0 comments on Letters

  2. Loved that book. I really love the monster spray today. Lavender is great for helping with relaxation and sleep.

    • Thank you! It is one of my favorite books, and I hope the monster spray will help lots of kids to sleep better!

  3. Wonderful suggestions of materials. Reading aloud is so important for your child’s development and education. I’m glad you addressed this and shared your stories.

    • Thank you! I hope sharing my stories will encourage other parents to read aloud to their kids as well! It can be such a memorable and fun time.

    • Thanks! It was one of my favorites growing up. I hope you have as much fun making the blow monsters as my daughter and I did!

  5. I just wrote a post about how to instill love of reading for kids too. I agree, reading aloud is so important! I love reading too and my kids see me with a book all the time. I think that’s why they love reading too!

    • I will go check your post out! It is amazing that something so easy can make such a difference on a kid’s future. That is so great that your kids love reading! I think it is even more important that kids see their parents reading books today, with all the screens and technology in our lives.

    • Thanks! I always try to remember to read them to here even though she is too young to understand and is anxious to get to the story!

  7. LOVE “The Monster at the End of this Book”! One of my favorite stories. Love your ideas to have activities tie into the book.

  8. My kiddo has three(!) grovers, all of whom have to live on his bed. If we’re playing with stuffed animals and asking each other about their sounds, he’ll tell me that Grover says “You turned the page!”

  10. This book is such a great idea and the way you have incorporated new ideas on children crafts that they contribute is awesome. It is something you can save each year and when they are grown, show them.

  14. My five-year-old is a little obsessed with turkeys and turkey crafts right now, so this is right up our alley. I also love how you can incorporate math and spelling in fun activities.

  18. The in-laws are coming up to our place for thanksgiving. I’m thinking we should pick one of these crafts/games to do.

  19. Love these! I am going to do some with my little one this week. I love a handprint turkey too – she will love it because she loves paint!

  20. SO many fun craft ideas for the kiddos! Cannot wait to introduce these at Thanksgiving 🙂

    They’re going to have a blast!

  27. These are so fun! I’m going to do the experiments with my kids. I learned that the very best cranberries are harvested by hand and have to go through a machine that tests their bouncing ability. 5 bounces, I believe, in order to make it into the bags. They are also known as bounceberries. That could be fun to do with kids. The other cranberries are used for juices or dried.

    • That is so cool! I didn’t know that. I will have to look into that for next year. I hope you enjoy them!

  29. This is such a fun post! I love these ideas and it would be fun to do a thanksgiving/cranberry unit later this week with the kids. Thanks for sharing!

  32. My 3 year old is HUGE Grinch fan right now. He likes to sing “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch!” We have read that and The Polar Express to our boys. I need to look into getting the others on this list.

    • I love that song. It is so addicting! I will be doing a post on both the Grinch and the Polar Express in the next few weeks!

    • I agree! I hope my daughter will look back years from now and remember our holiday book traditions!

    • Thanks! It’s so easy to skip right to the Christmas books! I still have to build up my Thanksgiving collection a little more.

    • Aw, thank you! That’s a great idea! I was actually just starting to look into adding some printables to the site, so I will definitely get those moving soon! Thank you!!

      • So I know I’m a year behind on this, but I have been wanting to try my hand at creating printables lately, but I didn’t really have any ideas to start with. Maybe we can work out a partnership that would help both of our sites and the readers! =)

        • I’d definitely be interested in talking about it! You can email me through the contact page to discuss!

  39. I haven’t read any of these so I will definitely have to check them out. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is one of my favorite events ever so I am excited to read Balloons Over Broadway. I love Thanksgiving and reading to my daughter so this is a great list!

    • I’m so glad! I loved learning the background on the balloons. I hope you and your daughter do too!

    • I hope you like them! I love that the book will make me look at the parade differently from now on!

  45. Great list! We’re planning on making small apple pies the night before Thanksgiving. As an engineer, I love the book you recommended! Why not sneak in a little learning?!?

    • Thank you! I love using real world experiences with kids books. There are so many opportunities to expand their learning!

  47. I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great. I do not know who you are but certainly you’re going to a famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!

  50. I think this is something I really need. The last few years have been such a struggle for me during the holidays. Thanks so much for sharing!

  58. I love this idea! We have always wanted to take our son on a Polar Express Train Ride for Christmas but the tickets can be so expensive. I love the idea of making your own Polar Express Ride from home. Thanks for sharing.

    • Thanks! I’ve always wanted to go on one of those too! My husband and I have been driving around and looking at the lights every year since we started dating so I’m excited to turn it into a fun tradition with my daughter now too!

  59. wow such amazing ideas to try with kids to help with fine motor skills! I especially liked the marshmallows in hot chocolate idea. My Son is still too young for this I think but hopefully by this time next year he’ll have it down! Love polar express by the way, classic for sure!

    • Thanks! My daughter is a little young too and mostly enjoyed pretending to drink out of the paper mugs! Hopefully by next year we will be able to do it.

    • Me too! I know some people are against screen time but everything in moderation! Plus you can have some great conversation with kids comparing and contrasting them.

    • I agree the animation has some downsides to it. I’m not a huge fan of the style. But I love that some of my favorite illustrations in the book made it into the movie. The last shot especially gives me chills! And, I just love Tom Hanks!

  64. Those first two books look especially great! I think my kids would really love the Macy’s one, this was the first year we all watched the parade together as I got ready for dinner and my kids really loved it.

  65. These are all great! I’ve actually never read the book or watched the movie but now it may just have to become a new tradition here too! Love all the activities you listed as well!

  67. I love the activities you made for this great children’s book, especially the hot chocolate. We were lucky enough to ride the Polar Express one year and it was a magical experience.

  80. Awesome roundup of Holiday books. I’m going to have to get some of these to read. My little man loves the Llama Llama books! They are so fun!

  81. I haven’t bought any Christmas books yet but I was planning to get an illustrated Bible and a story book for my almost 2 year old daughter. Thank you so much for the suggestions!

  87. I’ve been working on building up my little one’s library- def need to get a few of these to add to her collection! She’d love the Where is my Baby book!

  92. This really gets me in the holiday spirit! This is my LO’s first Christmas! I am so excited! I was just telling hubbs we needed to get him some new books! These are perfect!

  99. That story seems so cute! I can’t wait to read it!
    I’m going to do some of these activities with my son as well, he’ll absolutely love them!

    • It is such a cute story! I am so glad I found that stamp. It is perfect for my daughter to use! I hope you have fun creating your gingerbread creations!

  103. I’ve never made gingerbread men (or babies!), but it is on our Christmas to do list this season. I can’t wait to try to decorate them with my kids!

  110. We have a lot of those Curious George holiday books… I think the Hanukkah one will be the next one we add to our collection! Thanks for a great list!

  112. What great activity ideas surrounding the Gingerbread Baby story!

    I know if I have little ones, they would love playing and participating in whatever you suggested 🙂

    • I’m not either, but I remember some Hanukkah books from my childhood fondly, and I hope my daughter will feel the same!

  114. Thanks for this list. I was just talking with friends tonight about how I want to encourage my kids to understand their mixed faith/cultural backgrounds.

  120. What cute ideas! My little boy is just old enough to start understanding Christmas and is getting so excited about it. I will have to try the hat for him!

  130. This is a great bucket list. We love going to see the lights every year. I am actually going to be attending a local cookie swap. These are really fun ideas.

    • Thanks! It is a tradition of ours to go see the lights every year. I hope you have fun at your cookie swap!

  132. This is a bit daunting for us… we have birthdays that sandwich Christmas, and 4 sets of parents to visit. So honestly, most holidays, we are just trying to make it through.

  133. Yes to all of these! We’ve been having Christmas music dance parties almost every day. It’s just too fun. Can’t wait to go sledding!

  137. I love how so many of these are just simple activities to help bring the family together! That is the whole point of the holiday season (in my opinion). I’m hosting a linkup on Decmeber 26 that’s all about #SimplifyingTheSeason and I’d love to see you there!

    littledoveblog.com

    • Thanks! I love the idea of simple activities to bring the family together and really experience the season!

  138. I WANt to go ice skating or do anything cold weather activity 🙁 No skating ring or snow anytime soon 🙁 I’m crossing my fingers though!!

    • Me too! I am not necessarily looking forward to the cold, but I am looking forward to the cold weather activities!

  139. You know what I love most about your list? Okay, two things: one, it’s super simple (aka – doable), and two, a lot of it focuses around giving to others. What a great way to celebrate. Merry Christmas!

    • Thank you! I think simple is the way to go! People already have so much going on during the holidays! I also thought it was important for my daughter to learn about giving, even though she is still so young.

    • Thank you! I love Elf too! We haven’t watched it yet this year, but I managed to catch the end on TV the other night!

  146. These are great ideas! My oldest is 2.5 and we have read the Grinch a couple of times this month; I’ll pin this idea to refer to in the coming years when he’ll be more inclined to interact. Thanks for sharing!!

  147. What fun activities! I love the idea of sneaking around the house to collect gifts to give away. The only problem is that my four-year-old might get SUPER into the game, and try to give away everything (which, maybe that’s not so bad).

  149. I love how creative you are and this really inspires me to do something like this with my kids when they get older. Right now, my babe is a little bit too young for most of them EXCEPT for the sensory bin so I think I’m going to try that. I definitely do love this post though.

  152. Awesome fun ideas and meaningful ones at the same time. Love the one on teaching kids that: Christmas is more than about gifts! And the one on teaching them adjectives through the story of the Grinch 🙂

  153. Thank you so much for adding your URL to the latest #FanDayFriday Link party at iamzoewatson.com.

    Hope you get some great traffic from your post and that I can read more of your posts next week!

    If you want to see the full list of parties or find next week’s party listing, visit: iamzoewatson.com/category/fandayfriday-link-party/

    Thanks again for participating!

    Patty
    Blogger | iamzoewatson.com

  154. Hello just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the pictures aren’t loading correctly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show the same outcome.

  159. This sounds SO CUTE!!! I love the ideas and i will defo be getting this for my son when he’s a bit older. Definitely a great way yo get your kiddos involved with Christmas!

  166. Love books that you can easily extend children’s learning and involvement! This book is sure to get the kiddos excited for the holidays!

    • Thank you! My daughter is obsessed with the camera on my phone, so I knew she would like this one!

  172. Love these ideas! I bought a bunch of jingle bells last week for a Polar Express play date we’re doing later this week, and my boys have totally hijacked them and been playing with them. Their favorite activity so far has been making a maze from paper towel rolls taped to the wall and letting the jingle bells run through the tunnels. I’m excited to try some of your other ideas with them.

  177. I love all the bell-related activities you’ve suggested! Really creative.

    I like Jingle Bell Balance and Magnet Play best 🙂

  179. I’d love to get my hands on the book by Trapani! Incorporating Christmas elements from around the world is a goal of mind for future holiday seasons. We live in South Africa and my kids’ Christmas experience is nothing like mine was. I want them to know that Christmas looks different around the world. Thanks for sharing!

    • I did a unit on Christmas Around the World when I was student teaching, and it has always been one of my favorite things to read and teach about!

    • Aw that would be nice! That would be so hard to be allergic to them this time of year when they are everywhere!

  186. We just showed this movie to my daughter for the first time the other night and she loved it. I think she will also like the book as well. Thanks for including activities and things to do that are Grinch related 🙂

  191. Love this book! It puts the focus of Christmas where it should be. And the toilet paper poinsettia looks fun and easy for my boys. I have a ton of empty rolls (I can’t seem to get myself to throw them away). We’ll be making some during this winter break!

    • Haha. I’m the same way – I hate to throw away anything I could use for a craft! I hope you have fun with them!

    • Thank you! We have German in our background too! I have always wanted to travel there for Christmastime!

    • Thank you! I used a few of these when I was student teaching and I did a unit on Christmas Around the World. The kids loved it!

  207. What a great post! I love learning all about Christmas celebration around the world ! Those books sounds so great !

  211. Great way to teach kids about other traditions. We celebrate a traditional Swiss Christmas with the grandparents on the 24th with real candles on the tree?

    • That’s awesome! I love the look of real candles on the tree, but my fireman husband would never allow it!

  212. This is such a wonderful collection of books. I truly enjoy how they all tell a story from a different perspective and focused on other culture. My kids will adore these.

  221. Love these ideas. I have long loved Tommie de Paola’s books, but the others are new to me. I am pinning this and will have to get some of these for next year!

    • Thanks! I hope you find some new favorites! I am a big Tomie dePaola fan (obviously, haha), and I love that he does all of these legends!

  222. My son’s class just finished learning about several of these traditions! I had never heard of Nights of las Posadas. He would love reading a book about it!

  223. I love how you took a book and made it into a bigger post. Thanks so much for sharing this at the fandayfriday link party. Can’t wait to see more from you! #fdflinkparty

  224. My toddler loves Gingerbread men. I was actually out searching for cookie mix to make some this year and I went to 4 stores with no luck! We had sugar cookie Gingerbread men–maybe there is a ginger shortage this year 🙂

    • Aw! Well I’m glad you still had some form of them. All of these cookies have great gingerbread flavor if that helps!

    • Haha. I have the same problem with my daughter. Whenever we read a new book, we have to read Grinch again!

  232. All of these books look great! I also like the idea of pairing them with gingerbread cookies – this has given me ideas for a present for next Christmas for one of my friend’s kiddos.

  242. What a great list of books! I spent a lot of time exploring Hanukkah books for older kids this year, but will keep these titles in mind for next year!

    • Aw I’m glad! I hope you enjoy them! For older kids I have my favorite Hanukkah book in the Holiday book list posted last month!

    • Thank you! I have fond memories of New Years Eve growing up, even without staying up until midnight!

    • I can’t imagine letting my daughter stay up for many years, so we will definitely be utilizing some activities during the day instead!

  260. All of these are great ideas for ways to “Ring in the New Year” with your little ones. I love the read alouds and the activities!

  262. I really like the Remember the Year activity. I have a horrible memory so I think this would honestly be helpful (and maybe hilarious). We did what? When? I don’t remember that…

    Writing memories down is a great idea for some many reasons!

    • It has definitely become a favorite of mine! I love reliving the tiniest memories that I would have forgotten about!

  263. That book sounds so cute!
    These activities look like they’re so much fun.
    My little man is just old enough to really grasp that there is a celebration going on and that things are different, so I’m able to do more with him this year!

  267. I always love your suggestions I’m going to have to check these out. I’ve heard of You Are a Badass and want to read it solely based on the title LOL

    • That’s awesome! I highly recommend it. It really opened our eyes to how we relate to each other!

  271. I read the “5 Love Languages” and had my fiancé read it too. “You are a Bad Ass” is on my list for 2017, already purchased. I will also check out the other suggestions. Thanks for sharing!

  273. These look really good. I just finally downloaded the 5 love languages after years of hearing about it. I know the basics, but I’m excited to read the whole book.

  276. Yes! So happy to have this list. After finishing “Present Over Perfect” I have been dying to dive into another inspirational one–that one was lent to me at the perfect time in my life and really woke me up. These all look great and will be adding them to my list. Thanks!!

  279. Thanks so much for posting your blog post to the #FanDayFriday Link Party! I hope you have a great experience with the link party and come back again next week! #fdflinkparty

  281. Love Languages is the best book!! I want to read the 5:00am Miracle sooooo bad. Just got to do it =) Thank you for posting about these great books. It is inspiring.

  284. I’ve seen so much about ‘You Are a Badass.’ I want to read it sometime in the new year, but I’m definitely going to keep all of these books in mind. I’m ready to accomplish my goals.

  287. Miss Rumphius was always one of my favorite books growing up as a child. I love the pretzel stick lupine inspired snack to go with this – such a cool idea!

  289. Oh my daughter would love this book! I really like how you make story time so enaging and fun with these activities. What a great way to foster the love of reading and actually get them understanding the take away of the story itself!

  290. What a wonderful story and ideas to reinforce the message! I think that the basis of the story is that we all have goals we’d like to reach in our lives but it’s so important to give back to others and leave a legacy before we go. I will definetly be checking this book out!

    • I hope you enjoy it! I think it’s a great way to introduce kids to the idea of the legacy they will leave behind.

  292. Sounds like a really awesome book with a great lesson! I’m making a list of books for when my son is older and this one will be on it for sure!

  295. I have been looking for a book like this for my kids!! Teaching them to spread love and beauty is so important to me!! Plus I am a fan of fun activities that go along with the book!

  297. This seems to be a wonderful idea of engaging kids and also teaching them love compassion and empathy towards fellow beings. I loved the colouring part of the book too, kids would learn easily and when more activities based on a story is done they would remember for a longer period of time.

    • I really enjoyed the 5 Love Languages. You are a Badass has gotten rave reviews from everyone I have talked to! I wasn’t surprised it was the most recommended!

  299. This looks like such an incredible book with a very important message. I love the activities and snack to go along with it.

  301. This is beautiful. If we all left the world a more beautiful place, imagine the possibility. Great post. I have to find this story for my littles or maybe order at amazon.com =) Thank you!!

    • Aw thank you! I agree the world would be so much better if we all tried to do something to add beauty to it. I hope they enjoy it!

    • That is a beautiful list. I pinned it for future post ideas! There are some on there I haven’t read yet. Thank you for sharing!

  305. I don’t think I’ve ever read this one… I am going to have to keep my eyes out for it next time I’m at the library. It looks beautiful, and I know my kids will love the activity extensions you’ve suggested!

  306. What a fabulous idea! I will be keeping this post in mind when I’m buying Baby’s Christmas books next year as she’ll just about be old enough to enjoy baking (throwing flour around!)

  307. I never heard of this book but it does look very beautiful. I like to show my kids color and wonder in the glory of the things around them. This book seems fitting and I like your suggestions on applying it to the real world. Kids never say no to painting!

    • Haha. Very true! My daughter has recently become obsessed with painting! I hope you enjoy it!

  308. So cute! We like to point out shapes we see in the clouds. We do it often while driving, which makes it a bit harder to point things out, but the kids still love it and it’s great for vocabulary when you’ve got to describe what you’re seeing.

    • That is a great idea! I will have to start doing that with my daughter when she is a bit older!

  313. I love all of these ideas, and I love finding great books I’ve never encountered before! My two-year-old has recently surprised us by telling us what shapes she sees in clouds, so I think she’d get a kick out of this book. I’ll put it on our library list!

  316. I love the activities you include to go along with the books you read. They help make text-to-life connections in such a fabulous way. I’m a big fan of the cloud snacks!

  320. My daughter and I went to a park this past summer and laid on our backs and looked at the clouds for over an hour. Took me right back to my childhood. I don’t think we ever should be too busy in our lives that we stop to forget the wonder of clouds 🙂

  322. Those binoculars are so cute. My daughter is still young, but is really obsessed with all things in the sky, this sounds perfect.

  323. I miss the days when my children would find strange and peculiar things in the clouds, though there a few moments left here and there when we pick the habit up again while driving around. Tomie DePaolo is a great author and was born in my hometown, so I enjoyed reading his books to the kids when they were growing up. Great piece and great idea!!

    • Thank you! That’s awesome he was born in your hometown! He is one of my all time favorites!

  328. I remember learning about clouds in school & trying to always find out which ones we had afterwards but along the way I’ve forgotten all about them

  329. You always have the most fun things to do with books!
    I just ordered this book, I think my little man will love it and he’ll definitely love the little binoculars!

  330. I am obsessed with your site!! You come up with the best ideas for every book you find! Have you ever thought about selling lessons on teacherspayteachers?

  333. My daughter would love this. She is just now getting to the point where she is looking up, observing that the clouds look different, and asking us if they are rain clouds. Looking forward to trying some of these project ideas.

  339. I saw your instagram post this morning on The Book of Joy, and I was instantly intrigued. One of my goals this year is to read more, and you’ve given me some great titles to add to my to-read list. Thanks!

  342. I’m so glad that Jenny Lawson’s book is on here. I really love her as a blogger, person, and author. It does make me happy!

  344. I love this! I’m in the process of creating a vision board (basically a poster board that will have my goals, aspirations, and dreams for this year). I love all the new ideas and motivation going into the New Year!

  349. This is such a great reminder for the New Year, and I’m pretty certain I want to snag one of these books! I have trouble just being happy, and I think this would be a good self improvement goal for the year.

  357. These are such great suggestions I plan on adding them to my amazon store and sharing them with my facebook page Mommy’s Mid-Life Quest! I’ll link up this page to the group in the next few days and definitely send a shoutout to you!

    Thanks so much for posting your blog post to the #FanDayFriday Link Party! I hope you have a great experience with the link party and come back again next week! #fdflinkparty

    • Thank you so much! I have been meaning to join that group, and I enjoy the weekly link party!

  359. It sounds like a really cute story! I love all of your ideas of what to do after reading the story. Learning how to cut different shapes and lines is really important for kindergarten and beyond.

    • The illustrations in this book are big and beautiful, so it will probably capture the attention of a 6 month old!

  365. I love finding new books for my kids and when they have craft ideas that go along with them, it is even better! Thanks for sharing! 🙂

  367. I love some kid humor in a great picture book. This one sounds really interesting and I’ll have to check it out! I also love the activities you come up with to go along with the stories you read.

    • Thank you! I like the way this one breaks the wall and talks to the character. It’s a very cute book!

    • Thank you! The book doesn’t have too many words in it, so it would probably be great for that!

  371. Strawberry shortcake is my favorite snack! Just bake some biscuits, cut stems off strawberries and than cut strawberries in half, put in a bowl, add sugar. Once biscuits are done, mash the strawberry/sugar mixture. Stuff strawberries inside and on top of biscuit. And finish off with whipped cream.

  372. Love this book so much! So do my kiddos! These activities that you mentioned will be so fun to do along with the book to extend their learning! Great ideas!

  376. I already love this book, but I think I love it more with all of the activities you mentioned! It shows how much fun reading and literacy can be! I will be doing ALL of these activities!

  378. Really great craft ideas for what sounds like a really cute story! I think my son will love that book…we may have to hold off on the crafts for awhile but I’ll circle back to them eventually 🙂

    • Aw, I’m so glad! I hope he really enjoys it! My daughter is loving strawberries right now too, and she loves to say the word whenever it comes up in the story.

  387. This is a perfect book for children! And to top it off, what a great idea to incorporate activities for the kids. I’d have to say this looks fun because I feel like the message of this story will “hit home ” with the kids because not only are they hearing a story, but they are doing! Both of these together make for a great learning experience.

  390. I’m going to get this book not only for my son, but for myself. I have always wanted to learn to knit.
    I feel like the projects that you include with the are perfect for him right now, as he is in a very creative stage!

  391. Not sure if its because I’m hormonal or what but the story made me a little teary eyed LOL poor old lady! I think its so wonderful to teach children to knit while they’re young. I actually wish I had learned as i was growing up!

    • Haha. I was the same way when I read it! I learned to knit when I was a little older and I wish I had learned sooner! It’s a handy skill to have and fun to create new projects! Especially now that we have Pinterest!

  394. How cute! I can’t help but love it since my name is Sarah and, although I crochet instead of knit, we’re both into fiber arts! The activities are great! I especially love the Mitten Race!

  396. I so remember doing the mitten race at birthday parties when I was younger! Great throwback idea! Also love the mitten handprints, too cute. My toddler happens to be obsessed with her mittens right now – so this was a great post for me.

  402. That’s pretty cool that the book ties in how to knit. I feel scissor skills and the fine motor skills it takes to knit, are important for our children. Great recommendation. I could use a few pointers myself.

    • I wish I had learned to knit earlier in life! It’s a great way to keep your hands busy and create something.

  407. We love this book, too! I was trying to figure out what we were going to do this afternoon, and I’m going to use some of these ideas, especially the squishy snowman. Simple fun!

  408. I love the idea of a sensory table with snow. You have some great activities that can be done in warmer climates as well, which is great!

  411. What great ideas! The book looks super cute. All the craft and sensory projects look great to do with my toddler. I’ll be sure to give them a try.
    Thanks for a great post!

    • Thank you! It can be so hard to come up with fun activities to keep kids busy when it is cold and wet out!

    • I hope it helps! My daughter used to like the doctor, but she’s starting to become more hesitant.

    • I’m so glad! It was a gift to me from my mother in law when I was teaching and it became one of my favorites!

  418. I love the use of dramatic play with kids. Most of the time they will voice their fears through playing when they wouldn’t be able to respond to a direct question.

  419. Reading books about the doctor to get your child familiar with it is so smart! I need to start stocking up on some of these books now so that I can start reading them to my son. He already hates the doctors office and he’s only 6 months old 🙁

    • Aw, I hope they help! My daughter always did well at the doctor before, but her last appointment she just started crying! I think next time we have to remember to read one of these right before.

  425. My son is TERRIFIED of the doctor!! We bought him a doctor kit to play with and become more comfortable. I LOVE the books you listed…. going to try the bandaid matchup!

    • That’s so great! My daughter is just starting to understand the doctor, so we are stocking up!

  429. This is so, so helpful. The last visit to the doctors, my 4yo acted terrified. It was horrible and I didn’t see it coming because she’d never behaved like that before. I’ll be better prepared next time!

    • My daughter just had the same experience! She has always done well at the doctor, but all of a sudden this last trip, she screamed the whole time. The doctor told us it is normal for her age, but I was shocked!

  431. Boo Boo Bunny is so cute! My daughter is always afraid of shots. For our flu shots this year we really worked on managing this and keeping calm. It really helped to breath and focus on everything will be okay.

    • My daughter loves it! I don’t blame your daughter, I am afraid of shots too! Breathing and not looking at the needle definitely helps me.

  434. I’m pinning this for later, my kid is very small right now and he doesn’t even really know what a boo boo is. But the books you pick out are perfect!

  435. Great ideas! We’ve actually done the Tot Schooling activity you mentioned and my Little Man loved it. And the boo boo bunny is adorable!

  438. My husband has the best way of talking with the kids about getting shots. He explains to them that it only hurts for a minute and the medicine is to help protect them from getting very sick. They really respond well to that.

    • That’s great! For me, I think I always forgot about the fact that it only hurt for a minute and the build up was the worst part for me!

  439. This is such a great idea! When my little one is older, we’ll definitely explore the picture books together to help prepare for doctor appointments. I love the boo boo bunny. That’s so very sweet.

    • I agree! My daughter is just now starting to understand the doctor, so we are working on this a lot.

  443. Thankfully, I havve a kid whole actually loves going to the doctors. In fact the other day he pinched his finger and told me he need to go to the doctor to have it checked out. This was after watching an episode of Daniel Tiger, where Daneil went to the drs. However, I think these are all great ideas for those kids that do have a fear.

  444. As an elementary/ reading teacher, and mommy, I absolutely love your blog! There are some great ideas here for snowy days. We live in NY and although I don’t like the cold, I realize that my son loves it and I should try to make winter as fun as I can for him! If you ever want to collaborate please let me know!

    • Thank you so much! I have a hard time remembering the cold and snow are fun for kids too! I will definitely check out your page, as I am always up for a collaboration!

  448. I love this so much! Living in the desert, we rarely get snow, but I love all these activities I can try with my little guy to enjoy the winter weather inside.

  450. We don’t have snow out here unfortunately, so little man won’t see it for a very long time. But we can take some of these amazing activities and show him what snow is like!

    • Thank you! It was much easier to clean up than the snow I brought in for her sensory table a few weeks ago!

  456. I love the different books and activities you have on this post for a snow day. It’s important to keep little ones busy when you are stuck inside on cold winter days.

  458. I haven’t heard of this book but it sounds wonderful! I really love all the activities you’ve suggested to compliment the book’s theme! They’re so simple and cute! My daughter would love them!

  459. So funny how we all have to come up with different activities depending on where we live! 😉 We’re in the south so I’m over here coming up with water games and outdoor fun for my son. Good job mama!

  460. I love this book! It’s such a great addition to any classroom or home library. I love books about snow. Especially since I grew up in a warm climate, they helped me imagine what it’s like to live somewhere where it actually snows.

    • I think this is a great one to introduce kids to snow! I grew up surrounded by snow a good portion of the year, but it’s a great reminder for those of us living in it too!

  462. These are such great ideas! my favorite was the washcloth idea! how adorable is that. Thank you so much for sharing, I’m sure I’ll be using these when my son is old enough to understand 🙂

  466. This is so cute!! I do a first aid picnic for my Sparks every year. It’s such an important tool to learn no matter how young.

    Thanks for sharing at #bloggerspotlight

    • Thank you! I loved learning that tongue twisters could be a helpful tool when I was studying for my degree. All those hours repeating tongue twisters actually helps!

  470. My mom would have killed to have you around when we were kids. Great ideas, again! I’m wondering how I can incorporate some of these games for my 2 year old… maybe to help her learn how to take her socks off! haha

    • Haha, thank you! My daughter is just under two and now that she knows how to take her socks off, she does it all the time – so be careful! She likes helping to find the matching socks, and she loves marching around and being part of a band!

  473. I do love how you do these posts! It’s so neat. I wish I had something like this to read when my kid was younger to do all the fun activities! =)

    Visiting via Mama Monday Pin Party

    • Haha. I have a hard time with it when she asks for it after long days. Luckily she doesn’t know yet when I’ve messed up the words!

    • Thank you! I think making the books come alive for kids makes it resonate with them even more!

  477. I love all the fun activities you do with these books – gives me such great ideas of things to do with my daughter to make reading even more fun! 🙂

  478. I love this picture book. I’m particularly a fan of the sock sort activity since that’s my least favorite part of folding laundry!

  480. This was one of my favorite books to read when the kids were little. Love the activities that you have to go with it!

    • Thank you! MY daughter had a lot of fun with the shape sort. And our dog is incredibly patient 🙂

  487. I think you just found a way to get my kids to enjoy helping with the laundry. I just happen to have two loads that they can start with tonight. 🙂

    • Haha. What’s the Mary Poppins quote? “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun!” I hope they can have fun with it!

  489. I just come to your site to see all of the cute ways you’re incorporating arts into reading. My son isn’t old enough yet, but he’s about to be and I’ve literally printed out every post!

  496. Another book to add to my list for next year Christmas! Thanks so much for the suggestion.

    Thanks so much for posting your blog post to the #FanDayFriday Link Party! I hope you have a great experience with the link party and come back again next week! #fdflinkparty

  498. This is precious! My son and our dog are definitely besties! I like the shape activity too-it’s on my son’s level (well, sort of) as he is 16 months!

    • Thank you! My daughter is 19 months and she is starting to enjoy naming shapes, so she liked this one!

    • Haha. Sorting socks can be the must frustrating part, so I figured why not try to make it fun??

  507. This story looks so cute! I’ll definitely have to check it out. I love all the different ideas for activities too, particularly the shape recognition/create your own ladybug activity.

  525. This book is so adorable! I just flipped through the pages through Amazon. Although my Son is a little too young for it just yet, I would absolutely consider purchasing it when he’s a little older. The activity was perfect!

  528. Thanks for sharing these Valentine’s Day activity ideas. They’re all so cute. I can’t wait until our little one can participate in these next year.

  529. How adorable!!! I love the picture of her with your dog and both with wings! You have great ideas here ! Our favorite book is Lady Bug Girl and Bumble Bee Boy.

  531. I love Eve Buntings’ stories! She’s a wonderful author. This book reminds me a lot of Bear Stays Up, which I just read. Same idea but around Christmas.

    • We love Bear Stays Up too! I had a hard time putting that one away after the holidays because my daughter insisted we keep reading it every night!

  533. We read the Molly Williams book a few months ago! I just found Rosie Revere for a buck a few weeks ago, so we just finished that one. And we’ve had the Ruby Bridges one for a while… Even in my house full of boys, we believe it’s important to model what women are capable of.

    • That is awesome! I’m so jealous you found Rosie Revere for a buck. I’m a sucker for great deals on books!

  535. I love this list and am so happy to see the oldie but goodie, Miss Rumphius on the list. Making a statement and changing the world comes in all forms.

    I’m a travel blogger and I write about how to make travel educational for kids. We always get ready for an adventure by reading about our destination! Women’s rights are a great topic to include for discussion about a destination. Glad to have found this wonderful list!

    I’m making a list of kids books set in Greece right now before our visit this year. I’ve found TONS on Ancient Greece but nothing much current. Let me know if you have suggestions!

    • I agree Miss Rumphius is a classic!

      That’s a tough one! Even if there are some out there, they are pretty buried by the plethora of Ancient Greece books! Have you read the Carol P. Roman series “If You Were Me and Lived in…”? She has one on Greece meant to introduce kids to life in Greece. I haven’t read them myself yet, but I have heard they are great! (I believe there is also one on Ancient Greece, but there is definitely one more current too!) I will keep my eye out!

  539. These books seem wonderful! I especially love the ones that are historical! I always loved hearing historical accounts when I was young. I hope my kids do too! 🙂

    • Thank you! I think it is so important for kids to understand the past and to have strong role models to look to!

  542. I love this post! I always recommended such books to girls when I was teaching. I also like to buy them for my God daughters. Thanks for spreading such a positive message.

    • Thank you! My mother instilled this girl power message in us since we were young, and inspired me to pass it on!

  543. Love this post! When I was little, I was in a book club called bookworms where the parents prioritized books that encouraged women to follow their skills/interests…and now I’m an engineer 🙂 Love this list!

  544. Wow I actually loved this post!
    My little girl is almost three months old, and I have the same intentions of raising her to believe she can do anything she wants! I will defs be looking into seeing if book stores here in Australia have some of these books, especially the Ruby Bridges storybook! Thankyou for this post 🙂

  546. oh my goodness, I absolutely love this! I’m always trying to find books about strong girls and women to show my daughter and this is the perfect post! Thank you for sharing.

  548. These are great suggestions – I’m going to get a couple for my seven year old! With all that’s going on in the world, she needs all the reminders she can get that she can in fact do anything.

    • Thank you! I hope she enjoys them! It is so important to remind girls or their power and their importance!

  551. I love this. I am going to keep it for when my daughter gets older. It’s helpful to know what books are going to offer good things.

    • Thank you! I love strong women in books. You hear a lot of criticism that movies and TV don’t have as many strong female characters, but they are so easy to find in books!

  557. To this day, I remember reading about Ruby Bridges in elementary school and how much she inspired me as a little girl. I can’t wait to introduce these girl power books to my little ones (my son included!).

    • I’m so glad! I remember reading about her too, and I still am in awe of the determination and courage she displayed.

  559. I love this post! I have read a couple of these books to my son. I think it’s important all children know that they can all be whatever they want to be, no matter their gender.

  560. There is a bookstore in a neighborhood close to us that has a section for growing strong young women and it has all of these books. I remember looking through that section wishing that I would have had these books growing up.

  561. I grew up feeling insecure and def powerless as a girl. It is so important to me to teach my baby girl how to be strong and confident!! Love these books!

  562. I LOVE The Paper Bag Princess! I’ve never read Rosie Revere, but I loved Iggy Peck Architect, so I’ll have to try that one, too! Thanks for the list!

  565. I love these ideas! My daughter has a tendency to be a people-pleaser and I want to empower her to stand up for herself. These are great book suggestions!

    • Thank you! I hope she enjoys them and they help! I was the same way, and still am sometimes, but having strong role models (including my mom!) helps!

  569. Pingback: 11 Fun Valentine Activities for Kids (WTRW) |

  571. Never heard of the Valentine’s Bears! I’ll have to check it out!

    Thank you for participating in this week’s #fandayfriday link party! I hope you get some great traffic to your site this week and hope to see more of your blog posts at next week’s party!

  572. I woulda never thought of the heart stamps idea but that is such a great idea! Got me thinking about all the other shapes I could make!

  575. I always loved the story of the Lupine Lady. It was one of my favorites to read to you when you were growing up.

  576. I love that pipe cleaner stamp idea! Finding ways to craft cheaply with small people is important, but this also teaches kids to think about ways they can repurpose items around the house. Just a great idea.

    • Thank you! I got that at a consignment shop around Halloween and she just fell in love with it!

  579. You always have the cutest activities to accompany stories! This is another great post that I will need to reference in the future!

  582. These are great crafting ideas! I like to do valentine’s crafts but I really don’t do valentine’s books. My kids are really big book snobs so if they can’t read it all year long, they refuse to get it. SO! instead of chocolate and candies we do a trip to Barnes and Noble! 🙂

    • Trips to Barnes and Noble were the best gifts when my sister and I were little! We loved going to the bookstore! I actually have a post of books coming up next week which are about love, but not Valentine’s specific for just that reason!

  583. These books are fantastic! My little girl is already strong willed but I love her for it and I don’t want her to change! I think it is important that we raise them to believe they can do anything! Thanks for these great recommendations
    (over from Hump Day Hype Link Up

    • Thank you! I agree. Having a strong willed daughter can be a challenge sometimes (sorry Mom and Dad!) but I wouldn’t change it for anything!

    • I’ve never been really big into Valentine’s Day, but I like to dabble in it in a small way and remind the people I love why I love them!

  588. Wow, i remember this book but I guess not well enough! What a great book full of lessons for kids. I love the painted rock activity too. It is vital to the success of children to learn about the arts and their importance. I truly believe that!! I just love your blog.

    • Aw, thank you so much! I agree the arts are so important! I loved arts and crafts as a kid (who am I kidding, I still do), so I hope to pass that on to my daughter!

    • I love snow during the holidays, but by February it is gray and dreary and messy! Painting it makes it a little easier to handle.

  593. I don’t think I’ve ever read this book, but we will have to check it out! I know my kiddos would love the fizzing fun too!

  598. What fun activities! I especially like “coloring” with colored ice cubes! Such a fun activity for those of us who don’t get any snow. 😉

  607. What a cute story! The best part is the cute little mouse strawberry snacks. Mmm! Thanks for sharing, I’m going to grab a book for my boys.

  610. Sounds like a great book, and fun activities to go along with it. I’m going to check it out for my granddaughters

  612. Oh my goodness! Amazing article dude! Many thanks, However I am having problems with your RSS. I don’t know why I am unable to join it. Is there anybody else getting the same RSS problems? Anyone who knows the answer will you kindly respond? Thanks!!

  613. My little girl is still a bit young for these books but I completely agree that we should teach our girls that they can be anything. Will definitely keep this list in mind in a few years time.

  614. I really like your ideas that translate stories in books and bring them to life! Stories are what we make of them and it’s wonderful to expand these inspirations into tangible activities for anyone, be it young or old. It helps littles to think creatively too, which sustains their sense of wonderment 🙂

    • Thank you! I hope that by doing these activities, the stories become more memorable to my daughter and for anyone else who does them.

  615. You always have the best ideas and share books I never knew about! Love the theme of the book…. plus my kids would LOVE to paint rocks… they are kinda obsessed with rocks!

    • Aw, thank you! Haha, I’m so glad I could share an activity to pair with something they already love!

  620. Wow! Sounds like a very interesting and fun book to read! And what great ideas you have to make it even more exciting for kids! Thank you for sharing!

  626. What an adorable idea! I’m not a big fan of mice generally but I really think these are super cute for the kids to try! I also like the idea of painting snow too!

    • Haha, I’m not a fan of mice either (other than the Disney version of course!), but this is a cute story.

  630. I love Leo Leonni! His books are always so sweet. I love the idea of painting rocks after reading this book. This activity will help the child really put themself into the story. Great suggestions!

  635. I’ve never read that book and it sounds like such a great book – will have to look it up.

    I love the way you’ve structured this post! So much thought and effort. Definitely glad I came across your post!

  636. You are too creative! We live in Southern California, where winter is a mystical creature, but I bet my friends in Seattle would love this for there kids. I’m always looking for gift ideas. Thanks!

  638. We are definitely a book family, so this is going on our reading list. Thanks for the lovely review. My kids adore both ice and painting, but I never thought to put the two together. I’m looking forward to the expressions on their faces when I show them the magical painting ice! And we live in Seattle, so rainy days are in abundance for a while now!

  639. I just love how you pair these great activities and even snacks with these books! Our oldest boy collects rocks (seriously. we have rocks from EVERYWHERE) and I think he would adore painting some! It hasn’t been that cold here in Georgia, but my boys love books in general and would gobble this up.

  642. i love reading books! and telling stories to my daughter is my hobby though she is just 7 month old. i know she is enjoying 🙂

  644. Not surprisingly, The Runaway Bunny is a favorite at our house. (I even have a tattoo of it!) Love You Forever is a bittersweet favorite for us, based on the background story the author has shared.

    • That is awesome, you have a tattoo of it. I love that nickname for your son.
      Love You Forever is such a divisive book!

  646. Reading with your kids is priceless. Teaching them about love is so very important. They need to know that they are loved, and they need to know how to love others.

    • It was a gift for my daughter before she was born and it has become one of our favorites too!

    • I hope you find some new favorites on here! I love being able to pass books on to my daughter that I remember my parents reading to me.

    • I hope you enjoy this one and it gives you a slight feeling of winter without the snow, ice and cold!

  654. I love the sound of all of these! How have I not heard of them before?! I need to check them all out, they sound fabulous! Thanks!

    • I received a few of these as gifts when my daughter was born and they became new favorites! I hope you find some new favorites too!

  656. I love all kind of books, these are great suggestions as a gift too. I personally don’t have kids, but one day I’ll. Hope they will have will for reading

    • Thank you! I received some of these as gifts when I was pregnant with my daughter. I love giving books as gifts!

  657. I love your book recommendations. You always post about books I haven’t read yet and I can easily pick them up from the library. We love reading and I enjoy reading to the kids.

  659. What a great selection, and I love that you have clarified why/how we should tell our kids we love them! I really want to read “I love you Stinky face”! It looks fantastic!

  660. “Guess How much I Love you” is part of our rotating bedtime stories. When my little guy is bigger “I Love You Forever” will definitely be party of it….Providing i can make it through without crying.

    • I absolutely understand that! I have choked up a few times reading some of these to my daughter.

  663. These sound so cute. I have never read any of these so they would be new to both me and my kiddos. My toddler is just now really getting into books, so I need to check these out!

  665. Bookmarking this! I’m currently in the process of building baby’s library and I am overwhelmed with all the books out there. I don;t want to fall into the trap of buying a ton that aren’t great so posts like this are a great help. I definitely want ‘Guess How Much I Love You’ and I found ‘I Love You Stinky Face’ brand new at Goodwill!

    • That is awesome! It is definitely overwhelming sorting through all the great books out there! I hope this helps! I have a post on great books for babies as well that may be helpful! I say, trust your gut and you will find some great ones that will become favorites!

    • Thank you! My daughter has been loving strawberries lately (I think this book is part of the reason for that), so these seemed like a perfect fit!

  668. I love you stinky face is my absolute all time favorite! My youngest makes me read it a billion times a day and I will never grow sick of it!

  669. We’re a ‘Guess How Much I Love You’ family. Although, TRex is really into this one digital book – Morris Lessmore – which is about a person who loves books. If you allow for your child to have iPad time, you should definitely check it out! It’s a standalone app.

    • I will definitely check it out! My daughter loves the IPAD, despite my best efforts to limit it!

  671. “Love You Forever” brings back sweet memories since my mom read it to me as a child. We love “Guess How Much I Love You” too!

  672. So many wonderful titles to check out! I’ve only heard of a couple of these. I love holiday collections. Thank you for sharing.

  674. I’m gonna order I love You Through and Through…my boys have a hard time understanding that we love them even when they make mistakes. Great Share!

    • I think that is so hard for kids to understand… It’s hard for some adults to understand! I hope you enjoy it!

  682. How perfect for right before Valentine’s Day!! We love “guess how much I love you”, the “wherever you are” sounds really perfect for us right now. Thanks for such a fun post, girl..so many good recommendations!

    • I agree, it is an adorable age! My daughter is 19 months and she loves making noises with characters in books.

  688. II love you stinky face sounds right up my kids alley! I am going to see about checking that one out for them because I think it would be a cute book for us to read together. I always love your suggestions!

    • Thank you! I hope you enjoy it! It is the right amount of sweet for parents while being the right amount of ridiculous for kids!

  692. This is a beautiful collection of books. I also love the “I love you…” collection of bear books from Donna Keith. Thank you for these suggestions. Wonderful books to add to our library list, and maybe our collection!

  693. We’ve read and loved several of these (I love you Through and Through is always good to read after a hard day with toddlers), but there are several new-to-me books on your list. I’m excited to get Wherever You Are and I Will Love you Forever. Thanks!

    • Haha, that makes them even better! My daughter likes to point out things she recognizes on every page of her books.

    • I choked up reading some of these before I had my daughter, so it’s even harder to read them now!

  699. My son insists on reading Love You Forever almost nightly and I always try to pick another book because I get choked up at the end every single time! Plus I think about the author and that makes me sad.

  701. Awe, I love this list! We have almost all of those books but I am definitely going to look out for I Love You Stinky Face, my little guy will love it! Thanks for sharing!

  707. We have at least three of these books and I agree about telling them how much we love our children. I bought, “I love you because you’re you” because my little one at just the age of 4 would ask me all the time if I loved her. Even though I told her all the time she still needed the confirmation. This book was great for reinforcing that to her.

  709. A favourite in our house is Guess How Much I love you. I loved it and the kids now love it too. I love reading books about the love between parents and children. This is what makes our children secure and confident. These are great and such beautiful books. I will look at some of these for my kids but also they make great presents as well! You can never have too many books!
    #humpdayhype

    • I totally agree! You can never have too many books, especially if they tell kids how much you love them!

  711. Love you forever is my favorite all time book. My dad used to read it to me all the time. He passed away when I was in high school, so the book holds a special place in my heart. My husband read it to each of our babies their first night home from the hospital as an homage to him and I sobbed each time. I can barely get through the book without crying.
    But GREAT post. My kids love reading and love being read to. I’ll have to check some of these others ones out.
    Thanks for linking up @ from north 2 south this week!

    • Aw, that is such an amazing connection you have with this book. I hope you enjoy reading some of the others to your kids as well.

    • We were lucky enough to have a few rare sunny days, so we took advantage of it! We love visiting the zoo.

  716. My kids love Where is Baby’s Christmas Present but unfortunately they have ripped off a few of the flaps. It might be worth it for me to buy a replacement, LOL.

    • It is a very cute one! She wrote this one for her daughter and named the character after her.

    • My daughter loves visiting the animals! We will definitely have to go even more this year, now that she is a bit older!

  730. “I Love You, Stinky Face” I’ve never seen that one yet. Mine are monsters most of the time, lol, I’ll be adding that to our book collection!

  731. As always, I love all of your ideas! I wish I had discovered this when my daughter was little, she is 9 now but I think she will enjoy the activities with a little modification.

    • Thank you! I hope she has a lot of fun with it! You’re never too old for dancing and ice cream!

  732. Love this article. I wholeheartedly agree! Doctors used to never believe that my daughter started talking at 6 months old, until they heard her do it! I definitely attribute that to reading.
    I had not thought of reading store packing though, that is a really interesting idea. Thanks!

    • I agree! My daughter started talking very early and I think it is thanks to the reading too! My mother started reading street signs and store packaging to us when we were little and it really helped us understand that reading is everywhere!

  733. Love this list of books. Love You Forever is my all time favorite book and has been since I was a little girl. I have heard great things about Love You Stinky Face so I am definitely going to purchase that! Thank you for these great recommendations!

    • It is a very cute book! We are big zoo fans. Can’t wait for the weather to get warmer so we can go more often!

  744. What a gorgeous book! I love your ideas for the book, such creative ideas! The balloon adventure makes me think of the movie “Up”, so the book could be a great way to build connections between the two texts and develop comprehension strategies too (sorry, Year 2 teacher here!)

    • Love that! I love combining books and movies and encouraging comparisons! I’m a teacher too, so I understand the instinct!

  745. I love that you bring the stories to life with activities! I think I am going to try this at home too.
    I wonder if Kelly Clarkson was inspired by Janis Joplin? Do you know?? JJ has a song called “The Rose” which has some river lyrics in it, and then there’s the dog’s name!

    • Thank you! I hope you have fun with it! Janis Joplin was my first thought when I read the name of the dog too. Turns out she had a dog named Joplin who passed away 4 years ago. She considered him her best friend. Nice way to memorialize him!

  749. Never knew Kelly CLarkson had made a children’s book, but I just love the story of River Rose and Joplin. I’ll need to pick one up for my little goddaughter.

    • We went to the zoo a lot before we even had our daughter. It’s a nice way to spend some time outdoors in the nice weather!

  752. We took our 8-month old to the zoo for the first time this week. It was definitely a wonderful experience and we’ll keep going back.

  754. I don’t have any little kiddos anymore, but if I did, this would definitely be a book I’d read him/her. It sounds adorable and so much fun.

  755. It took me awhile to scroll through all the comments. Books is always something we have never neglected. All of us love to read.

  756. “I Love You Because You’re You” really stands out. That’s the unconditional love of a parent. We love our kids for who they are. 🙂

    • Exactly! My daughter adores the book, but I also love reading it to her. It really shows how we love our kids no matter what.

  759. I actually have not heard of this book, but if sounds wonderful. I love the idea of being carried away by balloons in an adventure. All of your activities look perfect for literacy, math, and even science with the animals!

  760. I love the name River Rose, never heard of this series but I will totally look it up. So cool!

    Thanks for sharing at #bloggerspotlight

  764. I can definitely relate to Mrs. Bear, I think I’m the bear who usually hibernates during Valentine’s Day 😉 But some of these activities look so fun, maybe I’ll too try not to sleep through! As always, thank you for the thoughtful post.

    • I love finding children’s books written by celebrities! You never know what some people are capable of!

  771. Pingback: Mom Life Mondays: Blog Link Up #23 - Simply Every

  773. This sounds like a great book! I have been feeling that joy is lacking a bit in my life lately. I will give it a read.

    • Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoy it! I’m hoping she writes some more, because my daughter loves it!

    • I will have to check that one out! I love how funny and down to Earth he seems in this one. It makes me want to sit and chat with him!

    • It is definitely an uplifting read. The constant teasing of the two authors lightens the heavy topics.

  781. This book sounds amazing! I try to overcome the difficulties in my life to focus on the positive, but a little help with that is always welcome.

    • It is a really good book, and it definitely gives you easy ways to find more joy in your life! Focusing on the positive is one of their suggestions!

  782. I’ve never heard of this book! Which is kind of embarrassing because it seems like the perfect pick-me-up book that you’d read in book club. I’ll have to check it out!

    • It was actually recommended to me in a book club! It is a great read. Uplifting and informative while being entertaining.

  784. I am going to put this on my must read list as well as purchasing this as a gift for several people in my life. It sounds wonderful and I will be reading it.

  786. Ahhh so many great choices!! Your book reviews are incredibly helpful. I will be checking a few of these out, you have me convinced!

  787. Your book reviews are always so amazingly informative. I definitely want to check out this book now! I’ve been looking for a new good read.

  790. What an interesting collaboration between those two. It makes perfect sense but I never thought about the two of them teaming up 🙂

    Being from South Africa I am very familiar with Tutu and am so glad to see his thinking published in a format that more people will be exposed to.

    • I had no idea they were friends, but their teasing throughout the book is so funny and quite adorable. This was a great book that made me an instant fan of his!

  793. I am going to put this on my must read list. I love reading things that are uplifting and motivating to improve my life.

  794. Wow this sounds like s great book, although I am wary of any text that states happiness is a choice. To me, that negates mental illness and is truly unfair to those of us living it. However! I love the Dalai Llama and he certainly has been through a lot of suffering (I am not as familiar with the archbishop). Buddhism is actually predicated upon the belief that life is suffering, so I am definitely interested in reading a Buddhist/interfaith perspective on achieving joy.

    • I understand that completely. I have loved ones dealing with depression, and it is definitely not something they can choose their way out of it. The Archbishop and the Dalai Lama make an effort to point out that happiness and joy are different things, and that we can’t understand joy without suffering. They spend a lot of the text talking about suffering. I hope you read it and enjoy it.

  800. I love that they have collaborated on this; crashing through religious differences. Joy isw most certainly an enigmatic thing and something we often mistake for happiness.

    • I agree! I love how they work together despite their different ideas. Definitely something more people need to try these days!

  801. Such an interesting book! I love reading about these types of spiritual things. I’m definitely thinking of reading this one. Thank you for the review, it’s well written and very detailed!

  808. It definitely sounds like a great book. I haven’t had much time lately to read and that bothers me very much. Maybe I’ll be able to start again soon and add it to my list of must reads

    • I made it my mission to try to read a chapter of it a night. I got out of my intense reading habit for too long! Had to get back into it for myself!

  810. I will need to check this out a little more to add it to my read list which is way long but I always have room for more.

  812. This sounds like a wonderful book! Some days it’s really hard to start upbeat and positive, so this may be a good read to help out with that. 🙂

  816. Wow! This looks like a must-read! I will definitely look for a copy. Thanks for posting! xx

    Jacq
    jacqwritesworld.com
    #humpdayhype

  819. Pingback: Your Guide To A Feminist Valentine’s Day | Pris Blossom

  821. Thank you for this thorough review. This book intrigues me a lot, as my quest in life is not “happyness” but indeed (moment of) Joy. I’ll add this to my reading list, thank you!

    • It is a very sweet book. I wish I had learned to knit and crochet earlier in life! I hope to teach my daughter early.

  824. What are smart, concept of finding a great book then incorporating activities to go along with it. I will definitely be adding this to our list.

  828. I believe that true joy, the one that’s truly everlasting, not of this world (because nothing from this world lasts) is only possible when you walk with God. Real peace and joy comes from Him and knowing you’re His child. I do think this book could be a lovely pick-me-up kind of a read and hopefully will cheer up many but then again, hopefully it doesn’t offer that fleeing joy, if you know what I mean, lovely.
    xox Nadia
    http://www.mielandmint.com

    • What I really enjoyed about this book was how these two very spiritual men were able to come together and agree on the path to joy, while still being true to their spirituality. It is a very inspiring read that will hopefully bring more compassion and peace to the world.

    • Aw, thank you so much! I’m so glad you are enjoying them! I hope your daughter’s teacher does as well.

  835. I would really love to read this book. These are the sort of books I enjoy reading and I think everyone can really get a lot from them. Plus they are amazing and inspiration people!
    #humpdayhype

  836. I loved that story when my daughter was little but we didn’t try all of those activities! I think it might not be too late though and we could try a few of them now even though she is 9. You are inspiring me to think of ways that I could do activities around the books she is enjoying now even though they are much longer, that would just give me so much more material to work with!

    • I’m so glad! I try to include activities which can be adapted for older kids as well. I will be attempting to branch out into slightly older books in the future!

  837. We love hungry caterpillar, but never read the chameleon one! We will have to check it out. And great activitiy ideas!

    • Thank you! So funny you say that, since my daughter has been asking me to reread the Hungry Caterpillar all morning!

  841. I’m always looking for books that teach character lessons for my little grands. This one looks great. And the idea to have them draw their mixed-up selves should inspire some creative pictures!

    • It is a very cute book. There are so many resources available online now to help you learn how to knit! I google everything I have a question about!

  849. Once again….. success! I LOVE how you take a book… and literally come up with the best activities for the kids! Going to books a million today to get some of these books!

  850. My kids and I love Eric Carle; my older daughter’s first word was apple and second book, and she used to make me read (or recite, I read it so many times I could do that) “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” whenever she was upset. I’m actually planning to get an Eric Carlesque apple tattoo to commemorate all this! Anyway, I didn’t know about this chameleon book! Excited to read them a new Eric Carle.

    • Aw, that is so sweet to get a tattoo to commemorate that! I hope you enjoy his chameleon book too!

  853. How fun! We did an author’s study on Eric Carle and did a lot of these — trail mix, paint in baggies, and the accordion fold to draw different body parts and made a story from it… it was awesome.. and i did it with 3rd graders. I didn’t think to do it with my kids (Pre School and Toddler), but i’ll try now that we have this super long weekend 🙂

    • It is another very cute book with the same style of colorful illustrations. My daughter has actually been getting into the Hungry caterpillar again the last few days now!

    • Thank you! We love going to the zoo too! My daughter loves the sea lion exhibit at our zoo because they love to swim around the windows following the kids.

    • Thank you! My mom taught me the knitting basics when I was younger, but Pinterest and YouTube have helped me a lot since then!

  860. My oldest used to have so much fun painting in bags… I need to pull it back out to try with my youngest again. I’ve put cardboard inside the bags too, so that I can fish it out after and let it dry for some baby-made artwork.

    • That’s awesome! I should have used cardboard! I tried paper with my daughter once, but it practically disintegrated in the bag!

  861. I remember reading this book before when I was subbing in a classroom. It’s a cute story. I like your idea of using the story to teach about mixing colors, and the mixed up snack idea.

  862. You are so creative! I love the way that you created so many wonderful activities around this book. I am totally going to buy the book and try some of these out with my 3-year-old. She’ll love it!

  863. I love watching chameleons. They are fascinating creatures. I love all Eric Carle books. You’ve come up with some awesome activities to go along with this classic!

    • Thank you! I love his books too. They are so colorful, and great ways to start reading with young ones.

    • Thank you! We had a lot of fun with it. I bet it would be cool to play with it once it has dried a little! I had to throw ours away because my daughter is fascinated by opening things and taking them apart, but we may have to try that in the future!

  869. Never heard of this book before. I am definitely going to be using this in my lessons during tuitions. I may also have to steal some of your ideas for the lessons!

    Thanks for the post!

  870. This sounds like the most amazing book, I’ve written it down to try and grab a copy of it. I definitely struggle with joy, and for me sometimes I think it comes down to perspective – I can be a glass half-empty kind of gal. But I’d love to read these conversations and see what insight they have to share. Thanks for sharing your review with us!
    #humpdayhype

  873. Never read this book before but chameleons have always been interesting to me! I’ll have to show this to my son and see what he thinks!

    • We don’t celebrate it usually, but we do partake in some of the seasonal goodies (like Fasnachts!). I remember learning about it when I was younger and I just love the colors and the music.

  880. These are such great ideas! I always like the idea of introducing my kids to fun cultural traditions like Mardi Gras, but so much of Mardi Gras isn’t super kid friendly. These ideas are perfect!

    • Thank you! I remember learning about it as a kid, but of course we didn’t know about the other parts of Mardi Gras. I just love the music and the colors and the foods. There are so many ways to make it kid friendly!

  882. I love New Orleans!!! For our daughters 3rd birthday party we had mask making supplies available and I am not sure who had more fun, the parents or the kids. I love the idea of making shapes from the beads!

  883. I love the idea of using beads in the sensory table, my little would have a lot of fun with that! And also, I basically need cinnamon rolls now, so thanks for that, haha!

    • Haha, sorry about that! It’s kind of a problem that they are super easy and fast to make. My daughter loves playing with the beads. Hope yours has fun with them too!

    • Thank you! I love giving kids the opportunity to be creative and artistic, while connecting it to a great story.

  885. These are such great ways to celebrate mardis gras! Honestly it’s a holiday (festivity?!) that I always kind of forget about!! But I love those masks…how fun! Some day we’ll get down there to see what it’s all about 🙂

    • I have actually never been to Mardi Gras, but I love the food and the music and colors from afar! It usually sneaks up on me too. Hope you are able to have some fun with it!

    • Thank you! I love the music and the colors and the foods, so I figured we could enjoy it from afar!

    • My parents are trying to visit all 50 states, along with some other countries, so I’m always excited to see what books they manage to find on their travels!

  890. I love the idea of buying books about the places you’ve traveled! That is such a fun way to remember trips or teach kiddos about other places. Looks like a good book too.

    • I am so glad they decided to start this tradition for her. It is so cool to see the different books they have been able to find!

  891. We live about a hour from NOLA, so we have def gotten to experience Mardi Gras!! This is so perfect! I have been visiting your site often…. and I have to ask… are you or were you a librarian?? YOU seriously have knowledge of the BEST books! I have purchased a few, and my kids love them all!

    • Aw, thank you so much! I’m so glad you have enjoyed all of the books. I wasn’t a librarian, but I got my Masters in Education and the courses on children’s literature were my favorite!

  892. I love the idea of using cinnamon rolls for making the king cake! It’s also a dream of mine to visit New Orleans during Mardi Gras.

  893. Cute masks! I’ve never had a Mardi Gras book for my kids, but we celebrate it every year. I make gumbo for dinner and Bananas Foster Bread Pudding for dessert. They we wear masks and beads and dance to zydeco in the living room. Can’t wait to check out the book you mentioned.

    • That all sounds amazing! I want to have a party like that for Mardi Gras! I will have to do that with my daughter when she is a bit older.

  897. Honestly I would have never thought of putting babies and Mardi Gras in the same sentence, but this really looks like a blast. A great way to teach kids about the culture of New Orleans without the liquor 🙂

    • I think there is so much fun to be had with Mardi Gras, and there is so much kids can learn from it (without the other stuff)!

  899. What a neat tradition your parents have! I think my son would love walking around with this mask on…I may have to make it for him though haha!

    • I love that they have this tradition with her! And I had to do the work for my daughter’s as well, but she loved playing with it!

  900. I love that tradition of bringing something back from places they visit. When we travel, we send our close family and friends magnets from where we’ve been. They are small enough that they don’t take up too much space and everyone has room on their fridge for some fun decorations. This book looks like fun!

    • That’s awesome! I always wanted to start a collection like that. A friend of mine collects thimbles and her sister collects the collectible spoons, but I never found one to collect! I love the magnet idea though! I may have to start doing theat!

  904. We’re making these masks today! They are too cute!! Thank you for all of these great book and activity ideas. We live in Seattle so Spring means beauty but it also means lots of WET. Good indoor activities are very useful!

  905. What a cool tradition!! I’ll have to suggest this to my family too! I’m having a mardi gras toddler party next week so I’m soaking in all your tips!

  907. I love that tradition! I actually do the same for my son with all my business trips 🙂 These books and activities are perfect for Mardi Gras.

  909. What an awesome way to celebrate and learn about Mardis Gras! I’ll have my king cake roll with a cup of super hot coffee, please. Thank you!

  911. Wow! That looks like a lot of fun! You’ve written some fantastic tips in here! Thanks for the ideas. xx

    #humpdayhype

    Jacq
    jacqwritesworld.com

  915. I love the idea of bringing books back as souvenirs with notes written inside! I might have to start doing that. 🙂 Love all these fun activities for celebrating Mardi Gras with your littles, and I’ll have to see if I can find that book!

  917. I loved your suggestions for Valentine’s day so I was eager to see if you were going to post for Mardi Gras! I love it! the crafts and King’s cake buns look very creative and straight forward. Great post as usual!

  921. Pingback: What Food Allergy Parents Really Want You to Know + Using Children's Books to Further Food Allergy Education - Peanut Free in the Queen City

  922. Great info! Its so important to teach empathy and food allergies are a growing problem so its good that we make our non allergy kids aware of their peers’ hardships!

    • Thank you! I agree it is so important that kids are made aware of food allergies in a respectful and empathetic way!

  924. There are so many great books out there on this topic! I have 2 with severe allergies and all 5 of my kids have some form of food allergy. We’ve read some of these but not all of them. Great list!

  927. I wish there were resources like these books and better awareness for food allergies when I was growing up. I’ve had a dairy allergy my whole life and childhood was rough because people who don’t live with an allergy just don’t get it. It’s so wonderful to see times change in this arena.

    • I’m so glad there are authors out there willing to write these stories and help teach kids about them!

  930. This is awesome and I’m so glad there are books like this out there! What a better way to explain allergy to your children! I’m sure it’s very tough on the parents as well!

    • I love that my parents started that tradition for her! It’s such a special way to include her on their travels.

  937. What a great collection of books! Happily my daughter does not have any allergies but it is important for her to empathize with those who do.

    • Thank you! I agree it is so important for kids without allergies to learn about what their peers may be dealing with.

  938. Oh how fun! I love how you brought Mardi Gras into your learning day. And that book idea their grandparents do is admirable. What a great way to collect books! -Tabitha #fandayfriday

  939. I think it’s great that there are books like this out there to explain to the little ones in an understandable way about the food allergies. I wish/wonder if they had these books around when my boys were little.

    • I didn’t realize there were so many out there now, until I started digging into the topic. I don’t remember there being any about them when I was younger!

  940. Such great resources! I grew up with a brother who has anaphylaxis to oeanuts and this would have been so helpful to educate those who don’t quite understand the severity.

    • I think it is so important for kids without food allergies to be educated on the severity of allergies and how day to day life is affected by them!

  942. I had no idea there were so many books on this topic, but totally makes sense in today’s world of so many food allergies.

    • I didn’t know there were that many out there before writing this post, but I’m so glad there are authors out there writing books on the topic!

  944. Aren’t books such a fabulous teaching tool? I love that you can find friendly books to introduce kids to just about any topic. Thanks for letting me know about these!

  946. These books sound awesome! Especially Nutley and the trade or treat halloween! Definitely a great idea to read these to your kids to help them understand!!

  947. I love that there are books about this now – it’s so hard to explain food allergies to kids – but SO important!!!

  948. This was so informative! I honestly would have never thought of reading such books since my daughter does not have any food allergies, but I now understand the importance of everyone being informed so thank you!

  950. You know that I’m usually pretty in tune with the kid’s lit on the market, but I honestly had never heard of any of these! And as a mom with a kiddo who lived with a food allergy for several years until finally outgrowing it, I was actually looking for some. Definitely will have to check these out.

    • I hope they are helpful! I didn’t realize there were so many out there until I started digging into it!

  951. Another mama who totally had to look up the name for the things on their heads! I was like, these can’t be antennae, but I have NO idea what they are, hahaha.

  955. I love this book! I have always loved music and dancing, but I stopped dancing for many years after I got bullied by a couple of cheerleaders when I was about 10. It took a lot for me to regain my confidence, and I love that your activities include discussions about why being different is good.

    • Aww, I am so sorry you were bullied and left dancing! I hope this book and these activities help kids feel confident about their differences.

  956. Wow who knew there were so many awesome activities to do with little ones for Mardi graw. So cool!

    Thanks for linking up at #bloggerspotlight

  957. This sounds like a great book, with some awesome activities as usual. All parents like to brag about the cool things their kids do right? So I’m going to take the opportunity to say that I learned tonight that my not-yet-two-year-old can match letters!! Even better than her three year old sister actually, which kind of upset the three year old but that’s okay because she’s usually ahead with everything. Anyway…it was on an IPad but I’m excited to try this version and she if she can do it on a non-tech interface. Also really love the drawing music idea. I used to “write” music (like write poetry or fiction about music I was listening to…not compose music) and I had totally forgotten until just now. This could be a really cool way to give myself writing time while interacting with my kids at the same time 🙂 Thanks for the awesome ideas (again)

    • That is awesome that she can match letters already! I hope she enjoys doing it on the giraffe! I think it is awesome you used to “write music” and I hope you have fun passing that on to your kids as well!

  963. I started collecting picturebooks from around the world too! I’ve got New Orleans, Indonesia, Sri Lanka… so great to find out the culture, experiences and histories of different places around the world. Haven’t heard of this book, but sounds great! And those Kind Cakes look amazing!!
    #humpdayhype

    • Thank you! I think it is such a cool tradition to gather books from all over the world! I’m so excited for the collection my daughter will have.

    • Thank you! I have strong memories of the activity like that when I was younger, so it definitely was a fun one!

    • I am so glad that giraffes are in! It is a fun book and the illustrations are so bright and colorful!

  972. I love the idea to draw the music. I’m interested to see the different drawings I’ll end up with between my girls. Thanks for the great ideas!

  973. I love the concept of this story (both as a formerly “tall kid” and as a parent to tall kid). My boy loves stories and I will be sure to add this one to our book list!

  974. This is my sons all time favorite book, he asks me to read it over and over again. I think I might need to do some of the crafts to really get him even more into it!

  978. Definitely going to have to add this to my collection! My maiden name is Longanecker and so we always collected Giraffe figures when I we were little!

  981. Great book, and review. So glad children have a book like this. I’ve worked with many children that has experienced this….thank you

  985. I love this post. It’s so great in helping children deal with issues you may not know how to address. As an elementary teacher, I love using books to teach a lesson. Thank you!

    • I think books offer great opportunities to open dialogue and teach important subjects. I hope this helps some families to talk!

    • It is so hard for adults to process grief and loss, let alone kids! I hope this is helpful to some grieving families.

  987. This is an amazing resource to have available. Heaven forbid you ever need it. But at least there is something children can understand

    • Exactly. You never want to think about it, but it is nice to know there are resources available to help.

  990. This sounds like an amazing resource! My faith is important to me so, I would very much appreciate a book that also included scripture and prayer – as this one does. Hopefully we will not need this anytime soon, but I am so thankful to know about it!

  991. This book sounds like a great way to discuss a difficult subject with children. I’m glad the author was able to turn her grief into something that will help many others.

  992. This sounds like a beautiful book. I often wonder how I would deal with that situation when it arose, and I love the idea of helping the kids through a book

    • I love using books to help teach and reinforce important ideas and concepts with kids. I think it helps.

  993. This book sounds both amazing and heartbreaking, but one that should be at the ready for any child needing to understand loss and grief.

  998. My daughters have recently become obsessed with masquerade masks, so I’m really excited to do your hand print mask craft with them. Thanks for sharing!

  999. I am going to look into this book for my counseling tool box and share with my friends in counseling too! I am always looking for books for kids that have to deal with the hard issues!

  1001. As someone who has used books to address grief and loss with my child, it’s so nice to see that more options on the topic are now entering the marketplace! Definitely a valuable resource.

  1002. This sounds like a really helpful book. Im gonna have to look into this.

  1003. Grief and loss are such impossible subjects to talk to kids about. They are such big feelings, and kids just don’t know how to process them. So it is so wonderful that there are books like this one to help facilitate conversation. I’m pinning this. Thank you for sharing!

    • I hope it is helpful. It can be so difficult to talk to kids about big emotions that adults even have trouble with!

  1005. I wish this had been available for us when we lost my dad as my sisters were only 4 and 7 there was hardly anything to help them though their grief . What a great post x

    • I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been. I hope this can help other kids to handle their grief.

  1008. What an amazing book to broach such a tough subject with children. I may have to get this for my neice and nephew for when they begin asking about their mother. I love how it has a journal form, I think that is a great way to connect with kids.

    • I really like how it is part journal and leaves space to share thoughts and memories. I hope it will help families to open a dialogue and handle grief and loss together. I’m so sorry for their loss.

  1010. What an amazing resource! I think I’ll purchase this book for my son. Not that we have any particular loss, but I think it’s good for kids to understand loss before they are delved into grief. Thanks for sharing!

  1011. Wow! What a great book to open up a conversation with your child about emotions. It’s a great way to develop the relationships. Great post!

    • Thank you! I think it is so important to be able to talk to your kids, and I hope this book is helpful!

    • The illustrations and rhyming will keep younger readers entertained (although some of the images may be too dark or frightening, depending on the child), but I would probably recommend it for slightly older elementary age children to really get the most of the message.

  1013. I absolutely love this book. And it came into our lives at the perfect time. The tape on the floor game is a great idea and companion to this story.

    • Thank you! I love your review of the book and I am so glad it was able to help you!

    • It can be so difficult for us to understand what goes on in our own minds, let alone the minds of our children! I hope this book is helpful!

  1018. Great review and it seems like a great book! I agree that the mind is complex – even for adults! This seems like a good resource for navigating it with kids.

    • I think it can definitely help to open a dialogue between kids and parents, which is an important first step!

  1019. This book sounds wonderful. I love that you included the author’s thoughts behind it and inspiration process. Great activities, too. As usual, great review!

    • Thank you! It was a really interesting book and I am looking forward to his future work!

  1020. I will definitely keep this book in mind for when my kids are older. Its one of my biggest hopes as a parent that we are able to have meaningful conversations about our emotions and to raise emotionally intelligent children.

    • I agree! That is one of my hopes as well. I have always been able to talk with my parents, and I hope my daughter feels the same way someday.

    • I hope these are helpful! I’m so glad there are resources like these now for kids with allergies.

  1023. I love your thorough analysis of the book! It reminds me so much of the movie “inside out”. I think we definitely need to get this book, and I’ll for sure be recommending it to my clients who are looking for books about feelings for their kids.

    • Thank you! I really liked “Inside Out”. I think that’s a great comparison! I love things that can provide a way to think about thinking.

  1027. I love this idea! As a family counselor I am always looking for ways to help kids identify and explore their emotions! That is why I love the movie Inside Out so much

    • I love that movie too! I really like how this book can help kids to understand the negative thoughts and how to start getting control of them.

  1028. Such an interesting topic! I can’t wait to have children of my own to try something like this! Thank you for sharing.

  1029. This is so good. I feel that way myself sometimes, and so I can imagine kids and not knowing what to do about it! What a great help and tool 🙂

    • I feel the same way! I love how this book gave me a way to think about my own thought processes too!

  1032. Wow!! What an interesting perspective! Definitely going to look into this! It’s amazing as your child grows, how much you realize it’s hard to explain certain topics. Thanks for sharing!

    • I hope you enjoy it! I love that there are resources like this that I will be able to use with my daughter as she faces each new stage.

    • The bright illustrations and rhyming pattern would make it fun for young readers (although the dark illustrations may be a little frightening depending on the child), but the message would probably be helpful for later elementary aged kids.

    • I think communication is so important! I’m glad there are resources like these to help kids and parents start a dialogue.

  1035. This sounds like a great book. My LO is just 1 1/2 and the thought of not being able to relate to him or not being able to know what’s going on within him frightens me so much.

    • I think communication is so important, and it is never to early to start developing that openness!

  1036. What a cute book and Activity ideas! This woukd be great to share with all the hoopla about April giraffe!

  1039. That’s an adorable book. I love the craft ideas to go with it, saving it for when my Little One is a little older!

  1040. Pingback: Mindful Mothering: Six Simple Indoor Activities To Do With Your Kids When You're Kinda Sorta Maybe Really Freaking Out • Betty's BattlegroundBetty's Battleground

  1042. Oh I love this! what better way to teach children about dealing with loss than through a beautiful book. So amazing!

    • I hope it helps a lot of children. I think books are a great way to start conversations with kids about important topics.

  1043. Ok so let me just say how much I absolutely adore Giraffes. This looks like an adorable book! Perfect crafts to go along with it too!

  1044. I think it’s amazing that children’s books have such real topics that kids can relate to. So many children these days suffer with allergies so I think its such an important issue to address and teach them about.

    • I agree it is so great that there are resources like this out there for kids to learn from. I don’t remember there being many books like this when I was younger.

  1046. This book sounds adorable!!!! I love the leprechaun gold coin search, that is such a good idea! I can’t wait until my daughter is into that stage of being able to do these cool activities instead of wanting to eat everything 😀

    • Haha, oh my daughter still has moments like that. I’m not sure when that stage ends!

  1047. What a perfect book to bring in Saint Patty’s day with! I love the shaving cream activity, my kids would have a blast with that!

  1048. This is so adorable!! Thank you for joining us this month at the #monthlycraftingbookclub. I love all the different ideas you shared.

  1049. Great article. You make me want to read the book. I was especially fascinated to read about watching the rainbow appear. It looks like magic. And i’m sure it would be magic to a little one. Thanks.

  1050. How fun! We just started learning about Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day today at my house, and I just happened to reserve this book at the library as well (I knew nothing about it except the title sounded cute). Hopefully it comes soon, and we can get busy doing some of these activities in the meantime.

  1051. We were first introduced to this book during story time at our local children’s museum. I love the activities you came up with, thank you for the inspiration!

  1052. Such cute ideas. My preschoolers used to build a Leprechaun trap and fill with with all the green things they could find. Then while they were napping, I’d trip the trap and leave some chocolate in it for them. They were always sad that the Leprechaun escaped, but the chocolate helped. 🙂

    • Thank you. I agree, it is such a difficult topic to discuss with kids. I hope this book is helpful to a lot of families.

  1059. Grief is such a difficult topic for children, especially when they don’t fully understand what is happening – I lost my grandmother when I was 8 years old and I don’t think I fully understood it at the time. This book sounds like a great resource, I’ll definitely have to check it out! Thanks for sharing it with us!
    #humpdayhype

    • I agree it is even harder for kids to handle grief because they have trouble understanding. I hope this book will help lots of families to start a conversation.

  1061. What a wonderful picture book. I’m particularly inspired by these St. Patrick’s Day themed activities. The searching for gold looks amazing. So does creating the rainbow.

  1063. Such great ideas! I always struggle with how to celebrate St. Patricks Day with my kids! But this post is so helpful!

  1065. We just got back from the library with books on St. Patrick Day for the grandkids. These different games sound like a ton of fun to do. Afternoon planning time.

    • Thank you! I hope you have as much fun with it as we are! My daughter pulls the shapes out at least once a day to play with them.

  1069. These are some fun activities to do! So going to do the rainbow experiment with my girls for the homeschooling!

  1073. I really love that you included an interview with your review… So nice to get some insight into the author’s intentions and motivations.

  1075. This really brings out the kindergarten teacher in me. I miss teaching that age. I’ll pin this to use with my daughter when her attention span gets longer than 1 minute!

  1076. This is sooo fun!! My son would absolutely LOOOVE the rainbow hop and the coin search! I’m always looking for fun activities to do with him, and this is such a perfect way to get in the holiday mood. Thanks for sharing <3

  1077. Pingback: 8+ Crafts and Activities for a Family Fun St Patrick's Day (wtrw) |

  1080. I absolutely love the diversity of all these St. Patrick’s Day activities you shared! Question–where did you buy the gold coins?

    • I bought mine at a local craft store. There is a link above to get them on Amazon as well!

  1081. Lovely ideas – and for all ages! My kids would love the colour mixing one and likely the shamrock painting inside the box. St Patrick’s day is also my husbands birthday so we enjoy celebrating every year! 😀
    ~Jess

    • Aw, that’s a fun birthday! I hope you enjoy doing some of these projects together!

  1083. These are totally some fun activities and I love that they are tactile/sensory-oriented. I have a friend who will enjoy these! Thanks for sharing!

  1084. This is a great post with LOTS of options for kids activities. My personal favorite is the science experiment where kids get to understand the process and still see the pretty rainbow!

  1092. I am always looking for fun St. Patrick activities for my family. These books are so fun and would be perfect to add to our list.

  1095. I love St Patrick’s Day! These stories all look very cute. My daughters would enjoy them. They probably don’t know much about St Patrick’s Day-these would be a fun way to introduce it.

    • I love introducing my daughter to new holidays through great books. There are so many great stories to share.

  1097. Such great ideas! I’ve been looking for some fun things to do on St. Patty’s Day, so these are awesome. I especially love the one with the paper towels.

  1098. I’m soo glad I came across this! Such perfect timing! I was looking for St Patrick’s Day stories to get my pre-schooler excited to try to catch a leprechaun this year! Thanks!

    • I’m so glad to help! How to Catch a Leprechaun and The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day are great books for that!

  1100. Wow, I had no idea that there is so many books about St. Patrick.
    I have to finally see how people celebrate this day 🙂

  1101. What great play ideas! I particularly love the walking rainbow activity – I’ll have to try that with my year 2’s when I return to work as part of teaching about colour theory/the colour wheel. 🙂
    #humpdayhype

  1102. These look great! I bet my son would love them. I need to get him some St. Patrick’s Day books before the holiday passes us by!

  1106. I didn’t knwo there were so many Leprechaun books out there. What a fun collection of books! We will be checking these out!

  1112. I love all of these St. Patrick’s Day ideas of kids. The books look beautiful and have amazing illustrations. And I love your description of them as well.

  1113. These books all sound awesome!! I’ll have to bookmark this for next year when my daughter is (maybe) able to understand St. Patrick’s day. I bet she’ll love it!

    • I hope you enjoy them! These are a great way to introduce the holiday to little ones.

  1114. St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorites. I think it is so fun! I love these book ideas. We currently don’t have any SPD books so I will have to check these out.

  1116. We don’t “celebrate” St Patricks Day at my house, per se. But we do acknowledge t with books and religious references and all that. But as an elementary school teacher, OMG.. we go ALL. OUT. for St. Patricks Day! LOL My poor kids. My students though, have a blast – we read how to catch a Leprechaun and create leprechaun traps in groups. We integrate math and a story for literacy. That is one of my favorite books ever.
    I’m pretty sure that I’m giving my actual children the short end of the stick since we don’t do anything fun like that at home for St Patricks Day hah!

    • Aw! I know St. Patrick’s Day has become even bigger in the past few years since I stopped working in schools. I can’t imagine how big it will be by the time my daughter is in school!

    • I really like that one! I hadn’t heard of it before this year, but it is definitely a new favorite.

  1118. I’ve read Fiona’s Luck and That’s What Leprechaun’s Do, but several of the others are new to me. I just discovered The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow this year, and my kids are really enjoying it. I LOVE holiday books!

    • I hope you enjoy them! We are a pretty Irish family and I was surprised we had so few St. Patrick’s Day books!

  1121. I always love your book lists. You always share the best books. =) Holiday books are so much fun to read especially paired with activities.

    • Thank you so much! I love holiday books. They are so great for getting you into the spirit of each holiday!

  1122. These are great! My daughter’s birthday is St. Patrick’s Day and when she was little, we’d read a new book every year. I missed some of these.

  1124. I always love your picks of such colorful, educational, and engaging books! These look perfect for St. Patrick’s Day. I would add “The Leprechaun Who Loved Yellow”. It’s a cute tale about a little leprechaun who dared to be different. I will definitely be gathering some of these picks for my daughter this year!

    • Thank you! I have not heard of that one! I will definitely look it up because I love the concept. Thank you for the recommendation!

    • I agree it is so much fun to cook with kids! I hope you enjoy the book. It has a lot of great tips.

  1132. This looks like an awesome book! My 2 & 5 year olds love to help in the kitchen any chance they get, so this could be a very useful guide for me to help them learn. I agree that it’s important for little ones to learn how to navigate the kitchen. I think when you start young like that, it builds their confidence and therefore leads to more enjoyment with cooking. Hopefully that also leads to healthier eating throughout their life since they won’t have to depend on the boxed, processed foods.

    • Yes! Exactly! My mom always wanted my sister and I to feel comfortable in the kitchen, so that we could whip together a real meal for ourselves with whatever we have in the kitchen. I think having that confidence in the kitchen really helps!

    • It is a really handy guide for parents and kids! Kids can use the pictures to learn how to follow a recipe, while adults can use the more detailed recipes to help along the way.

    • Thanks! I think giving kids confidence in the kitchen can really help them in the future!

    • I’m so glad! I hope you enjoy it! My daughter loves to get her apron out when it is time to cook (plus, who doesn’t love an adorable little kid in a tiny apron!).

    • That’s awesome! This book has a lot of great tips for getting kids of all ages involved in cooking!

  1140. My son loves to help out in the kitchen. I bet we would get a lot of use out of this book!

  1141. My brother in law passed away six months ago unexpectedly. My three year old still looks for him and talks about him like he’s going to walk through the door. I know he will never forget him since he was there for him since birth. In a few years this will deff come in handy.

    • I am so sorry for your loss. I hope this book will be helpful. It’s nice because it reminds kids that the person they lost will still be with them and proud of their accomplishments.

  1142. I’m a chef and I really want to teach my son how to cook when he’s younger. I think that it would be an awesome thing to do together!

    • That is great! I think getting kids into the kitchen early making it so much more fun for them!

  1145. I love to cook myself and cannot wait my daughter to grow a bit more to involve her too. This book sounds interesting.

  1146. This book sounds amazing!!! My 3 year old LOVES to help in the kitchen… but um yahhh…. eggshells in the food are always a huge problem! LOL

    • Haha, yea their “help” isn’t always as helpful as they want it to be. This guide gives some great advice on helping them perform tasks like breaking eggs correctly.

  1147. My baby isn’t to this stage yet, but I love to cook and I hope she will, too. I would love to involve her in the kitchen, but it’s hard to let a little one “help.” Sounds like I need to check out this book! Thanks!

    • It’s a great resource for getting them started with small tasks and building up to bigger ones. I definitely recommend it to get her started!

  1148. I want to get my daughter involved in the kitchen more often. I’m just usually rushing to get meals done there isn’t time to really enjoy cooking with her.

    • I found that preparing meals became more fun when my daughter started helping. Although giving her specific tasks definitely helps reduce the added chaos!

  1149. I love this post! I loved cooking with my mom and can’t wait to start involving my son (19 months). We already bake a lot together. Thanks for sharing 🙂

    • That’s great! I have so many great memories of being in the kitchen with my mom, so I am excited to already be making memories with my daughter too!

    • It’s definitely a great resource for getting kids started with age appropriate tasks!

  1154. I love theme books for every holiday. Pinned this to my Children’s Literacy Board.

    Thanks for sharing at #bloggerspotlight

  1155. This sounds like a great book! I have been looking for ways to get my kids involved, in the kitchen, but wasn’t sure where to start! I’ll definitely be adding this book to my list of things to buy!

    • It can definitely be difficult to have so many helping hands in the kitchen. I love that my daughter enjoys helping though!

    • It can definitely add to the prep and clean up, but it is so much fun to watch kids learn and explore!

  1159. Cooking has been something that I did not learn as a child. But I would love to teach my children someday. Thanks for sharing!

    • I hope this book is helpful! I think the earlier you learn, the more likely you will enjoy it!

  1161. That’s awesome that your daughter likes to help prepare meals already. There is something great about that. My daughter liked to do it early on. She still does really. Every thanksgiving she has to help me out with everything.

  1163. I love getting the kids hands on in the kitchen! Sometimes we do imptomptu baking sesdions when they aren’t quite getting along…works wonders!

    • That’s an awesome idea! I’ll have to try that when my daughter is having a difficult day.

  1165. One of my older kids I taught to cook, the other I did not and the difference is shocking. Yes, yes, and yes to this. Good stuff.

    The How-to Guru

  1167. This is so so awesome!! We eat mostly paleo, so I am constantly in the kitchen, and my toddler absolutely loves to join. I really think that knowing how to cook is such an important skill to have – definitely interested in the book. Thanks for sharing! <3

    • I hope you enjoy it! I agree that learning to cook is such an important skill for us to teach our kids.

  1168. I really love this! My son loves to help me bake and cook, but, sadly, I’ve avoided having him help because he’s messy. LOL

    • It can definitely add to the clean up! This book has some great tips on helping kids get involved in helpful ways.

  1169. So cool, you’ve got an author interview up right now too! It’s great to be able to ask the author of a book you love questions, isn’t it? (Mine was my first time, so I’m still really excited about it,haha)
    This book sounds great. I love bringing my girls into the kitchen, and it really interests them, but with cooking (rather than baking) I get anxious about safety. I’m going to take a look at this book to see if I can get some tips on how to better integrate cooking with the kiddos into our lives, thanks for sharing!

    • I hope you like it! I love having the opportunity to talk to the author about their thoughts and intentions behind the book. Your interview was great!

  1170. I love this! I will definitely have to get this book when my son is old enough for it. I really want to teach him from a young age that he can do just as much kitchen “stuff” as mommy! =) Thanks for this review!

    • I hope you enjoy it! It has some great tips to help even really young kids get involved!

  1171. What a great beginners cook book for the little ones. My girls absolutely love to cook and bake with me!

    • That is awesome! It’s so great when you can get them involved in the kitchen with you!

  1172. I need this book in my life! My 6 year old is pretty confident in the kitchen but my 2.5 year old still needs a lot of guidance.

    • I hope it helps! There are some great tips to get young kids involved in a helpful way.

  1174. This book sounds awesome! My 21 month old loves helping so I’m sure she would really enjoy this. I’ll definitely have to check it out!

    • I hope you enjoy it! My daughter loves helping, so it was nice to find new ways for her to actually help.

  1175. The book sounds brilliant, I love getting the kids involved in the cooking! Thanks for sharing the interview also. Great to see the ideas behind how the book came about x

    • I love when my daughter wants to get involved with cooking too! I really enjoyed hearing the author’s thoughts and intentions behind the book.

  1177. This looks like a terrific book! Children can learn so many different skills through cooking…math, nutrition, measuring, reading, and following directions. This book would make a wonderful gift too.

    • I agree! There are so many great lessons for them to learn and skills to practice. Plus you can make some great memories!

  1180. I think this is great! It’s important to teach them young when it comes to things like this. I want my Son to grow up knowing how to cook for himself so he never has to rely on anyone else! 🙂

  1182. This is wonderful! I’ve been wondering how to get my four year old more interested in cooking and this is such a great resource!

  1184. Great post! I will have to pay more attention and see what part our background knowledge plays in our life, and reading! Something I didn’t really think of before 🙂

    ~Tabitha
    freshmommyblog.com

  1185. I love that you encourage parents to read ALL types of books to children. That is a great way to introduce them to things that they may not be able to experience otherwise.

  1192. Pingback: Teaching inference through storyboarding - Not So Formulaic

  1193. This is great! I’ve definitely noticed how going on walks and pointing things out has helped my 2 year old notice and point out things when we read.

  1195. I have a 21 month old and we apply similar strategies when we read together. It’s really amazing how they pick things up!

  1196. Background knowledge does help get kids excited about what they are learning and reading in the classroom. I know we use that as a reading strategy in the homework help program we run.

    • Thank you so much! She has dabbled in Super Why a little, but so far nothing can match her love of Little Einsteins!

  1201. Such wonderful ideas. We read a lot, but I’ve never used that KWL chart before. I think it would be really helpful. My oldest is reading in school, but needs some help. Thank you for all of these tips!

  1202. Pingback: Comprehension Strategies and How To Teach Them - The House That Lalli Built
  1203. Pingback: A Sure Fire Way To Visualize With The Senses - The House That Lalli Built

  1205. When I was in the classroom, one of the common questions I’d hear from students at the beginning of the year was, “When am I going to use this stuff?” Your write up is great in that it provides parents with ways to help foster learning through connecting to prior knowledge, scaffolding, and critical thinking with their little person.

    • Thank you so much! I hope it helps a lot of parents help their kids to make connections!

  1206. I love this, I mean so much so that I was going to make a cook book like this myself lol. Oh well you snooze you loose. Love cooking with kids, it teaches so much and provides a special bond between you and them.

    • Aw! I agree it gives you so many opportunities to teach your kids and make some great memories!

  1207. Hi. Some really interesting points gere. Some which are obvious but things I wouldn’t have thought about.

    My lil lad is 1 and i definitely will start implementing background knowledge technique for now..

    Thank you 🙂

    • I have heard of that! It is such a great idea to have kids read to dogs because it gives them a chance to practice! My daughter loves to “read” to our dog already, so I’m hoping she will keep it up.

  1209. This is a brilliant idea! I often struggle with wanting to get my girls involved, but not sure what’s age-appropriate in the kitchen. Thanks for sharing!

    • I hope you enjoy it! It is really helpful in getting kids involved in age appropriate ways!

  1210. wow! Love all these! Were getting to the age where we are learning to spell and read so these will be used soon!

  1213. Your blog is such a breath of fresh air!! I am totally going to be thinking about how to enhance my read aloud skills now and what else we can do themed with a book!

  1214. My husband and I love to read and we read to our children everyday. Sometimes several times a day when they were young. Going to the library helped. They all love to read to this day.

  1216. This book looks very cool! I feel like many children take an interest in cooking with their parents, but parents do not always know how to go about letting them help out. I pinned this for the future (my only child is only 11 months old). I really hope she is interested in cooking!

    • I agree! It can be hard to figure out how to let them help. This book gives a lot of great tips on how to help them be successful!

  1217. These are really great tips. My son get’s to choose which books he wants from his school’s online library. He usually sticks to the ones with topics he’s familiar with. We encourage him to change it up and try new subject books. This post will be helpful for us in that matter and I like the chart.

  1219. It’s amazing what kids remember from their day to day activities. One time we were on a walk and our then 4 year old saw a cell phone tower in the distance and said, “That looks like the Eiffel Tower!” My husband and I were shocked she knew what the Eiffel Tower was! Turns out she had seen it on an episode of Little Einsteins. And you are right–using their past knowledge does help to enrich the story when reading books. Thanks for these tips!

    • Haha, those Little Einsteins! They have introduced my daughter to so many things that she now recognizes in every day life!

  1221. I love that you’re contributing to this series. These are the strategies I used as a teacher ALL the time! Prior knowledge is so important because the human brain is more likely to retain knowledge that it sees as relevant, and so if we can connect it to something we already know, our brain views the new knowledge as valuable. YAY!

    • Yes! I love teaching this strategy because not only is it so important, but it is an easy and fun strategy to use with kids!

  1222. As always I love your article! I’ve been activating prior knowledge with my boys when I read just like I would in the classroom. It’s funny how our skills reach into our personal life!

  1223. What a fabulous idea! I’m sure your little one loves the opportunity to cook with you. I hope my little one is excited by that as well. It’s a great way to spend time together.

    • She loves helping out! She gets so excited to put on her little apron and do whatever she can.

  1224. Looks like a very interesting and educational read. I love the idea to bring children, from an early age, as closer to nature as possible!

    • I agree! I want my daughter to understand and appreciate nature as early as possible.

    • I hope so! My daughter has been enjoying picking the vegetables and flowers out of it.

  1231. Great ideas! I think I’ve read that book to my kids at some point. Gardening can be such a fun activity to share with kids!

  1232. I love all of these ideas! What a great idea to have them sort different seeds…a great hands on learning experience!

    • I’m so glad! There isn’t a lot of text on each page, so you can really focus on the words that do rhyme.

  1234. Love all of these ideas! Some of them may just make their way into my little one’s Easter basket this year. 🙂

  1236. What a great idea! “planting” a garden! I’ve always wanted to do a garden and have my boys help… but they ate the dirt. LOL

    • Haha, I have a feeling my daughter will try to do that as well this year, but hopefully it will still be fun!

  1237. Another great post with great ideas! We have a garden, and my toddler loves to help. I’ll have to try the fake flowers garden. She would love that!

  1239. Really good ideas here that I am sure my little one will enjoy always looking for simple easy activities like this thank you

  1244. I also love Springtime. This is a great post. Thanks for sharing this nice book—kids will absolutely love this. They can learn to have a green thumb at an early age.

    • Thanks! I hope my daughter having experiences like this early on will encourage her to keep it up later in life!

  1245. I never thought about using pool noodles for the planting dramatic play- that is PERFECT and totally going to be happening at my house. Thanks!

  1246. We just started a garden last year. It was small, but the kids loved helping! This year we will be doing much more, and it will be more hands on for the kids! We’re excited! The girls ask me everyday if today’s the today we can plant!

    • Aw, that is awesome! I’m curious to see how my daughter will like planting things this year!

  1247. I’m also a huge fan of the Background/Prior Knowledge strategy – as a teacher, it is a great way to find out what your students already know so you can see any ‘gaps’ in their knowledge and find out where to teach next. I also love getting them to discuss what they can see in the picture, such a great way for them to pick up some words they might not have known but once they say the word they make the connection between their verbal response and the written word. Great tips!
    #humpdayhype

    • Thank you! I agree about the illustrations as well! There is so much you can discuss with them, which leads to a greater vocabulary and deeper understanding.

  1248. Pingback: Animal Farm Activities for Learning (with printables) |

    • That’s awesome! There are so many things they can learn while growing their own plants!

  1254. We are learning about seeds right now for homeschool. My girls are a little older for these activities but we will be planting a garden in a couple months!

    • That is awesome! Planting a garden has so many opportunities for learning and building memories!

  1255. OMG I can’t wait to do fun seed activities with my daughter when she’s old enough! Personally I kill every plant there is, so hopefully she’s better than me!!! hehe

    • I don’t have a great track record with plants either! Hopefully the next generation will do better!

  1256. Those books sound like great options to help kids learn about seeds. My son loved seeds when he was little and always wanted to plant them. Would have loved to have those books for him.

    • I’m so glad! It’s the only garden we have right now with all the snow outside our house!

  1260. I can’t wait for my son to get old enough to do such fun activities like this! I especially like all the extra activities you can create around the process of growing seeds. Thanks for this review!

  1261. Thank you for these ideas! My littlest one has always been so interested in flowers and plants. I actually decorated our dining nook with images of flowers for her. I think she especially will appreciate these. And both the girls love pretend play so I think that one especially will be a hit!

    • I’m so glad! I hope they have a lot of fun with them! My daughter has loved picking up pinecones, sticks and anything else she can find on our walks. I’m excited to see how she will like actual flowers!

  1262. This post couldn’t have come at a better time for us…the kids and I just purchased a fairly absurd assortment of seeds to flesh out the starter plants in our brand new vegetable garden. I think they will adore this book!

  1263. You always have the BEST ideas! Your posts *almost* make me miss teaching Kindergarten (I teach 2nd now). I haven’t heard of this book, I’ll have to recommend it to some of my K friends.

  1264. Learning about seeds and planting them in the garden. Watching them grow as they learn to care for them. Great learning experience.

  1265. This is so well thought out. My toddler will love it. Of course, living in an apartment, it will have to be scaled back. Fortunately her grandpa has a small garden that she “helps” him with. (She loves pulling up the carrots.)

    • Aw, that is adorable! Hopefully she will enjoy pulling pretend carrots out of the dramatic play garden!

    • That is my hope! I want my daughter to enjoy the outdoors. In a generation being raised with more technology than we can even imagine, I want her to have a basic love of nature too!

  1267. We planted some wildflowers but left the pot out overnight during a bad rain storm and woke up to empty egg cartons! ha! We need to try again 😉

    • Oh no! That is kind of how my track record goes with planting outside! I am determined to do better now that my daughter is helping!

  1268. What a fun activity to do with the kids!! Gardening is a great passion of mine and I hoped to get my kids more involved and the books and products you recommended would be great Easter basket ideas to get them started.

    • Thank you! I will definitely be using some of them for my daughter’s Easter basket as well! I love filling Easter baskets with fun spring activities.

    • That is exciting! I hope to plant a couple of things this year. We have to start small since my track record is less than stellar!

  1271. Great ideas! I love the activities you suggested to go along with the book! My little man would love playing with/counting seeds!

  1272. Love it! We just planted our tomato seeds yesterday indoors, and I’m looking forward to planting some early crops in the garden soon. Teaching kids through gardening is one of my favorite things. They learn SO much in such a hands-on way!

  1275. I like to find new things to do with my Godchildren and to keep them reading. These books will be perfect for getting us out into the garden.

  1276. Great article! I am not a green thumb but would love to learn along with my daughter. This seems a great place to start for both of us.

    • Thank you! I do not have a green thumb either, so I hope that my track record improves while teaching my daughter!

  1278. Omgosh, I am so glad I discovered your blog! Truly, it’s so nice to see discussions with substance. This book, Stuff Dutch Moms Like, sound s absolutely wonderful, insightful, inspiring, and thought provoking – I have copy and pasted the link to send to a few friends who I know would be glad to discover your blog as well as this particular review!! … truly, thank-you, I very much look forward to following you!

  1281. The book looks very interesting and i love how it is for little children. I specifically love when we teach our young ones these important yet fun activities from an early age.

    • I agree! I think the earlier you start teaching kids about nature and gardening, the more they will enjoy it!

  1282. We plant seeds every year (that I then usually kill one way or another). I’m so cross with myself that it’s so late in the year already and I haven’t got started. I’m taking this as nudge to get out in the garden with my daughter!

    • I’m glad to give you the nudge! I am also infamous for not doing so well with plants, so I feel your pain!

  1283. I also love reading about parenting perspectives from around the world. Have you read Bringing Up Bebe? It’s a similar idea except more memoir and based in France.

    • I have not, but I am heading over to Amazon to check it out right now! Thank you for the recommendation!

  1284. What a great post! My children love to get involved in the garden, often more than I do, so will be implementing some of these!

  1286. I live in NYC and have tried (and failed) at growing in my non-sunny apartment. Moving soon though to sunnier spot so going for Round 2! 🙂

    • Good luck! I haven’t been able to grow things well no matter where I live, but I still try!

  1288. This book looks amazing. I definitely would like to read different philosophies of parenting. I haven’t really heard how the Dutch parent.

    • I found it really interesting to hear how differently they handle pregnancy and parenting!

  1290. Love this post. My kiddos love helping in the yard and growing things. Last year we grew tomatoes and my daughter loved collecting the tomatoes. It’s fun to see them learn and enjoy doing it.

    • That is awesome! I’m hoping my daughter will have fun with our gardening this year now that she is a bit older. She loves doing housework, so I’m hopeful!

  1291. Such great tips! I love this season 🙂 We have a new home and can’t wait to get planting in the garden with the kids, I know they are going to love watching their seeds grow!

    • Thank you! I love this season too. So much possibility! I hope you have fun planting your new garden!

      • Usually the day the dad is home is one of the days the mother works. So technically it’s not family time but just dad’s turn to run the household, bring the kids to school, run errands and make dinner.

  1293. This book sounds really interesting. I always enjoy learning about different cultures! And who couldn’t use some advice on being happier?

  1294. This book sounds interesting.Through your review,you actually aroused my curiosity for dutch parenting.It seems there are lot of differences.Giving birth at home and drug free births are entirely not in the country where I live…

  1297. Very interesting read! My husband worked for a dairy farmer who came over from the Netherlands and when our son was born they had a tradition of putting a wooden stork in the front lawn with the name and day of birth and they did this with all the Netherland couples they knew. It was so nice to be included in that tradition and have our son’s name added to the stork. I’m not sure if this a typical dutch tradition or something they started among their group, but it was such a sweet gesture. I’d be interested in learning more about their child rearing views because they seem like a very happy family.

    • The author actually does mention stork decorations in this book! It sounds like such a fun tradition!

  1298. I am so glad that you have shared this! It sounds like the perfect book for us to read at home. We have been looking for a perfect book like this.

  1299. This sounds so interesting. I love learning about other culture’s parenting styles. There was a documentary that came out 7 ish years ago named, “Babies”, and it followed 4 different babies from different parts of the world from birth to their first birthdays. It was so fascinating to watch the different sets of parents live in such different ways, yet all end up with happy and healthy kids.

    • I remember hearing about a documentary like that. I agree it is so interesting to see how differently we can all think about parenting, and yet how similar we can be as well!

  1300. So interesting. I did know about the extended maternity leave, but I have never heard of a Daddy Day. My kids would love that! Plus, to agree with the comment before me, Babies is an awesome documentary!

    • I would love that too! I think it would be so nice if every country put family time as such a high priority.

    • It’s really interesting to hear how their thinking and parenting styles are so different from our own!

  1302. I’m interested in the whole Dutch parenting movement. Obviously there are pros and cons to any system and you can’t assign the stereotype to the whole country, but it’s interesting to see trends in different cultures and how their values are reflected in their parenting.

    • I agree! The author actually talks about a style of parenting that many Dutch parents feel is old fashioned and she includes quotes from both sides.

  1303. I live in Qatar and as such have the opportunity to interact with moms from different countries and i find it fascinating to know how we are all same but different..that babies and mommies need the same things but the approaches differ..

    • That is awesome! I totally agree that it is so interesting to see how we are all so similar but so different.

    • I agree on both points. I think independence and boundaries are both important. It is all about balance.

  1305. This sounds like an awesome read. I think it’s always fun to read and learn about different parenting styles.

    • I agree! I find it really interesting to hear how parents all over the world raise their kids differently.

  1306. I love reading about parenting in other cultures. I agree with pretty much everything the Dutch do with parenting and pregnancy. If only the US would be more like the Dutch with maternity leave!

  1307. That’s pretty interesting. I think it’s kind of funny though – the discord between “Free range” parenting and parenting on a schedule and with routines. I suppose it doesn’t have to have a discord! LOL

    • I think both are important for kids. Especially in the younger years, routines are so important. The more they are raised with routines and expectations, hopefully the more you can give them freedom and independence later with confidence that they will make the right choices.

    • For me as a Dutch mom of two, there is no discord between these two at all. To give an example, we eat at the same time every day and they are always in bed by 7.30PM, but until dinnertime my kids (ages 4 and 7) are free to go around the neighborhood or to the playground that is a 5-10 min walk from our house by themselves without supervision. We started ‘training’ them to find their own way home from age 3.

  1308. This looks like such a great book and new perspective. Right now I’m reading Bringing up Bebe which is really interesting as well.

  1309. The Dutch are very big on routines. From what I understand (from a close Dutch friend of my mom’s) they are very family and health oriented, too. This book sounds interesting.

  1310. It is indeed very interesting and knowledgeable to know about parenting in different cultures. Especially for me, I am very taken with Europe. The beautiful culture, and their way of life. One thing I love about them is, yes, the bike rides each day! This is a must read for me!

    • I love the idea too! It would be so nice to have family time recognized as a priority by the working world!

  1312. I’ve been interested in the Dutch way of life and read a lot about them every chance I get. This is so interesting how they approach new life and beyond the infancy. Thanks for this!!!

    The How-to Guru

    • I agree it is so interesting! I will have to check out some other books about their way of life!

  1313. I love this point of view in parenting. I grew up in Italy and and being in the US now and a new mama I find myself practicing more of the free range parenting style which is common in Italy and similar to the dutch way. The more we learn, the more our minds open and the more accepting we become of the different styles and philosophies in parenting. Thank you for sharing!

  1314. I loved the book “Bringing Up Bebe” which was insight into French parenting styles. I am really intrigued by this book now! It’s so interesting to see what works in other cultures.

  1315. I think you’re right that we are all trying to raise happy and healthy children. I think we can all learn from each other. There’s certainly no one size fits all approach. But each one of us can get a good tidbit from all the other mothers out there.

    • I agree! We should all be learning from one another! None of us are perfect and you never know what you can learn from others.

  1318. I love all the ways you are surrounding your little one with literature! What a great way for her to learn! Thanks for the tag!

  1320. Ooh…this is so me! I love reading books to my 2 year old although he still secretly tears a couple pages when I’m not looking.I would love to be nominated because books have been my all time love and I hope to pass that on to my son 🙂

  1322. Nice sharing. Reading is really important. There are so many benefits. I am encouraging my two children to read as much as they can.

  1324. I just love your posts! I think I say that on most of your posts as well. Books are a big part of our household. My daughter struggled with learning to read and now we are slowly reading! I try to show her that I love reading as well which helps her see that anyone can read. Do you have any book recommendations for a 7 year old?

    • Thank you! Are you looking for books you can read to her, or books that she can read on her own? I would suggest starting with books in subjects that she really enjoys, both for read alouds and for independent reading. If she is more comfortable reading books that are almost too easy for her, that is okay too! It will build her confidence as a reader.

  1328. I am the same way with my babies! I want them to have a love for reading above the chaos and technology in life. Teaching them through literature is so effective!

    • I agree! It is so important to start teaching them to love books and reading while young!

  1329. I love that you’re raising a bookworm. I was a bookworm growing up and I feel like I may have had more critical thinking than if I didn’t read all of the books all of the time.

    • I agree! There are so many benefits to being a bookworm, outside of the enjoyment you get from it!

  1330. I wish your website was around when my son was a baby. He struggled with reading up until he was in 5th grade. Maybe, using some of your suggestions would’ve helped.

  1331. I love to nurture my kids love of reading. Finding diversity in books is really important as well as finding strong role models for them to relate to. Everything on this list is spot on and really awesome for raising readers…of actual books with paper pages, and not only on a tablet, lol,

    • Thank you! I really want my daughter to enjoy reading real books. This generation will have more experience with technology than the rest of us, but I want her to have this basic love of reading first!

  1333. I was (and am) a bookworm! Last night we were out to eat and a little girl was eating with her mom but she was reading at the same time. I pointed her out to my husband and told him that was me as a child too. I love that you’re encouraging such a love is reading in children!

    • Thank you! I was the same way. My sister and I would pack a book bag for any car ride longer than 5 minutes!

  1335. As far as the “respecting books” goes, my 1 year old is so rough on books! Totally new thing for me to deal with because our 4 year old has always been “nice” to them. :/

    • My daughter doesn’t get it yet either. We’re really working on not standing on the books at the moment!

  1336. Omg I have to read this book- I don’t know why but I’m obsessed with how other countries and cultures parent!! I loved the infamous bringing up Bebe book- what did you think of that? (If you’ve read it)

  1340. We do most of these at our home too.I am a book worm,so my son too 🙂 As you mentioned,I also try to teach him to respect books.From recent,he tries to stand on the books.But I know he is still a little kid.Thanks for sharing all these tips on how you create a reading environment around the home.You are rocking!
    And thanks for tagging me too.I accept the challenge! 🙂

    • Thank you! I hope you have fun taking the challenge! We are having the same issue with standing on books! I’m still working out how to fix that one.

  1341. We are a family of readers as well! Sometimes I think I enjoy the kids books more than they do!!

  1342. You really are an amazing Mama! I love how you give her characters to look up to! Not to mention how you facilitate a love of reading and get her actively engaged and learning with each and every book.

    • Aw, thank you so much! I hope that it all helps her to develop a love of reading and confidence in her herself!

    • They are so good! They make me tear up every time. I am slowly building our collection of them anyway!

  1344. I love this-especially the diversity! I’m raising four kids through adoption and it was a real slap in the face when we realized most our books were white people. Since expanding our diversity in those books, it’s been a privilege to see the grow as well

    • That is awesome! I think authors and publishers are making a real push to have more diverse characters and situations in children’s books. While everyone is talking about Hollywood struggling to be inclusive, I think children’s books are making great strides!

    • Thank you! Great job to you too! We just started putting books next to my daughter’s bed, and there are always a few in the bed with her when she gets up in the morning!

  1349. Yes to this! Both my daughters are bookworms and I am so happy that they continue to flourish in their reading! My oldest just finished her second chapter book and I am so proud!

  1350. Vicki, I love this post! As someone a little further down the parenting road, I can tell you that you are doing a GREAT job. Both of my girls LOVE to read–and we often use books as a conversation-starter into deeper philosophical discussions.

    I love the idea of fixing books together–teaching her that they are meant to last. We have a “book hospital” for when that binding lets go and the pages fall to the floor!

    • Thank you so much! I really hope that she continues to have this love of reading as she grows. We are definitely going to have to put a book hospital together since we have a few that are just holding on! She likes Doc McStuffins though, so she would probably love that idea!

    • That is awesome! I love when kids discover a favorite book and get completely lost in it!

  1352. I love this! My 4yo is staaaarting to get into books, but it’s a slow process for sure!
    We’ve just started reading a book every night without her being bored (she even threw a fit because she fell asleep and didn’t get one) but she doesn’t like to read during the day.
    Any suggestions on how to encourage daytime reading?

    • Aw, that is so cute. I would suggest having books around and available to her all around the house. We have books in every room so my daughter inevitably gets them out all over the house. I would also suggest doing some activities to pair with the book. It will help her to connect with the book but also help her to get some of that day time energy out. It could be something as simple as a craft or drawing, or as big as a trip to the zoo or park.

  1353. My son’s are bookworms too, one wears a head lamp to bed to look/read his picture books and the other is obsessed with playaway books so he can “read by himself”. It’s great to see how much they gain from books!

    • Aw, that is awesome! I wish we had had those head lamps when I was a kid! That’s a great idea!

  1354. Love love love this!! Reading is so important for our kids! I love that my 4 year old loves books and my 10 month old too. However, she likes to eat them as much as look at them…

  1355. You are doing the right thing, Momma! I too try to raise my children surrounded by books and the opportunity to read them. I love asking them questions after reading too to hear their thoughts… its amazing seeing what stood out to them in a story.

  1357. These are wonderful tips! My daughter is only 10 months old but I want to teach her the love for reading early! She already loves it when we read to her!

  1358. I LOVE this post – going to share with my husband so he understands why we will never have enough books in our house 🙂

  1359. She’s a lucky little girl! One thing I did that was critical in transitioning my kids into reading chapter books was to read for myself in front of them. Usually I would read in bed before I went to sleep, so they weren’t getting the visual cue to read. Once I started reading on the livingroom sofa in the day, they followed suit.

    • Thank you! I totally agree it is so helpful for kids to see their parents reading and enjoying books!

  1360. Adorable post. I’m 100% agree with you, reading with your children is beneficial for SO many reasons!

  1364. Its wonderful that you have given your daughter a love of books. This reminds me of weekends at the library with my dad. He would nap with a book while I roamed around and absorbed all the art books. I hope to instill the same love of reading with my own son. So far his favorite book is Big Hero 6! I need to read some of the books you listed to my son. Its important he understand that women play an important role in this world and instill respect for books and women while he’s young.

    • Those are awesome goals and such wonderful memories with your dad! I have great memories of reading with my parents, and I hope my daughter will have the same!

  1365. I love that your daughter has a passion for reading, I have been a bookworm my entire life and encourage my children to read as much as possible.

    • That is awesome! I am a proud bookworm and I am so glad my daughter seems to be turning into one!

  1367. This was such a sweet post! We are bookworms too. Do you have to be nominated to participate in the Rocking Motherhood challenge?

    • Thank you! I don’t think you have to be nominated, but I can nominate you if you’d like!

  1368. As the woman who was the kid on the playground reading a book instead of running around with all the other kids, I so relate to this. You are giving your daughter such a wonderful gift.

    • I agree! I think it is so important to teach them real life activities while they are young!

  1370. Sounds like a great read! Our maternity leave here in the states needs to match the Dutch..or any other country for that matter :-p

    • I agree! It was really interested to hear the different perspectives on leave from other countries.

  1372. I love that you’re raising a bookworm. My daughter is also a bookworm and it is truly wonderful to see. She is constantly reading and learning and sharing her knowledge! All children should have books to read.

    • I agree! I love that my daughter is already developing a love for reading like I have! I wish all children could have that.

  1373. how fun! i love the idea of a nature walk – we always go on walks, but this time it’s for a purpose. also i need to try that butterfly contraction thing with my oldest… he has no idea about contractions and will make up his own words lol

    • I hope you have a lot of fun with it and that it is helpful! I totally make up my own words sometimes too, haha.

  1375. I love your ideas to go with this book! My favorite is the butterfly contractions sheet. I think my son could use that!

  1376. You are totally rocking it, mama! I love that you’ve submerged your daughter into the culture of reading—it’s so incredibly important!

  1378. These are such fun activities. It is tough when one day its cold and the next it is warm. I am saving these activities for a blustery day!

    • Thank you! I agree the up and down weather can drive you nuts! We spend the afternoon outside yesterday, and my daughter didn’t understand why we couldn’t do that again today!

  1380. You always have such inspirational posts. I’ve been sharing them with friends who work with preschoolers and they love them, too. That colander bouquet is great. My daughter will love that.

    • Aw, thank you so much! That is so great to hear! I hope your daughter has a lot of fun creating bouquets!

    • It is! My daughter pulled all of her books off the shelf into a pile on the floor yesterday. We still have some work to do!

  1383. I am trying to instill the same love of reading and literature in my daughter! We follow a lot of these practices, too! I love reading so much, so I really hope that we are successful!

    • That is awesome! I feel the same way. I hope my daughter will grow up to love books and reading as much as I do!

    • My daughter does too! We had to start taking the bucket along because she couldn’t hold all of the pinecones she wanted to bring home! She also wants to bring every single stick home for our dog.

  1385. It’s so funny. I never think about changing seasons in Southern California. Anyway, I loved growing chia plants as a kid. Great idea. I also really like the butterflies to practice contractions. That’s a pretty sophisticated teaching technique!

    • Thank you! Our seasons change day to day! We were outside in the warm weather yesterday, and then today it snowed!

  1387. I can’t tell you how much I love this! My daughter and I have bonded over books since before she could even read. Fifteen years later and we still spend almost every weekend at a bookstore. Usually a very old, antique and crampy one, but we love it! Keep on keeping on!

    • Thank you so much! That is such an awesome tradition. My parents started us out loving books very young, and I have so many fond memories of weekend trips to the bookstore too!

  1389. These are fun activities. Being a totschool mom, I’m always looking for fun activities. When will it be spring is a great book too.

  1391. I love that little bird’s nest! It is the perfect spring craft for me and my littles! Going to save it for a rainy day!

    logancan.com

    • I totally understand. We still had a bit of snow fall yesterday! I cannot wait for warmer weather!

  1395. This is so so cute, and such a fun way to introduce the idea of seasons to a toddler! My son has really been interested in birds lately, so building our own homemade bird’s nest would probably be such a hit. Thanks so much for sharing! <3

    • I’m so glad! I hope you have a lot of fun with it! My daughter is loving the birds lately, so she really enjoyed it.

  1396. These are great ideas! We take family nature walks and always bring home little treasures. We keep them on our window sill in the kitchen and I’m going to build a shelf for my daughter for her growing collection!

    • That is so sweet! My daughter collects every stick and pinecone she finds. The sticks she gives to the dog, and the pinecones she gives to “Sunshine” the sun shaped windchimes in the backyard!

  1397. The book looks super cute, and the craft is so creative! I love the idea of the butterfly to practice contractions.

  1398. I love that you mentioned diversity… I was just explaining why I choose certain books to my oldest, and tried to make him understand how important seeing diversity was, especially in our fairly homogeneous suburb.

    • I agree! I think it is so important for kids to explore the world and see other people, traditions and cultures through books.

  1400. Some of these I know and some are new to me. Will have to add them to our list for St. Patrick’s Day 2018!

  1404. My son would love this book and these activities. He would especially love making the birds nests, he’s obsessed with birds. Thanks, as always, for great ideas!

    • I’m so glad! I hope you have fun with them! My daughter is also extremely interested in birds this year, so she had a lot of fun with it!

  1405. These activities are so cute! I’m excited to do some of them with my daughter. I think she’ll really enjoy decorating a nest.

    • Thank you! I hope you find some new favorites too! You can’t go wrong in our house with the Llama Llama books!

  1409. Love this list! Easter is such a special time and to have a great resource for books is helpful! Thank you!

  1411. I really like that butterfly contraction idea! How cleaver. We had a week of spring in Miami and how it is summer, 88* and humid. Ugh!

    • Thank you! I can’t stand the humidity! I guess I can’t complain about the little snow we had last week!

  1413. We are totally lacking on Easter books, but we do have the story of Easter one you posted and love it. I’ll definitely be adding more to the collection.

    • Aw, my daughter has a Richard Scarry book and really likes it! We will have to check that one out.

  1416. If my kids were still little, I would be getting some of these books for them. The Duck & Goose book looks really cute and we always like Sesame Street.

    • Duck and Goose are really cute and very simple books. I will have a post with books for the whole family next week, so stay tuned!

  1417. Oooo! I’d love the “Llama Llama Easter Egg” and “The Story of Easter” books for my boy! It’s his first Easter this year so very excited to celebrate with him! Thank you for the suggestions.

    • I hope you enjoy them! My daughter received Llama Llama Easter Egg for her first Easter and loved all of the bright colors. I hope he has a great first Easter!

  1422. I was thinking about Easter books just yesterday and which ones would be good. This is perfect! Thank you!

  1425. I love this list!! You’re going to have my book collection bursting at the seams with all these great recommendations!!

  1427. We have the Story of Easter! And LOVE it! I’ll have to look for that llama llama one, we have a few other llama llama books and the kids love them.

  1428. Great list! I’m continuing my tradition of an Easter basket filled with books instead of candy for my son so this will help me find some good ones to give him!

  1430. I love this! Our little guy is just now starting to have the attention span to sit down and read it completely overwhelms my bookworm heart! ❤

    • Aw, that is awesome! I was so excited when my daughter started showing signs of being interested in books!

  1433. Great selection! We have a couple of these and a couple on the wish list. I bet my boys would love the Mouse book.

  1434. We really need to get some Easter books into our home collection. I try to get holiday books for each holiday but I’ve somehow missed Easter. We love Duck & Goose books!

  1435. you can never go wrong with llama llama! i made sure to incorporate the story of easter now that my son is older and is asking more about Jesus.

  1437. These are amazing! I’m going to need to Amazon Prime a couple so that we have some Easter books at the ready! Thanks!!!

  1438. These are great Easter books, and many that I haven’t heard of! I love reading books by the same author, and this gave me some great ideas 🙂

    • I’m glad! I like when a familiar author which I already like has a book for every holiday (explains my love of Tomie dePaola!).

  1440. I just picked up the Sesame Street bunny hop one for my littlest the other day… He loves ‘hop-hops’ (aka bunnies) and Elmo, so it was perfect for him!

  1441. So many wonderful Easter books listed here! We love all the Karen Katz books – there’s one about spring that’s really cute, too! xo

    • I love hers! I am a sucker for holiday books, and I love that she introduces familiar holiday symbols in a fun and colorful way for kids!

  1443. Duck and Goose! Love that book. That was the first book that my son would actually sit still and listen to! He’s 6 1/2 now, but I still pull it out sometimes to read to him! 🙂

    • They are such cute characters. We received one as a gift last year, and my daughter loved it!

  1444. Perfect timing! Thank you! I realized this week we don’t have any books about Easter so I have been starting to pick some out for my girls! These are so cute! I will definitely add them to the list!

    • I like putting books and Spring toys into my daughter’s basket rather than candy. I hope they enjoy them!

  1446. My daughter loves when we read to her. She likes to make up stories with the pictures as well. I will be buying a few of these books soon 🙂

  1449. My son loves Llama Llama and I had no idea that they had an Easter book…this may be in his basket! I really want to check out “My First Easter” as Tomie dePaola is one of my favorite authors from childhood! Great list!

    • Tomie dePaola is one of my favorites too! I have one of his on almost every list I write!

  1450. I didn’t realize Laura Numeroff had an Easter book! This list gave me a great starting point for birthday gifts for my soon to be 3 year old grandson, who loves books!

  1452. I absolutely love these ideas. We want to homeschool my son when he is old enough. I cant wait to do activities like this with him. I also want to add this book to his library.

    • I hope you enjoy them! I’m so excited that my daughter is at an age now where we can do things like this!

  1455. Great list! There’s a few on there I have not seen, like where are babies Easter eggs and Elmo and the bunnies, I might have to get those. My boys love the Llama series and the Duck and Goose book.

    • We do too! I really like the Karen Katz ones for really young kids at every holiday. She does a great job of introducing holiday symbols with lift the flap fun.

  1458. What a great list of books! I’m going to go get the llama llama book! Love all of those!

  1461. The three kids & I love spring! I like the scavenger hunt idea. We are always out on walks spotting things and they always want to bring sticks and cones home with them. One new spring activity this year was to make handprints with yellow paint, cut them out, stick them together in an overlapping way so the fingers stick out from the middle like petals, and them laminate them to make a yellow flower with a photo of each child in the middle. Add sticks and put them in a vase – a bunch of spring daffodils made of handprints!

    • I hope you enjoy it! It is really quick and easy to make. Plus I don’t have to worry as much when she inevitably puts it into her mouth.

  1463. Love these ideas! I manage my local farmers’ market and we’re constantly looking for new kids activities 🙂

  1464. These are some great suggestions! I bet my son would love the “Where Are Baby’s Easter Eggs?” because he loves the 2 other books we have in that series (trucks and Christmas present).

  1468. I’m so excited for spring and more chances to take my little ones outside. The spring scavenger hunt idea is great. We’ve done similar things in the past and the kids always love it.

  1475. These look like wonderful book suggestions! Growing up, my sister and I always enjoyed getting books on special occasions, and a love of reading has followed both of us into our adult lives.

  1478. I am estatic it’s Sping time!! This book looks so cute. And playdough is seriously my kids favorite! Everytime we sot down for craft day they beg to do something with playdoh!

    • It is a really cute book! My daughter loves playdoh too! She loves using cookie cutters in it.

    • There are some great deals on them now that the Spring toys are out in stores! I’m a little worried my daughter is going to enjoy digging in the dirt a little too much!

  1482. These are such good ideas! I’ll have to head out today or tomorrow and grab supplies for a few of these. The dipping a flower in paint and painting the paper is a great one. My son will love it! Thanks for these unique tips.

  1483. I love your idea for the cupcake liner flower number line. I think I will do this with my lil one this week as we are working on counting and number recognition. Thanks for the idea. I never would have thought about that one.

    • I hope you enjoy it! I love how easy it is to customize, and it is a great consistency for playing with!

  1488. As always you have come up with some fabulous ideas! My daughters have been a on play-doh kick- I love the idea of adding flower scents for spring!

    • Thank you so much! My daughter has been loving play doh lately too! I love making new scents for her to use.

  1489. Cooool! I’ll have to try the homemade playdough recipe! And my kids are really getting into numbers now too, so I am excited to try the number planting. How cute!

  1493. Pingback: 5 Easter Ideas for Babies Under 1 Year Old {Activities}

  1495. That play doh looks like so much fun! Our kids would love a scavenger hunt to bring on our first hikes of the season 🙂

  1496. This was very interesting! I love seeing other parenting styles, especially when they’re close to how I like to raise my kids! This way neat. I will be reading that book!

  1497. Yes!! I am a huge reader, and we read everyday in this house. Multiple times a day! We homeschool and I am now switching our “curriculum” to literature-based!

    • That’s awesome! I hope my daughter still likes to read multiple times a day when she’s older!

  1498. BOOKS! I love books. And, I really love posts that list books for age groups or styles or holidays, whatever. There are so many, and it’s awesome to have them in a list! Thanks!

  1500. We love spring and all your activities look so fun. We love to explore all the beautiful things around us–can’t wait to incorporate your activities this year.

  1501. We recently added this book to our home library, and it’s quickly become one of our favorites… especially the bit with the bear- so cute!

  1502. Awe…that book sounds so sweet! I also love the other activity ideas..that’s the homemade play doh recipe I remember from childhood! Been looking for it!

  1506. I am so glad to see a review of the Easter Cat! It fits my blog (Right Meow or Never) so nicely! I saw it at the store the other day but didn’t have time to flip through it. I really think my daughter would love it. Also – LOVE LOVE LOVE Berenstein Bears! Such good books!

    • I love them too! Also, the Cat series has books for a bunch of holidays, and they are definitely going to be added to our collection!

    • I’m glad! Yes they are still around! The Berenstain Bears are written by Stan and Jan Berenstain’s son Mike now, as Stan and Jan have since passed away. His books tend to be more religious in nature, but the lovable bears are still the same!

  1510. I love Jan Bret and The Bernstein Bears! One of my all time favorite Easter books is The Tale of 3 Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt. While not exclusively about Easter, my mom always read it to us at Easter. So it is now a tradition that I happily share with my kids.

    • That is so wonderful that you have a tradition like that! I haven’t heard of that book. I will have to go check it out!

  1511. These are great! My kids have never been much into Easter (we aren’t religious so we don’t focus on it much) but this year is completely different! We’ve been doing egg-related everything!

    • There are so many fun Easter traditions! I hope you enjoy checking out some of these books to go along with them!

  1515. Ah a classic! The berenstein bears! (probably misspelled that lol) I love getting holiday themed books. I always try to get one that teaches the holiday history and one for fun! These are great choices.

  1516. I need the Easter Cat for my daughter! She is 1 and loves cats! Funny side story, my mom used to tell me when I was a kid that my cat helped the Easter bunny!

    • I love them too! I found a bunch of them at my parents’ house and I can’t wait to read them with my daughter!

  1521. I love all of these suggestions! We have a stock pile of Easter books from what I was a kid.

    • That’s awesome! I hope to build my daughter’s collection so she has her own stockpile when she gets older.

  1522. Pingback: Going Dutch! My Reflections on ‘Stuff Dutch Moms Like’ | Homebound But Hopeful

  1523. I’m always impressed by the activities you develop to accompany each book you feature. They are accessible in so many different ways and look like so much fun to do with kids.

  1531. I love these choices because there is fun, humor, and learning. I love Jan Brett for the illustrations and my daughter could listen to the Berenstain Bears Easter Story in repeat all day! Great picks!

    • Thank you! I love having a mix of funny and serious books for the holidays. Some for learning and some just for fun!

  1532. These are fantastic books! The Bernstein bears are awesome..i still remember those! This is a good list! I should get a few of these for my babies. Thanks for sharing!

    • I hope they enjoy them! I love sharing stories with my daughter that I loved as a kid!

  1543. My oldest daughter is afraid of everything. The child is 6 and refuses to be in any room in our entire house on her own. No matter how many times my husband and I try to talk her through what she is scared of, she continues to hold on to her irrational fears. Hopefully your printable is able to help us work through this with her a bit more. I’m also going to check out that book. Thanks for sharing!

    • I hope it helps! I had a lot of fears when I was younger and it took me a long time to get over them (I thought Malificent from Sleeping Beauty lived in our attic!). This book does a great job of showing how we turn innocent things into scary things in our heads.

  1545. I love the idea of this book. I’ll have to check it out because I’ve been dealing with some struggles with my 4 year old.

  1547. I love the fear book! I already talk to my son a lot about his feelings and he’s not even two. He seems fearless now but I know as he gets older we will need to deal with this topic so these are great ways to do so!

    • That’s awesome! My daughter also seems to be fearless right now! I hope she keeps some of that.

  1548. This is such a great book! My girls are just now talking about fear so this would be great to use in your homeschool lessons!

  1552. That monster box looks like a great ritual. I’m going to try it. My daughters have a lot of fears..I am actually worried that my 3 y/o is kind of neurotic, which I’m sure is my fault. Hopefully this helps!

    • I hope it does! I’m a total worrier, and my daughter doesn’t seem to have any fears yet. Which is it’s own problem!

  1554. Yes! My kiddos love playing with cardboard boxes. I get a few things delivered from Target and they have hours of fun playing in the big boxes. 🙂

    My daughter painted with trains and loved it! Great ideas.

    • Thanks! I remember when my parents got a new fridge when we were younger, and we spent hours rolling each other around the back yard in the box!

  1559. Such fun ideas! I love the idea of painting with the train. My little man is entertained by the simplest things.

  1562. Great ideas! My kids are 5 and 6 and still love playing with our wooden train set. One of their favorite activities is to make a “parking lot” with masking tape for all of the trains.

  1565. I love all these cool activities!! You have such amazing ideas that I can’t wait to try out when my daughter gets older!!

  1566. I love that hop along the train tracks idea! It reminds me of a game I used to set up when my oldest was very young. We’d take those little foam floor tiles, and set them up in a track down our longest hallway. And then he’d crawl over them like a little train, saying ‘chugga chugga’ on the way. So many fun ways to incorporate trains into playtime!

    • That is so cute! My daughter was enjoying running back and forth along them making the train noises too.

  1567. I like the train track activity hop idea, getting them up and moving whike learning.

  1568. What a cool idea! I’ve never thought about using those old uno cards that are no longer a full deck for a new game but it makes sense and encourages creativity! Thanks for the ideas!

  1569. Love the painting with trains idea! What a great concept for the book, too. We are always looking for ways to repurpose old toys. Boxes definitely have the most bang for their buck, but this gives me something more to think about!

    • Thank you! I think repurposing old toys is a great way to get kids thinking outside the box (no pun intended!)

  1570. Another clever idea is Monster Spray. Fill a spray bottle with water and a little bit of lavender oil. Then you spray down the bedroom just before the child gets into bed. The spray keeps the monsters away. It also happens to spread a nice lavender scent that has a calming effect.

  1571. That looks like a cute book for train lovers! And I love the idea of painting with trains – I have a nephew that would love to do that! Great idea!

  1573. This looks amazing and definitely something I’ll try with my toddler! I’ve been looking for more activities to do with him during the day and I think he will really enjoy this!

  1575. This isn’t such a cute themed post! Love all the activities you came up with for trains. I used to love building train tracks when I was a little girl. I can also remember putting tape down to make “roads” for toy cars (sort of like your idea for the train obstacle course). Thanks for all your ideas! Such a well thought out post.

    • Thank you so much! I love that toy trains are such a great toy for encouraging creativity!

  1576. Oh I looovve the idea of an alphabet train. My three year old is so uninterested at the moment, so I’m not pushing but just keep trying to think of fun things to incorporate learning ABCs into. He is going to love this!

  1577. These are such cool activities! I love teaching that incorporates books, but takes lessons to the next level with all sorts of fun sensory activities!

  1580. Sounds like a great book for kids and moms.I got some new ideas to do with my kid.In our home,we dont have expensive or big toys.Instead we have small toys.I think that is the best opportunity for my kid to be creative.Using these small toys,we create lot of play activities… 🙂

  1583. That is a great book and I love the activities that you share with it. I especially like the hopping game. My boys are kinetic learners so anything that involves movement gets a big plus in our house.

  1584. Oh, we went through that Llama Llama Red Pajama phase — it was followed shortly by the Skippyjon Jones phase! You’ll miss it later. 🙂

  1588. These are great tips! My kids are too young for these questions but I do ask them questions like “Where is the monkey?” or “What color is the flower?” to get them more engaged and interested. My daughter is 2 but she always reads the books that we read on her own and she tries to copy whatever it was that I said.

    Belle | One Awesome Momma

  1590. Great Tips. I have been in a bedtime routine of reading aloud to my daughter since she was about 10 months old. Asking her questions has always helped encourage conversation and communication (even when it was just babble).

  1593. What a creative way to teach children about such an important topic! I love love love the monster box (throw away fear) idea!! thanks so much for sharing.

  1594. These are awesome tips! My mom read to us until we were in high school, the books gradually getting longer. It’s something I hope to be able to carry on with my sons!

  1596. Reading aloud is as much fun for the reader as the listener, IMHO. We are the The Big Hungry Bear phase right now. Good thing I love that book, too!

    • I agree! Luckily my daughter hasn’t gone through a phase with a book I don’t like (although reading Fox in Socks 10 times a day pushed me pretty close!)

  1597. These are such great tips! We read Llama Llama Red Pajama before bed every night. At first, I used to read it, now my daughter “reads” it. So darn cute. But I am working on asking those comprehension questions so gets a better understanding of what’s going on. Thanks for sharing mama!

    • My daughter “reads” it to me too! She loves to comment on the pictures as well – “Oh no!” when Llama Llama is yelling, and “Here she comes” when the Mom is coming up the stairs. I love it!

  1598. I love that you read to your daughter from the same book your parents read to you on your first night home. That is so sweet. I don’t think we read to my son on his first night home because it was so hectic, I didn’t even know which way was up! Haha. But he definitely enjoys his pre-nap and bedtime reads now! 🙂

    • That is awesome! I was so excited to share that tradition with her, I don’t even remember what time it was that I finally read it to her!

  1599. We read several books daily. In reading your post, I realized that I need to ask questions more. As a teacher, I’m well aware this is important but in the business of life, I forget to do it! Thanks for this reminder! – Amy

    • I totally agree, teacher to teacher. It can be so hard to remember to bring that stuff home, since we try so hard not to bring work home!

  1616. Great way of taking a classic and making fun learning activities. My son is a bit young, but I love the idea of teaching spelling from this.

    • Thank you! My daughter is still a little young for spelling her name, but she recognizes the letters in her name and we had fun putting them together.

  1623. This was my daughter’s theme for her first birthday! We love this book and are obsessed with all things about the very Hungry caterpillar!

  1624. This is one of my favorite books to read to my son. He has just gotten into painting as well, so I think he would like the activities to go along with it.

    • I actually just shared that on my Facebook page the other day because it cracked me up! Now I hear that in my head while we read it!

  1626. I can’t believe I haven’t read this book with my son yet – such a classic! & I love all the crafts to go along with it! Will have to try these out (& get the book! haha) Thanks for sharing!

  1627. What a great collection of activities. We love Eric Carle books and there are so many fun ways to engage kids in the story.

    • Thank you! I hope you have fun with it! My daughter insisted on carrying the caterpillar’s head around afterward showing him around the house!

  1629. We LOVE this book. I read this to my first from 2 weeks old, and every day for about a year! He still enjoys it even though he’s almost 4! I love the squares of felt threaded onto a button and string, what a genius idea!

    • Thank you! That is awesome that you have enjoyed it together for so long! It is such a fun one to read aloud!

  1634. I loved reading as a kid and my little munchkin is very interested in it now, too! He would be all over a personalized book!

    • I agree! I love my book from when I was a child, and my daughter is loving reading hers!

  1636. Simon has the “What Simon Can Be” book and it’s really well done and cute! The one you got sounds and looks great too.

  1637. I love this! My mom had personalized books made for my brother and I when we were little and it felt like the grandest thing ever!

  1638. Personalized stories are the best! We made a book about our family on Snapfish and both my kids LOVE it. Putting them in a story really does make reading exciting.

    • That is awesome! I love that the technology available today allows us to further immerse kids in books!

    • It is! My daughter already loves it, and I know she will love it even more as she gets older and understands it more!

    • Thank you! My daughter loves working on little fine motor things, so I’m constantly having to come up with new things to keep her motivated!

  1646. My son has a personalized book and he really loves it! We often read it together at bedtime even though he’s outgrown the reading level, he still loves that it’s about him.

  1650. We love those books here! We had one personalized for the whole family at Christmas. The kids literally go wild seeing their name in there.

  1651. I love the concept. What a great way to inspire little ones. My son is learning all about the Earth in prek. This would be a great thing to upping towards him.

    • It’s a great book which introduces such important concepts in a colorful way!

  1653. Great new book to check out1 Love the idea of the turtle being inspired by shy children who just need a little time to come out of their shells.

    • Me too! I was a shy child myself, so I think helping kids overcome their shyness with books is awesome.

  1654. I love the message behind this story! Such a cute idea with the turtle craft…so great that you can teach about recycling as well! 🙂

    • Thank you! It is a great book, and I love that there are so many great messages in it.

  1655. This looks like a great book! I love the theme of learning to be bold and brave even when you may not think that you are!

  1656. Before I write about your post, I have to tell you that I absolutely love your blog. I read this post and then the last one and then several others. So engrossed was I that I stayed up late several hours last night.

    And what cute ideas in this post. Definitely going to try them with my kid.

    • I’m so glad! It is a great book and there are so many great lessons in it!

  1658. I love the messages in this book! I’ll have to share with my boys and we love doing activities that accompany the book! Thanks for sharing.

    • It is a fantastic book! I love that it has so many lessons wrapped in a beautiful book.

    • I agree! I love books that teach such important lessons in a fun and colorful way!

  1664. Love the inspiration behind this story. Finding confidence takes courage and belief in one’s self. Sounds like a great book 🙂

  1665. I’m SO glad someone is writing a kid’s book about the poor sea creatures getting trapped in the plastic!!! I’ve always cut those things up just in case they happened to find a way into some body of water, and I’m going to make sure to teach my daughter to do the same thing. This book sounds like a must-have to teach the importance!!

    • Me too! I am so careful to always cut the plastic apart! I will definitely teach my daughter to do the same. This book is definitely a great start!

  1668. Personalized books are so popular right now, and these versions are so much more beautiful than some of the other options I’ve seen out there.

    • They are really great quality. I hope my daughter treasures hers like I have treasured mine!

  1669. So cute! My brother “adopted” a sea turtle for my daughter’s birthday one year. She loved getting all the updates and learning about sea creatures!!

    • Aw, that is awesome! My aunt adopted a penguin when we were younger. We thought it was so cool to have a wild animal “in the family”!

  1670. This book looks awesome for little kids. Love all the crafts and sensory activities you can make to go along with the book. Such a great idea! Love!

  1671. We have a lot of children’s books from Hawaii, but we don’t have this one. It looks like a great story that highlights the importance of recycling properly and encourages kids to have self-confidence. I’m going to check it out!

  1673. Awww I have a special place in my heart for turtles. “Turtle” was my son’s favorite word, right after one swam under me in Hawai’i. He lost all of his language, but turtles still seem to pop up around him a lot…he and my husband even rescued one from the middle of the road in Florida once! A SNAPPING turtle! (My husband really did the rescuing, but, ya know, the kiddo was there)

    • Aw, that is so sweet they rescued one. I bet he remembers it fondly, but were you scared?? Snapping turtles can be scary!

  1675. I love the life lesson and story that this book tells! I was such a timid kid that being brave is one of the more important characteristics that I try to instill in my daughter.

    • I was a very timid kid too! I like that the character in this book learns to be brave when necessary, but that being a little timid isn’t bad either!

  1676. My Daughter and I LOVE these books. Thank you so much for this opportunity.

  1677. I used to have this book memorized. It was my middle child’s favorite. Whenever she would cry say on walks home from the grocery store I’d recite it on repeat to get her to stop. I can’t believe it but I’d actually forgotten about it! I wonder if she would still love these activities-it’s been a while since we’ve read it! But in any case your blog is amazing. You recommend the best books and your activities are so fun and creative. So I nominated you for the Blogger Recognition Award! Hoorah! http://www.bettysbattleground.com/2017/05/03/blogger-recognition-award/

    • Aw, thank you so much! I appreciate the recognition! It is such a fun book for kids, and I have found myself repeating it to my daughter for the same reason!

  1681. This is complete package recommendation. I love that the book came with suggested activities from this blog that are related to the book.the brave little turtle seems like a good read for kids because it combines bravery with environmentalism. It makes the lesson current and real to the world we live in

  1683. I will look for these books! One of my favorite in our home is “If Mom Had Three Arms.” My six year old has been reading it for years and it’s still a favorite.

    • I hope she likes it! I really liked that it had so many great messages in it!

  1688. These are amazing! I’ve never heard of any of them. Now I’m gonna have to get one…or all of them. We’re book obsessed here!

    • They are really funny books that both parents and kids can enjoy the humor in!

    • Aw, that is a very fun one! I hope you enjoy some of the other ones as well!

  1696. These are great! We all need to show Mom some extra love, especially on Mother’s Day!!

  1701. My son loves books. Bet he would enjoy the Little Fun Club packages. This is a great review makes getting books a lot more dun. Who doesnt love receiving things in the mail other than bills!

  1703. Wow this is a great service! My kids love books AND getting stuff in the mail. I’ll definitely have to check it out!

  1704. This sounds amazing! I love that the books grow with the kids, and I love that you can tailor the books to your child. Thanks for sharing!

    • I thought those benefits were really excellent! It’s comforting to know that your child can get books that are chosen with them in mind.

    • I have heard of that but they don’t have it in our area yet! I love that these programs are getting books into the hands of kids!

  1709. This is such an incredible opportunity for all who live there. I live in a different country and so it ends up being way too expensive. But i wish!!

    • Aw, I’m sorry! Hopefully there will be a similar program where you live!

  1710. Great find! I had no idea this was available. I love this as a gift idea for the kids. We don’t need more stuff, but more books are awesome!

  1713. This is such a great idea! My kids loved be to read and I know they’ll love this!

    • They do! The ones we received were board books! They will tailor it to your child!

    • That’s awesome! It’s so great when we can get new books delivered right to the house!

    • I agree! It’s so great that we can get new books tailored to them and sent right to the house!

  1723. I love all the variety of activities you can do! I think I like the paper plate one best 🙂

    Thanks for participating this month in the #monthlycraftingbookclub

  1724. Great ideas! I can’t wait to try some of these with my kids. I love that there are activities that are appropriate for various ages. The feather blowing game seems so fun!

    • Thank you! I hope you have a lot of fun with them! I like having activities for a variety of ages because I think everyone can enjoy a great picture book!

  1729. I love the idea of teaching our kids about bravery. I always tell my daughter being brave means that you try something even though you’re scared. Love the fine motor Easter egg activity!

    • Thank you! My daughter had a lot of fun with that one! That is a great way to explain bravery to kids.

  1734. This is great! My toddler loves taking selfies too! I actually did take a bunch of digital photos and made a photo book. I did this last year for Father’s Day gift.

    • Here too! We have books in every room so she always has them around, and more often than not, that is what she chooses. It makes me feel better about her having screen time when I know she prefers reading!

    • It is crazy how fast they pick it up! I agree it is so important to put them down and get outside!

  1739. Aw what a great book! Every kid loves selfies! I absolutely love seeing the photos they take…my last album is from when my one daughter got her hair cut…the other was taking photos the whole time! Sweet memories!

    • Haha. I love seeing my daughter figuring out how it works. She just discovered Siri can say her name, which has become a whole new adventure!

  1740. What an awesome book. So important to unplug and spend time with our children! Its what they need! Thanks for sharing! 💕

    • I agree! It is so easy for us to get caught up in the electronics since they are all around us!

  1741. My kids watch TV and play games on the computer, but we are definitely sure to make time to read several books, play, color, and get lots of outside time. Great post!

    • Thank you! I agree everything in moderation. My daughter loves the few TV shows she watches and she has learned a lot from them! I also like to make sure that it doesn’t take up the majority of her day, and I’m thrilled when she would prefer to be reading or playing outside!

  1742. These ideas are so adorable!! My daughter LOVES easter eggs so this would be a great way to bring them back in for her to play with!

    • Thank you! We have yet to put ours away because this is the first year my daughter understood Easter egg hunts, so she is now obsessed!

  1743. Any book that instills bravery is one close to my heart! I can’t wait to try some of these activities with my children, the egg-cellent matching one is my favorite!

    • Thank you! I agree that books on bravery are treasures. It can be such a hard thing to teach to kids, and great books really help!

  1745. This book sounds great! My girls love playing with phones and tablets as well. In a time where we can always be connected to something sometimes it’s hard to be present. So I love the idea of Electronics Time Out. This is something we will have to do in our house.

    • It is so easy for us to forget about unplugging! With so much technology available it is easy for us to get swept away in it!

  1746. I hadn’t really had trouble with “screen time” until my son turned about 6 and now he LOVES video games. It’s been a battle to limit his time in front of them ever since. I’m still working on a system.

  1748. I think technology is such a great thing. There are so many opportunities and great things that it brings – but I do also agree that too much of a good thing can be too much.

    • I agree! I want my daughter to have access to technology because there are some great things available and not knowing about it could be a disadvantage someday, but everything in moderation for sure!

    • It’s so helpful to step away from all the technology every once in a while!

  1751. I hate to admit it, but my 8 month old love taking selfies and already knows how to swipe on her tablet. But we are now having days away from electronics so can doesn’t become addicted to screens.

    • It’s so hard to keep them away from electronics! I tried to keep my daughter away from them, but came to realize it was bound to happen. We have as much screen free time as possible, but when she does engage with screens, I try to remind myself that she will have to know how to use them when she gets to school!

  1753. This sounds like a really awesome book to start in toddlers years. There should be more books like these that’ll engage children so they too can get the idea of what it means to have balance. Because Lord knows i say it to my 8 yr old and all I get are *sighs that sound like I’m talking out of my butt. 😒
    Thanks for sharing this. xo, Maria
    https://imommy.co

    • Haha, I agree! Balance is important to teach at a young age. They will have more technology in their lives than we can even imagine!

  1755. Ahh… you caught the nerve at the right point.. SO important to have this.. I have also recently written a post on reading in kids, which I’ll publish coming week:)

  1756. I love this! Such an important topic nowadays. We limit electronics as is but we also do the time out spontaneously and have an impromptu family night.

    • That’s awesome! It’s so important to have that family time without the added distraction!

  1757. Very interesting read. Going to show this to several friends who are teachers and see what they have to say. I see a discussion coming.

  1758. My toddler loooves to grab my phone. WhileI do love his selfies we have tried to limit all phone time. Even mommy!

    • It is amazing how quickly they become attached to them! My daughter assumes everyone’s phone has photos of her on them, so she likes to ask to see them!

  1759. I do try to rotate books every few weeks! We have so many and he mostly likes to just pull them all off the shelf so I keep about 10 in the living room, 5 by his potty, and 10 in his room for bedtime stories. (that’s not an exact number. It’s probably more than that) but then when I get sick of them I rotate them. He actually does pretty well at sitting for a story but only if it’s an older book that he knows. New books take him a while to warm up to! And I’m with you, sometimes when he wants to bail early I’m so ocd that i just HAVE to finish it. Even if it’s just in my head!

    • Haha, oh I absolutely get that! I have such an issue with not finishing pages or the book!

  1760. I so appreciate this post. I can relate to everything you said, and I’m so glad it’s not just happening to me. I’ve definitely hidden plenty of books and had many fights over my lap! Let’s not mention when the little one just slams all of the books shut… thanks for reminding us it’s not always easy and as perfect as it looks.

    • I’m glad others have the same experiences! It’s so important to remember that we don’t have to be “perfect” to be amazing parents!

  1761. Great tips! I love the part about hiding a well read book! I know the importance of rereading but sometimes reading Pinkalicous again might just be the death of me!

  1762. HAHAHA I love these tips–my daughter is a year, and she has the attention span of a goldfish!!! I read like two pages and she wants another book!!

  1764. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for #4. There are a few books we have read so many times that I literally start to fall asleep when we read them now because I’m so bored. I don’t understand why that is…they have an absolutely ridiculous selection to choose from!

    • I totally get it! Even some of my favorites to read can start to drag after a while!

  1767. This is great, especially #4! I think I need to hide a book or two (sorry, If You Give a Moose a Muffin!). The great thing about all of this is that one day, they WILL sit and read, and read, and read.

    • Exactly! It can be frustrating when it doesn’t seem like they are paying attention, but they are!

  1768. These are great tips! I love the part about hiding a well read book, I do that with toys as well to rotate them every few weeks.

  1770. I took a Teaching Reading class in college, and reading aloud was something they stressed so much. I remember them saying we need to read aloud to kids because it’s a commercial for reading. They’re much more likely to read later in life If you read to them as kids!

    • It is so true! Reading aloud to kids has been proven to be one of the most effective strategies to getting kids to become readers themselves!

    • Thank you so much! It is so easy to get caught up in worrying about doing everything perfectly! Parents need to know that not being perfect is totally okay!

  1773. It is scary how digital the world is becoming! We limit our 3yr old to an hour of time on her tablet a day and it only has kid friendly games and books on it. Even then, I think that’s too much some days. When the weather gets nicer we may knock the time down to 30min instead.

    • I totally agree! I try really hard to not let my daughter get too caught up in the electronics. When she does get some time on them, I try to remind myself that they will have more technology in their lives than we have had, so it will help them to be comfortable and familiar with it!

  1774. Yes! I love when my kids decide to play “choose your own adventure” when we are reading books. Who say you have to read the pages in order when going page 1, page 6, page 3, page 6, page 4, page 5, page 6, page 2, page 7 is so much more fun!

  1775. I think #4 will save a lot of sanity! It took me a long time to be comfortable doing that and then I wondered what took me so long!

    • Me too! I felt bad at first, but sometimes it is better to try something different for a night!

  1777. I literally just breathed a sigh of relief after reading this! I am such a bookworm and want to share my love for books with my kids, but it can be such a frustrating experience with littles. I am so relieved that I am not the only one with kids who sometimes don’t want to finish the story, or only ask for 1 book over and over again, or who flip pages back and forth. But you are right–it doesn’t have to be picture perfect.

    • I’m so glad it gave you some comfort! It’s helpful to realize we aren’t alone, and that those nights won’t hurt the chances of our kids becoming bookworms.

  1778. The “kids will walk away” one is my son! Or he talks through the entire book, but if I stop its the end of the world! haha Still we love story time!

    • Haha, my daughter is the same way! She can walk away or seem like she isn’t paying attention, but if I stop reading, she doesn’t understand why!

  1779. This is great. We all get caught up in the dream of a perfect postcard reading time when what we need to focus on is the time spent together. One fun thing we did when reading to our kids and it depends on the ages of the kids you are reading to, but use the same book (you have read 1000 times) and make up a totally different story to go with the pictures.

    • That’s a great idea! My daughter likes to “read” the book along with me because she’s memorized it.

  1780. Oh I liked that point about some kids wandering away! My eldest LOVES books and would sit for hours reading them. His younger brother prefers to have a bit read to him, wander away and then crawl back into my lap to read more haha.

    I rotate their books around too so I’m not reading the same ones over and over – although they clearly have their favourites!

    • My daughter loves to read, and when she gets up and wanders away she expects me to keep reading and gets upset if I stop!

  1784. I use to love the Berenstein Bears. I’m not sure I’ve ever read this story though. I love the obstacle course and the honey pot number recognition activity! Great ideas as always.

    • Thank you! I’m not sure I even realized this was their debut until years later! There isn’t a sister and the brother is just named “Small Bear”.

    • Thank you! I love the Berenstain Bears too! They were some of my favorite books growing up!

    • I will take a look, thanks! I didn’t realize until much later that it was a Berenstain Bears book!

  1789. Great post. Much as we all know reading to our kids is important, if reading becomes something that is frustrating for one or both involved, then it will not have the desired effect – to build lifelong readers. Thanks for these great reminders!

    • It is so true! Too often we feel like we need to force it because we know reading to them is a good thing, but reading to the point of frustration doesn’t help anyone!

  1791. Super cute ideas! What a fun theme that allows you to do many different types of activities with your children! Thanks for sharing

  1792. I have always lived the Barenstain bears! Takes me back to my own childhood. I’ll have to try some of your activities with the book, they look so fun!

    • I loved them as a kid too! We still have several of the books from when we were younger. I can’t wait to share them with my daughter!

  1794. I seriously love all your ideas for books! They’re so creative – I can’t wait to try them out once my LO is older!

    • Aw, thank you so much! It means a lot to hear that! I hope you have a lot of fun with them someday!

  1796. I loved the Berenstain Bears. I remember this book as a child. I think this is a great way to really get the children to enjoy and listen to the book. My son is a little young for those activities right now, but I’ll look forward to doing something like this with him in the future! Those cookies look so good!

    • I hope you do have fun with them someday! The Berenstain Bears were some of my favorite characters growing up, so I’m excited to get to share them with my daughter!

  1797. Getting bored and walking away definitely does it. My son will be dying for me to read away to him. Then as soon as I open the book the up he say mommy I will read to you or walk away haha. Finding the right book. Even if it’s the same book we’re reading I have seen he will sit and let me read it to him.

  1798. I love how you incorporated activities that tied into the story with your children. I feel like that is a great opportunity for them to actually digest the storyline. I’m definitely going to download the Honey Pot Match for my 4-year-old. He can count to an extent and identify groups but he definitely needs practice.

    • I hope it is helpful! I love bringing books to life. I think it gets kids even more interested in the story!

  1799. Great ideas! We love the Berenstain Bears and with summer approaching I am looking for all the help I can get with keeping my kids busy.

    • I did too! I feel that way about most cartoon characters I love. It’s so interesting to see how our favorite characters develop over time.

  1801. These are some great ideas for some great summer fun with the kids. I cannot wait for it to stop raining where I live so I can use some of these ideas to entertain my nieces outside.

    • I hope they enjoy them! We had a few weeks of solid rain, but we are luckily having some nice weather finally. Hope you get some too!

  1802. I love this so much because as a teacher, I plan the “perfect read aloud” as part of my lessons. Of course, they do not always go as planned, but my students usually enjoy the experience and at least sit there the entire time I am reading. Then…I became a mom. I taped myself reading aloud to her while I was pregnant (because that is how much I love read alouds) and then she hit toddlerhood and as you mentioned, will sometimes just get up and walk away. I have totally hidden “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” a few times and totally changed (read: skipped) entire sections of a book because it cannot keep MY attention. This is a great reminder that it does not have to be perfect, just read as much as you can, when you can! Keeping it fun really helps them get excited about coming to school someday!

    • Haha, so funny your said that about changing the book because I just changed the words to The Day the Crayons Quit tonight because I couldn’t read the yellow crayon in the dark room! She won’t remember that there were days I skipped sections, but she will remember that we read together! That’s the most important part.

  1803. So many great activities! My boys love the Berenstein Bears books, so I can’t believe we’ve never read this one. It’s going on the list right away. They’d also love that obstacle course.

    • Thank you! I love the Berenstain Bears too! My daughter had a lot of fun with the obstacle course! She’s been trying to recreate it for days now.

  1804. Growing up I absolutely LOVED the Berenstain bears!!! I love the craft that was incorporated with this book!!

  1805. I just laughed out loud at number 4 because I have totally done that! We have this one ABC book that my Son would literally want me to read 20 times a day. I had to hide it for a few weeks as I needed a break! LOL

  1806. I can’t believe I haven’t heard of this oldie from S&J B!! I love some of the older ones where the bears look a little different. I’ll have to check this one out! Also, I literally just the other week bought one of the newer Berenstein Bears books that their son does…and OMG they had a third bear baby! I was like WHAT?! LOL it was like this crazy reaction that I just couldn’t believe fictional characters I grew up with now have another child. LOL

    • Haha, we missed so much! It’s crazy how it affects you when your childhood characters change!

  1807. This is a great topic for you to bring to light. Event though my LO is only 4 months old, I do my best to not be on my phone or computer when I’m spending time with him. I want to encourage fun in other ways than technology! Thanks for sharing!

    • It’s so easy to get swept up in it and forget that kids mimic everything we do! I tried to keep screens to a minimum when my daughter was an infant too.

  1810. We are reading chapter books and my biggest issue comes when one kids doesn’t want to listen for an evening, but then gets mad that he missed part of the story. I know it’s really more of a learning experience for him, but I still hate having the argument about it.

    • That’s an excellent point! I can see how that would be a tough argument to have. I hope for your sake it doesn’t happen too often!

  1811. I definitely remember reading the Berenstein Bears as a kid, although I don’t think I ever read this particular book. I love the activities here so I will have to check it out with my daughters!

    • I hope you enjoy it! It’s a really fun book and we had a lot of fun with the activities!

  1812. We love this book! What fun activities to go with it, too. I love the bee obstacle course…it might be fun to turn it into a “find the flower” treasure hunt, too!

    • Thank you so much! That would be a great spin on it. I will have to use that since my daughter now loves wearing the antennae all the time and leading me around the yard!

    • It’s a really cute one! I don’t think I even realized it was the Berenstain Bears until later in life!

  1815. My Son is getting to the point where he throws a tantrum if we take the phone away from him. It’s very frustrating but I am doing my best to lay down the law around here. I just want him to use his imagination and play the way we did when we were growing up and not rely constantly on a bright screen.

    • I agree! It’s so hard to get them to understand why screen time has to be limited! I want to make sure that my daughter has memories of her childhood other than playing on screens!

  1817. The teacher in me loves how you scaffold activities around the books. I do the same for my little one. The bee craft is so simple and I love how I have everything right now to make them.

    • Thank you! Now that I am home with my daughter, this is how I satisfy the teacher in me!

  1818. I absolutely love anything with bees and these ideas look so fun and adorable! I was never a huge fan of the Berenstain Bears books but I’ve never read this one and would love to check it out. I often use your posts to make library book lists and then we go on a hunt for them each week! 😉 Thanks!

    • I am so glad to hear that! We had a lot of fun with these activities. This isn’t a typical Berenstain Bears book, so I hope you will like it!

  1824. The weather is finally breaking here so hopefully we can get outside and do some of these great ideas!! I’m sick of drawing in the garage with chalk lol

    • Me too! We’ve been blowing bubbles in the garage with the door open because my daughter just wanted to be outside – even though it was pouring!

  1828. Wow…chalk is so outdated for my son’s generation..but I remember using it to play a lot of games during my childhood. This post brings back good memories.

    • My daughter has been loving it, which makes me happy because then I get to play with it! Haha.

  1831. What an amazing list! I’ll be saving this to my summer fun Pinterest board and we’ll definitely be doing the water balloon letter game. And I know I have some books we can repurpose into chalkboard books. Thanks for sharing!

    • I hope you have fun with them! I can’t wait for warmer weather so we can do the water balloon game too!

  1832. my favorite memories growing up involved drawing with chalk every day in the summer! I’m excited to break it out again for the littles 🙂

    • I have fond memories of it too! I’ve been so excited to get my daughter into it too!

  1833. So many things to love about this post… the main thing I love though is that while the kids think they are only playing, they are actually improving SO many skills! I am going to try the math game and the shape maze, we are definitely trying chalk paint this summer too. Awesome ideas!

    • Thank you! I love that there are so many fun ways to learn with such a simple toy!

    • I agree! I love how much fun you can have with such a simple and inexpensive toy!

    • I’m so glad they were helpful! I had the same problem coming up with new ideas after days of drawing!

    • It’s so great! It’s cheap, it can travel, and you can use it in so many ways!

  1841. Adults think ABC’s are boring, but kids LOVE everything with them! This is a great way to keep your child engaged and being creative with their learning!

    • Thank you! I am always looking for new ways to incorporate the ABCs into our day!

  1842. We love playing with sidewalk chalk. We have been using it on the tennis court since no one uses it much. Lately I’ve been letting my daughter use the chalk on our balcony.

    • I love that it is so versatile! It’s easy to take with you and can be used so many ways!

    • We are at that stage too! Lots of shapes being drawn on our driveway this month!

  1844. You made me nostalgic about some of the games I used to play when I was small.. nevertheless, waiting for my kid to grow up to have these re-play’s with him:)

    • I’m glad! I have been enjoying my own trip down memory lane with my daughter!

  1848. Chalk is a must have around our house during the summer months! Love this list ☺ My kids love to play charades with chalk

  1851. What a fun list! I hadn’t heard of most of these and I was just starting to think about Father’s Day. I think I might pick up “My Dad Thinks He’s Funny” because my husband is huge on Dad jokes!

  1855. This is a great list of books for Father’s Day! We love “The Night Before” series! Thanks for compiling them into one easy space!

  1856. Thank you so much for sharing this. I definitely will be buying “when dads don’t grow up” and “my dad thinks he’s funny” HAHA

  1858. So precious, thanks for this collection! I’m working on growing a library of seasonal/holiday books for my twin girls to enjoy throughout the year. It’s a fun tradition I started and I love looking for new books!

  1860. These are so cute and perfect for Father’s Day coming up! I’ve heard of some of these but not all. Love this!

    Fromunderapalmtree.com

  1863. These are the cutest for Fathers Day. My son loves books which always makes my husband and I smile. This would be so great for Fathers Day.

  1865. Already pinned to my kids’ books board and to my father’s day gift ideas boards!! Great list so many i have never seen before!! Thank you!!

  1867. Isla and Neil’s favourite is Just Like My Dad. So true, by the way. Pinning this and will check out the others. Thank you!

    Lorna

  1872. These are great! Dad’s don’t usually get the same attention Mom’s get so It’s refreshing to see that there are books honoring Dad as well! Thank you so much for sharing these, I’ll check them out for my Son for when he’s a little older <3

    • I was pleased to see so many good ones out there about father-child relationships! I agree, the focus is usually on the mother.

  1875. Great list! My daughter absolutely LOVES to read, so these would be great for her to give to her dad. We already have a couple on the list, but many of them I am not familiar with. I’ll definitely be checking them out! Thanks so much!

  1876. Already saved this post in my bookmarks folder. So many amazing ideas to do with my kids and their friends. I know for a fact that already some of them love to play with chalk. This will bring so many hours of fun and joy and at the same time it can be very educational. Thank you so much Vicki!

    • I’m so glad! I hope your kids have fun with them. My daughter has been requesting we repeat some of them already!

  1877. Oh my gosh that Just me and my dad book is/WAS my favorite! I got it for my husband last year for his first father’s day, and now we can’t find the book!!!! I’m so sad! Hopefully we find it soon. The others are great recommendations! I’m going to have to continue the tradition and buy one of these for father’s day this year!

    • My daughter gave that one to her dad on his first Father’s Day too! I love giving books on holidays.

  1878. I remember winning a homonym contest when I was in third grade, haha. This looks super cute, I’m going to have to check it out to talk about homonyms with my oldest!

    • That is awesome! My daughter has been having fun with the puzzles even if she doesn’t get the word part yet.

  1879. We recently cut my oldest’s screen time way back, and have noticed his behavior improve when we made the change. Definitely plan to keep that in place, and hope to keep the little one on minimal screen time as well.

    • It can be so hard to find a balance! Luckily now that the weather is getting nicer, we can get outside more.

  1880. I love the emphasis on just reading… it’s so important and beneficial for kids, and it doesn’t have to be hard or complicated at all.

  1883. The ‘books about funny dads’ are both new to me but remind me of my husband so much. I’ve already gotten my husband his father’s day gifts from the kids but I think we’ll have to add at least one of those to our library in honor of his first father’s day as a dad to two. Thanks for putting together such a neat list of unique titles!

    • I’m so glad I could share some new ones! I love finding new books to give for holidays. I’m glad others do too!

  1884. We pick up different library books biweekly so we won’t re-read books over and over again. She still has her faves but it’s not so redundant mixing in library books.

    • My daughter lets me mix in a few new ones now and again, but always cycles back to the familiar favorites too!

  1890. My mother sold both Discovery Toys and Usborne Books. The quality and play value was tremendous. Now my own daughter is playing with the same toys and reading the same books that my brother and I played with and read!

  1892. I just started getting into Usborne books! They all seem to be really visually beautiful and have good stories. This one looks especially adorable and perfect for bath time!

    • My daughter has received a few of them in the past, but I didn’t know too much about them yet. This one is so cute, so it’s a great starter into the world of Usborne!

  1894. We LOVE usborn books!!! This one looks super cute–so far we have a whole bunch of the “that’s not my ____” series and love them hehe 😀

    • It is a really adorable one! My daughter has been requesting I read it over and over!

  1896. I also try to encourage reading wherever we go. The grocery store is definitely a great place for practicing because there is so much to read! I love all of your ideas!

    • Thank you! Encouraging reading everywhere you go is such a great way to raise bookworms!

  1897. These ideas are awesome! We may try the bingo today. Definitely letting my son pick a meal to make too!

    • I hope you have fun with it! My mom encouraged us to pick meals when we were younger so we whined less about meals we didn’t like! Haha.

  1898. Such great tips! Grocery shopping can be such an amazing learning opportunity. I can’t wait to try some of these out on our next grocery trip. I’ll confess that with my grouchy 20-month-old, more often that not, I just want to hurry, but my 4 y.o. would get so much out of these ideas!

    • I understand that completely! My daughter definitely has days when she has no patience for shopping.

  1901. Love this! Every opportunity to help reading skills

    I’d love for you to share this with my weekly link up community, Encouraging Hearts & Home – if you’re interested, just stop by on Thursday! Hope to see you there

  1903. So many great ideas! Get the kids involved in shopping and a part of meal planning. I love the food bingo game too 🙂

    • Thanks! My mom thought it was really important to teach my sister and I how to meal plan and cook, and I’m so grateful for it!

  1905. These are great ideas! I need to keep them in mind when I go to the grocery store the next time. I never thought of teaching him more at the store.

    • Haha, oh I definitely have days like that! There are days when I feel like a circus act, catching and balancing food on each hand and foot as I try to catch them before they reach the ground!

  1907. Love having my kids get involved in the meal planning, shopping and cooking process. We do it much more in the summer because as they get older, the school year is too hectic. Someone gave me an idea to give each kid $10 and have them plan a meal and buy the ingredients for dinner one night. We will definitely be doing that this summer! Thanks for the ideas!

    • I hope they have a lot of fun with it! I loved the ability to have a say in what we ate when I was growing up, and my mother liked not having to pick the menu every single night!

  1908. I love this! We’ve practiced discounting items at the grocery store and reading the signs above the aisles, but the bingo game is something we definitely have to try. I love that you take a holistic learning view just like we do – I’ll definitely be back to check out more of your content 🙂

    • Thank you so much! I’m so glad you enjoy it! I hope you will find lots of other activities you enjoy as well.

    • I’m so glad! My daughter loves shopping with the mini cart too. Makes it a little difficult when I have to chase her down or carry it to the register when she gets bored, haha.

    • Thank you! My daughter loves to be active while shopping, so every little bit helps!

    • Thank you! I think it’s so important to make learning fun and a part of every day life!

  1916. I love these ideas! My kids aren’t reading quite yet, but Mr 5 can pick what letter things start with, and Miss 2 is interested in learning so we practice everywhere we go!

  1918. Very nice article today. i especially like the flossing with the Mega blocks. what a great way to demonstrate the problem and guide them to the proper activity.

  1919. Cute! My little loves to brush his teeth. He just struggles with the actual brushing part and prefers to just gnaw on his brush. It’s a work in progress lol

    • Haha, my daughter is the same way! I think chewing on the toothbrush must feel good on the gums.

    • Thanks! My daughter loves anything play dough related right now so it worked out well!

  1921. Omg I LOVE this!!! You did such a great job coming up with fun activities to teach her about the importance of brushing. Definitely going to add these to my toolbox for the future!!

  1922. My son hated everything about brushing his teeth until age 3. Now he loves it and he just turned four. I love these. I guess he’s a late bloomer lol.

  1924. Wonderful strategies for deescalating the stress of shopping with littles and replacing it with authentic learning!

  1931. I am going to see if our local library has any of these books. Leading up to the 4th of July these would be fun to read to my grandchildren.

  1932. Great post! I did a similar one and some of the books were the same but you found some that I didn’t. It’s great to encourage reading using holidays.

    • I agree! I love getting out new books for the holidays! I will have to check out your list too!

  1933. These all look like awesome books! I haven’t heard of a few of them. It is so important to me to educate my children about why we celebrate 4th of July.

    • I agree! I love that there are some great kid’s books available now to introduce the different traditions and symbols of the holidays to our kids!

  1934. Great choices here! I didn’t realize Natasha Wing had released a July 4th book. We’ll need to check that one out!

    • I love her Night Before series! They make it on almost all of my holiday lists, haha. She does such a great job of talking about all of the symbols and traditions in a fun way!

  1935. I love this collection! I would love for you to share it with my little book community in my weekly link up, Encouraging Hearts & Home – it opens Thursdays, and I’d love to see you there!

    • Me too! She does such a great job of introducing kids to the symbols and traditions of every holiday in a fun way!

    • I thought I had a good amount of books for each holiday before my daughter was born, but then when I started reading them to my daughter before each holiday, I realized how many I was missing!

  1943. Such awesome options! We love The Night Before the Fourth of July! Can’t wait to add more of these books to our collection. Thanks for sharing!

    • I love bringing out books for each new holiday that approaches! I hope your kids love them!

  1947. This is really helpful! Love that you’ve featured books talking about the holiday from so many different perspectives!

    • I love giving families a variety of books to choose from. I think it is important for kids to learn about the reason behind a holiday, but also to enjoy a light book about the fun traditions as well!

  1948. I’m glad to see that our local library has some of these books! I love adding holiday books to our collection each year, and I think this year will be the “L for Libery” book.

    • A great addition! I love having new books to share with my daughter for each holiday.

  1956. Such great ideas! Not only will they learn while grocery shopping but this can also prevent tantrums because they will be occupied!

  1959. We have a birthday book that has an interview and kid activity to record their personalities each year and it goes through age 18 … it’s so much fun!

    I love this list!

    I would love for you to stop by today and join Encouraging Hearts & Home so more people can see this great list! Its open all weekend… I hope to see you there.

  1960. I LOVE the birthday interview idea, and my daughter saw that cupcake craft and looks like we’ll be doing that today! How fun.

  1961. I really want to start doing birthday interviews with my girls before they get too old for them to be so cute and funny! They will be 3 and 5 on their next birthdays so this is prime time for amusing answers 🙂

    • Absolutely! My mom had us fill them out up through middle or high school, and there are still plenty of amusing answers then!

  1965. Love these traditions, especially the questionnaire…so neat to have that and look back at the answers years later 😊

  1968. What fun ideas!!! I especially love the birthday interviews!! A great way to see how you’ve changed each year!

    • I agree! I love seeing how I changed over the years, and I can’t wait to see how my daughter’s answers change!

  1971. Such nice traditions! Lovely, especially birthday interviews. Never thought of something like this. But this sounds really good.

    • Thank you! I love that my mother started the tradition with us, and now I can pass it on to my daughter.

  1972. I love the birthday interview idea! My friends do that with their children and its so cute to see the difference between one year to the next.

  1974. These are awesome ideas! I think we have started the tradition of receiving books for birthdays instead of toys. I love the chalk outline idea.

    • Thanks! She loves being traced lately. Hopefully she still feels that way next year!

    • I agree, they are really cute! So far they are really helping me convince my daughter to brush!

  1976. These are so sweet! I LOVE birthdays and am always looking for ways to make them more special as my kids get older- I love the idea of a birthday book! We love reading so that would go far in my house!

    • Thanks! I love that my mom started the interview tradition with us, and I’m excited to continue it on with my daughter!

  1978. I LOVE THESE!! We have read a few of “The Night Before” books, but not the birthday ones! I will have to check those out! And I just started the birthday interview this year with my oldest. I love all of your ideas and am totally going to incorporate! Thank you for sharing!

    • Thank you so much! I love the Night Before series and this is a great addition to it!

  1980. These are great ideas! We don’t really have any Birthday traditions except cake and presents. I’ll have to implement some of these.

  1987. Great list! My son loves all things transportation..we have the Little Blue Truck! One of his favorites 😊 Need to look into adding these others to our little library

  1990. We are going on a road trip this weekend, and i’m in need of new entertainment! Thank you for these recommendations! We don’t have any of these books yet. 🙂

  1992. I am so excited about these suggestions and cannot wait to get my kiddo’s hands on them! My son loves all things that go!

    • I’m so glad! My daughter loves learning about all kids of machines and vehicles too.

  1996. Oh my gosh, these are all super cute ideas! Especially the side walk chalk one! I never thought about starting any birthday traditions! Looks like I have some ideas to start now!

  1998. This may be the best post I’ve read today! My 3yo would LOVE this book because he hates bugs! What a perfect book for summer!

    • It is a really cute one! There is a twist ending where the mosquito ends up in a sandwich, so something to keep in mind if that will further a fear of bugs!

  2001. This looks like such a fun book for kids! I love ninja books since it keeps kids entertained for hours

  2002. Super cute! Sometimes I feel like a ninja trying to swat the pesky mosquitoes away, but I’m sure I don’t look like one!

  2003. Love everything! This book looks super cute, and I know my kids would enjoy it 😁 I have never heard of that bug bite relief thing! That is awesome! I am going to check it out

    • It’s really cool! We get bit a lot so I’m always looking for a better way to handle them!

  2004. My daughter reacts the worst to bites! It’s horrible. I might have to check the ‘thing’ out. And that book is super cute. My son would love it. Anything superhero or ninja related and he’s on board. 😉

    • I’m really bad about them too! So far my daughter doesn’t have any fear of creepy crawly things, and I’m not sure if that’s good or not!

  2006. OMG this birthday interview is such an amazing idea!!!! I need to start some birthday traditions…so far I have mostly THINGS like a birthday banner and cupcake poster, but I love these ideas!!!!

    • Thank you! My mom started it when we were younger and I love that I can continue it with my daughter!

  2010. I loved the pictures and the eye-catcher was little fairy in the story. The story pebbles are awsome and the entire concept is fun.

  2011. Oh, I love this and what a great idea to make story stones to go with! My middle daughter is 51/2, but I can see her really enjoying this. Thanks for the idea. 😊

    • Thanks! I hope she has fun with it! My daughter has been loving playing with the story stones.

  2012. What a cute story! I love how you incorporated painted stones to help with reading comprehension….I will be doing this for our next book ❤️

  2017. What a great book to use as a learning tool. I love all the activities that you created to go along with the book!

  2020. Awe what a great lesson coming from this children’s book !! It’s definitely so important to instill confidence in every child at a young age!

    • I agree! I love finding great books that help to teach my daughter these important lessons!

  2021. I love these ideas!! And I’m going to check out the book, I think that it’s a very important lesson for kids to learn and I’m always looking for things that help strengthen their confidence. Thanks for sharing this!!

    • Thank you! I hope you really enjoy the book! I’m always looking for great books to build confidence as well.

  2022. Books as Souvenirs…the perfect idea! Then you don’t have extra junk around the house, but a great book to enjoy. And every time you read the book you can think of and talk about the trip!

    We have a board book about the market in Seattle. I think of our trip out west every time we read it!

    • That’s awesome! I’m so glad my daughter has these books that she can refer back to over and over!

  2023. I love all of these ideas! You always give such great suggestions and are so informative with keeping me in the loop with what kid books are out there!

  2025. We did the “bring a book instead of a card” for my baby shower and it was a great way to collect a ton of books before my 1st was born and we had everyone fill out little stickers to put inside. Even now we still like to re-read the dedications to our toddler!

  2026. I think this is my favorite of all of your posts! I love an excuse to buy my kids books. My mom has a tradition of sending my kids holiday themed care packages (even though she only lives one city over!) and they always have a themed book in them. So special!

    • Aw, thank you so much! The themed care packages sound like so much fun! I love a good theme!

  2028. I LOVE the books from trips idea and how your mom includes notes about the place. What a great idea!! My family and I love to travel, so I think I need to start implementing this!

    • I hope you have fun with it! It has become a fun challenge for her to find a new book wherever they are.

  2029. My mother threw me the same kind of literary baby shower and I absolutely loved it!! I couldn’t believe all the incredible books we got in lieu of cards. It was amazing 🙂

  2030. These are some really great book ideas! We have so many books from when our first born was young, so when we buy books for our son, we want them to mean something. We don’t want to add more clutter; we want to add more meaning. I’m totally pinning this one! I’ll be coming back!

    • Thank you! I totally agree about the clutter, so I like the books I buy to have meaning too!

  2031. For my baby shower, rather than a guest book, my mom bought “hop on pop” & “are you my mother?” And my guests signed inside the cover. SO cute! I love all your ideas!

  2032. I had a friend who’s parents bought her a book every single holiday. Even when she got older, and she loved it every time. She is an avid reader because of it.

    • That is awesome! I’m hoping that it will feed my daughter’s love of reading as well!

  2034. Love these! I have started to gift books more and inscribe them with a special note. I love the idea about buying them when you travel. What a long-lasting souvenir. Love it!

    • I love that my daughter will have this great collection from her family’s travels!

  2035. OMG I LOVE THIS!!! I love all these ideas! Two that I’ve done: A book from daughter for every father’s day (and I write in there which father’s day it is), and every easter (buy an easter book, same thing, write in it what we did for easter, etc.). I LOVE THIS POST!!!

    • Thank you so much! I love those ideas! I will have to start writing about each year’s holiday celebrations in our holiday books!

  2038. I always love your book picks so much. These are some great ones! Some I already knew but a couple are new to me as well.

  2040. Love these! We have done baby shower books at each of our kids’ showers and I love to look back on them with messages that people have written.

  2043. Books are everything to me! Anytime I see books in a store, I have to stop and go thru some of the titles to see which jump out at me for my little cousins. Any chance I get, I am buying them books.
    When the time comes for me to start my family, I will definitely need to build a separate room to act as a library in my house!

    • I totally understand that! I can’t stop buying adorable children’s books. I used to collect them for a classroom someday, now my daughter is reaping the benefits!

    • My daughter loves the Llama Llama books! They are so adorable, and the picture book ones teach great lessons.

  2049. thanks for sharing this! I just saved some of the books you listed, I’m very excited to have my little one soon and read books with her 🙂

  2050. I love this! Books are so completely immersed in all of my childhood memories and I try to create the same experience for my daughter. I think that books are a great way to commemorate special occasions. I love the idea of getting a book as a souvenir for your travels. I am stealing that idea!

    • I hope you have a lot of fun with it! I love that my daughter has all of these great books as mementos!

  2051. Oh man I think I have some books to buy! I need to get some of the Karen Katz books! I love those!

  2053. Love it! My kids always ask for books, so I have started requesting books instead of cards. I love reading with the kids. We would live in a library if we didn’t have to be quiet, lol!

    • I totally agree! If my daughter and I keep adding to our collection, we may be living in a library soon!

  2054. I want to find Mouse’s First Summer. We’ve read some of the other books about the same adorable mouse and my boys love them. I didn’t know there was a summer one!

    • I love finding books in a series that I didn’t know about before! I am constantly finding new Llama Llama books to add to my daughter’s collection.

  2057. Love this!! These are great ideas…my kids love playing with sand butnI never realized all the different activities we could do with it

    • I hope you have a lot of fun with them! There are so many ways to turn the sandbox into a classroom!

    • I hope you enjoy them! I didn’t have a lot of great science teachers growing up, so it is important to me that my daughter gets a lot of science education from the beginning!

  2060. I love every one of these ideas. We have a sandbox and I’m so uncreative when it comes to using it. I’m like “here’s your shovel now dig.” Ha!

    • Haha, that’s how we came up with the burying the dolls game, and that is my daughter’s favorite!

    • I really like open ended activities to encourage my daughter to be creative, and also to watch her little mind at work!

  2063. What is it about a sandbox? Just reading this totally takes me back to my childhood. I grew up with one in my backyard, and I wish I had a yard so my daughter could have one, too. We go to the park a lot to get lots of sand time in!

    • Playing in the sand with my daughter takes me right back to childhood days of playing in our green turtle sandbox!

  2064. I’ve been wanting to make a sand table for months and months but I just can’t seem to make myself do it bc I know it will turn into a giant mess!

    • I definitely hate the mess that sand makes! I really like that this table keeps it a little more contained!

  2067. Okay we just moved to SC and this is so accurate. A) we need to buy this book! And B) I scheduled it on Facebook and Twitter for my audience, this is just too cute Vicki. I always love your book & activity ideas.

    • Aw, thank you so much! I can’t stand mosquito season, so anything to make it a little less painful!

  2069. I’ve been thinking of getting a sandbox for my son, these activities kind of put it over the top for me! Thank you!

  2071. What an amazing compilation of activities! I need to go get my daughter’s sandbox from her grandma’s house so we can get started! I had no idea it could double as a learning opportunity 🙂

  2078. such a lovely post. This reminds me of a mom looking for ideas for her kids whom she is homeschooling for a year. This post will help her sharing link to her.

  2080. Omg love it!!! My daughter is book obsessed which makes me so happy since I’m a huge reader myself!! I love buying new books and adding them to her mini library in her room!!!

  2082. My daughter loves sand as well. I love your diy sand box idea (and yay for crafty grandparents!). I hadn’t thought of all the different ways you could do sand play but I’m definitely saving these for later!

  2085. These are all great ideas! I’ve been wanting to get the boys a sand/water table. I love the idea of sand art and using sand for science lessons!

  2086. I love how you rigged up that sandbox! I will need to look into making the kids one 😊 Loving all these ideas too! Can’t wait for the weekend for hopefully a new sandbox and some great activities to go along with it

    • My daughter loves it! My parents had a lot of fun making it for her and now watching her enjoy it!

  2087. We have been learning about the desert this week, and so I’ve used a few of these ideas (writing in the sand, etc.) with great success. I also like the sand cast idea…fun art project!

    • That’s awesome! I hope to do the sand cast one with my daughter someday when we go to the beach!

  2088. Yay! I love these ideas! My husband made fun of my for filling a big container with rice and letting the boys play with their little sand shovels, but they loved it!

  2090. These are great ideas, I just need to get past the eating everything in his hands phase and then I can start these activities. I love the sensory boxes that will probably be a starting point for my little Monkey.

    • Haha, we are still dealing with that phase sometimes! Every activity starts with me asking “what’s the number one rule?” and her replying “not in the mouth!”

  2091. These are great ideas! How did the sand slime turn out? I will have to try that one with my slime-obsessed 3 year old.

    • Thanks! I love how versatile it can be! I can change out the sand box for another sensory bin.

  2099. SUCH cute ideas!! My kids are all little (4 and under) but I am doing what I can now to instill a love of reading and these are all great things I will definitely be incorporating 🙂 My two year old will especially appreciate the incorporation of food, haha!

  2104. Such a fab idea!! Love the cheese mice and how you’ve managed to get some great concepts into it to help support development!

  2106. I still love sand myself and the kids have always loved playing in it. I am going to pass this along to my friends with younger kids who can enjoy it as well.

  2110. This is such a fun idea. I had no idea Hellavagood made so many varieties of cheese. Your selection of activities is inspiring. There are so many spin off ideas that my head is spinning!

  2112. The cheese activity with the book is adorable! Such a fun way to be creative with food and learning about different cheeses – just darling!

    • Thanks! I agree! I love to run my fingers through the sand while she is playing too.

    • I hope he likes them! My daughter has been requesting that I make cheese mice every day now!

  2118. Cheese tasting parties are among my favorite types of parties! This looks so fun, I’ll have to try it when my son is a little older!

  2119. The cheese mice are the cutest thing! I love the idea of inspiring them to try new types and decide what they think of them! What a fun post!

  2120. We love cheese LOL!!! This likes such a cute book to pick up and read with my son!

    • I hope they do! My daughter had a lot of fun with it, and I can see us doing this again when she is older.

  2125. I love the idea of pairing this cheese tasting with literacy. How fun for kids to be exposed to new foods and turn it into an experiment of being like mice! Brilliant, as usual, Vicki.

  2127. Yeah, BIG mistake to read this right before dinnertime as my tummy Is not loudly growling! I haven’t tried the Heluva Good cheese, but my family Is obsessed with their French onion dip so I’m excited to give their cheese a try. Love the idea of a tasting. Thanks for sharing!

  2128. I will have to look more into this cheese for my next wine dinner party as well my meal prep sandwiches. It is such a good idea to teach kids about food pairing.

  2129. How exciting! My friend put her daughter in a Mandarin Immersion class (where the teacher only speaks to them in Mandarin) when she entered first grade, I believe. Now she can speak it quite well! It’s so fascinating to see a child catch on to languages quickly. I know I’ve seen research saying that younger kids have an easier time learning languages. Seems pretty accurate to me!!

    • I have definitely seen that to be true, with younger kids picking up languages better. It makes sense, since they are still learning one language!

    • Thank you! It is really amazing how they can pick them up so fast. Although since they are still learning one language, it makes sense that adding others is easier for them than those of us already stuck in our ways.

  2132. this is so impressive! My uncle was a french teacher and I was always so bummed that he didn’t teach my cousin to speak french from an early age. Not to mention the fact that they went to france every year for two months, and she can’t speak french! it makes me mad lol. My best friend says she always remembered me telling her that and has made a point of getting her husband to teach her spanish (she’s french) and they all spend one evening a week speaking only in Spanish. And the she comes here with the kids to help them with English. Keep up the great work!

    • Thank you! That is a great idea to spend one night speaking in Spanish! I’m not fluent enough in any other languages to pull that off yet, but maybe we will have to try it someday.

  2133. This is fantastic! I love finding learning moments throughout the day. We haven’t started learning any foreign languages yet but talk about Spanish (I can count and say a few words) and have kept up ASL as the kids have gotten older. They love learning new signs.

    • I regret that I didn’t keep up with ASL! I took a course in college, but the teacher was replaced halfway through and they didn’t offer a second level. I have always wanted to get better at it. Maybe that will be our next project!

  2137. That is amazing! My daughter will start taking Kindergarten Spanish classes at school next week. I am so glad that I was able to get her into an elementary school with a language immersion program. I can’t wait to see how she blossoms.

    • That is so cool! I totally agree that it is even more important in today’s world!

  2140. We’ve been doing this with the little bit of Spanish we know for our 4 year old here recently. We just say things like ‘Did you know the Spanish word for dad is padre?’ And then when daddy leaves we say ‘adios padre!’. We just try to work it in naturally where we can, but she is learning fast! I’m going to have to brush up so I can keep up with her…

    • It is amazing how quickly they can pick it up when it’s dropped in here and there! I don’t speak any of the languages fluently, so now I’ve been finding lots of books and apps to help me learn too so I can keep up with her!

    • Congratulations! I hope you have a lot of fun with it! There are so many opportunities to teach them early.

    • I hope you do! It’s a lot of fun for both of us to use some of our new vocabulary in every day life!

  2143. Very impressive.
    My husband and I come from different cultures and languages. We ensure we speak to our son in both languages plus English. He seems to be picking up well. I wish the adult brains would process new skills as easily.

    • Right? Me too! She picks up all of these languages so much faster than me. That is fantastic that you are teaching him so many languages from the start!

  2144. This is awesome! What a gift you are giving them. I would like to start teaching my kids another language. Thanks for the tips!

  2145. little ones are so smart and I think people tend to forget to take advantage and teach them more when they are young! Great article!

  2146. That is amazing! It’s so true that they pick up on so many things when they’re little! Keep I up momma!

    • Aw, don’t feel that way! It was accidental! She blows me away with how quickly she picks things up.

  2150. Books are such a great way to encourage children to learn another language. Our son speaks both English and Maori. We have chosen to speak Maori to him every day and he hasnt had any trouble learning English as it is all around him.

    A real fun thing for us has been using books to encourage him to speak in Maori more. All of his favourite characters (Batman etc) all talk in english. A local publisher translates books like the Gruffalo into Maori and our son absolutely loves it. It has also taught us alot of new words too.

    Reading is such a great way to share an adventure with your little ones. What a great post!

    • Thank you! That is awesome that you can get books translated into Maori! I would love to get more books for my daughter in other languages. I am enjoying learning new words right along with her.

  2151. Wow, this is amazing! When my oldest was a baby, my grandmother lived with us. We typically spoke in Marathi (an Indian language) and some of my kiddo’s first words weren’t English! It’s so amazing what kids pick up from us.

  2152. This is awesome! I’ve seen quite a few of your blog posts and I just love them. The teacher in me loves reading books with my kids, and then trying to do activities that relate. Thanks for all the ideas!

    • Thank you! It is definitely the teacher in me that keeps me reading and creating!

    • There are lots of great resources for teaching Spanish! I’ve found that adding a little bit into every day has really helped.

  2154. Woohoo for you! I’m also a teacher – a Spanish and ESL teacher so I am more than thrilled to read this post of a parent and fellow teacher gifting her child with the love of other languages! I wish more parents understood the importance of this. – Amy

    • Thank you! I have always loved languages and wish I had taken more of them in school! I am enjoying learning right along with her though.

  2155. this is so incredible! I remember my mom sticking us in front of a Muzzy – Spanish VCR tape for hours. We never did learn Spanish. I learned some from HS, but very little stayed with me. I think you should give yourself a giant pat on the back for this one!!!

    • Thank you! I remember Muzzy! I never watched it, but I remember the commercials so well!

  2156. This is fantastic. Your kids are lucky to have you as a mom. They will be so lucky to multi-lingual.

  2159. That’s awesome! It helps kids with so much to know more than one language, and at such a young age is brilliant! I keep telling family to speak to her in another language so the kids learn it and know it. I’m only half decent with English 🤦‍♀️

    • It really does help them! I love that my family can all help to teach her different languages.

  2160. My two year old has really taken to language and is about a year ahead on her vocabulary and sentence structure. I want to teach her French and my husband wants to teach her Japanese. I was afraid that she would get confused and it would delay her English. But I may start trying to teach her other languages now! Unfortunately, neither of us are very fluent. I took 6 years of French in high school and college, but I never learned how to properly speak it. Just understand it. Do you have any programs or apps that you use for teaching language to a toddler?

    • I don’t know any specific programs yet unfortunately. Since I accidentally started this, I didn’t have a set plan. I started teaching her with the little bit of each language that I know, and that our family members know. I have not found it to hurt her language development at all, since she is also ahead in her vocabulary and sentence structure. I’d be interested to hear of any programs that you do find to be helpful though! That will probably be our next step.

  2162. Parent and child painting is THE COOLEST IDEA EVER!! AHHH! Now I know what to do with all of those “drawings” of my sons!

    • Thanks! I hope you have fun with it. I love that it is something that we created together!

    • I hope you have a lot of fun with it! It’s a lot of fun to create something together.

  2164. Such fun! I’ve been wanting to do story starters with my boys, but I haven’t tried it yet. We’ll have to do it this week for real!

    • They can be so much fun! You can try them in the car on long trips too. Have one person start the story and the next person add on to it!

  2171. My little artist (also named Lila!) will love these activities. I really love your focus on process-based art, and letting the product happen afterwards. Really great ideas! Pinning now!

    • This would be a fun activity to do out loud as well. That could inspire him to write out his own stories later.

  2173. Awesome ideas! Love the watercolor idea and the drawing you made ! We are heading to the library today so I’m going to check out that book! Thanks!

  2176. Love these ideas! Thanks for sharing! I especially love the open ended story…I know that my eldest will love that and the open ended play where you give the child random things to create their own game will be something my youngest will love.

  2177. I love all of your ideas especially the parent child art ones. Just today when we got home from errands, my son asked to watch tv. When I say no let’s go outside, he reluctantly went. In no time he had found a shovel and started digging and had the best time! 🙂 I need to say no to electronics more often!

    • That’s awesome! I love when you can watch their imagination turn something simple like a shovel into something incredibly fun!

  2179. I love these! I definitely am a big believer in imaginative based play. My favorite game growing up was “dress-up.” Even though I have all boys now, I’m very happy to report my oldest is all about imaginative play too. He may be fighting and building, instead of playing house, but that’s OK with me.

    • That is awesome! I loved playing dress up too. We got my daughter some dress up clothes for Christmas last year and she loves playing in them every day!

  2181. This is such a great resource, and I love the topic of open-ended play in general! You’re a mama after my own heart!

  2182. How awesome is this! I teach my 1 year old sign language when I can. It’s very rewarding watching them catch on to another language! I wish I knew French or German to teach my LO! That may be something I learn in the future! Thank you for the tips!

    • Thank you! I hope you have fun with it. I mostly taught myself little bits here and there of French. There are lots of resources available now!

  2184. I love that parent — child painting. It really would force parents to slow down and do something with their child. I know I struggle with this. Thanks for sharing!

    • Thank you! We had a lot of fun with it! I think creating something together makes it a very special project.

  2186. Wow! What an awesome list! I have a kiddo going into kindergarten and is super nervous so I will definitely be looking into getting him a book about starting school.

  2188. Such a great list. I am going to forward to my daughter-in-law. New books should be a pleasure for kids and it is our job as parents to make reading enjoyable!

    • Thanks! Definitely wanted to include some classics! It can be so fun to share your childhood favorites with your kids.

  2190. Great list! I love using books as preparation for upcoming events. My daughter is starting kindergarten soon, so we will definitely be getting some of these books. And “Here Comes Teacher Cat”? We love the cat books, but I hadn’t seen this one yet!

    • I recently found the cat series and think they are hilarious! I agree that books are such a great way to prepare kids for things to come.

  2193. So many books to choose from…and I’m happy you included one of my vary favorites: School’s First Day of School.

  2194. What a great list! We love Splat and Cat and Chrysanthemum. But several of these other titles are new to me!

    • I’m so glad to be able to introduce new ones! Splat the Cat and Chrysanthemum are really cute ones!

  2197. Such a great little back to school compilation list. Can’t wait till my daughter is big enough and can pick out her favorite back to school story to read

  2199. My son is starting preschool this year. It’s going to be such a difficult transition for me (not so sure he feels the same). Some of these books like the perfect way for us to start talking about the changes to come.

    • I hope they are helpful! I wanted to make sure I included some that are meant to provide comfort to parents as well.

  2201. I recognized many of the titles, but there were some new ones I didn’t know about! I didn’t know that Curious George had a back to school book! My three year old will love that one to help him get ready for preschool. We are always looking for new book recommendations, so thank you! I can’t wait to get some of these!

    • I’m so glad I could add to your list! I don’t think my list has an end anymore, haha.

  2204. You always have the best lists! I pinned this to pick up some of the books from the library. We are homeschooling, so I’ll just add “home” in front of the word school when I read the book lol.

  2206. This is such a great list. I have a toddler and a tween, and I found some in here for both I’m interested it. Thanks for sharing!

    • Thank you! No matter how old I get, September always takes me back to the first day of school as a kid!

  2208. I love this list! My daughter is starting a new preschool in a few weeks so I’ve added some of these to our library list!

  2209. My oldest loves reading books with us at all hours of the day. I’ll definitely check out the list and see which ones he doesn’t have yet!

    • I agree! There are so many great things included and you can definitely find things to help you with your everyday life.

    • It really covers a little bit of everything! I’m still sorting through all the treasures in it!

    • I was excited they were doing a parenting bundle in general, but I couldn’t believe all of the great things that were inside!

  2216. My daughter is obsessed with making her own recipes right now. I think that cooking around the world book would be right up her alley. Thanks for sharing this deal.

    • That is fantastic that she enjoys cooking! I hope you check the bundle out, because that book is fantastic!

    • There are so many awesome activities included in it! It will definitely keep us busy through the cold winter months!

  2220. Whoa!!!! This is a faboulous bundle!!! I wish I could tag people in the comments (you know, just like on Insta?) because they could use this bundle! I’m not a parent…yet…but since there’s no tagging here, I’m going to dedicate to send the link to this post for like the 5 minutes to all my mommy friends! This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!

    • It really is an amazing deal! I hope all of your mommy friends find it helpful. There is so much included for parents of all kinds!

  2221. This looks like a great bundle. I especially like the cooking one and I think it’d great for children to learn about food from around the world when they’re young and not just once they’re old enough to go travel!

    • It really is a fantastic bundle of products! The cooking one is definitely one of the coolest cookbooks I have seen in a while!

    • I hope you do check it out! There are so many great activity ideas in here for toddlers. I’m so excited to start using some of them with my daughter!

    • It is a really fantastic group of products, and that cooking book is so much fun! I was a picky eater as a kid, but I love learning about foods from other countries!

  2224. There is SO MUCH in this bundle! The cook book is particularly cool. My one year old is a bit too young to help in the kitchen right now (ha!) but I remember cooking with my Grandma when I was little so I can’t wait to include him.

    • It is incredible how much there is included in it! My daughter loves helping in the kitchen even though she can’t do much yet. She likes wearing her apron and standing on her step stool to watch and help count.

  2225. Wow that’s such a great value! I love coming to your site because you always have something special to share. This will be a great addition to the school year!

    • Aw, thank you so much! I’ve been so excited about all of the amazing books in this bundle, so I couldn’t wait to share it!

  2228. Looks like a lot of helpful tools in there! My kids are a little older now, but this would have been helpful when they were younger.

    • It is! A new school year feels like a fresh start for all of us, and the tools in here can lead to a better year for the whole family!

  2234. I love this! This bundle has so many ways to teach kids about so many different things.

    • It is such a great deal! I am still sifting through all of the amazing resources included!

    • It does! Just the price of one or two of the books makes the price worth it and the rest is all bonus!

    • There are so many awesome resources! I’m having a lot of fun sorting through all of it!

    • I love that book too! It is such a sweet message. I plan to read it with my daughter when she is ready for school!

  2247. Pingback: 60 Books to Calm Back to School Fears | Bonnie Landau

  2249. This bundle looks and sounds awesome! I am always looking for ways to incorporate learning at the house..I am definitely sold on that cookbook!

    • I love it! I am so excited to dive into it! I definitely recommend checking out the bundle too. There are so many great resources in it!

  2250. What a great list! We have a good half of these on our bookshelves right now! I love that all four of my kids really love reading. Llama Llama is my personal favorite of this list!

  2251. I LOVE these bundles. I bought one earlier this year and it has been such an incredible resource. I am sure that this one is too!

    • Thank you! I wanted to make sure I added some that I loved from childhood as well as some new favorites!

  2253. This bundle looks like it has a lot of great stuff. My son should be ready for this soon! It would be perfect for us. Thanks for sharing.

  2255. Whoa, this sounds like a pretty awesome bundle. It’s definitely going to help start the excitement with school and even for those not yet in school. Thanks for sharing.

    • I hope you check it out! It is such a great deal and there are so many amazing resources inside!

  2256. This looks like such a cute story! I love how it seems to help kids use their imagination, we will have to look for it on our next library trip.

    • I love encouraging my daughter to use her imagination, and this book was a great way to do that!

    • It is! I hope you check it out! There are so many amazing resources and activities inside it!

  2262. Ahh how did I miss this post?? My son is still far from school years but I am so looking forward to buying and reading books like this with him. One of my fondest memories from elementary school are the bookfairs and the scholastic magazines they sent home.

    • YES! My mother in law folded the Scholastic brochures for years when I was in college and she would always send my orders in with hers! Book fairs and book order forms were some of the best days for me too!

  2264. What a great list, my little one loves books and he cannot read quite yet but know shapes, animals and colours. I would get all these if I could.

    • Never too early to start collecting! My daughter benefits from the collection I started gathering when I was in school for my teaching degree.

  2268. Thanks for sharing I’m going to have to try and purchase this for my little one …he hasn’t seemed to take interest in learning Maybe this will help

  2270. What a comprehensive list, there is something here for every child, it’s just wonderful. I really think it helps to prepare kids for new things, and reading books is the perfect way to do that xx

  2275. Great book review! I’m raising my kids to become readers and I also allow them to become creative after they’ve read a book. Sometimes I ask them to role play or to draw a scenario from the book 🙂

    • That is fantastic! Allowing kids to be creative with the books they read is a great way to make the books more special to them!

  2283. I also love the sound of my children’s laughter 🙂 – their giggles can normally bring a smile to my face . This post is really great and definitely that I will put on our bucket list of fun things to do 😀 Thanks so much for sharing it!

  2284. This looks like a great deal! And thank you or the good ideas! I love the idea of picking a country each month for an educational dinner party!

  2286. I’ve never heard of this book but I’m always looking for good quality literature for my kids and home daycare. The moon activity is great for fine motor development and I have a feeling my daughter would love the pillow/blanket matching (she loves anything that her dolls/stuffies can participate in).

  2287. The shark tooth craft is so fun. We havent read this one yet but will keep an eye out for it!

    • Thank you! It is a really funny book with a very sweet message and we had a lot of fun bringing it to life!

    • I’m bummed I hadn’t read this book before shark week! Sharks are so popular this time of year!

  2293. I also love peaceful books for bedtime reading that help lull them to sleep. This would be a nice addition to our collection. I will take a look at it. And love the moon activity!

    • Thank you! We had a lot of fun with it. It is a beautifully illustrated book and perfect for bedtime!

  2294. Aww this looks like such a beautiful book! I will have to see if i can find it here in the UK! I love the night sensory bottle too! I will definitely be using that idea

    • It is a great addition to a soothing nighttime routine! We love the sensory bottle too for calming down. It even helps me when I need to destress!

  2295. I love these ideas!
    Books are always a part of out night time routine, I love the idea to have an activity that corespondent with the book!

  2296. I never heard of this book before but it sounds like a wonderful addition to our bedtime stories collection:)

  2298. What a neat post! We are always exploring new books for the little one and this sounds like a great title to check out. I love how it explores feelings and helps them articulate them. It’s always tough for kids sometimes to share how they are feeling.

    Mae | http://www.thegospelofbeauty.org

  2301. My daughter always want to listen bed time stories from me or from her father. This book sounds great and best option for her. The fun activities related to bed time are also superb. She loves to read this book 📖. Thanks for sharing

    • Thank you! I tell my mom all the time I’m so impressed with how many creative activities she came up with when we were kids before there was Pinterest!

  2307. Love it… We’re super into sharks over here! The twins have a shark toy for the bath and find it hilarious if I do the jaws music, lol.

    • That’s awesome! My daughter loves her tub shark toys too. I definitely recommend checking the book out!

  2309. Great shark themed activities! With my boyfriend’s obsession with sharks I am sure the baby will learn to love them too.

    • Thank you so much! I agree that bedtime routines are so important! They have definitely been a big life saver for me.

  2315. You always have the best activities to go along with books! This is such a cute activity…and loved the night sensory bottle!

  2316. I seriously need to make a sensory bottle like that for my kids. They need all the help they can get calming down.

    • That’s a good idea! I will have to try that in our next one! I’ve been wanting to do more of them!

    • I love activities that you can share with the whole family and use to practice multiple skills!

  2320. What an adorable little book to read to my little boy! And the craft is super cute too! Thanks for sharing!!

    • Thank you! We had a lot of fun with that shark game! She keeps asking if she can feed the shark.

  2329. Love this, have pinned it so that I can come back to it. I think my kids at work would just love this.

  2332. I am always looking for new bedtime books to read with my son! I will be checking this out! Love the moon craft project…a lot of good skills are worked on when creating that!

    • Thank you! We had a lot of fun with it! It is a beautiful little book to read before bed.

  2334. I love your craft ideas to go along with the book. This looks like the kind of book my peanut would love. The calm down bottle isn’t something that I have been wanting to make for a while now. Time to add it to the to do list.

  2335. This looks like not only a great book to read butsoem very educational projects to dowith your child. I will have to check the book out on Amazon.

  2337. I think this is so sweet. I love moon related things. Your blog has so many craft ideas, I can get lost for hours. The kids like to peak at my computer too.

  2338. I think that these are some wonderful ideas. I have always wanted to make a sensory bottle with my son. I think look like they are fun to make. I thinking reading to your kids or with them before they go to bed is excellent routine. My son loves reading with us before he goes to bed and he is eight. Thank you for sharing the post!

    • That is great that he loves reading at bedtime! I have such fond memories of reading with my parents and bedtime, and I hope my daughter will remember our read alouds fondly as well!

  2339. This book sounds awesome! My children love bedtime reading, so we will have to check it out. Thanks so much for sharing!

  2342. The DIY shark painted in blue with all the cut out fishes are so cute. I’ll try to make one for my toddler too for surw he will like it

  2347. Great line up of books. I read to my kids a lot and it was nice to see some of the books I have shared with my kids made your cut!

    • Thank you! I’m so glad you saw some favorites on here! I hoped to include a lot of classics along with some new favorites!

  2348. We loved the Night Before Kindergarten! David Shannon is a big hit too. My two year old loves his books too because the illustrations are so gigantic! What an awesome list, thanks for taking the time to put this together!

    • I love the Night Before books! They are so great at teaching kids about the big holidays or events!

  2349. Pingback: Hey Erin Nicole - Why My Kid Won’t Be Starting Preschool..Yet

  2352. these are such fun ideas! i love the idea of making crafts based off of books we’re reading, will definitely have to do this for my son!

  2358. I’m in favor of getting my kids off electronics for more of this type of play! However, arts and crafts is my nemesis, LOL!

    • I agree! I love that companies like theirs are out there creating great products for all types of families.

  2363. What a great educational toy! I love the books as well. Currently raising a diverse family, I love the books for when my youngest is going to be old enough to read and understand what the books are saying.

    • I’m so glad! The toys are really great quality, and the books are a great way to start the conversation with your kids!

  2366. Love this post! We are a diverse family and we love One Family & The Family Book. It is sometimes a challenge to find books that reflect what our family looks like.

    • Thank you! We had so much fun with the magnets! I love that they can help me to start the conversation with my daughter early on!

  2370. I have several of those books in our growing library, but you’ve given me a few more to add to my ever increasing ‘diversity’ pile. I appreciate the time and care you put into this article, and the thought that has gone into these book recommendations.

  2373. Oh I love this!! I work in speech therapy so books are huge and acknowledging diversity is huge too! I’m totally putting these books on the list!

    • Thank you! I definitely want my daughter to be surrounded by books and toys that celebrate diversity.

  2378. What a great post! I think its so important to start discussions such as this at a young age. Love those fridge magnets too!

  2380. I love these! I worry about teaching my kids about diversity (we live in a non-diverse area). These are all great ways to bring up diversity and inclusion.

    • Thank you! It’s awesome to have quality books delivered right to the door, and we had a lot of fun with the projects!

    • Thank you! I love that there are so many great books and products available now to celebrate families!

  2386. I picked up a couple of these at the library for my little one. He’s too young for formal schooling, but we talk about it and he says that he is going to go one day. Too cute.

    • Aw, that is so sweet! My daughter has recently been talking about school too, even though she is only 2. I’m not ready for that yet!

  2391. I have always been a reader since I was very young. I always read the most books every year of my class and I loved it! However, one thing that ALWAYS bugged me was the assigned reading lists that schools have. I honestly think that the books that school are making kids read are seriously hindering or tampering down kids’ want to read. I know that in classes for group discussion, the whole class should be reading the same book but I think the way we handle reading in school should definitely be changed. Thanks for posting!

    • I agree! It’s interesting that so many of the books we had to read in school held little interest to me, but now I tend to gravitate towards them! I am grateful that a teacher I had in elementary school gave us choices in our book groups so we were able to have some say in what we were reading. I definitely think reading instruction needs to change!

    • Haha, we often chose books over toys as well! I remember getting them as rewards for good report cards.

    • Thank you! That is awesome that they have a library already! I definitely enjoy surrounding my daughter with books for us to share!

    • I agree! I think it is more important than ever and I am so glad that companies and publishers are taking note and creating quality products for kids to learn from and enjoy!

  2396. Very cool ideas and walk through about the importance of kids reading! I love the idea of being involved with them as they read so we can share in their reading adventures and teach them from what they read as well.

    • Thank you! I think engaging with your kids while they read is a great way to start a conversation and encourage them to love reading.

  2397. Love this! My daughter is only 6 months and already has a huge collection of books. We read them to her while she looks and touches.

  2398. This is a really great article. My son loves reading and sometimes I fight with him over reading the SAME book or two over and over. But he loves them and gets so much for them. Time to loosen the reins! I’ll be sharing this from my blog too. Thanks for sharing!

    • Thank you so much! It can definitely be frustrating rereading the same ones over and over again, but sometimes it’s worth dealing with it just to see their joy over reading!

  2400. These are such great ideas! I agree with everything especially the Harry Potter effect! I re-discovered my love of reading because of this series! Still one of my favorite series!

    Belle | One Awesome Momma

  2401. I agree with all of your tips! My kids all have a real love of reading, and I think it’s started with us reading to them. We don’t have much off limits; if it’s in the house, they can read it. If it’s in the school library, we’re okay with it, too!

  2402. I could not agree more with this article. I can remember being in elementary school and being told I couldn’t read certain books (like the Goosebumps series or Christopher Pike books) for school reports. I was an avid reader and LOVED reading but I hated being forced to read only literature of a certain “quality” chosen by the teacher. I don’t even remember those books… only the ones I loved and I am still a book lover and avid reader.

    • I’m very grateful I had one teacher who tried to include everyone and actually read one of the Goosebumps books as our class read aloud. They weren’t everyone’s favorite genre, but I appreciate that she tried to get everyone in the class excited for reading!

  2404. My daughter does the same thing with the board books for babies…and she just turned 4! I like that we can mix it up, though. I read her chapter books at night, but she uses the board books to read to her little brothers and loves looking at the pictures!

  2405. I remember reading my mom’s Danielle Steel books with a flashlight in my bed late at night (in junior high). I think I turned out just fine! I also agree that high school reading lists are turning off potential readers. After suffering through high school English, my husband didn’t read again until his mid-30s when I showed them there were authors that were actually entertaining!

    • I think for kids who don’t already have an interest in reading, required reading lists can definitely be detrimental!

  2406. These are great tips! I have found that these really work in grooming great readers! Thank you so much for sharing!

  2408. Coming from an educational background I cannot agree more with what you say here. Having lots of books available, reading aloud daily, modelling Reading and yes letting them choose what to read are excellent ways to promote literacy and language development. My son is two years old and our favorite activity is our weekly visit to the library. I am impressed with how interested he is in books in general.

    • That’s awesome! I love how much interest my two year old already shows in books and reading as well! It really does help to start them young.

  2409. I love this. One of my favorite mom things is watching my son pick out his own books. It’s amazing to watch him in the library or bookstore, filled with endless options, and somehow he finds the perfect choice for him every time. It’s truly magical.

    • That’s awesome! I love watching my daughter look through books and make decisions on what she would like to read, or have me read to her. It’s so much fun to see her enjoying them!

  2411. I love this. As an adult, I love to reread books and yes entire series. And I love to read things that are ‘below my reading level.’ (Hello love of YA novels.) It is so important to encourage reading. I also agree that banning books makes them more appealing. As my kids get older I can’t wait to read what they are reading along with them. Reading gives us a great chance to explore topics we might not otherwise think of or experience.

    • I agree! I love reading books “below my reading level” too! I feel like YA books just keep getting better and better!

  2412. I agree with everything you said especially screening the books that come into the house or reading with the kiddos vs banning material. If you’re selective in what you buy, and then just let them read what they want, they will learn to love reading vs feeling obligated or like reading is a chore. I run a book club once a month and that’s our only “forced” reading right now and they love that because it’s an activity we all do together. Plus, I let the kids make suggestions! Great post- lots of great advice!

    • Thank you! Book clubs are great for allowing kids to experience other stories or genres they may not have otherwise checked out!

  2413. I love the idea of reading the same book as your child as they get older. The chance to still bond with them while you get to see what they are reading is great. And of course, the teaching aspect is always good. Thanks.

    • Absolutely! I love the idea of still sharing that love of reading, but allowing it to mature as your child matures.

  2414. Such a great post! We love reading at our house and my daughter have a whole mini library!

  2415. I totally agree with this!! I feel like kids should read what they like, and that’s how they will come to understand the importance of reading and learning about new stories <3

    • Thank you! I let my daughter pick, even though for the last month that means the same Dora the Explorer book EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!

  2417. This is great advice! My 6 year old loves to read, but prefers Pokemon books and Star Wars books. I’m happy he’s reading. I know he’ll be reading for school in the next year or so, I’m glad he’s enjoying reading for pleasure.

  2419. My twins love to read, they are just 2.5 right now but they already have a decent collection.. I agree sometimes what we feel is not suitable might be enjoyed by them..

  2421. I love this, my mom always let me and my siblings choose what we wanted to read (within reason of course). Which led to a painful Anime phase my brother went through, but we all survived it and he reads many other things now. lol.

  2422. These are excellent points. My oldest son is only 19 months, but I’ll try to remember these when he’s older! Right now he barely sits still for me to read to him haha.

    • Thanks! We definitely went through that stage too! I spent a lot of days finishing books out loud to myself while she wandered around the room!

  2423. Great advice! My two year-old loves reading (well, being read to) and we have a big home library for him. We have also gotten into the habit of taking him to the public library once a week and letting him pick out whatever books he wants. He’s definitely more engaged in reading when he gets to control what’s being read.

    • That is awesome! Starting those traditions early is a great way to raise a kid who loves reading!

  2424. That’s so incredible! Being familiar with other languages and cultures makes our children so much more well-rounded! Awesome job!

  2427. My kids buy into reading longer when I make it family reading time. They like the break from the business of life and we all just lie on my bed and read together.

  2428. Focusing on the big picture is so important. I refuse to read Peppa Pig to my son at bedtime…. maybe tomorrow I will allow him to pick anything, literally, he wants. Thanks!

    • I know that a lot of people were worried about them, and I understand that. I was so glad that they got kids reading though!

  2431. I have a soon-to-be three year old and this is exactly what I need. Pre-planned lessons and activities in a box?! I’m sold!

    • I hope you check it out! It was so much fun to have all of these fun activities and games ready to go at a moments notice!

  2434. This looks SO fun!!!!! And the prices aren’t that bad either! Seriously considering this for my son this fall. He would love it!

    • I hope you do! It is so great to have these lessons and activities ready to go at a moment’s notice!

  2435. This is such a great idea! It looks like so much fun, too. My youngest is going to Kindergarten this year but I still think I may try this for him, with things suited to his learning level.

    • I hope you do! There are lots of great activities for different levels and they are great for keeping around the house for quiet time activities he can do on his own. You can also easily extend the activities as he gets older!

  2437. This looks really neat! I’m always interested in fun curriculum for little ones! My guy will be two in September, but already is proficient with lower and upper case letters and numbers 1-20, colors, and basic shapes. That said, he’s also still very much a two year old in other regards so I always find myself mixing and matching things to keep him engaged. This seems like a really great box!

    • That is awesome! I’m in the same boat of trying to keep up with the learning curve of my two year old and keep her entertained with new projects and activities. It’s so nice to have these all ready to go!

    • I hope she will want to stick with it! Especially because it is forcing me to learn in order to keep up with her!

  2439. What a great idea this is! So much fun and learning all packed into one box! I will have to remember this for my nieces!

  2441. My niece is 18-months, and my mom often talks about putting in her a program that teaches her fluent Spanish AND English. (We’re primary English speakers.) I often thought that she was too young, but this makes me feel a little better about it. We speak a little Spanish to her. I’m nowhere near fluent, but I understand a little.

    • I’m glad it helps! I think the earlier you start getting them comfortable with other languages, the more it will help them in the long run.

  2442. Pingback: Best Apple Books for Kids - Rolling Prairie Readers

  2443. This is awesome! I am always looking for fun and easy learning activities for my son.
    But I always run out of ideas. I am definitely going to check this out.
    Love it

    • I hope you do, and I hope you like it! I love having these activities on hand when I am fresh out of ideas of my own!

    • I can’t wait to see how much of it she is able to retain or if it encourages her to try more languages!

  2446. I love this concept! Of course I sometimes try to use Pinterest to get ideas but M is for Monster has simplified it for us non- teachers. I’m going to have to check this out for my boys, 4 and almost 3.

    • I hope you do! I am always browsing Pinterest for inspiration, but it is so great that all of the supplies and instructions are ready to go on the days that I am not on my game!

  2448. Spending time with these kinds of activities are the best times spent with my daughter! I love it the product was created by teachers. Will try it very soon with my young one!

    • I hope you do! I love spending time playing games and creating with my daughter and this box just makes it even easier!

  2451. My best friend would LOVE this post!!!!! I’m for sure going to share it with her 🙂 I don’t have any kids yet, but I know she would really like these activities!

    – Kaitlin
    kedgotwed.com

  2456. I LOVE this! I’ve been looking for ideas for preschool homeschooling! We weren’t able to find a preschool that we could afford for my son this year so it looks like we will be doing it at home!

    • I hope you check it out! It would be a great way to teach preschool at home, or supplement your own curriculum!

  2457. What an amazing box! I homeschool so this kind of thing would be perfect for my little ones who aren’t school age but I still want to involve.

  2458. Vicki, this is amazing! I would love to order one for Taylor. You always share the best stuff! Thank you!

  2466. My little girl A. is onlyb3 years old but she already love books. We have a library with only her books. Since my mother is a teacher I always read many books (still reading) and now we buy as many as we can for A. too.
    Great post dear!

  2467. Some great points raised here. I have always loved reading and let my children have freedom to read whatever they choose to. My youngest is only 16 months but she adores the “That’s Not My” books already, starting them young and letting them explore is the best way to go about so many things

  2468. I agree, letting kids take the lead when it comes to reading will help foster that love of books! I’m so thankful that my little ones enjoys books as much as I do.

  2470. Giving kids freedom to read can help them explore worlds they may not have known was out there. As a child, I love to read Shakespeare which turned into a love for theatre and art. My daughter loves to read anything that has to do with animals because that is her passion. She has even taught me alot about what she has been reading.

    • That is awesome! How great that you can share that passion with her and she can have the chance to teach you something as well!

  2471. I have not seen this book yet but will definitely be checking it out! My son loves to bake with me. I am excited for the cooler weather so we can do more of it…such a great way for children to learn!

    • I hope you have fun with it! I love fall festivals! I have to get a list together of our local ones so we can make sure to get to them.

  2473. We love apples around here and are super stoked to go apple picking in a couple of weeks! I also wanted to say that the apple pie looks super amazing and I’m now going to want to make one LOL

  2476. Thanks for letting me know about these books. I am building a reading list for my grandchildren and this would make a lovely addition to it. What a great way to learn about math and science too.

  2477. I’m a huge fan of all the outdoor fall activities too, especially with young kids! We go apple picking at least once every fall and it’s always a hit with the kids. My 4 year old loves any crafts involving hand tracing so she will be delighted to turn her entire forearm+hand into a tree trunk! I would have never thought to do that to illustrate the changes in the seasons but it works so well.

    • My daughter loved it! I hope yours does as well. I also love all of the outdoor activities in the fall. I loved going apple picking before I had my daughter and it’s even more fun now!

  2479. You are very creative I love these crafts. I cannot wait to take our daughter to pick some apples. When it comes to crafting I am not really good at it but I try though .

  2484. What a fun filled box! I am loving the different boxes they have for kids that are fun and educational.

    • I love that they are reusable and that I can set up a shelf in our playroom for these fun games she can play on her own!

  2486. I love Strega Nona and the yarn idea is priceless! I don’t think I’ve read this one to my own kids so into my cart it goes! Thanks so much for the suggestion and the post.

  2493. This is such a fun idea! Can’t wait to try this out. Enjoyed reading – thanks so much for sharing 🙂

  2495. Love the sight word spaghetti idea! I am definitely going to give that a whirl with my three year old, but we will change it to letters and numbers. He loves play food, so he’ll be all over this! Thanks for sharing!

  2496. I never knew of this book. Would love to get now for my sin. The ide and teh concept is really great in the book. The way it explains words is just perfect to help kids memorise. Thanks for sharing

    • Yes! I love when my daughter discovers a new favorite (even if that means I will be reading it 6,000 times!).

  2502. This was a great read lol. I love reading to my kids, and if they ever initiate the reading, even better! BUT, I have toddlers .. so reading is never a perfect experience. In the end I feel like I’m just reading to myself.

    • Yes! I definitely have those days a LOT! But I know that she already loves reading, so it’s worth it!

    • Aw, thank you! Tomie dePaola is one of my favorite authors and Strega Nona was always one of my favorite characters!

  2507. I definitely relate to having to hide certain titles sometimes! My daughter had a streak where she loved a Winnie the Pooh giant lift the flap book and no other option was acceptable. I love your approach to promoting early literacy.

    • Thank you! My daughter has a Winnie the Pooh lift the flap that is in her current rotation as well!

    • I am all for rereading a favorite over and over again for all the benefits it provides, but sometimes you just need to switch it up!

  2509. Hahaha I LOL when I read this because I totally get hiding a book we’ve read 700 million times in one week!! 😉

    • Haha, one of my daughter’s favorites is currently hiding out because I just needed to change it up!

  2510. Cute! My husband just read to our 7 month old tonight and I think it’s the cutest thing ever!!
    Love the hiding of the favorite book👌🏼👏🏼 Great ide!

  2511. This is the most lovely thing to have for kids. how I wish I could have found them 7 years before. My kids have grown up now and I remember how difficult it was to engage them while they were toddlers

  2514. Great post! I’m a 3rd teacher and experience that with my students too. My goal is for them to be able to find a perfect book so they are interested in it and can read from cover to cover. Especially when it comes to novels, being able to see the characters develop, the entire story line and how the plot unfolds is so important! But I TOTALLY understand when you say sometimes you just gotta let it go. I’ve done that many a time, and always try to keep the kid’s best interest in mind when doing so.

    • So true! I think introducing kids to the right book is so important in developing their love of reading. As much as you don’t want to let kids give up on a book, we have all read one of those books that we just can’t get through.

    • Definitely! They have really been helping my daughter deal with all sorts of emotions. Being able to snuggle her stuffed Snorf and talk to him about what she is feeling definitely helps!

    • I love when a company creates something like this flashlight which makes learning so fun for kids!

  2517. I just read a parenting book and one of the tips said to read even if the kids are playing. If they walk away, definitely finish the book. Read to boys while they’re running around the room (they have energy to burn!) Reading can be an ACTIVE activity! Love all your tips as well 😉

    • Definitely! I have finished many books out loud when my daughter walks away to do something else. Kids pick up on everything, so even if you think they aren’t listening, chances are good that they are still hearing it!

  2518. This looks so fun! I love the little discs and the flash light. I’ve used emojis for my daughter to help identify struggles with her at school. I’ll ask how she feels about certain things and ask her to point to the face that matches her feeling. She’s very verbal, but still only 4 and doesn’t have the words for “anxious,” “overwhelmed,” “concerned,” etc.

    This could be an awesome resource!

    • LOVE that idea! At 2, my daughter already loves using the emojis on my phone and there is such a wide variety of them!

  2519. I love all these posts about reading to your children! I hated reading when I was younger and struggled until going into high school and it turned into an obsession for me! When people give speeches in class you can tell those who are used to reading aloud and those who are not!

    • It is so important to start kids with a love of reading as early as possible. I’m glad you came to love it in time!

  2520. Thank you for sharing about Moodsters! I need to look more into getting this book and the activities for my kids! I think it will even be good for my daughter who is 6 ❤️

    • They are so helpful, and I think they will continue to be helpful as my daughter ages as well. Your six year old may even get more out of them since she will have an even better understanding of the coping strategies and the conversation starters they provide!

  2522. This is such a great idea! Those little bodies have so many feelings and just aren’t sure what to do with them.

    • It’s so true! I try to remind myself of that when my daughter has a full blown toddler meltdown.

  2524. This is such a fun way to teach kids about their emotions! I know my toddler would definitely benefit, since some times he has trouble explaining how he feels. I feel like we’d diffuse tantrums before they really even happen!

    • It has definitely helped us redirect a few tantrums! Now when I see one coming, I try to encourage her to use her coping strategies or talk to one of her dolls. It doesn’t work all the time, but it has definitely made a difference!

  2525. This is such an informative post and sounds like fun! Although I don’t have children myself, I’ll definitely recommend your post to friends 🙂

  2526. I have never heard of moodsters! I have 5 kids…3 of them with “emotional problems”. I’ll have to give this a try!

    • I hope they are helpful! I’m so grateful to have found them while my daughter is dealing with toddler emotions!

  2528. Awww what a cool way to teach them how to deal with those very difficult emotions of theirs. Thanks for sharing!

  2532. Thank you for this post, what a great product. I am an Early Childhood Educator and this could help some of the children in class. However, I live in Indonesia, so it might be hard to get.

  2536. Great activities 🙂 We are loving a memory game by eeBoo called “I Never Forget a Face.” Check it out! It’s great at teaching diversity as well 🙂

  2540. I think the memory game with the special game cards is such a fun game and memory building activity that goes along with the story. Thanks for sharing these resources.

  2550. This sounds like a cute book. My son is always a little absentminded. My kids have also played I went on a picnic and take turns picking alphabetical items when we are taking long trips.

  2553. I love memory games and I still play them myself! I can’t wait until my little one is a bit older so that we can start doing things like this!

    • I love that my daughter is getting to an age where we can play more games together. It’s such great family time!

  2555. My little boys LOVE matching/memory games. We have’t played the “what’s missing” game in a long time, but my 5 year old used to love that one, too. We’ll have to resurrect it. 🙂

    • That Mary Poppins quote comes to mind: “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun!”. It’s so true!

  2559. Pingback: Help Your Struggling Reader - Expedition Motherhood

  2560. What a cool resource for fall! Love the idea of the book and all the activities. Especially baking an apple pie- yum!! And, the apple tree craft!!

  2567. These are such great activities to do with kids, and I also love Fall time for anything Apple!!! So I’m all in for any activities involving them : )

  2568. This is great! I am a school counselor and our nurse goes in and does a few lessons like this with the littles. <3

    • That’s awesome! My daughter doesn’t really mind having her teeth brushed, and I think making it fun has helped a lot!

  2572. This is so fun and neat I love it!! We love to read at my house and my kids would flip for this going to check it out now.

  2573. Both my kids have their favorite books. My sons was, Tale of Tails… you just have to find the books that get their attention. 😊

  2574. We had some of these books when our kids were growing up. I think my mother got them for Christmas. They were loved and treasured gifts! I have them stored in each of their keep sake boxes now and one day they will be able to share them with their own kids.

  2578. These are such wonderful tips and so very true. It’s great to start early but it’s never too late, either. Even my older children love being read to and reading with me. It’s great bonding time.

  2579. I know this is so fun and kids just love to read them in the books. I tried this idea with one of the books called “Rithyaa’s underwater adventure”- Rithyaa is my daughter’s name and she just loves it. Thanks for sharing.

  2582. I like to buy the character plush toys that they sell if they are available when I buy my kiddos new books for their library. They love snuggling them during story time. I have recently bought them personalized books as they make great gifts and are fun for them to read. They love sharing their personalized books with their friends as well.

    • That’s awesome! Having kids read to stuffed animals is a great way to get them excited about reading aloud!

  2587. We have one personalized book that my daughter just loves! I used that quote about a child not finding the right books all the time as a classroom teacher!

    • I hope they help! I think it’s helpful for both kids and adults to have a visual reminder of routines.

  2591. I love his fun idea!! My son would be thrilled to have a story about him!! I’m thinking this would make excellent Xmas gifts for my nephews!

  2592. I seriously LOVE this gift idea. I actually got one myself when i was younger, and I was obsessed with it! I still remember it was a Barbie story lol. I definitely think it’s a good way to get kids more interested in reading!

    • Definitely! I still have mine from childhood and I love it! I hope my daughter will keep hers as she grows up too.

  2593. This rings so true to me. I have a little boy who hated to read…until he found books that he could relate to!! I love that the books can be customized to put the child into the story. How cool is that?!? -Jennifer, Mompreneur at Jennifer-Franklin.com

  2597. What a beautiful idea! The night you were born is one of our favorites! My daughter has a boom with her name and it’s always high on the request list. I am def marking this down for Christmas gifts for my daycare kiddos!

    • I’m so glad! They make fantastic gifts and I love that they include stories like this one (definitely one of my favorites!)

  2599. I love the idea of the book featuring your childs name. It makes it that much more special to them <3

  2603. This is so wonderful! I’m always looking for unique and special gifts for my niece, and this is amazing. My sister is a book lover (not a kindle lover), so I am always excited to to give gifts that I know she’ll approve!

  2604. This is such a great idea! I love how everything is combined together in one box, and that you have such a wide array of activities in there. The fact that there is a lot of independent/quiet time stuff is great, too. I’ll pass this along to my friend whose daughter will be entering preschool next year 🙂

  2605. We always get the kids a personalised book for Christmas, it’s so sweet to see their faces when they realise it’s for them – such a unique gift x

  2606. I can’t wait until my baby girl is born and be able to read to her so we can start that special binding time! I look forward to your posts!

    • Thanks! I like to give families a range of activities that they can share. I think you are never too old to enjoy a picture book!

  2613. We always press leaves in wax paper and send them to friends and relatives in Florida who don’t get to experience the changing of the trees.

    • That is such an awesome idea! I should have my daughter do that for some of our relatives in the South too!

  2614. These are cute little activities. We read the leaves book last year and it was so cute. We did a leaf painting this year and plan to add a few more fall activities.

    • I love it! My daughter loves being outside so I’m excited to experience fall with her now that she understands more.

  2622. I like the leaf stamping. I remember making leaf books in wax paper when I was in elementary school. I might have to do both this year.

    • I hope you have fun with it! I’m hoping to put some leaves between wax paper with her when the leaves around here start falling more.

  2623. I love all these activities! Fall is such a great and colourful time of the year – When my big girl was small we used to sing the autumn fairy song, she still remembers it. It’s super cute!

  2624. Such great ideas here! Will definitely be doing these with my girls. Thank you so much for sharing 🙂

    • I hope you have fun with them! We have been enjoying all of the colorful activities that fall brings!

    • Thank you so much! I love creating fun learning opportunities to make book come alive. I think it makes the reading experience more fun!

  2630. Cute ideas! I will have to test them out with my nieces and nephews! I love the look of the leaf sun art! Would be pretty covering some of the big picture windows in the house.

  2631. All the colors of fall are so fun. My daughter is a collector of everything too. She loves just picking up pretty leaves as we walk.

    • I’m looking forward to her picking up pretty leaves. Right now she picks up the dandelions, but she wipes the fluffy part on the grass and just collects the stems!

  2635. I love these ideas! We got that book a year or two ago, and it’s perfect for introducing fall. I’m sure my little guy will especially love raking leaves…or more likely creating the mess with them. 🙂

  2636. My favorite growing up was definitely the leaf rubbings and the leaf stamping. I’m excited to try the leaf letter matching with my little guy! Thanks for the great ideas.

  2643. These are some amazing activities. I have been looking for things to do during the Autumn break with my son, I am surely going to try some of these.

    • I’m so glad! I hope you have fun with them! I’m sure we will be doing these a lot since my daughter is loving watching the leaves this year.

  2647. These are such great ideas! I love the “raking the leaves” idea! We used to have so many leaves in our yard before we moved and now we have none- so my boys will LOVE to pretend play!

    • Ours have just started to fall and my daughter is really curious about them too! This book is a great way to explain it to them.

  2650. These are awesome fall-themed activities, Vicki! I always love your ideas! I think my toddler would like your dramatic play suggestion. The letter matching activity is very clever too.

    • Thank you so much! I hope you have fun with it! My daughter loves it, but she loves all housework for some reason!

    • I love playing my favorite childhood games with my daughter! It’s so much fun to jump back into childhood together!

  2654. I love how excited my friend in the Nothern Hemisphere get about fall! The colours are just so beautiful and I’m a big fan of pumpkin pie – we have a lady in Bali who makes it!

  2655. These look so fun! We have a ton of leaves in our backyard that the kids could gather for these activities!

  2656. I’ve got two young boys so there are lots of wonderful ideas in this post! My favourite place to read to them is snuggled up in bed.

    • Thank you! That was my goal! I never wanted to throw the dust jackets away, but I wanted to use them since we love the books so much!

  2660. What a perfect idea! I’ve always wondered what to do with the dust jackets because you can’t leave them on the books, the kids will destroy them, but I feel guilty throwing them away. But to make them art, how smart! And the cozy kids reading chairs are so fun. Christmas is coming! Might have to grab one!

    • Thank you! I could never bring myself to throw them away, although I’m not sure why! I love having a use for them!

  2663. This is such a cool idea for wall art! Now I feel bad about throwing way the covers 🙁 But I am definitely trying this DIY. Too cute not to😬 And creating such a corner for kids really helps get them
    Excited about reading we saw a difference in our sons enthusiasm about books when we created a reading book for him. Lovely post, thankyou for the diy idea!

    • Thank you! I hope you have fun creating them! I hate throwing the covers away, but it felt weird to keep them without a purpose!

  2665. I really like that idea of the book art. Really makes the room fun and happy! Whatever we can do to encourage reading is great.

  2670. I love book nooks! We are moving to a new house in a month and that is one area that I’m so excited to create. A special reading nook is the best place to enjoy a book!

  2678. Oh I love how you did the canvases with the book jackets! What a neat idea. I’m definitely pinning this for inspiration when I do our reading nook in the playroom!

  2679. As always, you are so full of great ideas! I love love love the canvas on the wall idea with the book covers! My kids would get a kick out of that and what a great project to do together! Thanks so much for the idea!

    • Thank you! I was so excited they turned out, and my daughter was so excited to see some of her favorite books on the wall!

  2684. I love your idea of creating book art! Might just have to create some book art for my son’s room. These are great ideas. Cannot wait until my kids are older and can read books without having to be constantly supervised to make sure they aren’t eating the books or ripping pages.

    • Thank you! I hope you have fun making them! I still have to watch my daughter for page ripping sometimes.

  2688. I life the letter matching game the most. This will be most relevant for my son. But I’d love to try out other art & craft activities too only if my son had the patience.

    • I hope you try them out! The suncatcher may be a good one to start with. My daughter really liked pounding the tissue paper pieces onto the sticky surface.

  2696. I am not sure how I feel about this. I am going through a phase of not letting my son watch more than one episode a day because he loves tv too much. He would watch Mickey all day if he could. I dont really like Mickey that much and would rather let him watch Seaseme Street or Curious George… but he is only two so it is hard.. I cant relate tv to reading.. he has autism so my experience might be different!

    • Everyone has a different experience! I definitely lucked out that she doesn’t like TV too much. That’s exactly why I hate the articles that say “NO TV ever” or “TV is completely fine all the time” — one formula does not fit every family. You know best what works for your kids!

  2697. Yay I love this. I’ll be pinning this for later. My little guy is only 9 months old so these are a bit advanced for him! 😉 Have you watched any of the shows on the baby development channel? I’m curious what age range those shows would be useful for. My son LOVES music and watching colorful things so sometimes when I need to use the bathroom, I’ll put that on for him just for a minute. But I’d love to know if you’ve watched that channel and what you think!

    Great post 😘

    • Thanks! I haven’t watched it, but I have heard great things! I will have to check it out. I don’t always go by age ranges on things because I’ve found that my daughter gets some benefits out of toys, shows and books that are both above and below her level. The pediatrician we were going to kind of scared me out of screen time for the first year, so Einsteins was the first thing she watched. Once the female Doctor at the practice told me “he’s never been a mother who wanted a shower” and that she thinks some screen time is fine, I loosened up.

  2700. This is a great list of shows. And I also believe TV time in moderation. I think shows that teach kids about new things are amazing. I believe that it gets them excited about learning and like you said, helps them recognize things in the world that they may have seen in the show.

    • I love seeing her apply things that she has learned from TV in the real world! A little bit can go a long way!

  2701. I let my almost two-year-old watch TV in moderation as well. Usually I let her watch a few clips from Baby Signing Time (less than twenty minutes each day, and not every day). I’ve loved Baby SIgning Time because it has helped her pick up so many signs, so there’s real educational value!

    • That sounds awesome! I will have to check it out. I have always wanted to each my daughter more signs!

  2702. I definitely agree with TV in moderation. We’re on the much lower end of watching TV for behavioral and speech reasons but never fault a parent who’s child is learning from the things they are watching! You do you!

  2703. I haven’t put much thought into TV time for toddlers since I’m not a parent yet, but it does seem like kids today have much more access to screen time than during my childhood. I’m sure many people say that’s a negative, but there are also seem to be many more educational resources on digital platforms for kids now, too. The only educational shows I remember watching were Sesame Street and Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. Otherwise, it was mostly cartoons and Disney sing-along videos from what I remember.

    • There are definitely a lot more programs available now that have educational value, which I’m very grateful for! I tried to avoid screen time for my daughter for a long time, but technology isn’t going away, so kids will need to know how to use them eventually.

  2704. My toddler was potty trained by Daniel the Tiger! She loves that show, and there are so many good lessons there. She also watches some of the programs on Disney Junior. Her bedtime routine includes watching an episode of Curious George while cuddled up with Daddy. Monitoring and limiting screen time is, of course, necessary. But, some screen time can be educational and entertaining.

    • I agree! I have heard great things about Daniel the Tiger, but we haven’t checked it out yet. I will definitely have to keep it in mind when we are potty training her!

  2708. We LOVE anything on PBS kids. Now that our daughter is 3, she is definitely absorbing everything she is watching. When we do let her watch tv we let her watch anything on pbs kids. She is always learning and even teaching me from shows she watches! Haha we mostly watch with her as well to reiterate everything she is watching!

    • I have definitely been using the shows she watches as teaching moments. So far Super Why is the only PBS kids show she has watched, but I’m curious about the others!

  2709. My daughter watches many of the same shows. I have been amazed at how much she has learned. My older kids had teachers compliment about how much they knew about such a wide variety of topics. I was like ummm thanks. That would be the TV.

  2710. We used to watch those shows! I agree about everything in moderation and practice that still. My kids are a little older now, and they are very interested in devices – anything they can play a game on. So now we monitor both the tv and the devices. And while we do monitor, we stay active and busy, so on a night like tonight when we were busy up until bedtime, it wasn’t a big deal that they didn’t watch any tv today.

    • There is so much technology at their fingertips these days! I want to minimize her screen time, but I also see a benefit to it. Our local school district has IPads and other devices that they use and I think it’s a benefit for her to have some knowledge when she goes to school in a few years. But I absolutely want her to experience life off of the screen too!

  2712. I completely agree! My daughter has learned so much from watching TV. Her favorite is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Hearing her answer the questions and help figure out solutions at only 2 years old baffles me!

  2713. I’ve actually leant English while watching Scooby Doo. Don’t imagine I was fluent at 4, but it was a trigger for my parents to focus more on teaching me English.

    • That’s awesome! I have heard a lot of people say that they learned English through television. My German teacher in high school actually showed us movies and TV shows in German so that we would hear it as it’s meant to be heard, not just repeated vocabulary drills.

    • Definitely! My parents like to remind me how lucky we are to have things like Netflix nowadays compared to recording things on VHS for me when I was a kid!

  2715. This is a great list of quality options for TV time. The key to using TV is definitely moderation. There are so many fun and educational options for kids today. When we as parents are intentional and use the TV as a learning tool, it can have many lasting benefits!

    • Definitely! All the articles out there about screen time scared me away from it for a long time, but I have definitely seen a benefit to allowing a little bit of it here and there!

  2716. I totally agree with you! My boys watched those shows when they were younger and loved them. I really felt there was value in them learning while they were enjoying the shows. They are little sponges, and if they can learn during doing something fun like watching a show they like, then it’s a win-win all around. I of course let them watch shows in moderation too. I love how there are so many shows that include teaching for young kids.

    • I agree! They are such little sponges! I love watching her learn new things from each of the shows she watches.

  2719. We watch all of those as well (aside from Mickey because we don’t have cable). They have helped my son learn so many things! They bring up so many great conversations too!

    • They do! I love talking to my daughter about what she is watching and learning. Plus, we are big into singing and dancing, so I love having songs from these shows to share with her!

  2723. Love this post of my goodness it just speaks to my heart. I am rambling. But it does! Love the idea of turning abstract art into something else and the props. Simple stuff is so important.

  2734. what cute ideas! This was a book my preschoolers really loved. I like how you’re using different activities to connect the book and other experiences.

  2737. I used to use the “monster spray” for my daughter when she was little too. Love the blow monster art! Looks like a fun activity to do with my 4 year boy and I think my 8 year old will like it too.

  2739. I absolutely love these blow monsters! It is such a great way to make monsters not so scary. My Granddaughter is not old enough to be scared of monsters but she loves when we read to her. I will have to add this to her must get list.

    • It is a really great book for stopping a fear of monsters even before it starts! We had a lot of fun with the blow monsters too!

  2740. I Love these awesome ideas, you really got creative around the theme of the book! The painted monsters are super cute and the spray is such a fun idea! My daughter would love these

  2741. These books bring back so many memories! Halloween books were some of my favorites as a kid. We always had a book fair at school right around Halloween, so buying a couple of new books was a treat. These sound like so much fun to read. Wish I had a little kiddo to read them to. 🙂

  2746. Great pics. I love Sandra Boynton’s books. They were always my kids favrorites. Somehow her writing style always ended up with me singing the books to my kids in fund and silly ways. We also had the “The Biggest Pumpkin Ever”. Thank you for sharing these.

    • I loved the Biggest Pumpkin Ever as a kid, so I couldn’t wait to share it with my daughter. I love that Sandra Boynton’s books are so singable!

  2751. Screen time fans over here too! There are so many awesome shows out there! We read tons of books too, it’s all about balance. My boys love Blaze and the Monster Machines – which teaches STEM concepts! 🙂

  2754. We actually have a few of these! My husband and I both LOVE haloween! We also have the Halloween Mickey book that the kiddos love!

  2756. Seriously you always come up with the funnest crafts to go along with the books! I just love when you have a new post go live!

  2760. Thank you so much! These are really great suggestions. We have a few of these, but I will definitely be checking out the others! 🙂

  2761. Love this idea, I’m always thinkinh of ways to interact with my kids. Even though They arent afraid. They will love these activities lol.

  2764. So many cute books, and such a great idea to help kids face their fears. The Monster at the End of this Book used to be one of my favorite books growing up, so we read that one a lot. Now, we need to get a few more of these! Thanks for the suggestions.

    • I hope you enjoy them! That is one of my favorites as well, and I’m so excited my daughter has been enjoying it as well!

  2767. These books look so cute! They are getting added to our library book list. I love the “that’s not my…” books. I bet the monster one is adorable.

  2770. So many cute choices! I still have my copy of the monster at the end of the book from when I was little !

  2776. I love Don’t Push This Button! Have you ever read I Need My Monster? It’s a fun twist on bedtime fear of monsters about a boy who NEEDS the monster under his bed in order to fall asleep.

    • Aw, I meant to add that one on here! It’s such a fun twist on the monster under the bed!

  2779. What a fun theme of books for October! I have a little list going in Amazon and will have to add a few of these to it!

  2780. These are really great i will try to find some of them and share it with my little ones… Every kid is afraid of monsters.

  2781. Pingback: Fire Safety Craft | Mrs. Karles Sight and Sound Reading

    • It’s currently one of my daughter’s favorites! I love reading it to her too because it’s so much fun!

  2787. Such a fabulous list for monsters in the fall!! I personally love “my monster mama loves me so”- it might be one of my favorite kid’s books of all time!

  2788. So many good picks! My boys would love all of these Monster themed books! They’re obsessed with Halloween and it seems fitting!

  2790. Monsters, monsters everywhere. So many great books and some I’ve not heard of before!

  2792. My daughter is only 5 months but i’ll be picking this book up soon. I like reading to her and letting her know of her greatness from now

    • Nancy Tillman’s books are fantastic for reading to really little ones. The pleasant rhymes and vivid illustrations make them great to read aloud!

  2793. I love the message that this story sends! Definitely one I would love to read to my kids!

  2794. I love this and the message behind it! My little girl is only 7 months but I tell her daily how loved she is. I will have to buy this book for when she’s older.

    • Nancy Tillman’s books are great for reading aloud to really little ones! The beautiful messages are written in flowing rhymes which make for great read alouds!

  2796. Aw I love these books! We have you are here for a reason. I love the activities you have here. What a helpful resource. I’ll have to come back to it for homeschool. Random an unrelated question but could you recommend any fun books about Davy Crockett? My son is obsessed and he’s listened to Little House on the prairie four times now, so we need to move on! 😉

    • Thank you! I don’t actually have any Davy Crockett books yet! I will have to change that since my daughter likes singing along to the Disney song about him. I do know the Who Was series has a Davy Crockett book. They are great resources for kids!

  2798. what a great message. I am not familiar with these books. Sometimes I think I go overboard with telling my little ones how much I love them! I always tell them Im obsessed with them 🙂

    • I sometimes feel like I tell my daughter too often as well! I definitely recommend these books. They are some of my favorites to read to my daughter!

  2799. I just LOVE seeing your book picks!!! Do you have any posts on books to start the discussion around potty training?

    • Thank you! I don’t yet, but since we are starting the discussion around here I will be putting one together!

    • It is! I love looking back over all my hobbies and experiences every Christmas when we decorate!

  2802. I love this post . Books are such an important part of my son’s life too . I will be adding these to the collection. Thanks for the recommendation.

  2804. The author seems to have put in a lot of effort in coming up with such a thoughtful book. Loved your detailed analysis of this beautiful concept of a book.

  2805. What awesome suggestions! The next time we put in a book order at school, I would love to get The Love Monster! It sounds so sweet! Thank you for the great reading list!

  2808. This sounds like a beautiful book! It is so important for our kids to know that are all individually wonderful in their own way…I need to check this book out for my kids ❤️

    • I definitely recommend her books! They are great for reading to very little ones as well because the rhyming is so melodic and the illustrations are so eye catching!

  2811. My children love the Love Monster book, it is one of their favourite books. Another favourite monster book is “A Monster Wrote me a letter!”

  2812. Books have the ability to make children believe, and attempt, they can achieve anything. They great thing is when you pair those books with encouraging parents- they can!

    • I definitely recommend it! Her books are fantastic for teaching these important messages.

    • She is one of my favorites! I just love reading her books to my daughter and this one is one of my new favorites for sure!

    • Her books are fantastic for sharing these important messages with kids! I definitely recommend this one!

  2818. What a beautiful book, I definitely need to get this and send it to my neices. I also loved that your parents got you ornaments every year based off what you were interested in durintthat time of your life. Such a sweet gesture that means a lor omce you grow up and look back.

    • I hope they love it! It is a really fantastic book. And I loved getting new ornaments every year as a kid, but I appreciate them even more now that I am an adult!

  2819. This is some great tips. Raising my son has been a wild ride. I knew nothing about boys until he was born. Now I’m a single mom rocking mom life.

  2820. Parenting can be a seriously a daunting task, especially for first-time parents and, to have places like Boy town to go to seems like all the prayer fulfilled. Lovely posts.

  2821. Boys town seems like a great help for all the parents out there! I receive something similar to Boys Town every mont here i Switzerland. My daughter just turn two and so far I have “everything” under control but I feel that she start to want it her way or the highway more and more.

    • Oh definitely! There are some days where I feel totally in control, and other days she definitely isn’t as agreeable!

  2822. I’ve been more stressed with my three-anger than when he was a terrible two. I needed to show this to my husband because he thinks our son is the only one who throws tantrums. I will definitely be checking out Boys Town for advice!

    • My mom always told me that three was worse than two with my sister and I! I hope you find Boys Town helpful!

  2824. I didn’t even know that this existed! I wish I knew about this sooner, my daughter has went through her phase of tantrum and as a Mom it can be overwelming. Now that I have another little one this is a great resource as a helping hand,thanks for sharing.

    • Yes! It’s like they wait to do them at the worst times in public! My daughter laid down on the floor at a wake last week!

  2827. This seems like an amazing resource! So appropriate for parents with young children. I like how you mentioned that it points out that tantrums are inevitable! Makes me feel like it’s not my fault! Lol

    • Right? That part helped me a lot! We can’t stop them from having tantrums, but we can help them through them!

    • Thanks! We had a lot of fun with it… until she got tired of playing and started eating the apple!

    • Thanks! There are a lot of great ones out there! The Biggest Pumpkin Ever is one of my favorites.

  2834. These look so fun! My baby isn’t old enough for these yet but such great ideas to do when she’s a little older!

    • Thanks! This year we were able to have a lot more fun with pumpkins. The last two years I let her play with the pumpkin insides safely trapped in a plastic bag!

  2837. Wow! Theses are some great activities to get kids excited about the fall season! I love the idea of making a farm at home.

  2840. These all look like so much fun! Think we will have to give the shaving cream activity a try – that always seems to be a winner, thanks!

    • Haha, I’ve been planning on letting my daughter paint one, but I always have to review the rules about WHERE we put paint!

  2850. I was reading your blog and my son cam to me pointing to the pumpkin picture saying Haloween Lols. Itrs a cute activity loved it

    • Aw, my daughter just started her own joke the other day and now she loves to repeat it all the time! They’re so cute when they figure out how to make us laugh!

  2858. Sounds like all of us adults need much more laughter in our lives. Wonderful to hear a child laugh and bringing laughter into their lives should be a priority.

  2859. Great read. On a gloomy day like today I could definitely use a good laugh. And you are right, as we get older we begin to take life so seriously and forget to live in the now and enjoy the fun moments laughing with our kids.

    • Definitely! It is so easy to get swept away in the day to day gloom, but the laughter of a child should remind us of all the joy in life!

  2868. Big believer in reading and starting off children early with reading. I read through out the day and before bed to all my children. If it helps bring laughter to them and us as parents even better.

    • I agree! We are always reading around here, and books that make us both laugh are always winners!

    • Thanks! It’s never too early to start teaching them some of the basics! My daughter loves talking about fire safety because her father is a fireman so she has been around it her whole life.

  2872. My 5-year old grand looooves these kinds of “jokes”. I’m sure he’d love this book, too.

    • It’s such a fun book, and it gives them the opportunity to take the joke a step further with the illustrations!

    • Agreed! It’s so nice to know that every laugh your child gets from the book, another child gets a laugh as well!

  2876. I LOVE this idea! Some of my favorite books to check out from the library when I was younger were all the different joke books, and I know I would have loved this one! Definitely keeping this in mind for when I’m looking for something for my kids someday.

    • I loved reading joke books as a kid, and it made me pretty popular with the kids as a substitute! Even if they’re groaning at your terrible jokes, they are still getting a kick out of it!

    • I hope you do! Since my daughter is an energetic toddler, I am all about the easy activities!

  2880. Oh this is a great idea. My kids would love this, would also give them some new jokes to tell!

  2882. This is great! I have a younger sister and I love turning fun activities into learning opportunities. We’re working a lot on her math skills lately so adding things like prices is a great tip! Thanks for sharing

    • I love trying to find teachable moments throughout the day for my daughter. Pumpkins give so many great lessons while having fun!

  2883. I LOVE a good kids book (like, I get really excited and tell my mom and husband and my mom-friends all about it) and this book+activity sound so fun!!

    • I’m the same way when I find a new kid’s book I love! I was really excited when I found this one!

  2884. This is a creative way to have the kids enjoy pumpkins at the same time learn while having fun. Great ideas presented. Thank you for sharing.♥

  2885. Its incredible what fun and learning activities you can do with a simple pumpkins! I have to try the roasted pumpink seeds!

  2889. This book is something I think I would want for myself lol. Now as a mom I only laugh at kid jokes lol

    • Haha, I still love coloring as an adult, so it could definitely be a great gift for an adult too!

  2894. These are fantastic ideas for the little ones. I looked forward to carving pumpkins as a child and cannot wait to share that experience with my little one. Roasted pumpkin seeds don’t hurt either!!

  2901. A friend of mine had one of these and her kids loved it! What a wonderful way to encourage learning and let your child feel important! I would get one, but my kids are probably too big for it now! So cool!

    • It’s great because it allows her to feel like she is part of the daily goings-on, and it grows with her!

    • I’m always nervous about her falling, especially since she doesn’t show any fears of falling! This really helps my peace of mind!

  2903. Pingback: 25 Fall Activities for Toddlers - Oh Honeybee

    • It has definitely been a huge help! I’m so glad she can safely work at the counter with me now!

  2905. I love these towers! We have been thinking of getting out little one one! She loves helping and being a part of what I’m doing.

    • That’s great that she likes helping! I definitely recommend the tower. It has been a huge help!

  2907. We dont celebrate Thanksgiving but I still think that the books really look like a great way to introduce the kids to Thanksgiving!

  2909. I actually haven’t even thought about getting any Thanksgiving books for my 18 month old, but he loves to read. Thanks for the great suggestions!

  2910. My son and I love anything nature so this is right up our alley! We have done nature sun catchers using plates but I love the idea you shared. My son also enjoys taking part in household chores and raking . What a great idea to tape off an area! If you have a swiffer at home this is also a lot fun as a household chore that the kids enjoy! https://planetteachersblog.com/2017/04/17/chores-for-toddlers/
    Thanks again for sharing can’t wait to try some of these activities!

    • I hope you have fun with them! We love being outside as often as we can be, especially with the colder weather heading our way soon!

  2911. These look like really great books! I’m fed looking into getting a few for my little guy before the holidays!

  2913. This is a great list! My daughter is still not quite into listening to books (she’s 18 months old and can be hit or miss with everything!), but I should go ahead and start stockpiling these for when she’s ready to be read to!

    • I started my collection long before I had my daughter and I’m so glad I did! When she really gets into a reading mood, we can read piles of books in a day, but I have lots to choose from!

    • Thank you! It is so important to me that she learns these things young, so they will be a part of her.

  2916. This is great! I love the lessons you teach your children. I work at a retirement community and we do a huge ceremony each year to honor veterans and it honestly gets me so emotional each time. I have so much respect for them.

  2917. Pinning this for the kids! We need to get into these books and teach them these things from a young age!!

  2919. That email series sounds really helpful. My son is just approaching toddlerhood now and it’s incredible how big his emotions are sometimes! I took a similar parenting class that has really helped a lot.

    • Their emotions are out of control sometimes! We have found the Moodsters toys and books to be really helpful. Definitely recommend checking them out!

  2920. Pingback: Halloween Books! – 2 Cooks Crafting Books

  2921. Awesome ideas for helping our kids understand the importance of remembering our veterans. I need to check out some of these books. The military alphabet sounds like one my little man would love.

  2924. These books all look so fun. I love the “A Turkey for Thanksgiving” book. It’s one I grew up with and it brings back so many great memories.

    • There are lots of great books for the Thanksgiving holiday! I love finding new ones every year!

  2931. Oh, my goodness. I don’t even know where to start. This is an amazing selection. I would love to have it all for my children. The Learning Tower is top of my list. It looks so sturdily built!

    • It is so sturdy! I am so thrilled with it! It is so much safer for my daughter than the step stool we were using.

  2932. These are great ideas! My sister gave the personalized book to my daughter last year and she really loved it! Because her name is unusual, it was especially appreciated!

    • That’s awesome! I could never find personalized items with my name spelled correctly when I was younger, so I love how easy it is to customize these books for any child!

  2936. I love this selection of gifts. I’m trying to pick something for my 18-month-old this Christmas. I got her a personalised Christmas book last year, so we can read it together when she is a bit older and learn the true meaning of this festive season in a fun way. I love the subscription boxes. Why I never thought about it? Great idea. The Brushies look super cute too, Thanks for some great inspiration.

    • Thanks! I hope you find something you love here! I love the personalized books because they draw the little ones in as soon as they know their names!

  2937. I want the whole collection! The Moodster series looks like something that my daughter would love to play with. Thanks for taking the time to curate the toys.

    • We LOVE the Moodsters! My daughter has absolutely fallen in love with them (she carries them with her wherever she goes), and I love the way they are able to help her talk about her emotions.

    • Personalized books are so much fun, and the ones from Put Me in the Story use so many of the books and characters that you and your children already know and love!

    • I hope you enjoy it! There are so many great subscription boxes out there now, and it’s so hard to choose!

    • I highly recommend them! My daughter absolutely adores them and they have been hugely helpful!

  2945. My grands played with some Moodsters at the neighbors and came back talking about them. Now I see a recommendation. Coincidence? 😉

    • That’s awesome! I definitely recommend them! I have been so thrilled with how helpful they have been for my daughter. I’m thrilled to hear others are enjoying them as well!

  2946. I love your picks! I’ve been looking for a learning tower or something similar for the boys, I’ll have to look into it further!

  2947. Pingback: Veterans Day Crafts and Activities for Young Kids
  2953. Pingback: Indoor Summer Learning Activities For Kids - Castle View Academy

  2954. I love these! Every year my kids get a present the day after Thanksgiving. This present has pjs, Christmas books, Chirstmas movies, or family games. All stuff we can use throughout the Chirstmas season. I think I will include one of these books for each of my kids. Which one would you recommend for an 8 year old boy and which would you recommend for a 4 year old girl?

  2955. I remember I had a personalized book when I was little and it was one of my favorite things. Such a sweet idea! I definitely want to get one of these for my nieces!

    • I love the personalized book I received as a kid, and I still have it! They are such fun gifts and keepsakes!

  2956. I’m always amazed at the cool educational toys and books you find! You will be one of my stops for finding the best christmas gifts! Keep it coming! I love checking out your posts!

  2958. Oh My Goodness. These are so cute! My son is still a little too young to get the awesome factor of having his name in a book but I am going to keep this so I can refer back to it in the future! Very cool!

  2960. I like My Tot Clock. I think this toys can help me introuce about time to my kids. Thank for your educational toys recommendation, by the way 😀

    Greetings from Indonesia 🙂

  2965. These look really cute – and it’s obviously a great idea to make sure your child is as prepared as they can be for their first day at school so that they don’t feel completely overwhelmed!

  2966. I would have loved some of these things growing up. Thank you so much for sharing. I would have never known about them!

    • I hope they love them! My daughter loves her personalized books, and I still have mine from when I was a kid!

  2973. I love the shape cookies mat! My son would think that was a blast. And cookies from around the world is such a good book! It’s so important to expose our children to other cultures and the ways they do things.

  2976. I love teaching my kids about other cultures and traditions! I’m going to go look this up at the library right now. I can’t wait to get cooking with the kiddos.

  2985. Those play dough mats are so cute! This is such a fresh perspective on traditional cookie making for the holidays.,

    • Thank you! We had a lot of fun with them. I love adding something new to our cookie making traditions.

  2986. What a fun idea to have shapes on the table as a reference! I grew up baking cookies with my mom and always loved it. To this day I plan my baking to ensure we have enough for everyone!
    Lee

  2987. Great post! We also love baking! My 4 year old has recently been in the kitchen cooking and baking every chance he can get. I’m sure he’s love this book. Thanks for sharing.

  2991. What a sweet list! The snow pine tree ornaments are so clever and fun! I was looking for a craft for my daughter’s class and this would be perfect! I bet even big kids would enjoy doing this and adding some personal ornament touches.

    • I hope they have a lot of fun with them! That would be lots of fun to let them decorate and customize them.

  2994. Great ideas! I was thinking of having a smaller tree specifically for the kiddos to decorate. Maybe they can create their own ornaments like here. Thanks for sharing.

    • I hope they have fun with it! I loved decorating my own tree as a kid, and I’m excited to pass it on to my daughter as well!

  2997. This is a really nice idea! Having a new years tree is definitely a tradition we would enjoy and get into! It also keeps the festive feeling going for just that little bit longer!

  2998. Awww this is super cute – though I think my mum would go mad if I suggested keeping a tree up beyond the first week in January!

    • Haha, my mom likes to take theirs down on New Year’s day, so I understand that! The nice part about this is that you only have to keep it up until then!

    • I do too! I love that it ties in making wishes for the year ahead and reviewing the year that passed.

    • I cannot stress enough how much we love the Moodsters! They are such a fantastic line of products and we are obsessed in our house!

    • It is! I love looking back together at the year that has passed and looking forward to the year to come!

  3006. Oh, this is so fun, I’ve never seen anything like this before. What a great idea of getting the kids excited for the new year, this is a great time for them to set goals especially since they’re going into the second half of the school year.

    • I agree! I love that you can find the wishes you made from last year too and see if they came true.

  3007. This is such a fun idea to celebrate the new year! Plus it is a tradition that would help spending time and bonding with your family!

  3009. Getting cozy in new PJ’s while reading Christmas books is one of my favorite memories as a child! Love that OshKosh B’Gosh is still around!
    Lee

    • Me too! I love curling up with my little girl now reliving those memories from my childhood. OshKosh clothes are still so cute and affordable too!

    • I’m so excited about it! It is so cute and I know my daughter will love redecorating our tree! And yes, the memory jar has become one of my favorite traditions for sure.

  3011. We do the 24 days of new books this time of year. New book is opened overnight. On Christmas Eve new jammies are given and a special book is read.

    • I love that! My daughter is having trouble not unwrapping every gift she has come across, so I think I will have to wait a few more years for that!

  3012. I do love to take time to read to my kids. We have pajama days where we stay in our pajamas all day and spend time reading and watching movies.

    • That sounds perfect! We’ve had a lot of snow this week, so we’ve been mostly staying inside reading and baking.

    • Me too! It’s been good for teaching my daughter about patience as well, since she wants to open all of them at once!

  3014. Love Oshkosh! We especially love their softer/stretchy jeans for my oldest who isn’t a huge fan of jeans in general – they’re the only ones he will wear!

  3017. We LOVE BOB! One of our favorite Christmas books but I didn’t know of the others! Santa Duck looks SO cute! I always love reading your posts!

  3020. Love all these! We have a Stinky face book I think it’s the I love you stinky face book and my boys loved it when they were younger. I still keep it around even though they are older, the same with the Curious George. Total classics to keep around forever!

  3023. I love this! As a women going into engineering, I think it’s so important to start encouraging girls at a young age that STEM fields can be dominated by women also! Thank you for this list!

    • I’m so glad you like it! I definitely want my daughter to understand that she can do anything. Her godmother is an engineer, so I’m grateful that she also has real world examples of women in STEM careers. She’s only two, but she likes to quote a line from the Patricia Bath book listed above that “Anything boys can do, girls can do too!”

  3024. I’ve never seen these books before. I’ll be adding them to my resource list. I teach enrichment classes for homeschoolers, and these would really be a great addition to the curriculum.

    • She will love these! There are so many amazing women that are finally getting the attention they deserve in these fields!

  3026. Pingback: Easy Valentine's Day Activities for Toddlers - Because I Said So Baby

  3028. Adorable! I wasn’t aware that there was such a large section of yoga books out there for the kiddos. Yoga is what helped me through my last pregnancy. I bet your toddler looks a cutie doing yoga 🙂

  3029. These books are amazing. We have the book about Temple Grandin and I really want to get the second book i that series for my daughter. My daughter actually reviewed the Temple Grandin boom and my blog and the author saw the review. My daughter was so very happy!

  3031. So much fun for kids! My kids love creating forts! Thanks for including my DIY Fort in a Bag idea! I hope all the kids have a blast making forts! It’s a great winter time activity:)

    • Aw, thank you so much! That means a lot to me! I love sharing my passion for reading and learning with others.

  3033. Though I usually get stuck with the big clean-up (lol!!), forts are so fun! My kids made one yesterday on a gloomy weather kind of day and their giggles were priceless!

  3036. Pingback: 11 Fantastic Ways to Have Fun with Fox in Socks - Rock Your Homeschool

  3038. Thank you, Vicki, for the beautiful review, it’s so important to have cultures of the world spread around! Greetings to you, from Greece! I am so happy reading all your reviews!!!

  3039. Thank you so much for reviewing three books on behalf on Multicultural Children’s Book Day! I love your insights into the books and why they work so well to open doors and mirrors for kids! Thank you so much for being a reviewer and for linky up!

    I hope you can join us tonight at our Twitter Party from 9-10pm EST. We will be giving away hundreds of diverse children’s books in the form of 13 book bundles. One will be given away every six minutes.

    The questions with the book prizes are posted here: https://www.pragmaticmom.com/2018/01/readyourworld-twitter-party-11-book-bundle-giveaway/

  3040. Pingback: The Ultimate Valentine’s Day Roundup – Confessions of Parenting

  3043. These are such great recommendations, I think it’s so important to teach kids about random acts of kindness!

  3045. Pingback: 25+ Olympics Activities for Kids to Celebrate the Winter Games
  3046. Pingback: 25 Summer Kids Activities to Get the Whole Family Moving - The Soccer Mom Blog

    • I hope you have fun with them! My daughter loves talking about the moon and she has been enjoying them!

  3048. Great ideas for book traditions. We have the I’ll Love You Forever book. We don’t have the Bear Loses a Tooth book, but we have couple other of the Bear books – Bear Wants More, Bear Gives Thanks, and Bear Stays Up for Christmas. Our yearly tradition is to find new Christmas books to give to our girls.

    • That’s awesome! I love finding great books for my daughter to celebrate the holidays and milestones! And the Bear books are some of our favorites!

  3050. Wow. that is an amazing list of activities. I’m exhausted just reading through it! Well not really, but it is a really big list. Thanks for taking the time to pull this all together. I love your site.

    • Thanks! I have to get my daughter some new ones too since she will want to jump in puddles all Spring long!

  3053. Pingback: 26 St Patrick's Day Activities, Crafts, and More - Sarah's Sage Advice

  3054. My daughter loves Don’t Ever Touch a Monster. Have you read that one? It’s so fun. I picked up Don’t Ever Touch a Dinosaur recently too.

    • I just found that one and added it to a list I’m publishing soon! I will have to check out the Dinosaur one too!

  3055. These are great books to encourage, inspire and motivate our girls. Is it okay to share this link on my blog?

  3057. Pingback: Easter Crafts, Activities and More - Sarah's Sage Advice
  3058. Pingback: Adorable and Simple Spring Crafts For Preschoolers - Real Mom Recs

  3059. These are so cute! What a wonderful way to remember your kids’ younger years, too. Thank you for sharing the ideas! I can’t wait to do these.

  3061. OHHH my son loves “Don’t push the button”!! I had been checking for a while to see if he came out with another book but then totally forgot! Glad to see there’s another. I’ll have to get this for him!

    • We had a lot of fun with it! The face paint pens are so much less messy and they wipe off so easily!

  3066. In the interactions I had with Mrs Bush she was kind, cheerful, and friendly. I have many stories from people who knew her well who said the same. She was one of a kind and a very warm and caring person.

  3067. My kids have the ‘how full is your bucket’ book. there’s another one too… ‘how to fill a bucket’ I think it really helped describe how emotions work and how other people have feelings too and how to help them feel happy!

    • I love it! It’s such a great way to help kids visualize a concept that can be hard to understand!

  3068. Oh boy! The Big Honey Hunt!! that was one of my daughter’s favorites growing up. And I loved reading it to her. Today happens to be her birthday. I’m going to try to dig out our old copy. Maybe I can read it to my granddaughter and start a tradition. “If a bear is smart, if a bear knows how…”

  3069. Love this! Caught my eye as we sing this song every night and my daughter has gone back to that same book as her new fave!

  3070. This is so cool! My niece and nephew are still a little young for this, but as soon as they are a little older, I’ll get them this book. Thanks for sharing it!

    • I’m so glad! It is such a fun one! My daughter is only 2, so she doesn’t get all the coding concepts yet, but she loves the story and the characters.

  3071. I love these books. I remember sitting down with a happy little one year old (or less) and talking through these books. Young children really are learning sponges. These books are a great start at building vocabulary and concepts. I like how you have kept working with your daughter when many other families would have outgrown these books as being too simple for growing minds. The genius is in their simplicity.

    • Thank you! I agree that the best part about them is that their simple structure allows kids to grow with them and adapt them for what they need!

  3075. Hi Vicki, would you recommend a specific one for kids ages 4, 6 and 8? I heard about the ABC yoga from a friend and came home to google it and then discovered there were so many more, was thinking maybe the good morning/good night one might be better for the older kids but thought maybe you might have a better insight?

    • It depends what you are really looking for with them. For any of the ages you mentioned, are you looking for more individual poses or more of a flow? I really like the Good Morning and Good Night ones because they really flow from one pose to the next in a soothing story format. If you are looking for more of a yoga flow, I would definitely recommend those for any of those ages. The ABC Yoga and others like it are good for teaching lots of varied poses. I hope that helps!

  3076. Yep flowing from one to another is the ideal, that clinches it.
    Thanks from one Vicki to another 🙂

  3077. These are great ideas! So far our biggest birthday tradition is making the day all about them – we pull the birthday child out of daycare and they get to have a special day with Mom & Dad (without their siblings, which is a BIG deal right now!). We let them choose dinner, but I think I’m going to have to add funfetti pancakes to the mix as well!

    • I’m so glad! My daughter loves them! Your tradition sounds so awesome. I bet they love having the whole day with you!

  3087. What a fun post! My daughter loved Fancy Nancy when she was little. We even had a Fancy Nancy party! I didn’t know they had Fancy Nancy dolls. How cute!

    • That sounds like a fun party idea! My daughter is just getting into her now at just the right time!

  3089. I love that globe. What a great idea and that Harry Poter coding set is very cool! It’s SO important for kids to have toys like this as it get’s them to use their mind and be creative!!

    • We have had so much fun with the Harry Potter kit! And I totally agree, educational toys are so important!

  3092. Great suggestions! Don’t forget about audio books too. Now I can have one I am reading, and one I am listening to when I can’t be reading (like in the car). Lots of free books available at the library and from audible on Amazon.

    • Great point! I wish there had been more options for ebooks when I was commuting to school years ago!

  3094. I’m always on the look out for new books and I’m LOVING these ideas! I never find books that make me laugh but I’ve checked out a few you have recommended and they look really really funny! I can’t wait to get stuck into them.

    • I am so glad to hear it! I hope that you enjoy them! I definitely recommend Jenny Lawson’s book “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” for laugh out loud funny. I laughed so hard!

  3095. Usually I am not a huge fan of New Year’s Resolutions, but I have a few for myself this year. I might need to pick a couple of these up. Thanks.

  3098. Thank you so much for reviewing two books! I’m so glad you liked them. Thank you also for your support of Multicultural Children’s Book Day!

  3103. Vicki, thank you for the very informative review of my new book, “Remembering Joseph Chickadee”. I loved it! Now I’m hoping lots of readers will see your blog and check out my new book.

    • Thank you so much for sharing it with us! It is a beautiful book. I hope lots of people check it out too!

  3104. Great list of books! I miss having a baby to read to….they have such big spongy brains inside those itty bitty bodies!

  3105. This is such a great list of “bookworm issues”! They apply not only to my oldest kiddo, but myself as well – lol. Our biggest bookworm issue is when he tries to sneak reading a book during class… like during math. Oops. But I’ve been there; and finishing up just one more page sometimes turns into 100 more pages 😉

  3106. My boys love to read at MawMaw & Papa’s house so I think I’m going to gift them a few of these books on Grandparent’s Day. Thanks for the suggestions 🙂

  3107. This really hit home this morning! My son (a bookworm like his Mama 😊) was so upset the first week of school when he came home and told me his “reading level” was in essence 5th to 7th grade. I didn’t understand his confusion since he is in 5th grade. However, he apparently didn’t “improve” his level over the summer. Sigh. He read for fun this summer. He enjoyed reading in the car, on the back porch & under his covers with a flashlight. I truly don’t think his teacher even pointed his level hadn’t improved. He just knew it. Simply makes me sad that my little reader had placed a “value” on his love of reading.

    • Exactly! Ugh, this makes me so sad to hear! He knows how to read, and he loves reading. That is what the focus should be on! I hope he doesn’t lose the love of reading because of the leveled system. But I’m sure with a bookworm mom, that won’t happen!

  3110. As a child, I could only dream about the Earth globe with LED illumination….Luckily, I can afford giving it to my little explorer now

  3112. These are absolutely adorable books & such a neat concept to take classics and turn them into illustrated books like this for younger children! Actually I guess for adults too because I really want that Pride & Prejudice for myself 😂

    • I love reading them just as much as my daughter! It is so fun to share favorite stories with your kids!

    • Thank you! That was my hope! I know we are all drawing blanks right now, so hopefully these inspire some family fun.

  3116. Excellent ideas! I’m teaching engine to my 2.5 years old and for that I printed out a page of faces with different emotions. Whenever he has some emotions, i point out the pictures to him.

  3119. Thank you for this helpful list of books on being thankful! I always enjoy reading holiday related books with my children and these are perfect with Thanksgiving just around the corner!