Favorite Books for Tots

I’ve gone through 3 tots now, and we’ve had our favorite stories.  One type of book I really love for this age is books they can practically read back to you after hearing it several times, especially if it has rhythm, repetition, and rhyme!  I believe it really helps with their vocabulary and storytelling skills, and they really interact with the books.  I’ve been privileged to find some of the best of American and British children’s stories since I’ve lived in both countries (though a few of the books on my list are from other countries).  I’ve had a very hard time deciding on my favorites, but here are our top 25, in no particular order.  (I have lumped a few books together if they had the same author, so this post actually contains over 25 titles!)

1.  Freight Train (Donald Crews)—This was one of Isaac’s top favorite books when he was a tot.  I love the bright colored cars, and I can read it with my eyes shut!  We also like Sail Away by Donald Crews.

2.  Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown)—All three of my kids have enjoyed this classic bedtime story.  We also like Red Light, Green Light and Runaway Bunny by the same author.

3.  Biscuit (Alyssa Satin Capucilli)—People who know us well don’t often buy my kids books, because they know we have hundreds—they’d need a detailed list of what we already have.  Amazingly enough, we ended up being given 3 copies of this book, all at separate times and each at a time when one of my children was a toddler.  So…each of my kids have a copy, and they don’t mind it at all!  This has been a top favorite with them!  This past summer, I found several more Biscuit books at yard sales and used book stores.  I look forward to reading them to Gabriela.

4.  Each Peach Pear Plum (Janet and Allan Ahlberg)—I didn’t discover this book until Gabriela was a tot.  What a shame I didn’t have it for the other two, because it’s such a lovely book!  It’s very popular here in England.

5.  Yellow Ball (Molly Bang)—I bought this book for 75 cents at a used bookstore, and I’ve had it probably for 7-8 years.  I didn’t realize at the time that it was one of the books you need for the Before Five in a Row program, AND I didn’t realize how rare it is.  It’s out of print, and prices on Amazon and ebay are ridiculously high, so I guess I’m lucky to have it.  I had looked at this book only a few times before and thought it would be nice to read when we learned about the color yellow, but it wasn’t on my favorites list until I began BFIAR with Gabriela this week.  She LOVES it!  AND, she can read it back to me easily.  She told me today it was her favorite book…so there you go!

6.  Fox on a Box (Phil Roxbee Cox)—Published by Usborne, this is one of their phonics readers.  I also have Pig on a Dig and Goose on the Loose.  The best part is finding the yellow ducky on every page. 

7.  Where’s Curly? (Heather Amery)—This is from another Usborne series, “Farmyard Tales.”  These also have the yellow duck on every page!  Usborne is a British company, so I have added to my collection since moving here, but I first heard of their books when I attended an Usborne book party in the US (I even had my own party).  We also have The Snow Storm, The Old Steam Train, Kitten’s Day Out, and The Silly Sheepdog.

8. Little Cloud (Eric Carle)—I like this one especially for the very youngest children, but we also enjoy some of Carle’s other books, such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Have You Seen My Cat?, A House for Hermit Crab, and The Very Busy Spider.

9. Put Me in the Zoo (Robert Lopshire)—I’ve had this book since I was little, so it has been one of my personal favorites.

10.  If You Give a Cat a Cupcake (Laura Numeroff)—This is Gabriela’s favorite of Numeroff’s books, probably because it’s about a cat.  However, we also LOVE some of her other books:  If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, and If You Take a Mouse to School.  There are many more I want to buy!

11.  Jamberry (Bruce Degen)—Full of fun and color and yummy berries! 

12. Hairy Maclary’s Bone (Lynley Dodd)—A British friend told me about the Hairy Maclary books, a series written in New Zealand but very popular in the UK.  This is the only book I have from the series.  Hairy Maclary is a dog, in case you didn’t know.  I’d love to find more of these books!

13. Dear Zoo (Rod Campbell)—This is another book that is hugely popular in the UK.  It was probably the first book we acquired after moving to England, so all 3 of my children were able to enjoy it.

14. Cookie’s Week (Cindy Ward)—A book about a kitten that gets into some kind of trouble each day of the week.  All 3 of my kids adored this cute story.

15. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (Simms Taback)—I love this version!

16. Hickory Dickory Dock (Robin Muller)—I first saw this book when I was substituting for a preschool aide.  There are several related rhymes for each hour (1:00-12:00 midnight), and the pictures are amazing!

17. Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? (Bill Martin, Jr.)—This book, illustrated by Eric Carle, is part of a series.  I really like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, but I don’t have that one yet.  This one features endangered animals.

18. Buzz, Said the Bee (Wendy Cheyette Lewison)—All three of my kids have enjoyed this humorous, rhyming book.

19. Who Sank the Boat? (Pamela Allen)—This is another book from New Zealand, but I found it in England.  Do you know who sank the boat?

20. If You Go Walking in Tiger Wood (Alan Durant)—This book is from England, and I love how it’s interactive and bright.

21. The Foot Book (Dr. Seuss)—We love Dr. Seuss and have too many to list here, but this is one of my favorites for tots.

22. Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (Eileen Christelow)—This is a really cute version of the popular rhyme.

23.  Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?  (Nancy White Carlstrom)—These books were illustrated by Bruce Degen, who wrote Jamberry.  We also like Guess Who’s Coming, Jesse Bear, Better Not Get Wet, Jesse Bear, and Happy Birthday, Jesse Bear!

24. Caps for Sale (Esphyr Slobodkina)—The classic tale of a hat salesman and monkeys!  I haven’t read this one to Gabriela yet, but I’m sure she’ll enjoy it.

25. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (Michael Rosen)—My final choice is a book I don’t even own.  I do have it in a first grade reading textbook, but some of the illustrations were cut to keep it shorter.  I did check it out of the library once, but I can’t call it a favorite of my kids’ because I haven’t really read it to them.  It’s one I would recommend, though.  Actually, I do own a different version of this book, called We’re Going on a Lion Hunt (David Axtell), which takes place in Africa.  It’s a rather recent acquisition, though, so we haven’t read it yet (it’s pictured below).

Here’s a picture of a few other favorite books I mentioned in this post:

Over a year ago, I participated in the “Five a Day Books” link-up at The Imagination Tree.  I posted about my book choices each week for awhile, and many of the books on this list were in those posts.  If you’d like to read about some of these books in more detail, you can check out my “Five a Day Books” posts HERE.

I’m linking this post to “The Children’s Bookshelf” at What Do We Do All Day?

Fall Sensory Tub

I’ve loved the idea of sensory tubs ever since I first heard of them last year, but I haven’t really put any together before now!  Well, I actually did try one once, but it wasn’t great.  I grabbed what I had on hand (shredded paper and hair things like ponytail holders and hair clips) and threw one together.  It wasn’t that great…really…

I’ve looked at several ideas online, but top of the list for me is Counting Coconuts!  There you’ll find what I consider to be the very best themed sensory tubs.  So, that’s been my inspiration.  I would love to come up with my own ideas—just takes time and a little extra money.  For now, I’ve put together a fall sensory tub inspired by Mari-Ann’s on Counting Coconuts.  I used silk fall leaves like Mari-Ann did, but I did find my own items to put in with them…thanks to a Hobby Lobby fall sale when I was in the US!

The tub contains:

Silk fall leaves—about half of them were found at Dollar Tree, and the rest I had in storage…not sure where I got them!

An orange-pumpkin scented candle from Hobby Lobby.  Every time we take the lid off our tub, this wonderful scent comes out!

A plastic red apple…not sure where I got that.

Felt pumpkins and gourds from Hobby Lobby.

Corn on the cob decorations from Hobby Lobby—they’re beaded and have a very unique texture.

Acorn, pumpkin, gourd decorations.  These came as part of a small fall bouquet—I just took them apart.  They’re coated with some sort of fake sugar-type stuff, another cool texture.

I later included two “rakes,” which appear to possibly be novelty back scratchers (they can’t be real back scratchers…they’re too small and flimsy).  For our purposes, they’re rakes!

I was so proud of my first real sensory tub, because it is beautiful to look at, has lots of interesting textures, and smells delicious.  You can even make a nice sound by rubbing together the “sugar” coated items…not sure if that’s good for them, but Gabriela discovered that sound herself!  The first time I presented this sensory tub to Gabriela, she played with it for 1 minute and was done.  For the next few days, she refused to play with it, and  I was very disappointed.  My other 2 children happily offered to play with it in her stead!  After I added the rakes, however, Gabriela changed her mind.  Now she loves it!  She uses the rakes, but she also puts her hands in and examines what she finds.

Because this is my first tub and I have limited materials right now, it’s going to last until Christmas.  While in the US, I collected several seasonal things that I can hopefully use in future tubs.  I just need to come up with other stuff as main filler (in place of the leaves).

For even more sensory tub ideas, check out the linky list at Our Worldwide Classroom.

Tot on a Plane

Based on the comments from my last post, I’ll start with our plane trip home to the US (even though it was over a month ago) and how Gabriela (my tot) did on the long flight!

Just to start with, this was Gabriela’s 3rd trip on a plane…the last 2 times were to the US and back to the UK when she was 1 year old, so of course she doesn’t remember them.  This past year she has become fascinated by planes.  She spots them in the sky and shouts, “O-plane, o-plane!”  She likes Isaac’s toy planes, and she has enjoyed playing with the Fisher Price airport and plane set I found her at a church rummage sale.

When we arrived at the airport, she enjoyed watching planes outside the window.  Then it was time to board.  I wish I could have captured this moment with video and photo, but I was waiting in line with arms full of hand luggage.  We were in that tunnel thing you walk through to board (what is that thing called?), and as we approached the door to the plane, you could see the whole plane by looking through the gaps.  It was at this moment I glanced down at Gabriela next to me, and she was all astonishment (I think I got that phrase from a Jane Austen film).  Her eyes were huge as she looked at the plane, and her hand was covering her mouth for a really long time—it was like she was frozen in awe and wonder at the thought that she was actually getting on a real airplane!  I can’t describe it any better than that, but we enjoyed watching her, and the pilot at the door was getting a kick out her reaction too!

Gabriela did great on the flight, which was about 8 hours in duration.  Before we left I posted a blog about what I was taking along for her entertainment.  You can read about that HERE.

The items I had for Gabriela included a Winnie-the-Pooh sticker storybook, a small baby doll, a small drawing pad with pencils, soft-chew candy, and a wallet with laminated family photos, old train tickets, and an old gift card—all packed in her very own, tot-sized, Winnie-the-Pooh backpack.  I took out one item at a time and let her use each one until she was tired of it.  All the items were a huge hit, and she really loved the wallet!  She did some drawing in the pad, but she really wanted me to draw things for her.  She mostly requested cats.  We also brought her blankie on board, so that helped when she finally did take a nap.  The hardest part was when we’d have snacks and drinks or our food tray.  She was sooooo tired of sitting in a seat, that her little legs were just plain antsy!  She was constantly kicking her tray and mine, so it was a bit frustrating trying to keep food and drink from bouncing off.

NOW THEN, I’ll tell you the #1 thing that kept Gabriela occupied on the trip!  It’s something I had on board to use on her…but not something I packed in her bag for her to play with.  However, it worked wonderfully well!  A BABY WIPE!  Yes, a simple baby wipe ended up being the most entertaining to Gabriela!  I don’t remember how I ended up thinking of it, but after she had gotten tired of everything else in her bag, I gave her a wipe and her baby doll and told her to clean her baby’s face.  After carefully washing her baby for some time, she proceeded to wash her own face and hands and arms.  Then she started in cleaning the tray in front of her.  She continued using the wipe even after it dried out.  I don’t know how long this occupied her, but it was a long while!

Other than the wiggles, she really did well on the trip.  The older two were fine as well—they enjoyed everything in their bags.

Now we’ve just taken our first long car journey (with more to follow).  We bought a portable DVD player…very handy thing to have, really.  Isaac sits in the middle and holds it in his lap so the girls can see.  However, he’s now experiencing Gabriela’s antsy legs—she kicked him and the DVD player all the way to Iowa!

Just a final note I have to share about our trip.  We’ve made numerous flights between England and the US.  The trips from England to the US are always during the day, and for the first time ever, our pilot took us directly over the south coast of Greenland!  We had seen the coastline from a distance on one previous trip, but this was the first time directly over land, and it was clear skies.  It was SO amazing…I couldn’t stop taking pictures out the window!  We saw tall, snowy mountains, lakes, glaciers, and fiords.  Talk about a spectacular view!

 

Okay, well that’s enough photos I guess.  LOL!

Airplane Trip Back to the USA and toddler wallet

I haven't been blogging much lately because I was trying to get the kids' homeschool finished up for the year and because we're preparing to go back to America (for a 3-month visit--we are coming back to England). It's been a year and a half since we've been home, so we are EXCITED!!! And so is all the family, of course. As excited as I am about going home, I always dread the getting there part. I'm not worried about flying--I actually enjoy it. But the packing, getting the house clean, getting to the airport on time, going through security and customs, managing all the luggage...it's quite a hassle! And then there's keeping our kids entertained on the flight, especially my very wiggly, active 2-year-old. The problem is that we're flying on a plane that has one screen per cabin as opposed to one screen for each seat, and the movies they're going to be showing are rubbish! So I need something else. We can't afford to buy portable DVD players. For the older two, it's not much trouble. It's the youngest I'm worried about. If you have any ideas, please pass them my way!

I did do some internet research for ideas, and this is what I've come up with so far: one sticker-storybook per child (Sleeping Beauty for Moriah, Winnie-the-Pooh for Gabriela, and Dinosaurs for Isaac), a small drawing pad and mechanical pencils for each child, and candy. The sticker storybooks for the girls have special scene pages designed for stickers. Isaac's includes 3D glasses. Also for Isaac, I put some audio books on his MP3 player, and he's taking a few Enid Blyton mystery stories he hasn't read yet. We also have a travel hangman game I found at a charity shop.

I still need a few things for Moriah, and I'm hoping I can find our small magnadoodle for Gabriela. Also for Gabriela, I bought a colorful velcro/zipper wallet at a charity shop. I found some old cards and train tickets to put inside, and I also printed and laminated wallet-size photos of family members. Since she was only 1 the last time she saw her family in the US, I thought it would be neat to go through the pictures on our flight home so she'll be familiar with them. When I have more time (meaning after the trip), I'd like to make some felt money to put inside.


If you have any other ideas for this wallet, please do share! We'll be doing a lot of car trips, too, the next few months. Well, back to packing. I hope to catch up on all my posts once we get back to Missouri (next week)!

Last Week of School

Since this IS our last week of school, I'll probably start sharing some things we did this past year, but I'll also list our curriculum for NEXT year. Maybe I didn't mention that we live in England? Therefore, we chose to keep to the school year schedule they have here--just makes things easier. What this means is that we don't get out of school until mid-late July, and then we get only 6 weeks off for summer holidays! However, we do have more breaks during the year than American children, so it evens out.

I'm really looking forward to the new school year. Isaac will start 3rd grade, so it will be new for both of us. We have new curriculum to use--always exciting! Moriah will be starting kindergarten. We'll using the same curriculum (Heart of Dakota) that I used with Isaac nearly 3 years ago. It will be nice to get those books out again--and exciting for her too!

As for Gabriela... Well, she's showing an interest in both books and art. I have my hands full trying to keep her off the dining room table where we do our work! If she gets hold of a pencil, pen, or crayon, she uses it on whatever paper (or book) she can find. Hopefully I can keep her busy enough to let the rest of us do school. She'll be 2 in October. Maybe I can get a box of toddler books, preschool toys and puzzles, math manipulatives, and some paper and crayons. I don't even know if anyone in the world is reading this blog since I've just created it, but if any homeschool mother of a 2-year-old has any ideas, please let me know! She's a treasure and joy, and I'd like to find something fun and creative for her to do while the older ones are doing their work--something also that will keep her off the table!