At The Boardwalk Review

One of Selena’s favorite books she received from Tiger Tales was At The Boardwalk by Kelly Ramsdell Fineman, illustrations by Monica Armino. I must admit it is probably my favorite book as well, I think that is because it reminds me of my favorite childhood poem:

At the Sea-Side

By Robert Louis Stevenson

When I was down beside the sea

A wooden spade they gave to me

   To dig the sandy shore.

My holes were empty like a cup.

In every hole the sea came up

   Till it could come no more.

Selena and I enjoyed reading this book together, as well as she enjoyed reading it independently. It’s poetic form was perfect for learning many of those uncommon or more difficult words. Selena compared the Boardwalk in this book to our beaches, and quickly came to the conclusion that our beaches do not have as much to offer as the Boardwalk in this book. Though I do believe she does not remember our trip to Ocean Shores, where the main street does have many things including a carousel. We both recommend this cute story for any child, the pictures are beautifully done and very eye catching.

As an extension I wanted Selena to build her own boardwalk. She chose a light tan for the boardwalk itself, and blue for the sea. My first thought was to get a little pattern work, and some math introducing 1/2 and 1/3. So I cut strips for her to form her boardwalk with.

After we discussed and played a bit with the different size strips so that Selena had a good feel of how the smaller ones could go together to become the same size as the whole strip, I turned her loose to create her boardwalk. She worked very hard until she felt her boardwalk was long enough. She then decided to add sand, seagulls and fog, which are all items found pictured and spoke of in the book.

Her final Boardwalk project. We reread the book a couple of times after this project while Selena pointed out the different things she incorporated into her picture.

I was given a copy of At The Boardwalk to review. I received no other compensation, the review is my own  honest opinion about this book.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

We had to do something to celebrate one of Selena’s favorite authors. I asked her to pick out her favorite Dr. Seuss book. She picked out Dr. Seuss ABC book.

This is one of the very first Dr. Seuss books that Selena learned to read independently. Being just about 2 years old when she could read most of this book by herself, was when we discovered we had a natural reader. Her reading has continued to thrive and Dr. Seuss has been a huge contributor in her reading experience.

What would a birthday celebration be without party hats? I gave Selena white, and red construction paper. She had to do all the cutting and gluing to create the Cat’s Hat, from The Cat in the Hat.

Then she had to glue them to the white paper.

I then cut out the full shape of the hat, and Selena of course wanted to wear it. With a little modification to the weight and a hand to hold it up Selena proudly wore her hat, held her book and wished Dr. Seuss a Happy Birthday!

stArt and Book Review

We received a big box from UPS. Both Selena and I were a little curious as to what was inside, since we truly were not expecting any deliveries. Upon opening the box it hit me Tiger Tales, and their new Spring Titles. Selena was truly very excited to discover all the books inside.

The book Selena chose to read was Bustle in the Bushes by Giles Andreae, illustrated by David Wojtowycz.

After we read the story together, and Selena retreated to read it by herself, I created a puzzle for her to put together. I took red and black construction paper and cut out the different shapes that would form a lady bug.

About the story: The book starts out and ends with some cute poetry about the world at the bottom of our backyard. Throughout the pages each bug, worm, and caterpillar gets to introduce themselves, what they like to eat, and where they live. Selena enjoyed the story and I found it to be quite cute. This book would be perfect for most any young age, while the story is simple and would keep the attention of even the youngest audience, it does provide some challenge for the budding reader. I would recommend checking this book out.

As for Selena’s finished ladybug. She truly enjoyed this project, but must admit she had to be quite the ham for the picture.

I was furnished a copy of this book from Tiger Tales to review. The review is my opinion. I received no compensation for my opinion.

It’s been a while but I am linking this up at A Mommy’s Adventure.

What My Child Is Reading

This week has been quite the week for reading in our home. I have come around the corner many times to discover Selena reading independently so many new books. It is getting very seriously a problem, especially when I ask to read the book to her and she won’t allow me announcing that she can read it by herself. At one point I insisted I read the book with her only for her to throw her hands on her hips and tell me, “It truly is a silly book,” with that she picked the book up and put it on the counter below her book shelf. OK Miss Independent! I had to wait for her to go to bed so I could read the books to do this post. I know this won’t last long and she will be running to my lap to read with her again.

The Dancing Clock by Steve Metzger Illustrations by John Abbott Nez was another book that we got from Tiger Tales. This is a cute story about the real Delacorte Clock that is located outside the entrance to the Central Park Children’s Zoo in New York. A little snow monkey in the zoo becomes overjoyed by the view of this clock with the dancing animals and he refuses to move from his spot where he can see it so well. I had been busy in the kitchen while Selena read this book. When I came into the living room the book was sitting on the coffee table. Selena announced, “I want to go to New York!” I asked her why, and she said something about the houses must be bigger in New York. Now I don’t know where she got that from unless she remembers from our study about New York that it is a Big City with lots of people as this book speaks nothing of the houses. I was stumped as to where she even came up with the idea of going to New York, until I picked up this book, opened it only to discover that it is about New York. Selena has yet to let us sit down and read this book with her, but I know she likes it, as it sits on her stack of independent reads and is read everyday.

A Bug’s Life, The Not-So-Perfect Picnic by Greg Ehrbar illustrated by Adrienne Brown and Brian Sebern is a Disney Pixar book based on the A Bug’s Life movie. This is a cute book about a princess ant, who is in training to take over for the queen. She is a very busy little ant, but she works so hard that she wears herself out. Little does she realize there is one ant who has a bit of a crush on her. He is the ant that gets laughed at a lot by the other ants, as more then not everything he does ends up in a flop. However he takes the princess out on a picnic. I won’t say much more as it would give the story away, but I will say this has been one of Selena’s favorite books since we brought it home from the garage sale where we found it. It has moved from her pile of read together books to her independent reading.

There is another book in this series that we have, that has ended up in Selena’s independent reading pile, but I haven’t sat down to read it yet. I hope to retreat to read it before next week, so I can give it a review as well. Maybe by next week Selena will want us to read with her again.

One book that she truly would love for us to read to her, which we might is the book both Papa and I just finished, Heaven is for Real. She has been packing it around, and thumbs through it all the time, I am just trying to decide if this is a book that she is truly ready for or if it is one that I need to do a lot of paraphrasing for her. She sure is interested in it though.

I am linking up at Mouse Grows Mouse Learns.

What My Child Is Reading Tiger Tales

Selena just continues to thrive in her reading. She seems to have a book in her hands all the time, or a stack just within reach. She has her books she stashes in her bedroom for night time reading, and is often caught swapping those out for new ones. She has all the books on her shelf in the living room, and you better believe she always has books on the coffee table and a few on the dining room table. I have a hard time keeping up with all the books she is reading, except when we have our daily and evening family reading time.

Don’t Worry Doughlas! by David Melling is one of the books that came in our box from Tiger Tales. This is a cute story about a bear who worries about how he will tell his Dad that his new hat got ruined. Selena enjoyed all the twists and turns as he turned to all the other animals for help. She also laughed when a bird tried to use the yarn for her nest and it wouldn’t fit. This has become a book that Selena enjoys reading with Papa or myself many times this past week. Like all the other Douglas books we have read this one has been a hit as well.

The Three Billy Goats Fluff by Rachael Morimer illustrated by Liz Pichon is a cute twist on The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Selena thought it was cute how the mother goat solved the problem for everyone, the troll and the goats, to quiet the goats crossing across the bridge. Selena at first didn’t know what to think of the Troll, until she realized that he really wasn’t as mean as he seemed to be. “He is just grouchy, like I get sometimes,” she announced after we had read the book a couple times this week. This book has joined her “My read alone stack” so I guess it is fairly easy to say it was a hit.

LimelightLarry by Larry Hodgkinson is a very interesting twist to a story about a peacock who allows his own pride to stand in the way of having fun with his friends. It isn’t until he chases all the friends away from his story, since the entire book is truly suppose to be about him, that he realizes that being in the limelight isn’t all it’s cut out to be. Selena said she liked the story but it has ended up in the pile that is hardly read. I don’t think she really enjoyed how busy the book seemed to be. I have to admit it was a little hard to read especially when some of the comments were in such small print. I think both Selena and I agreed that we did not enjoy this book as much as we had hoped. She did however enjoy the artwork of the peacock with his tail all spread out, and I agree that page was pretty cool, especially with the foil in the feathers.

I am linking up at Mouse Grows Mouse Learns.

Reading Comprehension and Diagraphs

For reading comprehension I chose one of the books we got from Tiger Tales.

Truck Party by Tammi Salzano illustrated by Hannah Wood, is an easy read, and a cute story about how all the trucks come together to create a birthday party for little truck. Each truck has their own gift, or area they contribute in, such as decorations, lights, cake, ice cream, right down to clean up. I liked the book because it is a great conversation started concerning how we all have different talents, as well as how important it is for everyone to work together. Selena really loves the story and is often found incorporating the story with her stuffed animals, replacing the trucks with various animals.

We used the book in story time in hopes to stretch comprehension. I read the story then asked Selena a series of questions, which for the most part she got correct. There were a couple we had to revisit in the story, but I think mainly because she was unfamiliar with what some of the trucks were called. I had hoped to have Selena do some illustrating but that didn’t happen only because Selena is not much for planned art these days. Later though she did pull her stuffed animals out and retold the story with her stuffed animals.

We were given some great phonics cards from some friends of ours. I have never really used them before and thought it would be fun to see how Selena took to them today. The section I decided to work on was diagraphs. Selena knows this as letter blends of vowels, so the new name really drew her attention. This is what the cards look like:

Selena had little trouble going through these cards and telling me what sounds the different letter blends made, we then flipped the card over to have her read the word on the other side to see if she was correct. I don’t know how much we will use these cards, but it was a great little review to tell me where we need to work from. Since Selena found it to be a fun game, I will leave them out with her self work items and see how many times I catch her just going through them on her own, or combining them with her magnetic letters to make her own extensions.

Naughty Toes Review/Giveaway

We recently received a box of books from Tiger Tales to review. Selena was so excited, she didn’t know what was in the box that UPS brought to us.

She truly was over joyed to see so many books in the box. She couldn’t wait to grab them out one by one to see her new reading material. We got two copies of a couple of the titles, so together we decided to do a give-a-way to one of our lucky readers.

The first book Selena chose to read for this giveaway was Naughty Toes by Ann Bonwill, illustrated by Teresa Murfin.

This story is about two sisters who discover that they are different in many ways. While one is a ballerina and the star of the show in dance class, the other dances to her own beat. This is a great book to show that while our children are different in their own ways, that is OK for them to find their own beat in life. It also is great to show that differences are not always a bad thing. I recommend this book for any young reader. It is a cute story, Selena sure enjoyed it and laughed at many of the different scenarios in the story.

Now for the giveaway:

I am giving you three chances to win this book. Leave a comment for each one and please make sure and leave me a way to contact you.

If you would like this book, then head on over to Tiger Tales and take a look around, tell me one book that appeals to you.

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We will select a winner randomly on Friday the 23rd, and announce the winner on Saturday.

I was not compensated in anyway, the opinions in my review are my honest opinions.

Our Favorite Read Alouds

I have been following Three thinking Mothers from day one that they introduced their new blog, concept, and have enjoyed watching it grow and develop into a place that has something to offer to any mom. The Mom on this site that I know the best is Mary from Homegrown Learners. If you haven’t heard of either of these blogs, I highly recommend checking them out. The other Mom’s I am learning more about, Jessica from Teachable Moments has a very lovely blog about homeschooling her daughters. Theresa, from Our Life in Words also has a very lovely blog worth visiting.
Recently Three Thinking Mothers got a facelift to their blog, and are creating a lot of different ideas and ways that we can share.
 
Upcoming Thoughts is one of their newest additions. They have a list of topics for the entire month. The idea is to blog about the topic and then link up at Three Thinking Mothers and share with one another. Also right now if you head over they are doing a give-a-way in honor of their facelift and this new concept. I would say head over and check it out.
This weeks topic is as my title of this post, “Your Favorite Read Alouds”. Wow I could list so many books in this section, but I am going to stick to the three that Selena has loved to hear over and over for the past 3 years, the ones that she is now able to read to us.
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss has hands down been one of Selena’s favorite books to have read to her. At first she had memorized the entire book. We put it up for a while, since I must admit Papa and I were truly getting a little tired of it. This book is back out, and Selena is so surprised with the fact that now she actually can read this book to us.

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss is one that Selena did not warm up to at first. Probably because of it’s length. Over time though she has enjoyed us reading this book to her. Now she is so pleased with herself as she is able to read at least half way through this book by herself before she decides she has read enough. We know she can read the entire book, but it is just a little much for her in one sitting.

Eloise Breaks Some Eggs by Kay Thompson was a book that I did not expect Selena to enjoy, at first she seemed confused with the book, I think she expected it to be like Pinkalicious. This book quickly joined her must read pile very quickly as she found it so hilarious. Once again this has turned into a favorite book that Selena enjoys reading with us or to us quite a bit.
I am linking up at Three Thinking Mothers.

What My Child Is Reading

We have been doing a lot of reading in our home lately. There are always books out and about, reading is becoming something that we just naturally do without thinking about it. While Selena isn’t much about learning how to read in school work, she always has a book at her side.

Her favorites this week truly were the Arthur books we purchased at the garage sale.

Arthur’s Science Project by Marc Brown is a story about the cartoon character Arthur. His class has been assigned science projects in school. He decides to make a model of the solar system. Of course everyone has great ideas on how he should make it. He finally makes it the way only he can create it. We’ve always enjoyed watching Arthur, so I guess it is only fitting that Selena would enjoy these books.

Try It , You’ll Like It! by Marc Brown another Arthur book. This one is about his sister DW who has decided she doesn’t want to try anything new. She soon discovers though that by not trying she is the odd man out.

We have several other Author books that Selena enjoys very much. Since she has now given up watching a lot of her cartoons, it is nice to know that she is able to relate to the characters through her books.

This week we did write another story in her notebook, which I thought I would share in this post as well.

Butterfly

By Selena

The Butterfly has wings.

The butterfly flies all around my backyard.

It goes flying over the fence.

I chase the butterfly.

I could not catch the butterfly.

I will next time.

The End

Selena found a butterfly on Saturday, due to the heat it was laying very low in the grass, so she was able to observe it for a long time. That was when she told me she wanted to write a story about the butterfly. Too bad I didn’t have my camera to get a picture of the exact butterfly, but Selena told me she just knows it was a Moth Butterfly because it was white. She might just be correct too.

I am linking this up at Mouse Grows Mouse Learns.

What My Child Has Been Reading

We have had little time to go to the library with the move, not only that but I truly did not want books out on loan as we were packing and unpacking. There was not a lack of reading here in our home though. Selena’s first BIG discovery was her own library of books. While we are still organizing, this is what Selena gets to see everyday.

Selena got the thrill of picking out one of my chapter books that we could read together, then she gets to pick out numerous books that she gets to read with, to me, or to herself. She also has quite a collection of books in her newly bookcase headboard in her bedroom.

The first Chapter book that Selena chose was On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She said she chose this book because she loved all the Little House books we read before. I read at least one chapter to her at night, sometimes she wants me to squeeze in two chapters. Then she takes the book from me and has to try to read it herself.

Pretty soon she tires of that and runs to grab a book off her shelf or out of her bedroom and asks me to help her read. We have a little game where we read the book together, I read parts of the sentence and Selena has to read the rest. When we are done with this then Selena has to sit back to read the book all by herself. I am not going to even attempt in this post to show you every book we have been reading, since there has been so many. Keep checking back though as I will be sharing some of the new finds that Selena has found in her library, right now there is still just so much excitement on her part that I can hardly keep track of all the books she reads through the day.

I am just so happy that my little Selena loves to read and has found so much joy in all the books that are like brand new to her, even though some I have had for many years, put away in storage. It is so exciting for me to finally have my books in one place on shelves, and accessible.

I am linking this post up at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

What My Child is Reading

This week Selena received a package in the mail. She was so thrilled and couldn’t wait for me to open it for her. We have been receiving so many wonderful free gifts since we subscribed to The Old School House Magazine. I use to get this magazine years ago, so was thrilled to get another one in my hand. This package that Selena got came from Library and Educational Services.

I think you can see from the picture above that Selena was about over the top receiving 9 books. We have first readers, science, geography, and bible in this bundle. We haven’t read them all, but I will touch on the ones that we have read.

The Bobbsey Twins, Freddie and Flossie and Snap by Laura Lee Hope illustrated by Chuck Pyle is a Ready-to-Read book. Selena loved the fact that she could pick this brand new book up and read it totally independently. The illustrations are very well done, and the story while very short is about a pair of twins and their dog. It truly is a first reader and I would recommend it for any child learning to read.

How Do You Move by Ellen Catala is a Yellow Umbrella Book Science for early readers. This book was more on Selena’s reading level. She enjoyed reading about how her body moves in comparison to how different animals move. It introduces new vocabulary words which are highlighted in the book. I also appreciated that it has a glossary of the new vocabulary words in the back of the book. While it is still simple it would be a great first science book for a young child rather they are able to read yet or not.

Young Animal Pride Series Young Peggy by Dave and Pat Sargent illustrations by Elaine Woodward is a character development book which talks about the dangers of wandering off. This is a story about two porcupines who wonder off while playing. They end up having a scary adventure but eventually meet back up with their mothers. I like the fact that while this book is talking about the dangers of wandering off, it also describes what a porcupine is. It would be a great book to add to a nature science theme unit study, or to introduce your little hiker into the dangers out on the trail.

We did a lot of other reading here too, but I really wanted to take the time to share Selena’s surprise box this week.

I am linking this up at Mouse Grows Mouse Learns.

What My Child Is Reading

Last week was such a hectic week, and while we did a lot of reading Selena’s main focus was learning her part for the Palm Sunday play, my main focus was on not only helping her but also helping Papa get ready for his business trip. We did stop by the library and picked up only the books I had reserved, we didn’t have time to search the shelves for any special treasures.

This week has seemed strange not having Papa here, and I know that Selena really misses him. She counts the days for him to come home. The first part of the week was especially tough for her and she asked about him and cried at bedtime when he wasn’t here to tuck her in. I tried to keep her very busy though, with play, learning, and preparing for Easter. We pulled out all of our Easter decorations, which really surprised Selena as I had never pulled them out until this year. My Easter decorations all have a lot of sentimental meaning for me, and unlike my Christmas decorations I truly wanted to wait until Selena was ready to appreciate them. Her favorite one is my favorite one, a glass snow globe that plays Easter Parade. She actually cries when she winds it up and hears the song. What she doesn’t know is that I am silently crying as well, as that was a song my dad use to sing to me, and the globe was a gift from my mom. I truly believe I picked the right year and the right timing to share them with her.

Ok onto the books that we have been reading.

Natalie at Mouse Grows Mouse Learns first introduced us to the You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You books by Mary Ann Hoberman and Michael Emberley. The book has several very short stories that are set up for you and your child to read together. The text is split up so that you read part, your child reads part, then there are parts that both of you read together. Selena had a hard time at first understanding this concept, but by the second time we picked up the book, she figured it out, and has truly enjoyed sharing this book with me.

I don’t remember who recommended My Little Train by Satomi Ichikawa, so I apologize for not acknowledging exactly who introduced this book to us. I do remember when I first seen it I knew it would be one that Selena would just adore. She loves trains, and she also loves adventures. This book has it all. A train that will take you anywhere you want to go, and a passenger who just merely wants to go on an adventure, up into the hills, over a cliff, then back home to mama.

Another book recommended by Natalie at Mouse Grows Mouse Learns, A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon was another huge success here with Selena. It is a cute story about a little girl who is truly tired of being different because she likes Lima Beans. When she decides that she will not eat them anymore, and pretend that she doesn’t like them, she suddenly awakes with stripes. As the story goes on her stripes change. None of the Drs nor Experts could cure her. It wasn’t until she was convinced to eat lima beans again, that she returned back to her normal self.

Head on over to Mouse Grows Mouse Learns, to discover what others are reading in their homes.

What My Child Is Reading

I thought I would share Selena’s favorite independent reading books this week. It has been so sweet to have her sit down and just ask me if she can read me a story. I just love to listen to her read to me, as well as to hear her discovering new words everyday. She tries so hard to sound all sorts of words out to figure out what they are, some she gets with the first attempt and others we have to talk about why they don’t sound the way she thinks they should. One word I can think of off the top of my head that she learned here lately is honeycomb. We have a restaurant here in town called the Bee Hive, and the lounge is called the Honeycomb room. We were sitting in the parking lot waiting for Papa’s van pool when she looked up and asked if we could go in the Honey come room. I had to explain why comb is pronounced the way it is and not pronounced as come. She makes discoveries like this all the time.

Anyway two of her favorite books to read to me this week have been from very easy to a little more difficult beginning chapter book.

My Cat and the Hat by Sherry Kurz is a book that came in a series of first readers from Christian Liberty Press. Selena never really cared for these books, I don’t know if it was because they are set up so much like Progressive Phonics or just that the stories didn’t interest her. She has rediscovered them in her stack of books, and is always so proud of herself that she can now read them independently, every word not just the highlighted phonics words. She also makes sure to read every phonic word listed in the back of the book as well.

A Bug, a Bear, and a Boy Go to School, by David McPhail is a book that we have read many times together. When we have a book like this I try to get Selena to read with me, by reading the words I know she knows. She has been enjoying reading this book to me almost nightly. It is a cute book about a Bug, a Bear and a Boy who go to school, they go through various different aspects of school, each at his or her own level. The bear rights on top of the blackboard, the bug at the bottom, and the boy in the middle. There is a lot of problem solving that takes place on the playground as they quickly discover that the bear is too heavy for many of the things they are trying to do, but with problem solving and compromising they discover a great way to have fun.

We had fun with a couple of books and a video from the library, that Leah over at Almost Unschoolers recommended. While I felt that a couple of these would be over Selena’s head, I was pleased that my instinct that they would open her mind to math did happen.

We watched Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. It is a hilarious movie about a girl who when her teacher tells her that math can be found all around her in everyday life. She goes crazy realizing that this is true. While yes, this was over Selena’s head, she still loved watching this girl go through her days. I know there were things that Selena was relating to especially when she started counting her clothes, became more interested in picking out her own clothes for the day, and just listening to her using her counting and adding skills.

We enjoyed A Collection for Kate, by Barbara deRubertis. Selena had fun relating to Kate, who was struggling with her class assignment to share her favorite collection with the class. The math in the book was well over Selena’s head, but she enjoyed going through her bins after reading this book, and grouped all the things that were alike. I loved hearing her reasoning why something belonged in a certain group and not another. She did this numerous times each time telling me how many things she had in each group.

I have seen Selena using so much more math since we watched and read the books about math. I believe she has even been surprising herself just how easy math really can be, when she doesn’t really think about what she is doing and just lets it flow, from telling me she needed three more boxes added to her seven boxes to make ten total boxes on her hopscotch game, to realizing she needed one more block added to her nineteen blocks to make a total of twenty blocks in her tower.

I am linking this over at Mouse Grows Mouse Learns.