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Simple Kindergarten Homeschool Reading List

October 3, 2017 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Our kindergartner is off to the reading races! She’s really progressed in her ability to read over the summer and now there’s no stopping her. She reads street signs and menu items and instructions on gas pumps and – basically, any word, anywhere.

Which thrills me. There is no more important skill in life than the ability to read. I firmly believe that a love for reading is the most important part of a good education.

But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be fun, right? So, for this year, I wanted to create a simple kindergarten homeschool reading list that my little one could complete without pressure and have fun while doing it! Take a look at our reading selections for this year and see if you can’t find some new stories for your family!

For more on our kindergarten plans for this year, take a look at how we’re planning a minimalist homeschool kindergarten curriculum!

Images c/o: StockUnlimited

Kindergarten Homeschool Reading List

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1. My Mouth Is a Volcano! by Julia Cook

2. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

3. Pete the Cat: Pete At the Beach by James Dean

4. Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

5. Curious George: The Donut Delivery by H.A. Rey

6. The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak

7. There Is a Bird On Your Head! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems

8. What Do You Do With an Idea? by Kobi Yamada

9. Enemy Pie (Reading Rainbow Book) by Derek Munson

10. Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña

11. Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty

12. They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel

13. The Day The Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt

14. What’s The Difference? Being Different is Amazing! by Doyin Richards

15. The True Story of The Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

16. Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall

17. This Is How We Do It: One Day In the Lives of Seven Kids from Around the World by Matt Lamothe

18. Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts

What books are you reading with your kindergartner this year? Share your kindergarten homeschool reading list in the comments!

Try these other tips for planning your kindergarten homeschool year!

Get more tips for teaching early grades on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

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15 Beautiful Children’s Books about Harvest

September 25, 2017 by Selena Robinson 5 Comments

We’re getting well into the harvest season and it’s a perfect time to read about this time of year with the kids!

We’ve already featured a harvest unit study, but I wanted to share a few more children’s books about harvest that feature picking apples, pumpkins, corn, and all kinds of fall produce.

There are even books that talk about the harvest moon, which is a great way to talk about lunar cycles.

Once you read a couple of these books, be sure to take the kids pumpkin picking, apple picking, or running through a corn maze. You might even want to make an apple pie with your kids!

By the way, if you can make an apple pie successfully, please explain it to me. I’m terrified of attempting to make a pie from scratch.

If you love these books, don’t miss our roundup of 50 Fall Books for Kids or our list of Children’s Books about Farms!

15 Beautiful Children’s Books about Harvest

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1. Possum’s Harvest Moon – Anne Hunter

2. Strega Nona’s Harvest – Tomie dePaola

3. We Gather Together: Celebrating the Harvest Season – Wendy Pfeffer

4. Pick a Circle, Gather Squares: A Fall Harvest of Shapes – Felicia Sanzari Chernesky

5. Hello, Harvest Moon – Ralph Fletcher

6. Fall Harvests: Bringing In Food – Martha E. H. Rustad

7. It’s Harvest Time! – Jean McElroy

8. Curious George: Apple Harvest – H.A. Rey

9. Apples, Apples Everywhere!: Learning about Apple Harvests – Robin Koontz

10. By the Light of the Harvest Moon – Harriet Ziefert

11. Tractor Mac: Harvest Time by Billy Steers

12. Harvest Time: Celebrate Fall! by Erika L. Shores

13. Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills

14. Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie (Picture the Seasons) by Jill Esbaum

15. Bitsy’s Harvest Party by Melody Carlson

Don’t miss these other book lists for kids!

For more tips to make your kids into readers, check out my Reading for Kids board on Pinterest!

This post is part of The Massive Guide to Homeschool Reading Lists by iHomeschool Network! Click over to read tons of awesome booklists shared by my fellow homeschooling bloggers!

How to Improve Reading Fluency with Nessy Reading & Spelling

April 18, 2017 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

My seven-year-old is well above grade level at reading comprehension, math, and writing, which thrills me. But his reading fluency needs a little help. Because he has ADHD, he’s super active. (And I mean, super active.) And that makes him rather…impatient.

When he tries to read aloud or spell words, he gets frustrated whenever he can’t do it right the first time. But, like most kids, he loves to play. So it was it a wonderful gift to get to try out Nessy Reading & Spelling – a game-based reading and spelling program that makes it simple to improve reading fluency for active kids or children with dyslexia!

Read on to see how we’re using this fabulous reading program to help our child with ADHD work on reading and spelling. Plus, learn how to score a 15 percent discount on a monthly subscription AND a free book about dyslexia!

Disclosure: I received access to this program in exchange for this post and I was compensated for my time. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.

How Nessy Reading & Spelling Works

Nessy Reading & Spelling looks and operates much like a video game, so your kids are not going to fight you when it’s time for reading practice. I promise. 🙂

When you first sign up, you’ll receive login information and then you can create a “monkey” (an avatar) for your child. Or you can let them create it on their own.

Kids can use their own name to sign in, so you don’t have to worry about helping them remember a username. Once they log in for the first time, they’ll get a quick tour of how the program works.

The tour is really helpful, because it shows kids how to navigate between “islands” (game levels) and how to find all the activities for each island. Nessy Reading & Spelling is touch-centric, so it’s awesome to try on a tablet, by the way.

After completing the video tour, kids receive “nuggets”, which are basically points. As they progress through games and levels, they receive more that they can use in MonkeyTown, which I’ll talk about in a bit.

Once they take the tour, kids are prompted to complete the Nessy Challenge – an assessment of their current reading level.

During the Nessy Challenge, kids fill in blanks with the appropriate word. As they complete words correctly, the questions get more and more difficult.

I will admit: The Nessy Challenge is long. It takes kids through all ten levels, and the challenge automatically proceeds to the next level once one is finished.

After about five levels, my guy was at the end of his patience limit. So I let him stop and go on to the Home screen to find an island he could explore. (You can always resume the challenge or take it again at a different time.)

Here’s a look at the “islands” in Nessy Reading and Spelling. Each one corresponds to about half a grade level, so Islands 1 and 2 are roughly equivalent to kindergarten, while islands 9 and 10 equate to fifth grade or so.

You might wonder: How can you go over half of an elementary grade on one of these islands?

Easy! By including a ton of standard-specific exercises! These islands are jam-packed with reading practice, lessons, games, and even printables!

There’s even sight word and mnemonic practice included – and that’s just in Island 1!

Remember MonkeyTown? Here’s a look at it. After kids complete their schoolwork for the day, they can go play in MonkeyTown – a game area that’s just for fun. You can set limits as to how long they can play in this area or how many lessons they must complete before entering.

Using Nessy Reading & Spelling to Improve Reading Fluency

Once my seven-year-old finished the Nessy Challenge, he was placed on Island 5. After looking through the standards, we started him on compound words – a topic he hadn’t learned much about yet.

Since he was already familiar with the concept of compound words (two small words joined together to make a larger word), he went straight to the games.

In the game “Monkey Words”, kids can help their monkeys jump to the top of the tree by correctly combining small words to form compound words. My guy did pretty good with this one.

See? At the end of the game, you can see a report that shows you which words kids learned, how they scored, and how long it took them to complete it. You can set the passing score however you like, but the default is 8 out of 10.

Then it was on to another game – “Hands Off My Bananas”. This was a great activity, because it was practice in typing, spelling, and recognizing the same compound words he just practiced in the previous game.

In this game, he had to listen to the compound word being spoken and then type it correctly. I love how Nessy Reading & Spelling lets kids work on reading and recognizing the same group of words through a variety of exercises. So much better than just drilling them over and over!

And, as you can see, even though he worked on the same group of words for about 20 minutes, he didn’t get impatient or frustrated at all. He loved it!

Finally, for that lesson, we used one of the printable resources: A compound words bingo game! We printed out the game and let my two boys play against each other.

As with the previous exercises, this game focused on the very same set of compound words. The challenge for each boy was to find the compound word I called out and get “BINGO” before the other.

Since the game boards aren’t identical (each one contains different words), there’s truly no way to know who will win.

But my seven-year-old won anyway. 🙂

And I made them both shake hands afterward. Good game, fellas!

We really had a ball working with Nessy Reading & Spelling and this was just a few exercises from one of the over 100 lessons! There’s so much to work with here for kids from grades K-5. It’s truly an excellent, comprehensive program for building reading fluency and spelling skills!

To learn more about Nessy Learning and how you can get a subscription to Nessy Reading & Spelling, follow the company on social media:

And if you’re ready to sign up for a monthly Nessy Reading & Spelling subscription, you can save 15% with the promo code BLOG17!

Plus, score an ebook about how dyslexia affects kids – FREE! This is super important if you have a child that struggles with dyslexia or if you suspect your early reader may be displaying signs of a learning disorder. Download the free Dyslexia Explained ebook to learn more about how to help your kids master reading, even if they’re living with dyslexia.

Get more tips for helping your readers on my Reading for Kids Pinterest board!

Touring NYC Landmarks with New York City Picture Books

March 14, 2017 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

New York City is one of our favorite places to visit. One of our family members lives in Queens and the kids always love traveling through the big city, staring at the buildings, and trying to spot the city’s most famous features.

Usually, though, we don’t have enough time to tour all of the NYC landmarks while we’re in town. So I wanted to put together a New York City landmarks unit study that the kids could use to really get an understanding of these buildings and places and how they fit into the history of New York and the U.S.

Which is why I was thrilled to get a chance to review five beautiful children’s books about New York City from Candlewick Press! These picture books and nonfiction biographies brought the Big Apple to us and helped the kids learn tons about the city!

Read on to see how we built our unit around lovely children’s books from Candlewick Press! Plus, find out how to score a 25 percent discount on Candlewick books for your family AND see how you can win a set of Judy Moody paperbacks!

Disclosure: I received these books in exchange for this post and I was compensated for my time. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.

New York City Picture Books about NYC Landmarks

I love reading great children’s books with the kids and Candlewick Press has made its reputation on excellent children’s literature, so I knew I’d find some wonderful books about NYC in the company’s catalog.

To cover our New York City landmarks unit, we used five excellent books from Candlewick Press:

The first four are absolutely beautiful picture books about New York City, while the fifth is a heartwrenching, but age-appropriate retelling of the events of September 11, 2001.

The book Panorama Pops: New York is unlike any other children’s book I’ve ever seen. It’s an exquisitely cut fold-out book that serves as a 3D map of the city.

You can literally tour the city from the Statue of Liberty to Grand Central Terminal on one side and then travel from Times Square up to Yankee Stadium on the other. Since the landmarks in the book are arranged from north to south, it’s a pretty good geography lesson about NYC as well.

I wish you all could have seen me standing over the boys as they looked at this book. “Don’t pull it!” “Turn the pages carefully!” “No, that part is supposed to fold up!” I was basically treating it as a work of art. It’s that beautiful.

The book features twelve landmarks in all and gives a few facts about each one, along with a lovely illustration.

Plus, there are tiny little foldables. It’s just perfect. In fact, this book is such a little treasure that it would probably make a great gift for an adult.

With the book A Walk in New York, kids can explore more landmarks as they “walk” along the city. We used it for read-aloud time and my eight-year-old did the honors.

My kids were impressed with the size of Macy’s. (As am I whenever I’m in town.)

But that’s nothing compared to the Empire State Building, which has its own fold-out poster in the book.

Then we took a closer look at the city with the book Inside and Out: New York, another quirky book that I’d never seen before. With this book, you can pull out a large wall-sized chart of the city and explore intricate details about New York and its people.

But, then you can flip the book over and see what’s happening “inside” each of the buildings. You can even see people taking the stairs up to the top of the Statue of Liberty!

At the back, there are selected items for kids to find in the pictures. Naturally, my kids started there.

And the first thing they “found” was the New York Knicks playing basketball at Madison Square Garden, which is NOT on the list! (But we’re huge basketball fans, so it was inevitable.)

I knew that the book Pop Up: New York was going to be a big hit and it was. Pop-up books are always popular with kids and my four love them. But this book takes pop-ups to a whole new level.

You can see nearly all of the city’s landmarks in it – to scale! So when you look at the Flatiron Building, you can see the Empire State Building towering behind it. Plus, there are facts about the city tucked away in foldable books throughout.

The kids quickly found the page with Yankee Stadium and tried to find the players. As you can see, on the back sides of each pop-up feature are the names of each place and facts about it.

We spent a little time examining the financial district to find Wall Street and the World Trade Center.

Which led to a discussion about what the World Trade Center used to look like.

Reading about September 11, 2001 with Candlewick Press

September 11, 2001 is a difficult historical event to discuss with kids. It’s still a difficult event to discuss with adults. I didn’t live in New York, so (like so many people) I watched everything happen on television. But whenever I hear the date mentioned, I instantly get a knot in my stomach – even 15 years later.

The kids know that the original World Trade Center was destroyed. And they know how it happened. But now that my middle schooler is getting older, I wanted her to learn more about what that day was like. So we started reading the book September 11, 2001: Attack on New York City.

This book talks about September 11 from the standpoint of people who were there and lived to tell about it. They talk honestly about how they felt, what they saw, and how they processed it all afterward.

It’s a difficult book to read, but it is age-appropriate and the pictures are in black and white, which mutes the horror a little bit.

After skimming a few pages, Tigger disappeared into her bedroom with the book. She came out about five minutes later crying. We hugged and talked about it for a while.

At the back of the book is an afterword that ties in the events of that day with the events that followed: the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, the case for weapons of mass destruction, the capture of Osama bin Laden, and more. I’ll be saving this book for a more in-depth middle-grades unit later.

If you’ve been wondering how to broach this topic with your older kids, this book is a tough, but excellent resource to use.

Get to know the other reading selections for kids from Candlewick Press! Sign up for the Candlewick newsletter to get news about the latest book releases! Plus, you can read about some of the newest book collections below:

For more about Candlewick Press, follow the company on social media!

Now – for the goodies!

Score a 25 percent discount on any purchase from Candlewick Press when you use the promo code CANDLEWICK at checkout! AND – enter to win a set of eight Judy Moody paperbacks FREE! One winner will receive a boxed set of books 1-8 from Candlewick Press! Use the Giveaway Tools widget below to enter.

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For more awesome ways to use children’s lit with your family, follow my Reading for Kids board on Pinterest!

How to Make Shakespeare Fun for Kids – Even Reluctant Readers!

February 1, 2017 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

I didn’t learn about Shakespeare at all during grade school, so it wasn’t until I got to college that I got a chance to read and watch classic Shakespearean plays. And, to be honest, it was confusing. I watched a live rendition of Twelfth Night for English lit class and I think I went to sleep during Act II.

As I’ve gotten older, though, I’ve started to appreciate the wit, vocabulary, and poetry of Shakespeare’s writing. It’s almost as if each line is intentionally written to stand alone as a quote. Rereading his works as an English major when I returned to college a few years ago left me in awe at how poignantly he could describe the most ordinary things.

So I decided to introduce Shakespeare to my children as soon as possible. But my two boys are not the voracious readers that my girls are, which means I had my work cut out for me.

And that’s why I was excited to review the book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare with the kids! With the quotes and ideas from the book, we were able to make Shakespeare fun for kids, even my reluctant readers!

Read on to see how we did it. And find out how you can win a FREE copy of the book for your family!

Disclosure: I received this product in exchange for this post and I was compensated for my time. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review. (Affiliate links provided here for convenience. For more, see our Disclosure Policy.)

How to Make Shakespeare Fun for Kids

I started by reading the book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig. It is truly packed with ideas and suggestions for how parents can bring these works to life, even for kids who are very young or unenthusiastic about learning poetry.

Personally, I had made a list of reasons why I thought I had to wait until my kids were older to teach them about the Bard, including the following:

My kids are too young to study Shakespeare. They won’t understand it and it’ll be a waste of time.
My kids won’t be interested in memorizing dialogue. They’ll get frustrated at the long words and give up after a few tries.
My kids will get bored trying to read the plays. Most of Shakespeare’s plays are pretty long. How on earth could I keep them excited about reading them?

And this is why How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare is so awesome. The author, Ken Ludwig, doesn’t shy away from any of these potential challenges. In fact, he addresses them head on.

Yes, your kids will have difficulty understanding the plays.

Yes, your kids will get frustrated at trying to memorize the lines.

Yes, your kids will get bored if they try to read the plays as they are written.

But there are ways to help them get past these obstacles and truly love these plays if we try the suggestions offered. I greatly appreciated the candor of Ludwig’s writing and that made me more receptive to trying his ideas. By the way, those ideas really work.

Learning to Memorize Shakespeare Dialogue for Kids

In the book, Ken recommends starting children off with memorizing a short passage from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He emphasizes going line by line and looking up any words that are unfamiliar.

Since Elizabethan English is quite different from modern English and since Shakespeare’s plays are a bit on the long side, that’s going to take some time. But that’s okay! We have time to sink our teeth in and savor these plays with the kids. There’s no hurry whatsoever.

Since I’d already seen Twelfth Night as a teenager (but couldn’t remember it due to falling asleep), we started working with that play.

On the How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare website, you can print off passages from the plays mentioned in the book and use them to help the kids work on memorizing short lines. We grabbed a few scenes from Twelfth Night and got started.

My boys weren’t too enthused about reading the lines at first, so we made some printable stick puppets from some of the principal characters in Twelfth Night.

Then we just cut them out, stuck them on some colored craft sticks, and made character puppets to act out the scenes!

Once my boys saw the character puppets, they wanted to jump right into playing with them. But they’re not just toys – they’re characters who have specific things to say to one another. Which means they had to learn their lines. Once the ground rules were established, they were ready to work on practicing the dialogue.

Interestingly, one of the attributes Ken encourages parents to stress is the way Shakespeare adds twists and turns to his plays so that the audience is surprised by how each story unfolds. When I assigned the Twelfth Night characters to the boys, I told my youngest that he’d be playing Olivia and my oldest that he’d be playing Cesario. The oldest taunted my younger son, crowing “Ha, ha! You have to be the girl!”

When he found out that Cesario is actually a woman named Viola disguised as a man, he was aghast. Serves him right. 🙂

After spending some time practicing their lines, they were ready to do a few passages from Act 1, Scene 5 of Twelfth Night.

Here’s their rendition. I couldn’t get my youngest to deliver the lines with Olivia’s quiet admiration of Cesario, but he is seven, after all.

My oldest also got to play the role of Sir Toby in Act 2, Scene 3.

When he saw the line “Ye lie”, he was determined to say it like a pirate. Oh well.

To help them see how the play ultimately turned out, we watched this really good summary of the play. And as we watched, we checked off a few common playwriting devices Shakespeare uses in his comedies.

We printed off this adorable Shakespearean Comedy Bingo sheet from Good Tickle Brain and crossed off each plot device as it happened in the play.

Hey! We got four in a row!

This was such a fun unit that I had to tell the kids it was time for lunch. That’s a record. 🙂

If you’re interested in learning how to make Shakespeare fun for kids, I cannot recommend How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare enough. It’s full of wonderful resources for developing a love for classic literature in your kids!

Oh – and if you’re interested, you can grab our free printable Twelfth Night Stick Puppet Figures set below! They’re awesome for using with the printable passages from How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare!

>>>>>>> Printable Twelfth Night Puppet Figures <<<<<<<

Don’t forget to enter for a chance to win one of TEN copies of the book! To enter, use the Giveaway Tools widget below!

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To learn more about the book and to connect with Ken Ludwig, follow him on social media!

And be sure to follow my Reading for Kids Pinterest board for more tips to help kids learn to love reading!

Must-Read Black History Books for Kids

January 10, 2017 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

In our family, black history is history. We teach it along with every other topic. We’ve covered African history, civil rights, and even jazz history with our children over the years. But we’ve also enjoyed sharing African-American storybooks that help them “see” themselves in stories.

As part of learning about history, we’ve read some wonderful black history books for kids over the years. Today I’m sharing some of the selections that I consider “must-read” books! If I missed any of your favorites, feel free to share your suggestions in the comments!

Image c/o: Brainsil / depositphotos

Must-Read Black History Books for Kids

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1. 100 African-Americans Who Shaped American History by Chrisanne Beckner (If you only get one, make it this one.)

2. Rosa by Nikki Giovanni

3. When the Beat was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip-Hop by Laban Carrick Hill

4. My Name is Truth: The Life of Sojourner Truth by Ann Turner

5. Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America

6. Fly High: The Story of Bessie Coleman by Louise Borden

7. Firebird by Misty Copeland

8. Salt in His Shoes: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream by Deloris Jordan

9. Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad

10. A Weed is a Flower: The Life of George Washington Carver by Aliki

11. Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold

12. Black Cowboys by Ryan P. Randolph

13. Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington by Jabari Asim

14. The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles (Check out our Ruby Bridges unit study!)

15. Alvin Ailey by Andrea Davis Pinkney

16. Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell

17. 28 Days: Moments in Black History That Changed the World by Charles R. Smith, Jr.

18. Fort Mose: And the Story of the Man Who Built the First Free Black Settlement in Colonial America by Glennette Tiley Turner

19. Molly, By Golly!: The Legend of Molly Williams, America’s First Female Firefighter

20. Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson (Don’t miss our Nelson Mandela unit!)

21. Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull

22. Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra by Andrea Davis Pinkney

23. Tommy Traveler in the World of Black History by Tom Feelings (This is a tough one to find, but it is so worth it.)

24. The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch by Chris Barton

25. What Color is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

26. Mister and Lady Day: Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her by Amy Novesky

27. Jump Back, Paul: The Life and Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar by Sally Derby

28. Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz

29. Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound by Andrea Davis Pinkney

30. Stealing Home: The Story of Jackie Robinson by Barry Denenberg

31. When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson by Pam Munoz Ryan

32. Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson by Sue Stauffacher

33. Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins by Carole Boston Weatherford

34. We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

Check out these other black history posts!

Plus, grab our ebook “We Got Jazz” for 120 pages of unit studies and activities about jazz greats, including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and more!

Follow my Living History for Kids board on Pinterest for more history teaching ideas!

This post is part of the “Must-Read Books” linkup from iHomeschool Network! Stop by to read more awesome book lists from my fellow bloggers!

100 of the Very Best Picture Books for Preschoolers

November 21, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

I’ve been a parent for nearly 13 years and we have four children. So I can tell you that it’s easy to get into the “routine” of parenting – just kind of going from day to day trying to keep your head above the water.

But something happens when your last child begins preschool. Personally, that snapped me out of the routine mindset and into the “treasure every moment” way of thinking. The thought that this is my last child to teach at home was a real jolt.

Piglet started PreK this fall, so we’re officially teaching our very last preschooler. And, since she already has a good grasp on letters, numbers, colors, counting, and shapes, I want to spend a lot of her preschool year exploring wonderful children’s books.

So I thought I’d make an ultimate list of the very best picture books for preschoolers. There are 100 of the best children’s picture books on this list, including modern stories and classic picture books that preschool-aged kids will love to read! But be warned, parents: Expect to read a lot of these over and over again.

If you love these selections, don’t miss our preschool homeschool reading list for this year!

100 Picture Books for Preschoolers

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1. Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae

2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

3. The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

4. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

5. Waiting is Not Easy! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems

6. The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

7. The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

8. Press Here by Herve Tullet

9. The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin

10. Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman

11. Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty

12. First 100 Animals by Roger Priddy

13. Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry

14. My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook

15. The Going-to-Bed Book by Sandra Boynton

16. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

17. Good, Good Father by Chris Tomlin

18. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr

19. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

20. Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

21. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

22. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes! by James Dean

23. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

24. Hands Are Not for Hitting by Martine Agassi, Ph.D.

25. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

Pages: 1 2 3 4

50 Winter Books for Kids

October 28, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

It takes a while for cold weather to reach us all the way down here in the South. But once it comes, it tends to stay for the rest of the season. Around the middle of November, we pull out our coats and we typically wear them without a break until April. 🙂

Last year, I shared plenty of free winter printables for kids and this year I wanted to follow up with a fun book list: Winter Books for Kids! I hope you love these stories! There are beautiful board books, cozy stories, and even a few nonfiction books to help kids learn more about this season!

50 Winter Books for Kids

1. Bright Baby Touch-and-Feel Winter by Roger Priddy

2. Animals in Winter (Let’s Read and Find Out Science) by Henrietta Bancroft

3. Winter is Coming by Tony Johnston

4. Winter Walk by Virginia Snow

5. The Mitten by Jan Brett

6. The Berenstain Bears’ Winter Wonderland by Jan & Mike Berenstain

7. The Storm Whale in Winter by Benji Davies

8. Winter Woes by Marty Kelley

9. The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming

10. Daniel’s Winter Adventure (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood) by Becky Friedman

11. Winter: A Pop-Up Book by David Carter

12. Let It Snow by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

13. The Animals’ Winter Sleep by Lynda Graham-Barber

14. Before Morning by Joyce Sidman

15. A Warm Winter Tail by Carrie A. Pearson

16. Winter Lullaby by Barbara Seuling

17. Mouse’s First Snow by Lauren Thompson

18. It’s Winter! (Celebrate the Seasons!) by Susan Swan

19. Ride the Big Machines in Winter: My Big Machines by Carmen Mok

20. Bugs and Bugsicles: Insects in the Winter by Amy S. Hansen

21. Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen

22. All About Animals in Winter by Martha E. H. Rustad

23. No Two Alike by Keith Baker

24. A Winter’s Tale (Peter Rabbit) by Beatrix Potter

25. Winter by Gerda Muller

26. Winter, Awake! by Linda Kroll

27. Winter Pony by Jean Slaughter Doty

28. One Winter’s Day by M. Christina Butler

29. How Do You Know It’s Winter (Rookie Read-About Science) by Lisa M. Herrington

30. A Bed for the Winter, Level 1 by Karen Wallace

31. Little Critter: Just a Snowman by Mercer Mayer

32. Winter is Here! by Heidi Pross Gray

33. Winter Eyes by Douglas Florian

34. Guess How Much I Love You in the Winter: Deluxe Paper-Cut Edition by Sam McBratney

35. Winter on the Farm (Little House Picture Book) by Laura Ingalls Wilder

36. Winter Bees and Other Poems of the Cold by Joyce Sidman

37. The Science of Snow: The Story of Winter’s Wonder by Mark Cassino

38. Winter, Winter, Cold and Snow by Sharon Gibson Palermo

39. Lemonade in Winter: A Book about Two Kids Counting Money by Emily Jenkins

40. Winter’s Tale by Robert Sabuda

41. Winter Friends by Carl R. Sams II

42. When Winter Comes by Nancy Van Laan

43. The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Snow by Joanna Cole

44. Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser

45. One Winter’s Night by Claire Freedman

46. Winter Snow by Liesbet Slegers

47. The Winter Visitors by Karel Hayes

48. I See Winter by Charles Ghigna

49. Waiting Through Winter by Jason Farley

50. Baby Loves Winter: A Karen Katz Lift-the-Flap Book

Love these cold weather stories? Grab more of our winter learning resources!

$Paper Snowflake 2nd Grade Math Factors Craft$

Need more winter activity inspiration? Follow my Winter Activities for Kids board on Pinterest!

20 Adorable Bear Books for Kids to Read

October 26, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

When I think of fall, I start picturing taking a long, long nap.

Hey, a mother of four can dream, right?

But for some animals, hibernation is a necessary part of life and that includes bears!

At the library recently, our preschooler found several books about bears that were just downright adorable and that got me searching for fun and educational, not to mention cute, bear books for kids.

Here’s a list of the titles we’ve found. By the way, these would be wonderful read aloud selections for a bear unit or even a hibernation unit!

Be sure to check these out when you’re building your homeschool reading list for this year!

For more books, browse our list of fall books for kids and leaf books for kids too!

20 Adorable Bear Books for Kids to Read:

1. National Geographic Readers: Bears by National Geographic Kids

2. The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach

3. Bears: Polar Bears, Black Bears, and Grizzly Bears by Deborah Hodge

4. Bear Snores On (The Bear Books) by Karma Wilson

5. The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland

6. Bears (Wildlife) by Diane Swanson

7. Breaking News: Bear Alert! by David Biedrzycki

8. Our Amazing World: Bears by Kay De Silva

9. Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup

10. Grizzly Bears by Molly Kolpin

11. Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear

12. Sneeze, Big Bear, Sneeze! by Maureen Wright

13. The Grizzly Bear Who Lost His GRRRRR! by Rob Biddulph

14. National Geographic Little Kids Look and Learn: Bears by National Geographic Kids

15. American Black Bears by Molly Kolpin

16. Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom

17. The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh

18. Don’t Feed the Bear by Kathleen Doherty

19. I Have A Little Problem, Said the Bear by Heinz Janisch

20. Bear Came Along by Richard T. Morris

Don’t miss these other book lists for kids!

Plus, see more tips for raising readers on my Reading for Kids Pinterest board!

Simple Homeschool Reading List for 6th Grade

October 13, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Since we have a sixth grader this year (our first middle schooler!), I’ve been looking around for great kids’ books for her age range for some time.

If you have a tween, I don’t have to tell you that it actually seems as if you’re parenting two different children: one that acts about 20 and one that acts about 6. My daughter switches between both age levels almost simultaneously.

I really wanted her to progress to reading thought-provoking books this year, but I also want her to indulge her silly side a bit. So I put together this homeschool reading list for 6th grade. There are serious and eye-opening selections, as well as some playful ones – perfect for both sides of the tween mind.

Be sure to see our preschool reading list and our third grade reading list for this year also!

Image c/o: robertsrob / depositphotos

Homeschool Reading List for 6th Grade

1. The View from Saturday – E.L. Konigsburg

2. Miracle’s Boys – Jacqueline Woodson

3. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

4. Drama – Raina Telgemeier

5. Homeless Bird – Gloria Whelan

6. The Skin I’m In – Sharon G. Flake

7. Bud, Not Buddy – Christopher Paul Curtis

8. Dork Diaries #1: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life – Rachel Renee Russell

9. M.C. Higgins, The Great – Virginia Hamilton

10. Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life – James Patterson

11. Sounder – William H. Armstrong

12. Out of My Mind – Sharon M. Draper

Don’t miss our other book lists!

Plus, get more tips for raising readers on my Reading for Kids Pinterest board!

Preschool Homeschool Reading List

September 30, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Reading is a huge part of our homeschool. Huge. The kids spent time reading literally every single day. Based on my experiences in life, I think that the most important part of a good education is learning to love reading. Think about it: If you love to read, you can truly learn anything you want, whenever you want!

Naturally, we try to start our kids out with daily reading at a very young age. So, since Piglet is starting preschool this year, we’ve put together her preschool homeschool reading list. Look out for activities to go along with these stories in the coming months!

Image c/o: Andy-pix / depositphotos

Preschool Homeschool Reading List

1. The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

2. Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae

3. Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson

4. The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems

5. National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Animals

6. Stone Soup by Marcia Brown

7. The Mitten by Jan Brett

8. The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola

9. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

10. Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell

11. Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

12. The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

13. Press Here by Herve Tullet

14. Corduroy by Don Freeman

15. The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

16. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

17. Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

18. Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

19. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle

20. Curious George by H.A. Rey

21. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

22. Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff

23. Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry

24. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton

Don’t miss these other book lists for kids!

Get more ideas for raising readers on my Reading for Kids Pinterest board!

Our Third Grade Homeschool Reading List

September 23, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

When I was in elementary school many years ago (I have no intention of saying how many years ago), I remember third grade as being a kind of pivot point in my early education. In our first grade reading and second grade reading classes, we read lots of books, but they were mostly easy readers and a few small chapter books.

In third grade, though, our reading levels jumped quite a bit and I started to read books that really stayed with me. I can even remember some of the read-aloud sessions we had in the classroom. (You know the ones where you have to sit cross-legged on the floor around the teacher? Those.)

So I wanted to introduce my third grader to some of those same classic children’s books, while introducing him to some newer works that are just as good. Here’s a look at the third grade homeschool reading list we’re using for this school year!

Image c/o: kwanchaidp / Deposit Photos

Our Third Grade Homeschool Reading List

Our plan is to read one of these each month and do some activities. As we work through the list, we’ll be sharing our ideas with you all!

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio

2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl – Here are some Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ideas and activities you might enjoy!

3. Ramona Quimby, Age 8

4. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

5. The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling

6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

7. El Deafo by Cece Bell

8. Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

9. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

10. Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

11. Frindle by Andrew Clements

12. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

Do you have any favorites that you read with your kids in third grade? Share your suggestions in the comments!

Check out these other homeschool reading lists!

Plus, get more ideas for raising readers on my Reading for Kids Pinterest board!

Kids’ Books about Leaves

September 12, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

We’ve been sharing lots of fall fun for kids lately, including apple tree playdough mats, plenty of fall leaf activities and crafts you can make as a family, and kids’ books about camping. But we’ve been missing leaf books! Doh!

I love watching the leaves change during autumn. It’s like the whole world just explodes with color. I remember a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip that referred to fall leaves as nature’s fireworks, and I couldn’t agree more.

So – since reading is a major part of our homeschool, here are some beautiful kids’ books about leaves you can share with your children this fall!

Kids’ Books about Leaves

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1. The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger

2. The Leaves on the Trees by Thom Wiley

3. Look What I Did With a Leaf! (Naturecraft) by Morteza E. Sohi

4. Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber

5. Look Once, Look Again: Plant Leaves (Look Once, Look Again Science) by David M. Schwartz

6. A Leaf Can Be… (Millbrook Picture Books) by Laura Purdie Salas

7. On My Leaf by Sara Gillingham

8. Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

9. Autumn Leaves by Ken Robbins

10. Fall Leaves (Clavis Toddler: Daily Life) by Liesbet Slegers

11. Leaves by David Ezra Stein

12. When the Leaf Blew In by Steve Metzger

13. Leaves in Fall (Bullfrog Books: What Happens in Fall?) by Mari Schuh

14. Leaves Fall Down: Learning About Autumn Leaves by Lisa Bullard

15. My Leaf Book by Monica Wellington

16. Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson

17. Zero is the Leaves on the Tree by Betsy Franco

18. Robin Hill School: Fall Leaf Project (Ready-to-Read) by Margaret McNamara

19. The Magic School Bus: The Wild Leaf Ride (Scholastic Reader, Level 2) by Judith Stamper

20. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro

Use these activities to find more ways to include leaves in your learning!

Get more fall fun ideas from my Fall Activities for Kids board on Pinterest!

Plus, you can receive exclusive learning printables and teaching tips in our email newsletter! Sign up using the widget below.

50 Gorgeous Fall Books for Kids to Treasure

August 22, 2016 by Selena Robinson 6 Comments

Can you smell it? That’s the smell of fall in the air!

Fall is my absolute favorite season of all. The air gets cooler, the leaves start to turn colors, and you just feel like baking delicious food and snuggling up with family. It’s beautiful.

So what better time is there to read gorgeous picture books with the kids? Get your kids ready for the autumn with these 50 beautiful fall books for kids! They’re packed with lovely illustrations and heartwarming stories children will love!

There are a TON of ways to make fall into a learning experience with children. Check out this list of 50 free fall printables for kids and pick up a set of our free Leaf Identification Flashcards or our Fall Printable Reading Journal for Kids!

BONUS! Want to keep track of all the fall books for kids you read this autumn? Grab the printable fall booklist for kids further down in this post!

50 Gorgeous Fall Books for Kids to Treasure

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Raising readers is an important part of our homeschooling journey. We want our kids to be able to read, not just for school, but for life.

Since fall is such a cozy season for families, I thought these beautiful fall books for kids would be awesome to share with you all. I hope you love them as much as we do!

1. I See Fall Leaves: First Step Nonfiction – Observing Fall by Mari Schuh
2. Fall Is Not Easy by Marty Kelley
3. Little Critter: The Fall Festival by Mercer Mayer
4. Jump Into Fall! by Gareth Llewhellin
5. Fall Walk by Virginia Brimhall Snow
6. The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. by Kate Messner
7. Poppleton in Fall by Cynthia Rylant
8. I Watch Fall Harvests: First Step Nonfiction – Observing Fall by Mary Lindeen

9. I See Fall! by Charles Ghigna
10. Hello Kitty, Hello Fall! by Sanrio
11. Fall Leaves by Don L. Curry
12. Fall is For Friends by Suzy Spafford
13. It’s Fall! (The Four Seasons) by Celeste Bishop
14. Animals in Fall (Preparing for Winter) by Martha E.H. Rustad
15. How Do You Know It’s Fall? (Rookie Read-About Science) by Lisa M. Herrington
16. Peppa’s Windy Fall Day (Peppa Pig) by Scholastic

17. Fall Leaves (My First Hello Reader) by Mary Packard
18. Leaves Fall Down: Learning about Fall Leaves by Lisa Bullard
19. Counting on Fall (Math in Nature) by Lizann Flatt
20. I Love Fall! (A Touch and Feel Board Book) by Allison Inches
21. It’s Fall (Celebrate the Seasons) by Linda Glaser
22. Fall Mixed Up by Bob Raczka
23. Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson
24. Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
25. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro

See more gorgeous fall books for kids and score your free printable fall booklist on page 2!

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25 Kids’ Books about Camping

August 19, 2016 by Selena Robinson 5 Comments

Are you planning a camping trip this year? Get your kids excited for the trip with these fun kids books about camping!

Honestly, I’ve never been camping. My parents weren’t really outdoor-sy and, frankly, the thought of sleeping outdoors doesn’t thrill me either.

But my kids have said that they want to try it, so the hubs and I agreed to rent a cabin in the woods as a first step in that direction. Our trip is next week, so these books are right on time!

One of the things I’m looking forward to the most is just spending some quiet time with the family without outside distractions.

No hectic schedules, no other commitments, no working – just chill family time. If you’re a camping expert, please share your tried-and-true tips for making it an awesome outing!

And if you’re looking for more beautiful kids’ books for your family, don’t miss this list of beach books kids will love!

25 Kids’ Books about Camping

This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.1. Maisy Goes Camping: A Maisy First Experience Book

2. The Kids’ Outdoor Adventure Book: 448 Great Things to Do in Nature Before You Grow Up

3. Flat Stanley Goes Camping

4. S is for S’mores: A Camping Alphabet

5. Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters

6. Curious George Goes Camping

7. Camping Catastrophe! (Ready, Freddy #14)

8. Camp Daze Mad Libs

9.Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems

10. Camping Fun Sticker Activity Book

11. When We Go Camping

12. Peppa Pig and the Camping Trip

13. The Berenstain Bears Blaze a Trail

14. Claire’s Cursed Camping Trip

15. Humphrey’s Creepy-Crawly Camping Adventure

16. The Kids’ Campfire Book: Official Book of Campfire Fun

17. Camp Out!: The Ultimate Kids’ Guide

18. Fred and Ted Go Camping

19. Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping

20. A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee

21. Llama Llama Loves Camping

22. Good Night, Campsite

23. A Campfire Tail

24. Froggy Goes to Camp

25. 1, 2, 3 – Make a S’more With Me

Don’t miss these other book lists for kids!

This post is part of the Camping Kids Unit Study roundup! Click over to read more camping themed posts!

Camping Writing Worksheets – My Joy-Filled Life
Camping Hacks for Kids – FrogMom
Homemade Firestarters – Schooling a Monkey

Books about Dolphins for Kids

July 28, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

We’ve been learning about dolphins lately and I wanted to add a few more great books about dolphins for the kids to enjoy.

So – here are several books about dolphins for kids that are filled with fascinating facts, beautiful pictures, and learning ideas to help your children get to know these marine mammals!

If you want to try more ocean-themed learning resources for your kids, check out our list of 25 beach crafts and our roundup of summer books for kids!

Books about Dolphins for Kids

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1. Dolphins – Step Into Reading!

2. How to Speak Dolphin in Three Easy Lessons

3. Everything Dolphin: What Kids Really Want to Know about Dolphins

4. In My Ocean

5. Amazing Dolphins (I Can Read Level 2)

6. Dolphins: Amazing Pictures & Fun Facts on Animals in Nature

7. Hope for Winter: The True Story of a Remarkable Dolphin Friendship

8. How to Speak Dolphin

9. Dolphin Baby!

10. Dolphins at Daybreak (Magic Tree House #9)

11. Winter’s Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again

12. National Geographic Kids: Everything Dolphins

13. I Can Read: Dolphin

14. National Geographic Readers: Dive, Dolphin!

15. Smithsonian: Dolphins

16. Sharks and Dolphins: A Compare and Contrast Book

17. DK Readers Level 1: Diving Dolphin

18. Do Dolphins Really Smile? (Penguin Young Readers, Level 3)

19. Amazing Animals: Dolphins

20. Wild Sea Creatures: Sharks, Whales, and Dolphins! (Wild Kratts)

Learn even more about dolphins with our Dolphins Unit Study!

Don’t miss these other kids’ book lists!

And be sure to follow our Reading for Kids board on Pinterest for more great book lists!

Picture Books about Hawaii

July 18, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

My three-year-old has really gotten into reading lately. Which is a wonderful thing!

She loves looking at pictures and tracing her fingers under the words. Of course, she’s making up her own story or reciting some from memory, but that’s okay. She’s pre-reading and I’m thrilled!

We’ve been studying about the beach a lot lately, so I thought we’d take a look at a gorgeous book we received from my brother: Pulelehua and Mamaki. Since the story takes place on Hawai’i, I thought I’d round up some other beautiful picture books about Hawaii that are fun for kids to explore!

Picture Books about Hawaii

Pulelehua and Mamaki is the story of a Mamaki tree that serves as the home to a Kamehameha butterfly named Pulelehua. A butterfly mother laid her egg on one of the tree’s leaves and that caterpillar grew up to become Pulelehua.

Later, when Pulelehua lays an egg, she chooses the same Mamaki tree to watch over her baby. And when her egg hatches, grows into a caterpillar, and transforms into a full-grown Kamehameha butterfly, Mamaki the tree promises to watch over it too.

It’s a truly lovely story filled with native Hawaiian terms and absolutely beautiful illustrations.

As part of the Read Around the World Summer Series, I’m sharing my book summary below!

Be sure to check out the wonderful multicultural kids’ books that have been reviewed this summer!

While I’m sharing my appreciation for Pulelehua and Mamaki, I thought I’d mention a few other picture books about Hawaii that are gorgeous for children to read!

Want to spend more time learning about the beach with kids? Try these learning ideas!

Get more ideas for making reading fun with my Reading for Kids board on Pinterest!

Ice Cream Recipes for Kids

July 1, 2016 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

One of the things on my never-ending Mom bucket list is to make homemade ice cream with my kids. In fact, now that I think about it – I don’t think I’ve EVER had homemade ice cream before. Yikes. That must be rectified ASAP. 🙂

So, I looked around for some fun cookbooks that feature ice cream recipes for kids. I’ve listed several below that I’m definitely going to try!

In this post, I’m joining up with several other bloggers to share resources for a free ice cream unit study. Be sure to check out all of the links to build a fun ice cream unit for your kids this summer!

Ice Cream Recipes for Kids

Don’t miss these other fun ice cream activities for kids!

Plus, get more ideas for summer on my Summer Activities for Kids board on Pinterest!

This post is part of the free Ice Cream Unit Study hop! Get more ideas for learning about ice cream from these great bloggers!

Kids in the Kitchen: Mini Ice Cream Cakes from Crafty Mama in ME

Ice Cream Recipes for Kids from Look! We’re Learning!

Ice Cream Books for Kids from The Jenny Evolution

Ice Cream Color Match from Schooling A Monkey

Ice Cream Trails Around The World from FrogMom

Ice Cream Word Families from Homeschool Preschool

Ice Cream Art from CraftCreateCalm

Books about Turtles for Kids

June 28, 2016 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago, we shared a Turtles Unit Study. So I thought I’d keep the fun going with a list of fun books about turtles for kids that you and your little ones will love reading together!

Naturally, any booklist about turtles has to include little Franklin. 🙂 But there are also a few contemporary classics and some non-fiction selections in the list too! If I missed any of your favorites, let me know in the comments!

Books about Turtles for Kids

Learn more about turtles for kids with our Turtles Unit Study!

Plus, get our Tiny Turtles Prewriting Pack – free!

Want more books for children? Follow my Reading for Kids board on Pinterest!

25 of The Best Beach Books for Kids

June 10, 2016 by Selena Robinson 5 Comments

Summer’s here and we’re getting into a “beachy” frame of mind around here.

I’m from Florida and I absolutely adore the beach, so for this book roundup, I decided to feature the best beach books for kids!

There are books for toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary-aged kids to look at, read, and enjoy.

What I love about these books is that they focus on the beach itself, not just stories that take place there. So, if you’re doing a beach unit soon, these are excellent reading choices!

If your kids enjoy reading these, check out some other summer reads, including some cool ice cream books for kids!

25 of the Best Beach Books for Kids

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1. At the Beach by Anne Rockwell

2. Beach by Elisha Cooper

3. Hello Ocean by Pam Muñoz Ryan

4. Beach Day by Karen Roosa

5. Curious George Goes to the Beach by H.A. Rey

6. Hide and Seek Harry at the Beach by Kenny Harrison

7. Pete the Cat: Pete at the Beach by James Dean

8. If You Ever Want to Bring a Piano to the Beach – Don’t! by Elise Parsley

9. Llama, Llama, Sand and Sun by Anna Dewdley

10. A Day at the Seashore by Kathryn Jackson

11. Fancy Nancy: Sand Castles and Sand Palaces by Jane O’Connor

12. How Will We Get to the Beach? by Brigitte Luciani

13. Duck and Goose Go to the Beach by Tad Hills

14. Beach Baby by Laurie Elmquist

15. On My Beach (Felt Finger Puppet Board Books) by Sara Gillingham

16. Beach Bugs: A Sunny Pop-Up Book by David A. Carter

17. Ladybug Girl At the Beach by David Soman

18. Daniel’s Day At the Beach (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood) by Becky Friedman

19. Biscuit’s First Beach Day by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

20. Clam-I-Am!: All About the Beach (Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library) by Tish Rabe

21. Daisy Dawson At the Beach by Steve Voake

22. Beach House by Deanna Caswell

23. A Beach Tail by Karen Williams

24. Scaredy Squirrel At the Beach by Melanie Watt

25. Beach Day by Karen Roosa

Need more beach fun? Don’t miss these posts!

This post is part of the Beach Unit Study blog hop! Check out more awesome beach posts below!

Beach Letter Find Printables from 3 Boys and a Dog

Ocean Books for Kids from The Jenny Evolution

Songs About The Beach from Tales of Education at Home

5 Ways to Learn at the Beach from The Usual Mayhem

Beach Scavenger Hunt Printable from CraftCreateCalm

“At the Beach” Emergent Reader from The Letters of Literacy

Sand Pail and Shovel Alphabet Match from The Kindergarten Connection

Beach Letter Dot Printables from Living Life and Learning.com

Colorful Sand Paintings from Schooling a Monkey

Sand Science Experiment from iGameMom

15 Things to Do at the Beach with Kids from FrogMom

Easy Egg Carton Sea Creatures from Homeschool Preschool

Beach Mystery Bag from Bambini Travel

Printable Beach Bingo Cards from Year Round Homeschooling

Beach Pail 1-20 Number Recognition from Something 2 Offer

Fun Frog Books for Preschool

May 13, 2016 by Selena Robinson 13 Comments

Are you planning a frog homeschool unit study for your kids soon? Be sure to add in reading! And this roundup of fun frog books for preschool is awesome for helping little learners practice reading skills, learn about frogs, and have fun at the same time!

I’m also sharing lots of frog unit study resources from my fellow bloggers that are perfect for rounding out a frog unit! Read on to grab them!