Books, Workbooks, and Library Books!

I am having one of those days. You know those days you get up to get dressed and suddenly hate all of your clothes and wish you had $1000 dollars to go buy new ones, your hair just isn’t working and you need a hair cut, and your kids aren’t getting along! I have had that kind of day so I put myself in time out and my kids are having quiet time!

A lot of people ask me what books and curriculum I use with my kiddos!! There are SO many, almost to many, options of what to use to teach your kids. It can also get really expensive if you don’t be careful. I will get more into my regular school curriculum in another post, but for now I want to just talk about good things we can all use for the summer. For my preschoolers I have bought those awesome Pre K books at Costco. They are basic fun books to teach hand coordination, drawing, coloring, counting, letter recognition and more. Mostly with my preschoolers I do more hands on stuff, and read to them out of fun books. I also use Bit Cards to teach them animals, colors, sounds of letters, instruments etc. All Bit Cards are is a piece of white card stock with a picture glued onto it, a letter written on it, or a shape drawn on it. {I really don’t know where the name Bit Card came from, but it is what my mom called them so I guess “bit card” it will remain!} I think Costco even has fun workbooks for older kids. I have bought some with CD’s in it that have printable sheets or even fun music!

Workbooks are nice when you are working with another child to have your other child go and work on. I am not a workbook lover. They are great at times, but to many workbook pages can overwhelm a child. During the summer I do plan on using one for my 1st grader They have Summer Bridge Books, for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, all the grades. They are a great way to keep up on things they learned and even a touch on a little of what they are going to learn. They are fun and they don’t take very long!

Also take advantage of your local library during the summer. Let your kids decide on subjects they want to learn more about. Last year LaLa wanted to know more about Butterflies, so every week for a month we checked out a new butterfly book from the library. She learned so much. After the end of the month she made her own book about butterflies and even wrote what each page represented! The library also has fun Summer Reading programs and fun opportunities to motivate your children with prizes and a chance to win books. Check out your local library to find out. They even let your Non-readers participate!

One of my favorite books to read with my kids are the Book of Mormon Stories. It is a simplified version of The Book Of Mormon. They are easy enough for my oldest to read, so every morning we wake up and during breakfast we pass the book around and talk about the scripture story and what we can learn from it

I don’t buy very many new books. I got my library of books from friends, garage sales, Amazon, and the D.I. Most new ones go there anyway, right? So why no just buy used. It’s way cheaper than a brand new book. Although there are a few that I love so much that I had to buy new! I also don’t buy books I won’t want to read. You know those really long Disney ones that you just look at and are tired! I don’t buy those. I buy classics… Dr. Suess, , Beatrix potter, little critter, Kevin Henkes but also just fun ones that aren’t a bore to read! I want to like the books I read to my kids as much as they do! I once was reading one of those Disney books to my daughter and feel asleep after the second page….She was not happy with me. 🙂

Reading with your kids is SO super important. Not only will it help your kids learn to read, but it will show them you love them and are taking that time out to show it. I love this quote from Elder Faust that says ““Whatever the era, whatever the times, one thing will never change: Fathers and mothers, if you have children, they must come first. You must read to your children and you must hug your children and you must love your children. Your success as a family, our success as a society, depends not on what happens in the White House but on what happens inside your house.”

So take a break today and go sit down on the couch, relax from doing the laundry, making dinner, or not feeling very good (which is me today, my allergies are killing me) and tell your kids to each go get their favorite book. You will be the coolest person ever!!

What are some of your kids favorite books? For my kids right now it is the Magic Tree House. They love listening to the adventures that Jack and Annie have! Happy Reading!