First-Grade Read-Aloud: James and the Giant Peach

I read aloud to The Boy from a chapter book every day that we have school. It's my favorite part of the school day. (His is math. He takes after Isaac.)

We read James and the Giant Peach last month, and The Boy was positively wide-eyed through the entire thing. Giant insects, people in the clouds, and the Empire State Building...fascinating stuff for a seven-year-old. Roald Dahl is quickly rising to the top of our favorite-author list.

I asked The Boy just now what his favorite part was, and he said he liked the earthworm. Personally, I thought the centipede was better. Mostly because of its boots.

We watched the movie after we finished reading the book, and...it was all right. The movie is different--I don't mind if movies leave things out, but when they add new things in, I get grouchy.

The edition pictured here is the one we own; some more recent versions have more fun, cartoonish illustrations. Although I guess it doesn't matter all that much--a giant grasshopper is a wondrous thing, no matter how it's drawn.

I love book lists!

I don't know a lot about Kumon. I do know that The Boy loooooved Kumon's My First Book of Cutting when we were doing preschool.

And I learned today that Kumon has free downloadable reading lists. I love a good book list, people! There are some great books on these lists. For example, Level 2A includes Penguin, which is one of my favorite children's books ever.

I can't wait to check out the ones I haven't read yet.

Do you guys have any good sources for book lists? I have a billion of them bookmarked, and I know that we probably couldn't even read all of them in our lifetime--but I just love them so.

Kindergarten Read-Alouds: Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner

I've had The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh on my shelf for years and years and years. I pulled it out to use as a read-aloud for The Boy toward the end of this year, and we had a...different...experience with it than I would have expected.

Your kids have probably seen the old Winnie the Pooh movies. (The Boy hadn't. We watched them afterward.) If they have, let them know right off that some of the stories are different from the movies. Some parts of the movies were lifted right out of the books, though, so that's fun.

Here's where our experience wasn't what I expected--some parts of the stories were hard for The Boy to follow. I thought (based on the movies) that they'd be easier, but they're written as though A.A. Milne were sitting right there telling them to you, so sentences go on and on forever (like this one), and he sometimes uses words that I had to stop and explain because of their British-ness, and sometimes he uses silly words that he probably got from Christopher Robin (the real one), and I'm done with this sentence now, but that's how large parts of the stories read.

Which is fine. And I expected The Boy to lose interest--but he didn't. There's something about Winnie-the-Pooh that kids love, even when they're not sure what the heck Rabbit is talking about. And I enjoyed reading them, because the characters are just so stinkin' sweet.

So we read all the way through both Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. I'm not saying that you would have to, of course. We read some of the poems, too, but we were pretty tired of the book by then--it has about a bajillion pages.

So, overall, I'd recommend it as a read-aloud. And, whether your kids like the stories or not, have them watch the old Winnie-the-Pooh movies. I've never met a little kid that didn't like them.

Children's Books about Spring

Hey, guys! Can you believe it's spring already? (I know, it's been spring for a couple of weeks. I'm a little slow sometimes.)

One of the ways that we celebrate the seasons at our house is by checking out library books that fit the season. I have a few spring-y books posted on my children's book review blog:

And we'll be checking out some new ones pretty soon. Do you have any good recommendations for books about spring?

Yo, I Heard You Like Reading

"Reading changes your life. Reading unlocks worlds unknown or forgotten, taking travelers around the world and through time. Reading helps you escape the confines of school and pursue your own education. Through characters--the saints and sinners, real or imagined--reading shows you how to be a better human being."

-Donalyn Miller


I just started reading Donalyn Miller's book, The Book Whisperer. I'm not very far into it yet, but I really like it so far. Especially that quote up there. Reading does change lives. I love that any kid can be inspired to be a reader.

Also...The Boy thinks it's hilarious that I'm reading a book about reading.

Kindergarten Read-Aloud: The Wizard of Oz

Reading. It's important. Perhaps you've heard?

(For more on the benefits of reading aloud to your children, and to get some read-aloud ideas, go here, here, and here. And check out The Read Aloud Handbook, which I've gushed about before.)

Reading aloud is one of the best parts of our school day. The Boy reads to me, and I read to him. It's good for both of us--time to sit back, cuddle up, and read together.

We've been using Sonlight A for part of our curriculum this year, and I'll be honest--some of the read-alouds (the chapter books that I read to him) have gone right over the poor boy's head. So we've skipped a few. He did enjoy My Father's Dragon, The Boxcar Children, and The Story of Dr. Doolittle. Our latest attempt has been The Wizard of Oz.

And let me tell ya...this one was a hit with him. He follows the story well, and he likes the wacky characters. (Way wackier than the movie. Just sayin'.) So if you've been having trouble getting lower-grade kids into read-alouds, give this one a try.


Our next read-aloud, after we finish Oz, is one that I'm super excited about. I'll post about that one once we get going with it.

Do you guys have any good suggestions for kindergarten or first-grade read-alouds? I'm always looking for more to add to my list, and I'm sure our readers are, too.

Halloween Storytime

Since I'm a glutton for punishment, I have a gazillion blogs. (Not really. But four is almost a gazilllion.) One of them is The Storybook Shelf, where I highlight stories that The Boy and I have read together--mostly books that I think more people should know about. There are some AWESOME kid's books out there, besides the usual classics that we've all read.

Anyway, I have a few stories posted there about fall and about Halloween, if you have kids of the picture-book age. Hopefully, I'll have enough time to get a couple more posted there soon.

This one is my most favorite Halloween book ever:

Ghosts in the House!, by Kazuno Kohara

If you have a favorite, we'd love to hear what it is!

The Story about Ping

Have you read The Story about Ping, by Marjorie Flack? It's really old. I loved it when I was a kid.

So I was really excited to find this worksheet on Homeschool Share: Color Ping's Family. (If that link doesn't work for some reason, go to homeschoolshare.com and search "ping.")

Ping has a huge family. This worksheet that I found has a little duck representing every member of Ping's family, and then instructions like, "Color Ping's uncles orange." Ping has seven uncles, so Little Boy picked seven ducks to color orange. And so on.

So there ya go. Reading, counting, and coloring in one activity.

The Storybook Shelf

So...I made a third blog.

Y'know, because I do such a good job of keeping up my other two blogs. (Heh.)

It's like...a children's book review blog. I love to read, and I love all kinds of books. And I love recommending books to other people.

So I started The Storybook Shelf to help me remember children's books my family has liked, and to maybe help my friends find books that their kids might like. Children's books are fun, and let's be honest...both children and adults can enjoy a good children's book.

It doesn't quite work the same with grown-up books.

So, if that sounds like something you might want to look at, click on through. I don't update it very often yet, but I hope to pick up the pace soon.

Building Our Home Library

My local library has been fundraising for a long time. They're trying to fund a new building. And as part of their fundraising, they've been selling used books.

I wouldn't buy a used book, even if it costs a few cents, if I didn't think we'd read it. Most of the books there fall under that category.

But once in awhile, when I look really carefully, I'll find something that I MUST HAVE ON MY SHELF.



Like these, for example. I've also picked up Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (yeah, it's the British edition), James and the Giant Peach, and The Indian in the Cupboard. For 25 cents each!

These are books that, of course, Little Boy is too young to read. But Isaac and I will read them now, and when Little Boy's old enough, I want to have some good books around that he can dig into. I think we're off to a good start.

Reading: Bob Books

(This is not a paid review. I'm not nearly that cool.)

So, early in our little homeschool adventure, I heard about Bob Books. We were still working on letter sounds, not reading yet, so I kinda forgot about them.

Then a friend mentioned that she was using them with her kids. I think she got them from Amazon. Anyway, it was perfect timing, because Little Boy was just about ready to sound out words.

My mom happened to have the first set (which was weird; I had no idea that she had it). We've gotten the rest of the sets from the library--Little Boy wanted to read as many as he could, and then...we got to some that he couldn't quite read yet. So right now we're trying to catch up.


Anyway, Bob Books are small and easy for little hands to hold. The first one only has a few letters in it, and each book is a little more difficult than the one before. (The one in the picture is the last one in the first series, I think.)


On the Bob Books website, they have a little catchphrase: "I read the WHOLE book!" I thought that was kinda cheesy, but it's true--Little Boy really liked having a book that he could read to me.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

So...I was recently asked if I majored in education (hi Annajean!). Umm...no. That would've been cool, though.

I was an aide at a preschool for awhile, and I taught Sunbeams at church for a bit, but mostly....I spend a lot of time reading homeschoolers' blogs and "borrowing" their ideas.

But! Once in awhile, I get an idea all on my own. Like this one:


We read We're Going on a Bear Hunt a couple weeks ago. And I thought, "Hey, we could do that."

So I dug this little bear out of Little Boy's closet. (I wanted a little bear so it'd be easy to hide.) I made Little Boy wait in the kitchen while I hid the bear in the living room. Then we would pretend we were going on a bear hunt--but without the under, over, through stuff from the book. Just a straight-up bear hunt.



We hid and hunted for the bear several times. And then the bear was Little Boy's best friend for the rest of the day. I'd call it a success.