Introducing Weekly Book Reviews

Weekly book reviews start this Friday.  If you’re interested in hearing a particular book reviewed or need activities for a specific book, leave a comment and let me know.  Otherwise, we’ll see you Friday!

Tags: book reviews, literacy, reading

Blood-sucking Beavers

My children come up with the most astonishing array of bedtime excuses.  I try to take this as an indication of my success in fostering their creativity.  But, no one is fooled.  We all know it’s really an indication of my colossal failure in the bedtime obedience area.

A few nights ago, we put our children to bed, tucked them in, had a few bathroom visits, kindly left a light on for them, and sternly insisted that they go to bed NOW!  I doubt it was five minutes later that I heard panicked feet pounding on the wood floors toward the patio, where we were visiting with my parents.  Anya burst out the door yelling, “Mommy, mommy, mommy!”  We rolled our eyes and acknowledged her…barely.

“Mommy!  I hear a sound like this.”  She screwed up her face and made sound that was a cross between a sucking and a kissing noise.  “It’s a blood-sucking beaver, and it’s going to get me!” she bellowed.  I almost laughed…just a little snort escaped.  But, I manged to pull out my angry eyes and march her back to bed.

No, I have not the faintest idea where she heard about blood-sucking beavers.  Truth be told, it was my first encounter, too.

So what’s your kids’ best anti-bedtime excuse?

Tags: anya, bedtime, creativity

Audio Books

To be really honest, as you start browsing Audible Kids, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the tremendous number of books for kids.  It really is amazing to see the selection that they have.  They have divided their library into various subcategories, but that is only so useful.  Truthfully, there’s plenty of books in the 0-4 years category that Dylan (age 7) will still thoroughly enjoy.  So, I thought I’d just post a few highlights from each category.  These are stories that we have loved listening to and that seem to be fairly good values.

Ages 0-4
Note that on many picture books you can get an “Enhanced Version” that allows you to view pictures on your iPhone or computer.

The Cat in the Hat and Other Dr. Seuss Favorites
Green Eggs and Ham and Other Servings of Dr. Seuss
Strega Nona
Where the Wild Things Are

Ages 5-7
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Magic Treehouse: Books 1-2
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Ages 8-10
Holes
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Because of Winn-Dixie
Ella Enchanted

Ages 11-13
A Wrinkle in Time
Ender’s Game
The Giver
Hatchet

Also, if you find that your children are enjoying audio stories, you may also want to check out Story Nory. Each week Natasha makes available a story for download. These are almost always fairy tales or myths or updates on Prince Bertie and friends, characters created by Story Nory. My kids like these stories, but the once-a-week release doesn’t usually keep up with their demand for new material.

Do you have any book recommendations for me? Leave a comment. Dylan will thank you!

Tags: audio books, listening comprehension, literacy, reading, reading comprehension

Picture Books with Older Readers

One of the hardest aspects of using picture books with older kids is judging the reading level of the books. The text for picture books can range from very simple to fairly difficult.  It’s clear to a parent that Go, Dog Go is simpler than Stellaluna, but some of the finer distinctions are less obvious.

It’s also tricky for parents because books can be leveled in various ways.  Some common reading level systems are Guided Reading Level, Developmental Reading Assessment, and Reading Recovery.  Books can also be leveled by grade and month.  For example, a book labeled 2.4 means it corresponds to the reading level expected at the fourth month of second grade.  Scholastic presents a good overview of three reading level systems.

I recommend finding out from your child’s teacher which type of reading levels your school district uses and what level your child is currently on. Once you have that information, you can begin browsing various online reading lists and databases to find picture books that correspond to your child’s reading level. Keep in mind that for leisure reading, teachers usually recommend that children read one or two levels below their current learning level. Why would this help?

• Children feel confident in their reading skills because it isn’t too hard
• Children experience reading as a recreational activity
• Children practice reading independently–they don’t need your help
• Children experience less frustration, making reading more FUN
• Children are likely to comprehend details of the story without feeling overwhelmed

Each year the Caldecott Medal is awarded to “the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.” Additionally 3-5 other books are designated Caldecott Honor books. These books are the basis of my picture book library. Using this helpful quick search at Scholastic, I was able to determine the reading level of the Caldecott Books for the 2000′s. Scholastic also helpfully allows you to change the leveling system between Grade Level Equivalent, DRA, Guided Reading, and Lexile Framework. Look in the upper right corner of the search results for that option.

So, here’s some Caldecott picture books for your older readers.  Note that illustrators are listed first since this award is honoring the illustrator.

First Grade

1. Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad Kadir Nelson/Ellen Levine
2. Kitten’s First Full Moon Kevin Henkes
3. Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale Mo Willems
4. Ella Sarah Gets Dressed Margaret Chodos-Irvine
5. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Mo Willems
6. Hondo and Fabian Peter McCarty
7. The Stray Dog Marc Simont
8. Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type Betsy Lewis/Doreen Cronin
9. Olivia Ian Falconer
10. Joseph Had a Little Overcoat Simms Taback
11. When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry Molly Bang

Second Grade

1. Zen Shorts Jon J. Muth
2. Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride Marjorie Priceman
3. Coming on Home Soon E. B. Lewis/Jacqueline Woodson
4. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers Mordicai Gerstein
5. My Friend Rabbit Eric Rohmann
6. The Three Pigs David Wiesner
7. Martin’s Big Words: the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bryan Collier/Doreen Rappaport

Third Grade

1. Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity Mo Willems
2. Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom Kadir Nelson/Carole Boston Wetherford
3. The Hello, Goodbye Window Chris Raschka/Norton Juster
4. What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
5. The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins Brian Sleznick/Barbara Kerley
6. A Child’s Calendar Trina Schart Hyman/John Updike
7. Sector 7 David Wiesner
8. The Ugly Duckling Jerry Pinkney/Hans Christian Andersen (adapted)

Fourth Grade

1. Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems Beckie Prange/Joyce Sidman
2. The Spider and the Fly Tony DiTerlizza/Mary Howitt
3. Noah’s Ark Jerry Pinkney
4. So You Want to Be President? David Small/Judith St. George

Fifth Grade

1. The Invention of Hugo Cabret Brian Selznick
2. Rosa Bryan Collier/Nikki Giovanni
3. Casey at the Bat Christopher Bing/Ernest Thayer

Do you need to me find the level of a picture book for you? Does your older reader have a favorite picture book to share with us? Leave a comment and let us know. I’ll be happy to find a level for you if I can, and I’m always interested in new picture book recommendations.

Tags: reading

Flashcard Fun

Flashcards seem to be an inevitable part of education. It’s such an easy way to practice something until it becomes automatic. It’s really scary what I can still remember from Human Anatomy and Physiology due to flashcards. And that’s from over 15 years ago, so we should all be scared together!

But flashcards for kids tend to be boring. What bores children usually does not teach children–at least not much. So let’s make it more exciting, shall we?

Number one hint is let kids make their own flashcards. Even if your child can’t write them out or draw the pictures to prompt themselves, at least let your child decorate the cards. This is so much more interesting for her. I say her, because he might be a little less inclined for this suggestion. Accept this. Find another way to help him…like tip number two.

Make practicing with the cards a game. Let your child flip, blow, throw or otherwise fling the card when he practices it correctly. Boys seem to find this sort of “naughty” thing fun. So let them do it. Also, it can be fun to set a timer or have races. Divide the deck in half and see how fast you can do each have. You get the idea.

Finally, don’t ever, ever forget that short and sweet is best. Even if you have to practice three or four times a day to build up to twenty minutes, short, focused practice is ALWAYS better than long, drawn out, whiny practice. For you and for your child.

If you look online, you’ll find all kinds of flashcard sites. Personally, I think that they get in the way of the first tip–make your own. And, often the teachers send home flashcard sets anyway. However, I do like FlashCardExchange, because it allows you to play memory online with cards you make. This is best for older kids who are using flash cards for test prep in a question-answer format. It does not work for sight words, letters, colors, numbers and other items where the purpose is just recognition. It does have a “study” option which flashes the cards for you on the screen. This can be good if you have a child with a computer fascination. It might be the thing that gets him or her to practice. To get access to some of the more advanced options, you’ll have to pay a registration fee. I’ve never had a need for that, so I know nothing about it. If you do, I’d love to hear your opinion.

If you don’t want to spend money buying your preschooler flashcards, then abcteach has an excellent set of preschool concept flashcards for free. It even has some blank flashcard templates for you (or your child) to make. Again, if you want access to premium features, there’s a subscription fee, but I’ve never needed more than their free stuff.

So flashcards–make them fun, make them short and sweet. Do you have any other ideas? I could definitely use them. The multiplication tables are on the horizon and I’m going to need some fresh ideas for Dylan. So please share!

Tags: drill, flash cards, homework