Knitting Zeal

Books for Babes: COUNTABLOCK

Disclosure: I received one copy of this book for the purposes of this review.  No financial compensation was received, nor was I required to post a review.  Opinions expressed here are honest and my own.

Reading has always been important to me and now to my son.  He has amassed a huge book collection and I find myself frequently purchasing new ones for him.  I still have a small collection of his favorite board books from when he was little, as it was important to me that he enjoy reading even before he knew what words were.  Picture books are great for baby's developement.  Hearing the words read to them helps them with language development and the brightly colored pictures are attractive to see.  

A while back I was sent a copy of the ALPHABLOCK book to review, an incredibly creative board book for little kids.  Recently I received the companion book, COUNTABLOCK, by Christopher Franceschelli, art by Peskimo. This book is just as clever and creatively illustrated, complete with die-cut pages.  As Alphablocks taught readers about the alphabet and letter recognition, Countablocks teaches little readers number recognition and counting.  The pages are colorful and engaging, telling a story about each number.  

This book is sure to be a hit with babies to preschoolers.  It's a nice sturdy book, colorfully illustrated through the very last page, which is number 100 and a three page spread.  A great way to end a long book and a creative way to introduce counting to kids.  

So while my son is a bit old to fully appreciate this book, it is perfect to add to my donation pile of books that I've been collecting to give to The Baby Bureau, a local non-profit organization.  They create "Baby Bundles" for new moms that are underserved after delivery.  The bundles consist of newborn clothing, a blanket or quilt and a book.  I've been picking up books at the used book sale at my library, pulling some from my son's collection that he's outgrown, and collecting the few books sent to me for review that are appropriate for babies.  This book, COUNTABLOCK will be going to a new home soon in a Baby Bundle!  

 

Summer of Fun: Reading list for kids ages 6 to 7

So while we have our bucket list of places to go, our list of things to do at home, I also came up with a list of books to read for the summer.  My son shares my love of reading and since he is a new reader, it's a skill I want him to continue to work on all summer.  He loves that the library has the summer reading program and Barnes and Noble offers their own summer reading program with incentives to keep reading.  He has already asked if we can read lots of books, more than just at night at bedtime!

One of his summer homework assignments is to read a particular book, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. His entire school has been assigned to read the book.  It's a great book with fun illustrations that even has an app to go along with it, making the book pop to life!  We already have read it and it was a hit, although my son is worried because the second graders at his school told him to beware of the report he'll have to write about the book in the fall!  (Silly rumors!)

So I did a bit of research and came up with a list of books to read with him this summer.  He is reading on a first grade reading level currently.  He still prefers that I read to him, but I am working on ways to get him to read to himself and others using early reader books.  

Poetry

At the end of the school year, my son's teacher introduced Hiku and Cinquain styles of poetry to the class.  Each day the class would write a piece of poetry together.  He really seemed to enjoy this style of writing so I decided to expand on the poetry and pull out our collection of Shel Silverstein books.  I read A Light in the Attic as a kid and loved it.  I think my son will get a kick out of it too!

Early readers

My son can read on a first grade level, which still shocks me.  I pulled out his collection of early reader books, books I usually read to him, for him to read to self this summer.  He loves the Lego series books, so I think he'll go for this idea!  

Picture books

I love children's picture books.  I went through our stack of books and pulled out some classics as well as some newer favorites. These include The Little House, Diary of a Worm, Caps for Sale, Flotsam, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and Only One You.  We'll hit the library to borrow some more picture books too.  

Funny books

My son loves to laugh and hear a good joke.  We'll try to get these from the library: The Day My Butt Went Psycho, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid.  I'm sure we'll discover a few more too!

 

What is on your child's summer reading list?

 

 

 

Related articles

What the kiddo is reading lately

Dear Summer of Fun, thank you

Fun and easy snack: Fruit Salsa

 

Last week it was my turn to bring the snack and drink for our monthly book club get together.  After some searching on Pinterest, I discovered that there was such as thing as fruit salsa, and there were lots of variations on the recipe.  After reading many recipes, I decided to go with my own mixture of fruit.  Here is my version of a simple recipe....

Fruit Salsa (or as my son prefers, Fruit Chopped Salad)

1 quart of ripe strawberries
1 ripe champagne mango
2 ripe kiwi
1 ripe peach
Juice from half a lime
1 tsp organic sugar

Directions:  finely chop all fruit into very small diced pieces.  I peeled the kiwis, mango, and peach first.  Toss all the chopped fruit with the lime juice and sugar.  Store in the refrigerator for at least two hours to allow the fruit to macerate in the juices.  Serve with cinnamon pita chips.  Or in a bowl with a spoon, as my son prefers!  This was a hit at book club and I will be making this again and again this summer.  I think adding pineapple or apples would be tasty too.

For the drink, I brought Strawberry-basil Margarita's.  This was the easiest drink too, and perfect for a party.  I found the recipe on the site The Kitchn, along with many other great drink recipes.  I ended up using a bottle of Pomegranate Limeade from Trader Joe's in place of frozen limeade in the recipe.  It was even pinker and very tasty!

Related articles

Menu Plan Monday, January 27, 2014

CSA share and Menu Plan Monday, 6/3/13

Sunday's Bookshelf

I've been on a bit of a reading frenzy lately, which is good, since I had gotten away from it a bit during the holiday rush last December.  Between the books I borrow from the library and the books I borrow to reading on my iPad from the Library, I have more than I need.  

This past week I hit the library to pick up a few books I had requested, including one for my monthly bookclub, Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner.  (Finished it last night...meh.)  I also dug through the travel section at the library and brought home a book about Canada and one about visiting DC with kids.  These are both destinations of potential mini vacations I'd love to take this year.  (I really want to visit Niagra Falls, but the fact that we need to obtain passports might hinder it.)

I picked up some books about the Olymics and Valentine's Day for the kiddo.  We actually do not have any Olymipics books at home and I was lucky to find two at the library to borrow.  My son is excited about the Olympics starting next week and is looking forward to being able to watch it.

The Teeny Tiny Gardening book is adorable and inspiring for the come of warmer weather.  I love the fairy garden design in it, as well as some of the unusaly plant containers used.  

What is on your reading list this season??

Related articles

Kids' book to explore: ALPHABLOCK

Kids' book to explore: ALPHABLOCK

Recently I received a copy of the coolest designed alphabet board book I've ever seen: ALPHABLOCK by Christopher Franceschelli, art by Peskimo.  This huge and chunky board book features brightly illustrated pages that contain die-cut letters with corresponding words and pictures to help children identify the English alphabet.  

My son is in kindergarten and learning to write and read.  While this book is probably best for a preschool aged child or younger, he still appreciated it and had fun exploring the pages.  The cut out letters and the peek-a-boo game with the words makes reading ALPHABLOCK fun.  The illustrations were created by a husband and wife design team from the UK.  This is their first children's book, but hopefully not their last.  It was created with such a fun energy!

The author, Chrsitopher Franceschelli, has created many colorful children's books and this one certainly is entertaining while also being educational.  I think ALPHABLOCK would be a great gift book!

My favorite page is the "L" page as those glasses of lemonade look so refreshing!  My son thinks the "U" is for Underwear is hysterical! The letters on each page pop out of the book with lots of bold color.  This is definitely not a traditional baby-ish alphabet book full of pastels and muted colors.  This is a book that is visually and texturally appealing, to kids and their parents!  It is no surprise that it made the Parent's Best Children's Books list for 2013.  This book is just fun to read and explore.  

Disclosure: I received one copy of this book for the purposes of this review.  No financial compensation was received, nor was I required to post a review.  Opinions expressed here are honest and my own (and my son's!)

Related articles

December 1: Christmas reading

CleanSmart alcohol-free hand sanitizer for cold and flu season

December 1: Christmas reading

Do you have a favorite Christmas or holiday book from your childhood?  I have many!  I've been collecting children's Christmas picture books forever and have amassed quite a collection that I've now passed on to my son.  Each year we pull out the books from a big box in storage to re-read favorites as well as one or two new ones that I add.  This year I am borrowing an idea from Hillary of My Scraps.  I wrapped 24 of our holiday books, one for each night leading up to Christmas.  I told my son that he gets to unwrap one book a night to read, but we can always re-read any of the opened ones throughout the month.

I purchased two rolls of wrapping paper at the dollar store and spent an evening wrapping up all the books.  I showed my son the stack tonight and explained the process. He was very excited about getting to unwrap a book each day, even though they are not new books.  Tonight he happened to pick out one of my favorites, illustrated by a favorite artist/illustrator of mine, Mary Engelbriet.

My son's only request was that we re-read this one on Christmas Eve.  Not a problem!

 

Kiddo's summer reading list

This summer my son is participating in our local library's "Dig into Reading" program.  We are keeping track of the books that he reads with us on a form and he gets to earn prizes.  He is really excited by it.  We usually read before bedtime, but he asked if we could also read during the day.  Most of the books we read are picture books but we also incorporate some beginner chapter books too.  He loves the Bad Kitty chapter books, as they are a mix of words and illustrations.  Last week we borrowed a new favorite book, A Couple of Boys have the Best Week Ever!  It is such a sweet story and the illustrations are hysterical. 

The Construction Alphabet Book was also really great.  It gave very detailed descriptions of various construction equipment.  The Tortilla Cat is another new favorite.  It's a book I picked up for him that is more reading than illustrations.  I did not read it before bringing it home, so when we read it I edit it, as the mother in the story dies from a fever and then her ghost as a cat comes back to save each member of the family who subsequently become ill with "the fever."  It is morbid and spiritual, and I'm not comfortable explaining that parents die to my son just yet.  I'm not sure why he likes it so much, but he does!

We'll go back to the library again this week to pick out some new books to read!

Related articles

Summer Reading List 2013

Summer Reading List 2013

It's the unofficial start of summer 2013 today, which means it's time to compile my summer reading list.  Not that I have more time during the summer, but it seems like I should have more time to read.  This summer I intend to catch up on some books that have piled up over the past year.  These are books I've wanted to read, but didn't get the chance to as of yet. 

The Light Between the Oceans is a book I'm reading for my book group.  I got to pick this month's book, and it's one that my mom read and recommended. 

The Future of Your Only Child is a book I thought I could benefit from reading since I'm raising an only child in a world that is filled with lots of siblings. 

Starting Now is one of Debbie Macomber's Blossom Street books.  I actually started this earlier this spring but set it aside to catch up on book group readings.  It's a great book to take to the beach. 

Follow Me is a book I purchased at the dollar store!  It appealled to me at the time.  Hopefully it's a good one! It's set in Pennsylvania, so it's an added interest for me.

Husband and Wife is by an author of another book I read a few years ago that I enjoyed, The Myth of You and Me.  This one is about infidelity.  Not exactly uplifting!  But I like the author's style. 

The Affair was a book that was a book club read for Great Thoughts.  I didn't get a chance to read it then, but will read it this summer, as it received great reviews from the book club members. 

The Engagement is a book I won from a giveaway on Great Thoughts a few months ago.  This looks like a great beach read!

Last summer, at a used bookshop in Maryland, I bought Middlesex.  It came highly recommended.  I had planned to read it then so this is the summer I'll read it.   

I also have two books on request from the library that I want to read: The Language of Flowers and Me Before You.

This is a rather ambitious reading list, but it's a good start to organizing my to-read list! I'm sure I'll find additions as the summer progresses. 

What is on your reading list for the summer? 

Related articles

Spring has sprung with fun!

On Chapter books and learning to read

In an attempt to get ready for kindergarten next fall, I've been slowly incorporating new books into my son's bedtime reading.  While my favorite books to read are colorfully illustrated picture books, I also love a good novel.  The kiddo has been loving listening to the early readers books featuring different Lego characters.  We had enjoyed reading a brightly illustrated Bad Kitty book that we borrowed from the library a while back.  When I saw the Bad Kitty chapter book series I decided to try reading one to gauge my son's interest in a different book format.  The Bad Kitty books have some illustrations and are written in super short chapters.  And, they are hysterical, especially if you are five.  My son really enjoyed the first book and the second one that Grandmom bought him for Valentine's Day.  I had purchased Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a while ago and decided it might be a fun book to try next.  It has much less illustrations but the response has been good.  We read a chapter or two a night in addtion to picture books.  I don't recall ever actually reading this story as a child, but I did watch the original movie often!  Once we finish the book I'll show him the movie. 

Some of my son's preschool peers are reading already.  I'm not worried that my son is not yet doing so.  I see how he is recognizing different words in signs as we drive around, in ads, and in books.  He likes to play scavenger hunt with a set of sight words I bought for him and he has begun to recognize what some of them say. It is fun to see how his reading skills are improving.  He also realizes that he can write letters much better now and likes to make signs and take notes.  Sometimes the notes are just scribbles, but I see this as practice for college note taking!  Before long, he won't be able to tell me that he is too young to read.  Which is what he often tells me when I ask him what something says. 

Maybe we'll read James and the Giant Peach next!

Related articles

Happy Birthday Theo. Lesieg!

Great Series: Bad Kitty

'Bad Kitty' creator shares the 'secret of writing stories' with local kids

Happy Birthday Theo. Lesieg!

It's Dr. Seuss' birthday today!  He would have been 109 years old today!  Wow! I admire Theodore Seuss Giesel for his ability to get so many children and families reading over the 76 years, but I have to say some of his most famous books are not my favorites.  It wasn't until I did a bit of research and learned that two of our favorite books, both authored by Theo. Lesieg, were actually written by the Dr. himself, only using a pen name, his last name backwards!  

My son brought Dr. Seuss' first published book home from the preschool library a few weeks ago, And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street.  It was published in 1937, and it showed that it was from a different era based on the language in it.  I have to say I didn't love it.  I bought my son a copy of The Cat in the Hat when he was a baby because I thought it was a book he should have.  We've read it a couple of times, but neither of us particularly like it.  (It is just weird.)  He does watch the PBS cartoon, the Cat in the Hat and the stories and educational messages of the show are great, but that cat is just so odd looking, right?

My favorite books were The Foot Book (I don't know why,) Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?, My Book About Me (which is funny to read what I wrote in it all those years ago,) Wacky Wednesday, and Oh The Places You'll Go!  My son loves my old copy of The Many Mice of Mr. Brice, which is a pop-up book that is slowly falling apart since it's about 35 years old!  My copy of Wacky Wednesday is falling apart too, so I did purchase a new copy for him, since he loves to read that too.

 I had fun exploring the website Seusville to learn more about the author, his history and all the books published over the years.  Reading a Dr. Seuss book is certainly fun, as the rhyming makes it easy to read and the repetition of words helps early readers improve their vocabulary.  We'll be reading our favorite Dr. Seuss books before bed tonight!