Thrifty Living

99 Books for Children, Ages Birth through Kindergarten

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 22:21:00 +0000

It's no secret that my family loves books. Not a day goes by that we don't hunker down on the couch together to read new books from the library or re-read favorites from our book shelves. As Christmas approaches, consider giving a book or two instead of another toy, especially for children who are very young. Books will grow with the child as they grow, and they will never truly grow out of a good book, something that certainly cannot be said for toys!

I've put together a list of 99 of our favorite books, organized by age. Naturally, the ages I have posted are flexible and will depend on each individual child. I have found that my kids often surprise when I push them to read a longer book, so don't be scared off by books with more words on each page. When the story is excellent, kids will pay attention even if it is long. And I've only included books that I am personally willing to read over and over again.

Birth-Toddler, age 1
1. Peek-a-Zoo (Little Scholastic)
2. Tickle One Baby
3. That's not my .... (series)
4. Where Is Baby's Belly Button? A Lift-the-Flap Book
5. Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap Book
6. Babylit (series)
7. Sandra Boynton board books (series)
8. Baby Einstein: Alphabooks
9. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
10. Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You ?
11. ABC: A Child's First Alphabet Book
12. Dr. Seuss's ABC
13. Freight Train
14. Alphabeep: A Zipping, Zooming ABC
15. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Two Years Old
16. Perfect Square
17. The ABC Mystery
18. Farmyard Beat
19. LMNO Peas
20. The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear
21. Two Little Trains
22. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
23. 1-2-3: A Child's First Counting Book
24. Bear Snores on
25. Put Me in the Zoo
26. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (series)
27. The Three Little Rigs
28. Curious George Complete Adventures Deluxe Book and CD Gift Set
29. Over in the Garden (series)
30. Press Here
31. The Runaway Bunny
32. Boing!

Three Years Old
33. Ten Red Apples
34. Minerva Louise
35. Gossie (series)
36. The Big Honey Hunt
37. Big Red Tub
38. Toot Toot Zoom!
39. The Biggest Bear
40. Ox-Cart Man
41. There's No Such Thing as a Dragon
42. Extra Yarn
43. Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin
44. Mole Music
45. Monsieur Saguette and His Baguette
46. I Saw an Ant on the Railroad Track
47. Katy and the Big Snow
48. Brave Irene
49. The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit (series)
50. New York's Bravest
51. Corduroy
52. Amelia Bedelia (series)
53. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
54. The Nutcracker
55. Snowmen at Night
56. The Polar Express
57. Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree

Four Years Old
58. This Is the Game
59. Rosie Revere, Engineer
60. Cinderella
61. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers
62. The Shore Beyond
63. MR Bliss
64. The Open Ocean (series)
65. Library Lion
66. Hans My Hedgehog
67. Locomotive
68. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
69. John, Paul, George & Ben
70. Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11
71. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
72. Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse
73. The Opposite
74. Edward and the Pirates

Five Years Old/Kindergarten
(all chapter books, in order from simplest to most challenging)
75. My Father's Dragon (series) (adventure stories full of fantasy and lots of pictures)
76. Mice of the Herring Bone (series) (swashbuckling adventures of mice who sail with cats)
77. Magic Tree House (series) (siblings travel to different times and places through books)
78. Cam Jansen (series) (early mysteries about a girl with photographic memory)
79. Charlotte's Web (read the version with color illustrations)
80. The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh (each story is its own chapter)
81. A to Z Mysteries (series) (mystery stories following each letter of the alphabet)
82. Imagination Station (series) (cousins travel back in time though the Imagination Station)
83. Basil of Baker Street (series) (Sherlock Holmes in mouse form. The first book in the series is best)
84. The Littles (series) (little people with tales that live in the walls of the big people's houses)
85. The Hundred Dresses (a classic story with a wonderful lesson)
86. The Mouse and the Motorcycle (a mouse who rides a toy motorcycle, with lots of sound effects)
87. The Courage of Sarah Noble (early frontier story of courage)
88. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Chinese folk tales and beautiful illustrations)
89. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (hang in there after the first chapter, this story is beautiful)
90. A Tree for Peter (a story of hope in difficult times)
91. The Doll People (series) (super fun with rich characters)
92. Mr. Popper's Penguins (so silly and absurd, which makes it memorable)
93. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (better than the movie, but fun to watch after reading)
94. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car (quirky and full of adventure!)
95. The BFG (a longer book, and scary at times. Feel free to spoil some suspense to reassure your audience)
96. Little House in the Big Woods (series) (classic frontier stories)
97. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (again, not like the film, much more quirky, but very fun)
98. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (be sure to read the version illustrated by Pauline Baynes)
99. The Horse and His Boy (my personal favorite in the series, and a great stand alone book)

Me on the Map

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 17:58:00 +0000

Me On the Map by Joan Sweeney, illustrated by Annette Cable is a book we got several years ago as a prize from our library's summer reading program, and it quickly became a favorite with my kids. The text is simple and is a great introduction to basic geography.

It is also a great way to start your kids learning where they live...country, state, town, street, and house number! You can't beat the price on Amazon either, less than $4 and free shipping. This is one I highly recommend owning!

The Pencil

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 12:00:00 +0000

The Pencil is a witty and creative book that starts with a blank page and...a pencil! Follow the pencil as it experiments with drawing (and naming) people, animals, places, and finally a paintbrush.

What will happen when the drawings want things changed? Then the pencil draws something that destroys his hard work and threatens his existence; how will he solve the problem?

This is a fun and quirky book that we all enjoy!

Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 12:00:00 +0000

Open the pages of Journey and prepare for an exhilarating adventure as a little girl uses her imagination (and a red crayon) to discover fantastic new places.

A doorway to an enchanted wood is just the start of her travels. And in the end she just might meet someone else who will share we love for adventure and imagination.

This book is told completely by its illustrations, and each one is vibrant, full of details, and gives the reader the chance to tell the story through however many words you choose. I enjoy this book as much as my children, and I especially love how they can "read" it to me, adding in what sticks out to them on each page. A 2014 Caldecott Honor Book.

There's No Such Thing as a Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 12:00:00 +0000

I remember reading There's No Such Thing as a Dragon by Jack Kent when I was little, and it has become quite a favorite with my kids as well! What would you do if you woke up with a little dragon in your room one morning? And what if mother insisted that "there's no such thing as a dragon!" Billy Bixbee and his mother ignore the dragon (even as it eats his breakfast) because "if there's no such thing as something, you can't tell it to get off the table."

The dragon gets bigger and bigger, causing a whole series of problems for the family, until they can no longer pretend that the dragon doesn't exist. Find out if the Bixbee's reclaim their house, as well as what happens to the enormous dragon!

Extra Yarn

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 11:30:00 +0000

One of the five books nominated for the Blue Hen award in Delaware is Extra Yarn by Mac Burnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen (this is the one my daughter picked as her favorite of the five for her vote!). This book also won the Caldecott Award. Its a whimsical story about an ordinary girl in a plain town who discovers what appears to be your average box of yarn. But as Annabelle uses the yarn, it becomes quite clear that magical things are happening.

The landscape of her little town changes thanks to her knitting skills, and Annabelle even attracts the attention of a snobbish and wicked archduke. Find out what happens to Annabelle and her yarn by checking out this excellent book!

Zin! Zin! Zin! A violin

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 12:30:00 +0000

The musical quality of the writing and the rich illustrations make it so you can almost hear the orchestra as you read Zin! Zin! Zin! A violin. A Caldecott Award winner, this is our favorite book by Lloyd Moss, so much that I bought it since we always had it checked out from the library!

Each page takes the reader through a different instrument in the orchestra, adding to the ensemble to make a trio, quartet, etc.

"Here grumpy, get your place in line!" is a favorite line about the bassoon.

It's a wonderful book and a great introduction to music language, orchestra, and instruments. We also enjoy the episode of Reading Rainbow that features this book!

Cinderella

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:56:00 +0000

Don't write this book off as just another Cinderella story! This version of Cinderella by Max Eilenberg and illustrated by Niamh Sharkey retells the classic tale with wonderful descriptions, excellent illustrations, and a few plot twists from the familiar cartoon.

Cinderella is transformed by her fairy godmother not once, but three times for three different balls. Each time the prince falls more in love with the beautiful girl and her stunning outfits. Cinderella's father plays a role in the story as well, but to say anything more would be telling the ending!

This is a favorite with both my daughter and son!

The ABC Mystery

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 12:00:00 +0000

The ABC Mystery, by Doug Cushman, was a prize from our library's summer reading program several years ago and has been a favorite ever since. It's short rhymes work through each letter of the alphabet as you watch Detective Inspector McGroom solve the case.

A great first mystery story for young kids, with plenty of extra clues in the illustrations for the older crowd.

Unfortunately it looks like this book is out of print! Hopefully your local library will have a copy.

Mole Music

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 11:30:00 +0000

Does music speak to your soul in a way that nothing else can? This is what Mole discovers in Mole Music by David McPhail. He is inspired to play the violin by a performer on television and Mole works hard to become excellent.

His love for music replaces the time he used to spend watching television, and his music impacts more people than he will ever realize.

This is the Game

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:00:00 +0000

We are big baseball fans (Go Orioles!) and This is the Game by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander is a book that literally gives me goosebumps. It's written in beautiful verse and packed with great baseball descriptions. From kids playing a pickup game on sandlots to playing cards and crackerjack, it's full of nostalgia.

And the ending is baseball in miniature: one victor emerges and everyone else has to "wait 'till next year."

This book is sure to thrill baseball enthusiasts of all ages.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 12:04:00 +0000

Mordicai Gerstein's The Man Who Walked Between the Towers is another Caldecott Award winner. This picture book is the true story of Philippe Petit, a wire walker that walked between the unfinished World Trade Center Towers in 1974.

The story is facinating and the illustrations compelling (many are taken from actual photographs of the event. This book is a great way to introduce history and historical events to kids in a very accessible and entertaining way.

The end of the book also mentions the towers being gone now, though it does not say the reason. We used this book to introduce September 11 to our kids when they asked about why the towers were gone.

After enjoying this book so much, I wanted to learn more about Philippe so I read his book To Reach the Clouds

Monsieur Saguette and His Baguette

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Tue, 28 May 2013 12:01:00 +0000

Monsieur Sageutte and His Baguette by Frank Asch is one of our new favorites this year. Monsieur Sageutte loves bread with his soup, but alas, there is no bread is his house. He sets out to buy a baguette, and on the way home his baguette helps him solve a number of hilarious problems.

This is a great book for practicing your French accent, and my children have been requesting soup and bread for dinner at an alarming rate!

Enjoy the lovely illustrations and charming story, then bring your kids into the kitchen to make soup and bread. In the words of Monsieur Saguette, "my favorite!"

The Shore Beyond

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

The Shore Beyond by Mary Joslin and illustrated by Alison Jay is a book we own. Alison Jay is one of our favorite illustrators, and her artwork in this book fits seamlessly with the story of adventure, the unknown, and life.

Follow Clara as she helps her father with his ferry service as a young girl, and as she grows up longing to see more of the world. Her desire for what lies beyond what she can see will take her to the shore beyond...
The text is longer in this book, but the story holds the attention of even my book loving 2 year old.

I saw an Ant on the Railroad Track

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:34:00 +0000

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One of our favorite train books is I saw an Ant on the Railroad Track by Joshua Prince and illustrated by Macky Pamintuan. The brilliant colors bring to life the story of a hungry ant that goes out for a walk on an empty railroad track.

The story is told by Jack, the switchman, in brilliantly rhyming verse. One of our favorite lines is "sure as shellac" as Jack describes the sight of a train heading toward the ant.

Discover what happens to the ant, Jack, and the train!

The week in review: when things don't go as planned...

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:30:00 +0000

This past week seemed at times to be quite the comedy of Christmas errors (including my intention to get this post up last Friday!).

All mostly went as planned Monday when we made it to the Christmas tree farm and cut down our tree just before the rain began. Then our tree sat naked in the corner for three days before we got any more than the lights in it.

I manage to make merengue cookies with the kids, but part way through my chocolate shavings began to get stuck in the piping tube because I hadn't chopped them small enough! (What a mess!) we had to make multiple trips to the grocery store for the necessary gingerbread cookie ingredients. And while the gingerbread decorating went well, every time I turned my back some little munchkin was shoveling handfuls if sprinkles in their mouth. Whew!

We managed to get the tree decorated (my candles are still sitting in a box next to my vacuum) and the wreath on the door (though the wreath kept sticking in the "Happy thanksgiving" window clings for several days before we got them down!)

As so many of my best laid plans and intentions fell crashing out of my hands this week I had a choice...to despair, through a pity party, and complain, or to realize that things don't have to go perfectly to be meaningful.

Our kids have had a blast helping decorate, make cookies, and take part in our disjointed advent activities. We've read the Christmas story from Luke and they are excited to celebrate the birth of Jesus. They don't need a thousands activities to make Christmas special, they need Mom and Dad to point them to what is most important, even when the tyranny of the urgent and less significant tries to take over.

I hope you are enjoying making memories with your family this Christmas season, and that you can be encouraged that things don't have to go as planned to be meaningful and significant.

The week in review: tis the season to be busy!

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 19:38:00 +0000

Our December is shaping up to be jam packed already. I love having special activities to do with our kids (and we make a point to do those with our advent calendar) and we were blessed this past week to enjoy time with family.

We visited a somewhat local train garden that Grandpa has taken us to the last 3 years.
It is fabulous!

We had silly fun together at home, singing songs and reading lots of books. Some favorites lately have been The Nutcracker by Alison Jay, Snow by Uri Shulevitz, and Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry.

I love how much fun and joy these two are!
Then we spent a few days in Williamsburg using a Groupon we purchased several months ago.

My family did many trips to Williamsburg when I was little for homeschool field trips, by I had never been to see it decorated for Christmas...beautiful!

Then we enjoyed ourselves at Great Wolf Lodge and wore our kiddos out playing in the waterpark. The Christmas decorations were beautiful here too, including an indoor snow!
I finally got my first batch of Christmas cookies baked! I feel quite behind on baking; it's one if my favorite things to do and I have so many memories of baking cookies at Christmas with my sisters. I had some fantastic helpers too.
Yum!

Here's a look at some of my favorite cookie recipes as well.
Candy Cane Cookies
Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti
Candy Cane Biscotti
Molasses Sugar Cookies
Chocolate Crinkles

The week in review: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 19:38:00 +0000

To keep things simple for December, I'll be posting each Friday a little review of our week, specifically the thrifty and frugal things we are doing to celebrate and enjoy the Christmas season.

This week I began to decorate with my kids, swapping our thankful tree for a felt Christmas tree and adding our stockings.

I finally stitched Will's stocking together (it was just pinned last year) and I'm so excited to see them next to each other. I can't even begin to imagine how many hours I put in cross-stitching their stockings!

The idea for the felt Christmas tree is all over Pinterest (check out Johnny In a Dress). I should have grabbed a yard of felt when I was at Joann's last to make it larger, but ended up just using the small rectangles and piecing them together. It was super simple, and has been a hit! I used cookie cutters as templates for the ornaments.
It was so great to pull my advent calendar activities and Scripture verses out of our Christmas box this year. I spent a considerable amount of time last year getting it exactly how I wanted it. I still need to put all the activities and verses in order along with some treats. Emma has been asking all week when we can get started!

I'm also incredible thankful for all the Christmas activities I packed away last year! Our sensory bin of Dollar Store items:

A few preschool pack activities (I think from 1+1+1=1, but not positive):

And a whole slew of Christmas stickers just waiting to go on coloring sheets and activities.

Before Thanksgiving I tackled a project one afternoon and was so excited to see how well it turned out....new skinny jeans!

This was a pair of Gap jeans passed on to me from a friend that were extremely flared at the bottom.

I turned them inside out and pinned them where I wanted, then sewed a brand new seam, removing the excess material. So easy, I highly recommend it!

Shutterfly winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:12:00 +0000

Congrats to Sarah, who won the $50 prize from Shutterfly!

If you are looking for a great deal on photo cards, there are still several options. Check out this one from Cardstore via Moms Need to Know! http://momsneedtoknow.com/70-photo-greeting-cards-cardstorecom-free-shipping/
This includes your stamp for mailing, so it's a really sweet deal!

Thanksgiving Week

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I mentioned yesterday in my Christmas Card post (enter the $50 Shutterfly prize giveaway!) that we have been doing a bunch of fun Thanksgiving related activities.

Here's a quick run through of some of our favorites; hopefully you will find a few ideas for over the Thanksgiving holiday this week!

Last year's "thankful tree" was much smaller scale. We modled after this craft on 1+1+1=1 and added things we were thankful for on each leaf.

This year I knew I wanted it to be much bigger and give both kids a chance to add as many things as they could think of. I used brown construction paper and cut out branches, then taped them to the wall. I just free-handed the tree, trying to make it look like a huge tree with lots of branches, but I traced the leaves. They've done a great job adding to our tree; it has many additional leaves at this point. It has also been a great teaching tool...the easiest thing for my kids to be thankful is all their favorite foods! But they are thinking outside the box a bit more now (and they both wanted to put each other on the tree!).

I was inspired by Housing a Forest to make shape turkeys. These took just a little bit of prep time and were a fun activity for both kids. We used it to work on not only shapes, but colors and sequencing/patterns.

Here's the finished product hanging up!

Along with the turkeys, we've done several fall pictures, including a tree with the leaves made out of crumpled and wadded tissue paper.

We've also enjoyed using a number of free preschool packs that are Thanksgiving themed! Check out this one by Our Little Monkeys and another by 1+1+1=1. Some favorite activities include putting stickers on the white dots:

Measuring Thanksgiving items:

More stickers with a special visitor:

And lots of color by number fun with an Aunt!

These puzzles are fantastic too!

We'll also be making good use of some of the travel activities I posted about last Thanksgiving while we make the rounds with family and friends! Happy Thanksgiving!

A Shutterfly Christmas Card Review (and giveaway!)

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:00:00 +0000

We've been having a lot of fun doing Thanksgiving activities recently! I'm planning a recap of those for tomorrow, but I have a Christmas giveaway to get started first today. :) I am so excited to once again be able to talk about Shutterfly Photo Christmas Cards! My family has enjoyed using Shutterfly for Christmas cards for a number of years (last year we used Treat, a Shutterfly company). The selection of cards is much bigger and in my opinion, better, this year.

I'm a big fan of cards that are a little more traditional in color and styling, but also have plenty of options to personalize. Many of Shutterfly's photo card options allow you to pick the same design in different sizes, colors, and even choose between a folded or flat card. Shutterfly introduced a new size card this year - its HUGE at 6x8 inches! It does not require any additional postage to mail, but it is more expensive than the smaller cards.

The inside (of the folded cards) and the back (of the flat cards) has TONS of options to personalize with additional photos, a large amount of text, or some of each. I am very thankful for the opportunity to have some space to write a bit about our year to keep family and friends that live far away from us updated.

Shutterfly is also one of the easiest to use photo gift sites from which I have ordered. As I scrolled through different cards I used the little heart icon to mark several cards as 'favorites' and they were automatically saved to My Shutterfly. It made it so much faster to be able to look back at the ones I had marked to narrow down the card for our family.

I get personalized offers from Shutterfly via email (free photo books, prints, other photo gifts) frequently, and these make great gifts, since all I have to do is pay shipping. If you haven't signed up for Shutterfly's email list yet, I highly recommend it! You can also check out their current Special Offers for more gift ideas.

I'm keeping our Christmas card a secret for now, but I wanted to share a few of my favorites to give you an idea of some of the new styles that Shutterfly has this year.

Simple, with one photo on the front (and I love this shade of blue):

(Light and Joy)

A bit more whimsical and fun, especially if you have small kids:

(Clothesline Frames)

I like the pattern over top the photo in this one:

(Snowy Window)

as well as this one:

(Ornaments of Peace)

Share your family's top ten memories from the year:

(Our Top 10)

I love the beautiful script on the side of this one, along with the multiple photo spots:

(Flourishes of Joy)

Win It!

Shutterfly has generously provided me with a fantastic giveaway prize: $50 off a $50 purchase (excludes applicable tax and shipping. Offer expires 12/14/12)! For a chance to win, leave a comment on this post telling me how you would use the prize...Christmas cards? A photo calendar? Another photo gift? Make sure that your email is visible in your blogger profile or in your comment so that I can contact you if you are the winner. Comments without an email are not valid entries. This giveaway will run until 9pm Eastern November 26, at which point a winner will be chosen via random.org.

Disclosure: Shutterfly sponsored this post and compensated me, but all opinions are 100% my own.

Homemade Pizza: Garlicky Mushroom and Feta

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 19:49:00 +0000

This week's homemade pizza is much more on the gourmet side...mushrooms and feta cheese with a garlic infused olive oil sauce! This is not one that our kids are brave enough to try yet (though they like all of the ingredients separately), but I'm quite fine with not having to share this right now :)

For the crust, use any of your preferred crust recipes. To go with the gourmet toppings, I like to use the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day crust. Saute the mushrooms first (I do it this way), and they can even be prepped ahead of time along with the crust.

While the oven is preheating, place a generous portion of good quality olive oil (Trader Joe's is excellent and very reasonably priced) in a small sauce pan. Add 3 or 4 (or more or less, to taste) cloves of minced garlic to the oil, along with salt and pepper. Watch closely and allow to get nice and hot, but watch so the garlic does not burn. Taste frequently (and carefully!), adding additional seasoning if necessary.

Roll out the dough and place on a heated pizza stone. Brush the entire crust with the olive oil. I am very generous with the olive oil in the center of the crust. Add mushrooms and feta cheese, then sprinkle with parsley. Bake according to crust instructions, until nice and brown. Cut, serve, and enjoy!

This is a great break from traditional tomato-based pizza, and even though the toppings are a bit more expensive than regular homemade pizza, it is still considerably cheaper than ordering at a restaurant. That's a win in my book!

Other Pizza Recipes:
Deep Dish (Pizza Hut copycat)
Basic Recipe
Stuffed Crust
Bagel Bites

Be Consistant! (Loving Books, Part 4)

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:29:00 +0000

I feel like I've learned a lot about how to encourage my kids to love books, especially great books, and I wanted to take a few posts to share some of my thoughts. Any time you delve into parental advice-giving it has the potential to be a nasty can of worms. So, I hope the book recommendations and thoughts on encouraging a love a reading are helpful. I'm not trying to make out like my way of doing this will work for everyone.

So far I’ve talked about being selective about choosing good books for your children, as well as being intentional about finding and identifying good books. In this post I want to focus on the importance of building reading into your routine. Routines will look different for every family, and rightly so, as you encourage reading in a way that is specific for your children.

My children love to snuggle together on the couch when we have a time devoted to reading. They are not holding other toys and we minimize distractions. Our routine always includes reading the title, author, and illustrator to our children. When our children discover a new favorite book, they are able to ask for it by name instead of referring to it as “the cow book” or “choo-choo.” And most important for our family, when we go to the library to get new books, it helps them and us when we remember the names of favorite authors.

We make the library a weekly part of our routine. I can’t read every book before we bring it home, so I also make sure that I have one or two old favorites each week, in case the new books are not as good as I hoped. Some weeks we only have time for a quick trip to grab a few books, but many times we spend an hour or more looking through books, playing with the toys (and the computer!) in the children’s section, and talking with the librarians. The library has become one of their favorite places, and because we go weekly, they anticipate each trip and ask to go even more often.

Favorite ABC books

ABC: A Child's First Alphabet Book by Alison Jay
One of our favorite author/illustrators. Each page has beautiful images and several objects to discover that go along with the letter.
The ABC Mystery by Doug Cushman
A simple book with great rhythm. Follow the clues to discover "whodunit" along with Detective Inspector McGroom!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr and John Archembault
The classic alphabet rhythm and song. We have this audiobook also and it is a hit.
Alphabeep: A Zipping, Zooming ABC by Debora Pearson
Follow through the alphabet with cars, trucks, and other things that go.

LMNO Peas by Keith Baker
This is an adorable book with occupations and activities for each letter of the alphabet. Great illustrations also.

Dr. Seuss's ABC by Dr. Seuss
Another great classic. The board book is a good introduction for smaller children, but move on to the full version as soon as possible!
I Spy: An Alphabet in Art by Lucy Micklethwait
Each page features a piece of artwork. Look for the part of the painting that corresponds to the appropriate letter. There are several books like this as well. This is a more difficult I Spy.

Also noteworthy but highlighted earlier...C Is for Caboose: Riding the Rails from A to Z and Baby Einstein: Alphabooks

Disclosure

Homemade Pizza: Deep Dish (Pizza Hut copycat)

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:22:00 +0000

Next up in the homemade pizza is a recipe for deep dish pizza. I've been making this pizza for several years and found it originally from The Frugal Girl. The first few times were a little tedious because there are several steps to get this pizza on the table. This is also the perfect recipe for cold nights because you need really hot oven, which warms everything nicely since the sun is going down so early!

This recipe makes two 9-inch deep dish pizzas baked in cake pans! The secret ingredient is potatoes and I've also made them with a cup of white whole wheat flour subbed in for all-purpose. It makes a beautifully dense crust and browns up really well.

Deep Dish Pizza (via The Frugal Girl)

1 medium baking potato (about 9 ounces), peeled and quartered
1 1/2 t. active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup warm water

2 T. vegetable oil, plus 2 additional for each pan

1 3/4 t. table salt

Cook the potato, allow to cool, then grate, measuring 1 cup (lightly packed). You can also cook a large batch of potatoes and freeze them to use in this recipe!

In your mixing bowl, add 3 cups of flour, yeast, and salt. While mixer is running, add water and 2 T. oil and mix for one minute. Then add the potato, mixing for an additional 2-3 minutes. Add in remaining flour slowly. You don't have to use it all, just until the dough is no longer very sticky.

Turn dough out on to a lightly floured surface and kneed until the dough is smooth but still springy (usually only a minute or so for me). Return the dough to the mixing bowl, covered with a wet towel, and allow to rise for about an hour.

After the dough has risen, punch it down and place on a lightly floured surface. Divide in two and roll each into about a 9-inch round. Place dough into oiled pans (2 T. of oil per pan). You can manipulate the dough some to push it up the sides of the pans (see photo). Let rest for about 30 minutes. Fifteen minutes into this time I set my oven at 425 to preheat with the pizza stone inside.

Using a fork, prick all over the dough to allow the air to escape. I go right up to the edge which helps make a more defined and puffy crust. Put the pans in the oven on the pizza stone and bake for about 10 minutes.

Remove the pans with the semi-baked crusts from the oven and add sauce and toppings. These pizzas can handle a good bit of sauce since the crust is so substantial. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, until brown and crispy. I use a plastic knife to loosen each pizza so that it slides right out onto the cutting board for easy slicing.

This is one of our favorite pizza recipes! Enjoy!

Hurricane Activities

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:55:00 +0000

We ended up getting tons of rain and wind from hurricane Sandy, but thankful no damage to our home and no loss of electricity. So many people were not spared from the damage, and we just very thankful.

Our hurricane prep included lots of cooking, starting with the 25lb+ bag of apples!

I made about 2 gallons of applesauce in my crockpot and dutch oven! I made sure to make way more than last year because it was gone so quickly.

I also made up this homemade pumpkin spice latte mix, using the recipe on A Farmgirl Dabbles. They turned out really nice, although by the last day the spice flavor was a little too strong for me. My husband still liked it, but I'm more of the coffee snob between the two of us :)

My kids were SO excited to help make these fall leaf sugar cookie cut outs. I saw the idea on Home Cook'N Newsletter and knew I had to try it. You can buy the Wilton leaves and acorns cookie cutters from Amazon or a craft store like Michael's or JoAnns. I divided my dough into 4 and colored each orange, green, red, or brown (cocoa powder). The red turned pink when it baked, but otherwise these were fabulous!

For indoor activities, we put this big roll of paper to good use! (Thanks Aunt Sue!) Each child had their own sheet taped to the floor in the kitchen and they went to town with stickers, crayons, and more stickers.

This was such a blast that I know we'll be pulling it out again soon. AND, since they were occupied in the kitchen, it made my cooking much easier.

I also taped the paper into a rectangle in our foyer and drew a quick little road on it for the matchbox cars.

This became our new coloring spot also, and we added trees, grass, lakes, flowers, forests, and people! My kids loved looking through The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race to find other things that would be along the road for us to color!

We also enjoyed homemade peppermint marshmallows with our hot chocolate the morning after the storm. I use this recipe from Joy of Baking, and just subbed out peppermint extract for the vanilla. I've also made these by dipping in cocoa powder to make chocolate marshmallows. They are amazing, you really should try one!

Our big "burn off some energy" activity was racing! We used our large letter mat to make a "track" for each child. Then each race they had a different relay. They loved racing each other, running like crazy in the house, and the different activities kept things interesting and engaging. We took time in between races for drinks and to give them time to catch their breath too!
Some races they had to transfer a small item (a toy animal, something small) by carrying in a cup and then pouring into another cup at the end.
They crawled with matchbox cars for a race...
We also worked on fine motor skills: carrying a block and stacking it higher each time.
And carrying a piece of a puzzle each time and having to find the correct spot.
I hope you weathered the storm ok and enjoy trying out some of these indoor activities over the winter months!