It is Children's Book Week, a time to encourage the joy of reading with young people plus celebrate children's books and the authors that write them. Administered by Every Child A Reader and sponsored by The Children's Book Council, commemorative events are being held across the United States from May 4 - 10, 2015 at schools, libraries, bookstores, homes - wherever young readers and books connect! CLICK HERE for a list of some of the official events taking place across the country plus check with your local schools and libraries to see if they are doing anything special this week.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a divison of the U.S. Department of Education1, children who are read to at home enjoy a substantial advantage over children who are not. Reading to kids at a young age helps build basic speech skills, cognitive thinking, imagination, and an appreciation for wanting to read for fun on their own. The U.S. Department of Education has found a correlation between the more students read on their own time and enjoy reading for fun the higher their overall school scores will be - so getting kids interested in reading early and often is important. We've placed an emphasis on every day reading to our children since they were toddlers and have really tried to develop their having an interest in reading in ways that demonstrate education and entertainment don't have to be mutually exclusive. In recognition of Children's Book Week, here are a list of some of our family's favorite children's books:
My daughter loves the Disney Fairies movies that feature the adventures of Tinker Bell and her fairy friends, but we don't want her watching these videos on television or the family's ipad all the time. A great solution has been Papercutz's series of graphic novels the explore the magical world of Pixie Hollow. These books provide great illustrations that provide her an appreciation for artwork and entice her interest in reading.
"Comics are a gateway drug to literacy" cartoonist Art Spiegelman once said. Whether it is going to Free Comic Book Day or having a collection of Papercutz graphic novels on our book shelves, we've embraced comics as a way to highlight that reading is fun with our children. We want our kids to be interested in reading not because their parents tell them to be but because they want to read.
Math can be a daunting topic for many, including myself, that can be intimidating and frustrating if you let it. Bedtime Math provides riddles that eliminate the stigma making the subject fun and encouraging kids to associate math with solving interesting puzzles rather than a boring task they have to do for school.
Join a small boy through his adventure in the big city looking for his friend the Dragon. As you explore the book there are various objects that you are asked to find along the journey that help children develop their counting skills. Download this free activity kit from the book's publisher for some extra educational connections for your child.
I read this book every day to my children for two years straight when they were preschoolers and by the time they started Kindergarten not only had they memorized their ABCs but also the script of the book which they could recite back to me verbatim from memory before even being able to read. Now as early readers, knowing the story really has helped using the book to reinforce sight words and build their confidence in reading. ABCs with is zany cast of characters that include a lazy lion licking a lollipop and an ostrich oiling an orange owl is a great addition to any young child's book collection.
The fun illustrations and amusing story in this book make it a quick read that helps develop an appreciation of literature with children. My kids always love flipping through this book and when I'm stretched for time this book is easy to get a bed time story read in a short amount of time. Check out this preview:
These are just a few of the many children's books our family enjoys. What are some of the ones your family enjoys or you may have loved yourself as a kid?
