DragonFly's Book Suggestions

  Camping Books We bring books along with us camping. They are not always nature or camping themed, but we have found some camping themed favorites that we would like to share with you. These four books have camping specific vocabulary and show four thoughts about camping: 1.) camping brings along the unexpected 2.) when camping we are immersed in God's creation 3.) when camping we can find silence and a break from our daily life 4.) when camping we can dream and create magical moments in our lives. 1.  A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee  by Chris Van Dusen. Published by Chronicle Books LLC, 2003. Ages 3-7.  Camping thought #1 brought out by this book: Camping shows us to expect the unexpected and trust God that He will bring us home in the end. This is the second book in the Mr. Magee series. If you haven't already, you should differently check out this book and his other books. Our daughter has had me read her this book, and the Down to Sea with Mr. Magee  book, o...

  4 books published in 2024, that we have been loving. We love reading books old or new. It's the time we spend together and the connections we make with each other when I am reading aloud that makes our reading times so special. Her brain seems to soak up  books and makes so many connections. Newly published books offer connections that relate to our generation. Instead of writing about a dog going through a coal chute, the author might have a reference to YouTube. Good readers comprehend what they read and reading about things that are familiar to you helps with understanding. Picture books are fun to read and look at. Reading crisp and colorful pages that are hot-off-the-press is an exciting thing! I became aware of this year's newly published books through a blog I follow,  growing book by book ,  that has a list of favorite children's books of 2024 .  This summer, we have been able to read over 20 books that have been published in 2024. Here are four books ...

  Let's Pop, Pop, Popcorn!  Written by Cynthia Schumerth and Illustrated by Mary Reaves Uhles. Published by Sleeping Bear Press copyright 2021. We are "popping" into summer with popcorn! "m," "b," and "p" sounds are some of the first sounds to be spoken and articulated clearly by our 2 and 3 year olds. We were working on the "p" sound as the popcorn sound, so we did two weeks in a row of making popcorn. We checked out this book from the library and even though it is geared more toward the 4-8 year range, we have read through it two times. We love the pictures, big and bright! The book brings you from planting the popcorn seed to eating a snack of popcorn, "mmm! delish!" Is popcorn still America's favorite snack? I did a quick google search and it looks like Rice Krispie Treats have taken the title of America's favorite snack. More information about the book, I like that the book doesn't water down the vocabular...

Reading the Rainbow Books about Colors 🌈      Children learn to distinguish colors at about 18 months and then name colors by 3 years of age. We use colors to describe things all the time. What color is the car? Which underwear would you like to wear today? Blue!       This is a time period of the child wanting to learn about, sort and say colors so why not couple their eagerness of colors with books about colors. With the seasons changing from winter to spring and St. Patrick's Day with the pot of gold under the rainbow, seasonally it is also a good time to be reading books about colors. I've been reading the Growing book by book website and I recieve her emails where a few weeks ago she had the idea of doing a color reading challenge. We decided to jump on the challenge and read more books about colors. We just finished doing her 7 Day Read the Rainbow Reading Challenge.   Below are 15 color books we've enjoyed and would recommend for you to ch...

  We've been reading, and would recommend, these books by Elizabeth Verdick. They are part of the Best Behavior series and the Toddler Tools series. They have simple words, colorful illustrations and they are written in a positive way. Our daughter loves looking at these books! We've heard her say "good job!" now that we have read "Manners Time" over and over. Each book has helpful tips for parents and caregivers, it is like a parenting book and kids book all-in-one! We can use phrases from the books like "tails are not for pulling." These board books are geared for the 0-3 age range. Even though kids learn best by absorbing what they see around them, it is also helpful to explicitly teach or read to them the desired behavior. "Whenever you ask, please say please!" is one of the lines from "Manners Time." Elizabeth Verdick has written over thirty books. Her books help kids grow. Her books have received numerous awards, including...

 What's more exciting than reading a book once?  Reading a book twice! What's more exciting than reading a book multiple times? Well, reading a series of books with the same characters and by the same author!  Book series allows for more books to unpack what happens with the character your child loves. The familiar is comfy. Curling up by the fire with something known and something a mystery is what we all want. Book series are also like t.v. episodes instead of a movie. 2-year olds have short attention spans and need short books. They also know what they like. Our daughter loves animals and sounds so the following book series have been a hit for us.  1.) Biscuit Books      Our daughter was gifted a few Biscuit books from one of her Grandma's last Christmas when she was a year and a half. Now, we have read over 20 Biscuit books! She even got a Biscuit stuffed animal for her two-year old birthday. Whenever we go on trips we make sure to bring along a Bi...

  Hush, Little Baby  A folk song with Pictures by Marla Frazee; illustrations copyright 1999.  This book brings you into the folk song's origins of the Appalachian mountain area in West Virginia.  There is just something so captivating about this book! We've had it checked out from the library for two months and our daughter still wants it read and sung to her. She loves looking at the details in the illustration and screaming like the baby, blowing out the candle, signing "broke" for the looking glass, or signing "happy" for the baby and the end of the book. She likes looking at books with babies and puppies and this book has both. The peddler has a mandolin which is a nice connection with her dad. I had never thought about what storyline the folk song might have. In this rendition, an older sister is jealous of her younger baby and wakes the baby and then asks her Papa to buy her items from a peddler to make the baby stop crying. Each item seems to make th...