place in a village on the…
What is the SleeperHero? It starts with a storybook. A story about a boy, named Luke, that struggles with staying in his bed at night. That is until he is introduced to a doll. Not any doll, though. A super special doll — a SleeperHero. SleeperHero is a buddy that is there for him at…
Here is the second installment of my favorite farm books. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I have so many favorite farm books that I needed to make this a two-part blog. These books were published after my sons grew up, but many of them came out while I was teaching kindergarten, and they…
