In today’s increasingly multicultural world, many children hear two or more languages being spoken on a daily basis. Studies have shown that children that grow up with more than one language outperform their peers in verbal and non-verbal skills, and perform better on standardized tests.
Tag: children s book shelf
Top 10: Caldecott Winners 2000-2010 & My Caldecott Collection
I am a little dismayed at how few Caldecott books I own so I am posting on the last decade in order to beef up my own collection which I shall purchase myself. So, for my birthday and mother’s day, I am going to ask for this collection of Caldecott books for our library. And all that talk in the New York Times about the diminishing sales of picture books? Well, I’ll help to turn that around! Which books are your favorites?
Top 10: Favorite Duck Picture Books
What is it about ducks in picture books that always seems so appealing? Are ducks really so unusually clever as portrayed in these books? Or charismatic? Or just sweet and fluffy? I think all of the above is true! I found myself reading a pile of duck featured picture books to my son one night when he randomly brought me a small pile that included Duck for President and Duck on a Bike. And then I started the list in earnest. Turns out that it’s quite hard to find 10 excellent duck picture books so I had to add Little Bear, technically an easy reader to get 10. I hope that is OK with you! I guess what is stranger is that I happen to own most of these books and yet, no one in my family enjoys eating duck. Maybe that is what happens when you attach to an anthropomorphic character as appealing as a duck. My family also does not like to eat chicken. I wonder if we have 10 excellent picture books featuring chickens … stay tuned! How about you? What animal picture books are you reading over and over? Dogs, cats, mice, ducks, chickens?… Please share your favorites!
Top 5: Best Seek and Find Picture Books
Are Search and Find books the precursor to video/DSi/Wii/xBox/Nintendo games for little boys? Maybe … but I’ll take that any day over the screens! I have to say that I have never logged in so many hours searching for stuff in books until I had my third child and my only son. Coincidence? I think not. There is a gaming feature that never seems to bore my son from searching and finding stuff in books. This, however, does not seem to translate into searching and finding [lost] stuff in his room or in the house.
Top 10: Best Audio Books for Kids (Some are FREE!)
Ambling Books is a great site for FREE audio books. If your child reads along with the audio playing, it’s a great way to improve his or her reading skills. Try this with a reluctant reader. This is their Top 10: Audio Books for Kids list.
SAT Vocabulary for Kindergarten from Picture Book Cuddly Dudley
This is the list for Week 5:
adorable: The baby was so adorable that everyone wanted to hug him.
enormous: An elephant is an enormous animal.
resist: I could not resist eating the cookies because they smelled so good.
lonely: The little girl sitting by herself on the swings seemed very lonely.
annoyed: I was annoyed when my brother talked to me while I was in the middle of playing a memory game.
gregarious: Tonya was very gregarious and was always inviting friends over to play.
Easy Chapter Book Mythology Series for Girls
If your daughter is ready to move on the Rainbow Fairy series (or if you are doing shared reading and this repetitive series is making you crazy), this would be an upgrade. Greek mythology purists like my eldest should read Edith Hamilton’s books instead but this is a fun series for grades 1-4.