In the last year or two I’ve really been paying attention to the type of books we have been reading as I’ve been focusing a lot on making sure I am raising children with good character. Books with inspiring, courageous and positive characters are becoming more and more important to me. As parents we are given this gift of these tiny humans that come with their own personalities, all of which need some shaping, some a little more than others. There are many books that I weed out or refuse to read aloud to my children. I don’t want to read books with whiny characters because whining is…
Nine Summer Read Alouds and Audiobooks for 7-10 Year Olds
This is my third year sharing a list of read alouds I would like to get to during the summer. You can view the first one here and the second one here. The first two lists were more early elementary based and this one is starting to get a little older as my kids get older. Since the books on this list are read alouds the reading level can be higher than when they are reading on their own. My kids are 5 and 7 and they both listen to our books though they are more geared towards the 7 year old. This being the third year of our summer…
50 Books Every Parent Should Read to Their Child
I’ve been going through our picture books the last few weeks and doing the unthinkable: setting some aside to get rid of. It’s like I’ve got two sides when it comes to this: my minimalist side and my bibliophile side. I want to get rid of everything but I want to keep the books. So, I’ve come to a decision to at least get rid of the picture books that aren’t our favorites. I know a great picture book can be enjoyed by all ages but as my children get older I feel like we have less need to keep so many picture books. Especially with our weekly library hauls,…
The Best Funny Poetry Books for Kids
Since April is Poetry Month I wanted to share a list of our favorite poetry books. I’ve actually already shared some of our all-time favorite poetry books so I thought I would great a list with a twist: our favorite funny poetry books. My kids love poetry, maybe it is because they are young yet, but I personally think the reason they love poetry is because of how we approach it, reading poems is usually done during poetry tea time. Except for us it’s more like poetry-hot-chocolate-and-cupcake time. I mean, what kid wouldn’t love that?! (Here’s more information on our relaxed poetry tea time.) I think this approach is brilliant (and I can…
Composer Study with Living Books: Antonio Vivaldi
I’ve learned over the past few years the benefit of reading living books and I am making a real effort this year to add as many living books into our days as possible. Composer study and artist study are not something that are generally taught in the regular school system but hang around homeschoolers for a little while and chances are you will hear about them soon enough! Composer and artist study could be really overwhelming for kids but teaching them with living books makes it so easy, both to teach and for the kids to understand. Who doesn’t love listening to stories about the lives of people in the past?…
Children’s Books About Egypt
As part of the Explore the World From Your Home digital resource guide that I’ve created I’ve got book lists for the countries included in the guide thus far. Today I thought I’d share some of the books from the Egypt section with you! The Explore the World digital resource guide is more than just book lists, included in the guide are virtual field trips, a variety of video clips, online treks to explore and discover and more! Plus at the beginning of the guide I’ve shared our absolute favorite resources for exploring the world from our home. Each month 1-2 countries are added to the guide so once you…
