The Books We Read

I love books and I love to read.  I have been reading recently about the topic of reading to children.  Two Fish and I  have enjoyed reading to our kids pretty much from birth.  The girls and I read almost everyday together.  We haven't been taking many trips to the library over the summer but we plan to get back into a good rhythm when the weather turns cooler.  (Too much fun to be had outdoors right now.)  Sometimes the girls will let me read to them before bed but most of the time, Two Fish reads to them for 30-45 minutes before bed.  We have around 250 kids books.  They've all been read countless times.  Certain favorites have been read hundreds of times, sometimes multiple times a day.

In an article written recently by Emily Swan PHD, she said: "Children who read a wide variety of books and spend longer periods of time reading literally get smarter. How much kids read really counts! Reading is the BEST way to increase knowledge so it makes sense that children who read often and for sustained periods of time learn more than children who do not read for very long or do not read a variety of different kinds of books. These children build background knowledge on a variety of topics and concepts. This background knowledge is key in understanding new information. Voracious readers have an easy time connecting new information to their background knowledge, making school easier and more enjoyable, compared to children who don’t read and who don’t have a lot of background knowledge."  

She goes on to describe the variety of vocabulary and background knowledge that should come from reading a variety of books.  I've been thinking a lot over the past year about the type of books I read to my kids.  We enjoy beautiful illustrations, creative stories and themes my kids are interested in.  Sometimes we get stuck in a rut though.  I'm constantly looking into different styles of learning and different curriculums (because I'm obsessed) and I stumbled on Sonlight.  I liked that the preschool curriculum was just mostly books to read to my kids.  It had science books, myths and traditional stories and rhymes as well as poetry, longer novels (we had never tried reading anything that long or with that few of pictures before),

My kids and I just finished the Pre-K curriculum from Sonlight.  We started in February so we did it faster than the 36 weeks prescribed and we didn't necessarily stick to the day by day schedule in the instructor's guide.  We read a few days a week and we didn't do any of the letter recognition activities because Red Fish already knows them and New Fish wasn't ready until recently.  Plus, we just didn't really have time with everything else on our plate. I loved the books.  My kids loved the books.  It was really good for all of us.  We read about other cultures, learned tons of new nursery rhymes, read fairy tales etc. and it made me feel like a good Mom.  These became "Mommy's special books."  Some of the stories got read twice in a row because they couldn't put them down.  So here are some of our favorites

We did not read the Bible stories or the stories from Africa all the way through.  I was disappointed by both of them.  I would skip those. There are other books in the collection but these were the ones we liked best.

American Tall Tales CD narrated by Jim Weiss- My kids have listened to this CD over and over.  It was a lifesaver on our drive to California last May.  Jim Weiss does an awesome job doing the different voices and the Paul Bunyan story was especially fun. 

A Treasury Of Mother Goose- We have several mother goose collections but this one has rhymes I had never heard before.  My kids love the songs that go along with these and pull this book out on a regular basis to look at the pictures and read through it.  My kids have become very adept at picking out which words rhyme and which don't.  It has inspired several games around our house and helped prepare them to read.  Nursery rhymes are just something every child should read.

 The Lion Story Teller Book- Definitely a favorite from this set.  The illustrations are beautiful, the stories are fun and my kids went crazy over the lion and the rabbit tales.  This one is a keeper.

The Milly Molly Mandy Story Book- This was only the second chapter book my kids have ever read.  I thought it was a little dry but endearing.  The girls adored it.  They kept pretending to be Milly Molly Mandy.

Stories From Around The World- I love the borders and illustrations in this book.  I didn't love every single story, some were a little weird or boring but for the most part I thought it was great for the girls to get a look  into other cultures and traditions.  This book was a favorite.

Eric Carle's Animals Animals- I love Carle and we all loved this book.  It is basically a different animal illustration with a poem or saying about the animal on each page.  It has been read repeatedly. 

The Children's Book of Virtues- Contains stories that every kid should know, like the Boy Who Cried Wolf etc.

A Children's Book Of Art- We have art books all over our house but having a schedule of themed pages helped us to actually sit down and examine paintings together.  We talked about different elements used and it inspired many conversations about art.  I am definitely going to pull out more of my art books to look at with the kids from now on.  Fabulous.

The Classic Tales Of Brer Rabbit- I adore this book.  The illustrations are fabulous.  The stories are American classics. It is so fun to read. This book has become a regular around our house.  It is a definite favorite.

Uncle Wiggily's Story Book- This is the first long novel I have ever read to my children.  I was afraid they would be bored with so few pictures (and only black and white sketches) to look at but I was pleasantly surprised.  They sat in absolute awe of the animal adventures.  They talk about Uncle Wigggily frequently.  We will definitely be reading many long books together in the future.

People- Awesome for creating a discussion on how people are all so beautifully different.  This book was a great teaching tool for my children.

The Usbourne Book Of Things People Do- Each set of pages has detailed illustrations of a career.  There are ballerinas, police people, bakers etc.  I think my children learned a lot from this book and it really got them thinking about all of the different opportunities that await them in the world.  This was a favorite. 

First Thousand Words- I would have thought this book was too juvenille for my kids, or at least for Red Fish but this might have been their favorite book.  New Fish looks at it on a regular basis.  They had a blast learning new vocabulary and finding the pictures.

The Berenstein Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature- had great illustrations and perfectly age appropriate answers to dozens of science questions.  My kids liked all of the scientific books in the Sonlight program but this was by far the favorite.

The Year At Maple Hill Farm- My kids adore all things animal so this book went over very well with them.


I'm still struggling to decide if we will jump into the Kindergarten curriculum or not.  It seems more involved and is very pricey. We may just check out some of the books it suggests.  I'm not sure yet.  We have a lot of plans this Fall.   Overall, I highly recommend these books and the Sonlight program.  It has been a great experience for all of us. It has broadened our horizons and opened us to reading things I wouldn't have read with my kids on my own.  I will definitely repeat the program with just New Fish in a year.