Out and About at the Fire Station

Out and About at the Fire Station
Written by Muriel L. DuBois
Illustrated by Anne McMullen

Age: 3-5 years; 5-7 years

Simple and engaging book about fire safety. Abby (15 months) liked pulling this one off the shelf to "read" on her own.

How a Seed Grows

How a Seed Grows
By Helene J. Jordan and Loretta Krupinski

Age: 3-5 years, 7-10 years

I'll admit that we only read this once, but that was because we were really excited about one of the other carrot books. I really liked the teaching aspect of this book. Check it out if you're considering teaching your kids about how plants grow - it even has a great activity which allows children to see the different stages of seed growth as it happens. Fun!

C is for Carrot

We did absolutely nothing for this week's Read to Me & ABC. Well, that's not entirely true. We did read and talk about carrots...a lot of talk about carrots! We also played a game called "Veggie Match" which we found on Walking by the Way's sister site, Homeschool Share. So, I suppose that nothing is a pretty strong word to be using, considering we did actually do something carrot related.

Look here for some really great ideas, a book list, and other resources. And please, check out both of Ami's websites - Walking by the Way and Homeschool Share - for some excellent and inspirational teaching ideas.

Here's a photo of the carrot project that Hannah and I made in the front seat of our Toyota Corolla. :)

Ten Red Apples

"Ten Red Apples"
By Pat Hutchins

Age: 3-5 years

I didn't particularly like this book, but Hannah (nearly 3 years old) spent several days reading it to herself. It's very repetitive so after just one reading together she pretty much had this memorized.

Alligator Alphabet

"Alligator Alphabet"
By Stella Blackstone and Stephanie Bauer

Age: 0-2 years, 3-5 years

I really liked the colorful illustrations in this book. I didn't like that some of the animal names don't quite fit in with the phonics work we're doing at home. But it has helped Hannah (nearly 3) to solidify her letter identification (even though that pesky "G" introduced a mound of confusion).

Little White Rabbit

"Little White Rabbit"
By Kevin Henkes

Age: 0-2 years, 3-5 years

This wasn't my favorite, but the kids liked the illustrations. I don't blame them, the colors are beautiful and I liked how the pages were nice and thick. There's just something about thick pages.

Alphabet City

"Alphabet City"
By Stephen T. Johnson

Age: 3-5 years

A neat concept to capture photographs that look like letters from the common city-scape. Joshua (4) liked it until I pointed out that you could trace the letter shapes with your finger. Now he won't read it even though I think he's intensely interested since he loves all things man-made.