My daughter has always loved to play games for learning prepositions when we read The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree. In the past, we played a “Do you dare?” preposition game years ago! When we then also read Inside, Outside, Upside Down by the same authors, I just had to add on to our “Great […]
Keeping Track of 1000 Books Before Kindergarten
To say it or even to try to count it, 1000 is a large number. To think of reading 1000 books is overwhelming. How does one actually track reading 1000 books before kindergarten? You can track the books digitally or on paper. The good news is I have made a 1000 books tracking sheet for […]
Building a Home Library for Your Kids
Although I am a huge fan of the public library, I do believe families should have some books of their own. A child can only be literate if he or she is surrounded by things to read. Reading 1000 books (and those 100 books can include repeats) will be much easier if you have access […]
Normal Stages of Reading with a Baby or Toddler
As I’ve been through Reading 1000 Books before Kindergarten with my two oldest kids, I’ve realized that there are various “stages” of reading with children, especially reading with my babies. I started reading with my babies from their infancy, and my third child is nearly two. My thoughts on baby-reading stages are based on my […]
Why Read 1000 Books Before Kindergarten?
When you consider the number 1000, it sounds like a lot. To read that many books with your zero to five year old child seems outrageous. Why a challenge to read 1000 books before kindergarten? Reading 1000 books before kindergarten helps kids get an important foundation in literacy that will impact them for their whole […]
Favorite Picture Book Characters to Introduce to Your Kids
Today is the first day of my Read 1000 Books before Kindergarten series. In the coming days I’ll talk about how to read to your baby/toddler/preschooler, why you should read 1000 books to your child before kindergarten, and more. Today I’m talking about who you’ll meet in favorite picture books and what to read with […]
Top Ten Picture Books for Toddlers
When my son (Raisin) was 2, I began a personal project or challenge to read 1000 different books with him before he entered kindergarten. (At that point, I had no intention of homeschooling.) Together, we did it. There were so many benefits of our marathon reading times together. We got in the habit of choosing […]