Showing posts with label start reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label start reading. Show all posts

Monday, May 29, 2017

67 Books to Read Before your Kids turn 10 Years Old and some insights.

When my kids were little I was obsessed with reading to them. And not JUST reading, but reading the right books. I have since learned that whatever book interests them IS WHAT MATTERS! Because it keeps them interested and grows there vocabulary. 

67 Books to Read Before your Kids turn 10 Years Old 

and some insights.


So now, we still read everyday, including - to my horror - Diary of A Wimpy Kid. And I am surprised the second time around when my now younger son is reading the series (which we brought down from the attic). He is informing me as I type that he wants to re-read old school, something about Greg's dad shoving him into a hole on accident. 

We rotate "what mom likes" and what the kids like. Good night gorilla for baby girl, 101 things to know about the NFL for older son and everything Abraham Lincoln for younger son. 

This book list was recommended to me long ago - thanks wired

And while very valuable, just remember - - - Keep Reading! 
  • Recommended by Erik Wecks, Matt Blum, Kevin Makice, Nathan Berry, Jonathan Liu, Dave Banks, Roy Wood, Kathy Ceceri, Jenny Williams, Ethan Gilsdorf, Corrina Lawson, Michael Venables, and GeekDad Z:
  • Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret
  • Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
  • Kate DiCamillo, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
  • Barbara Park, Junie B. Jones's First Boxed Set Ever! (Books 1-4)
  • Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and Every Thing on It J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
  • William Goldman, The Princess Bride
  • Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
  • J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
  • Neil Gaiman, Coraline
  • Edward Eager, Half Magic and Magic by the Lake
  • Joan Aiken, Arabel's Raven
  • Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter and the Starcatchers
  • Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
  • Mary Norton, The Borrowers
  • Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
  • Walter Moers, The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear
  • Larry Gonick, The Cartoon History of the Universe
  • Irene Miller, Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine
  • Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid
  • Crockett Johnson, The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon Bertrand Brinley, The Mad Scientists Club
  • Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians
  • Ingrid Law, Savvy
  • Wendelin Van Draanen, Shredderman
  • C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia
  • Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux
  • Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, Far Flung Adventures
  • Russell Hoban, The Mouse and His Child
  • Robert C. O'Brien, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
  • Jeanne Birdsall, The Penderwicks
  • Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
  • Emily Jenkins, Toys Go Out
  • Grace Lin, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
  • Tony DiTerlizzi, The Search for WondLa
  • Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach
  • John Bellairs, The House With a Clock in Its Walls
  • Judy Bloom, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
  • E. B. White, Charlotte's Web
  • Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree
  • Robert C. O'Brien, The Silver Crown
  • Louis Sachar, Holes
  • Daniel Pinkwater, The Big Orange Splot
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House books
  • E. B. White, Stuart Little
  • Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children
  • E. L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  • Angie Sage, Septimus Heap series
  • Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society
  • Dr. Cuthbert Soup, A Whole Nother Story and Another Whole Nother Story Virginia Hamilton, The House of Dies Drear
  • Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
  • Arlene Mosel, Tikki Tikki Tembo
  • A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
  • Else Holmelund Minarik, Little Bear
  • Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
  • Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham
  • Peggy Parish, Amelia Bedelia
  • Maurice Sendak, In the Night Kitchen
  • H. A. Ray, Curious George
  • Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad Are Friends
  • Arnold Lobel, Owl at Home
  • Cynthia Rylant, Henry and Mudge
  • Norman Bridwell, Clifford
  • Marc Brown, Arthur
  • Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are
  • Linda Sue Park, A Single Shard
  • Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy
  • Scott O'Dell, Island of the Blue Dolphins
  • Deborah Ellis, The Breadwinner
  • Pam Munoz Ryan, The Dreamer
  • Laurance Yep, The Star Fisher
  • David Shannon, A Bad Case of Stripes
  • David Macaulay, Castle and The Way Things Work
  • Lloyd Alexander, Chronicles of Prydain
  • Eoin Colfer, The Legend of Spud Murphy, The Legend of the Worst Boy in the World, and The Legend of Captain Crow's Teeth
  • Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking
  • L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
  • Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising
  • Betty McDonald, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
  • John Christopher, The Tripods Trilogy
  • Jack Prelutsky, The Dragons are Singing Tonight
  • Esther Forbes, Johnny Tremain
  • Nowen N. Particular, Boomtown
  • Tom Angleberger, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back
  • Sam Riddleburger, The Qwikpick Adventure Society
  • Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons
  • L. Frank Baum, Oz series
  • Rev. W. Awdry, Thomas the Tank Engine
  • Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events
  • Brian Jacques, Redwall
  • Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials
  • Robert Heinlein, Have Space Suit Will Travel
  • Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
  • Doris Burn, Andrew Henry's Meadow
  • Bill Peet, Farewell to Shady Glade
  • Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince
  • Richard Adams, Watership Down
  • Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
  • L. M. Boston, The Children of Green Knowe
  • Babette Cole, Princess Smartypants
  • Kathleen V. Kundlinski, Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs
  • Ruth Stiles Gannett, My Father's Dragon
  • Roald Dahl, The BFG
  • Daniel Pinkwater, Once Upon a Blue Moose
  • Robert Munsch, The Paper Bag Princess
  • Richard Evan Schwartz, You Can Count on Monsters
  • Mercer Mayer, One Monster After Another
  • Jon Stone, The Monster at the End of This Book
  • Suzanne Collins, The Gregor Series
  • Tomie de Paola, Strega Nona
  • Sesyle Joslin, What Do You Say, Dear?
Make mistakes, breathe, reflect and KEEP READING! 

Monday, March 16, 2015

Sorting School Work that comes Home and Our Word Wall

My younger son is in Kindergarten and comes home with lots and lots of paperwork! His teacher has a great approach to keeping monthly Math Journal where the kids do math work nearly everyday. She's thematic so we have Winter based projects, like Penguins theme or the Gingerbread man. Then there is my favorite work - popcorn words - which have allowed us to build our word wall.

One year later.


I often find my younger son standing in front of the wall, where we have taped up his word projects that he taped and wrote, and he is reading his words! My favorite moments are when his lil' sister stands next to him repeating what he says.

Most recently my younger son read a bedtime book to me!! It was "Hop on Pop." He needed some prompting to sound out words like WHere and THere, and then after we read the page with corrections he said: "Mom, I got this." And he reread the page again on his own, sounding out the words. I know now that my happiness tears were because I was so proud of his determination to reread the page correctly and without help!




The "popcorn words" strategy that his Kindergarten teachers uses is not a rote memorization technique. The kids interact with the words, building them by cutting out and sounding out the letters and words. My older son had to memorize 150 words in his Kindergarten class, he also had to write sentences even tho he wasn't sounding out words (as we wrote because I didn't know better as a new mom). 


Older son didn't read until 1st grade. I can see the difference in how they learned the words and did and didn't interact with the words directly impacted how they learned to read, and how quickly.

This other photo is of my younger sons school work. I kept many pages of my older sons school work with his binder bursting at the seams. My younger son will have photos of ALL his work with select pieces he and I choose as our favorites in his binder. 

Sorting School Work that comes Home & Our Word Wall by areyousureaboutthatblog
Sorting School Work that comes Home & Our Word Wall, a photo by areyousureaboutthatblog on Flickr.


I just love when the kids hit these milestones with leaps and bounds.  

Update: In 2015 My younger son entered school "behind" in reading (level B instead of C). He has since caught up and made leaps and bounds in reading. More importantly he loves books. And now that he has started reading he is reading by choice, for his own pleasure. 

I have my older sons 150 kindergarten sight words which we use to supplement his school list in 1st grade this year. Learning those base of sight words really did make a smoother reading transition for my older son. At the time i was anti-flashcards, feeling they PUSH information versus actually learning it. I was wrong. I think flashcards and sight words have a place...we just have to make it fun. 

  • Play memory with the sight words
  • Speed race once my son learned 60-70% of the words list
  • and learn it in manageable portions of about 5-8 words per week.
  • Keeps last weeks mastered words and add more words next week, now having 10-16 words. 
  • Continue every week. Through summer as well.


Make Mistakes, Breathe, Reflect and Laugh.Out.Loud.

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