Read Aloud Thursday: December 22nd (Christmas Edition)

Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope Is the Word  is a fun weekly meme to showcase the books you are reading aloud to your children.  It is so important to continue reading to your kids, even after they've learned to read themselves!  Read to them until they move out if you can!  I read to my 21-month old at naptime and bedtime and to my 6-year-old a chapter from a book every nite at bedtime, and read to both of them all throughout the day.  Sometimes my older reads to my little, which always blesses my heart!  I also use this opportunity to highlight some of the great Usborne Books & More titles I have to offer.

Christmas Book Basket #2

Last week, I gathered up a bunch of our Christmas books this week and put 'em in a basket in the living room so that the kids could look through 'em as they wanted.  I did the same for this week, only this time we used lots of library books too!  Books like Mrs. Claus's Crazy Christmas, Pooh Bear's The Sweetest Christmas and The First Day of Winter (which we, of course, will read today - the first day of Winter!).  I don't really have time to review them all, but the boys really enjoyed Santasaurus - a story of a little dinosaur who's only only Christmas wish is to fly in Santa's sleigh.  It's pretty cute to see the little dinodeers (instead of reindeer) and refer to the little guy's parents as Momosaurus and Dadosaurus.  Heh.  And, as always, The Polar Express is a delight to read and enjoy.  Can't miss out on that one!  I have all the makings to create a lapbook for it, but since my computer was down all week and we're nearly out of ink anyway, I decided that it can wait till next year.  Preston will probably benefit from it more next year anyway.  Lol.

A quick spotlight on a few Christmas Usborne books we played with this week.  Yes, I said "played with" instead of read because they're fun!  The first one is the Pull Back Busy Santa, which just so happens to be half-off right now (only $12.50!).  It's a delightful book with a little story about Santa's journey on Christmas Eve, punctuated with four tracks that a little toy, pull-back Santa uses to zoom all over the place!  The kids LOVE this one, of course!  Who wouldn't?  The other book we played with was the Christmas Sticker Book.  Adorable Christmas and winter scenes, then decorated by stickers!  Preston loved getting to design his own pages.  Sadly, this one is out of stock, not available anymore.  Glad we got our hands on it when we did!  More Christmas Usborne offerings can be found at www.HeyJadeBooks.com.

A lot of the books we checked out from the library were pretty old, and not available to show up in the Amazon widget, unfortunately, so I also added some movies we watched!:

[This post does contain affiliate links.  If you purchase a product through a link clicked here, I do receive a small compensation, and I want you to know I greatly appreciate it!]

Read Aloud Thursday: December 15th (Christmas Edition)

Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope Is the Word  is a fun weekly meme to showcase the books you are reading aloud to your children.  It is so important to continue reading to your kids, even after they've learned to read themselves!  Read to them until they move out if you can!  I read to my 21-month old at naptime and bedtime and to my 6-year-old a chapter from a book every nite at bedtime, and read to both of them all throughout the day.  Sometimes my older reads to my little, which always blesses my heart!  I also use this opportunity to highlight some of the great Usborne Books & More titles I have to offer.

Christmas Book Basket!

I gathered up a bunch of our Christmas books this week and put 'em in a basket in the living room so that the kids could look through 'em as they wanted.  And we have spent a while reading through some of them together.  This evening, Preston, my 6-year-old, read me The Night Before Christmas, and I read him the Texas version!  Lol.  Then, for bedtime, I read my 21-month-old God Gave us Christmas.  I noticed that it has a lot of references to the Names of Jesus, which we are doing as our Advent/Christmas Countdown this year, like "Light of the Word" and "King of Kings"... so I might be re-reading that one to Preston soon!

Several years ago, I found a neat booked called The Homeless Christmas Tree.  This book was a wonderful find because I actually know where this tree is in Fort Worth, Texas!  It's based on a true story, and you can drive by the actual tree at any time of the year and see it "dressed" for whatever holiday is closest!  I always wondered about the history of that tree, and was quite surprised to find a book on it!  Super neat!

And, of course, I have to talk about some Usborne books.  A lot of the Christmas titles went out of stock even before Thanksgiving, but I got my hands on the Advent Calendar to Color and 1001 Christmas Things to Spot.  We have been having a blast with those these past few weeks!  Both boys enjoy coloring in the Advent flaps and looking at all the busy pictures in the spotting book.  Usborne has some wonderful Christmas titles... stories, activities, cook books, games, coloring books, cards and so much more!  There's still time to order for Christmas, too!  Orders up until December 20th, are most likely going to be delivered before Christmas Eve! www.HeyJadeBooks.com

Here are all the books currently in our Christmas book basket:

Check back next week for another basket-load of Christmas reading!

[This post does contain affiliate links.  If you purchase a product through a link clicked here, I do receive a small compensation, and I want you to know I greatly appreciate it!]

Read Aloud Thursday: Dec 1st

Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope Is the Word  is a fun weekly meme to showcase the books you are reading aloud to your children.  It is so important to continue reading to your kids, even after they've learned to read themselves!  Read to them until they move out if you can!  I read to my 20-month old at naptime and bedtime and to my 6-year-old a chapter from a book every nite at bedtime, and read to both of them all throughout the day.  Sometimes my older reads to my little, which always blesses my heart!  I also use this opportunity to highlight some of the great Usborne Books & More titles I have to offer.

Last nite my little one brought me The Poky Little Puppy to read for bedtime.  Oh my goodness, my older son made me read this particular book to him every night for nearly 6 months!  It's a good thing I love that Poky Little Puppy!  He takes me back to my childhood... I used to have a record with stories and songs on it, and this was one of them.  I still get that song stuck in my head, "Where in the world is that Poky Little Puppy?  Where in the world is he?"  Lol.  It's just a sweet little story, with a lesson to be learned.  Anyway, both Preston and Callen cuddle with me on the couch as we went through the exciting adventures of those naughty puppies!

And for Preston's bedtime last nite, I picked up a story book called Goodnight, Me!  This a book all about an adorable orangutan telling each of his body parts that it's time for bed!  This book, written by Andrew Daddo, is so sweet, I almost can't stand it.  Haha.  "Legs, get some rest.  We've got a lot of jumping to do tomorrow."  And as he progresses, he, of course, gets sleepier and sleepier.  I like this one because it can be interactive, but doesn't get my kiddo wound up... but rather, nicely wound down and ready for bed!  For each body part, I have him raise it or point to it and repeat the words so that he's telling HIS body to go to sleep.  It's pretty darn cute!

Now it's time for a spotlight on an Usborne book we looked at this week: Beauty & the Beast! This is a beautifully illustrated story book of the classic tale.  There are many versions of Beauty & the Beast, and, according to the back of the book, this one closely resembles a retelling of the story from 1765 by a French writer by the name of Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, though written down by Gabrielle Villeneuve.  It is not the same as the Disney version, just FYI.  Which, personally, I think makes it more interesting - I like hearing different versions of well-known stories like this.  My favorite thing about this particular Usborne book is the gorgeous illustrations throughout.  Every page is covered in vividly colorful scenes of what is going on in the story.  See an example here and here.  It certainly helps keep your reader's attention.  This book is part of the Usborne Young Readers Series Two.  Read more about our wonderful reading program here.

[This post does contain affiliate links.  If you purchase a product through a link clicked here, I do receive a small compensation, and I want you to know I greatly appreciate it!]

Read Aloud Thursday: Nov 17th

Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope Is the Word  is a fun weekly meme to showcase the books you are reading aloud to your children.  It is so important to continue reading to your kids, even after they've learned to read themselves!  Read to them until they move out if you can!  I read to my 20-month old at naptime and bedtime and to my 5 1/2 year a chapter from a book every nite at bedtime, and read to both of them all throughout the day.  Sometimes my older reads to my little, which always blesses my heart!  I also use this opportunity to highlight some of the great Usborne Books & More titles I have to offer.

My little one has been demanding more and more books lately.  And the other day he literally dragged a large book over to me, crawled up in my lap, opened it up to the first page, pointed and said, "Book!"  Ok, ok!  Lol.  He had brought me a soft-covered book called Sweet Dreams, My Little One: A Treasury of Stories for Bedtime.  So, it wasn't bedtime.  Oh well.  This book actually contains four stories: "Can't You Sleep, Dotty?" by Tim Warnes (about a puppy who just can't fall asleep); "Little Bunny's Bathtime!" by Jane Johnson (one little bunny gets out of taking a bath, or so he thinks!); "Time to Sleep, Alfie Bear!" by Catherine Walters (Alfie wants to be like all the other animals that don't have to go to bed!); and "Two Hungry Bears" by Linda Cornwell (a big bear and a little bear each go to buy food for the other, then end up eating it all... and for a good reason!).  Each story offers adorable illustrations and sweet characters.  Our favorite was "Two Hungry Bears," which also happens to be illustrated by Jane Chapman who does all those other Bear Books that we love around my house!  It's a funny, little story and just perfect for bedtime.  Callen has really enjoyed all of the stories in this book... he likes to point out all the animals scattered throughout the drawings.

Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, I went to the library to pick up a few stories for us to read this week and next.  Nearly all the Thanksgiving storybooks were checked out already, but I tracked down this really neat booked called The Harvest Feast: Stories of Thanksgiving Yesterday and Today, compiled by Wilhelmina Harper.  The book was originally published in 1938, with this revised version from 1965.  There aren't many illustrations, so I was wondering if my littles would be interested in sitting for so long to listen to a story.  Callen wasn't, but Preston was completely enthralled!  The first story we read from the book was called "Indians for Thanksgiving" by Dorothy Heiderstadt.  A sweet tale of pilgrim children being kind to little, lost indian boy who turns out to be son of the chief that was leading his warriors to wipe out the colony!  But, since they were kind and helped the lost boy, the chief made peace with the village instead.  I can't wait to read more of this intriguing book out loud with my family as we draw near to Thanksgiving.  This collection offers historical writings, poems, fables and "contemporary" (for 1938!) stories.

And on that note, it's time for a spotlight on an Usborne book we looked at this week: Then and Now! This isn't really a story book, exactly, but it's a lot of fun to read anyway!  It features an example of life from back "then" and compares it to "now."  For example, a school room from "then" featured wooden benches and pens that had to be dipped in ink.  Meanwhile, a school room from "now" features tables, chairs, brightly colored posters and fish tanks.  Each page also has discussion starting questions, like "Can you find the teacher? What is she doing?"  These questions are designed to get your child thinking about how things have changed in the world.  It's very interesting for young kids to learn that things were not always like they are now.  The book also includes scenes from a railway station, the seaside and several rooms in a home, plus much more.  It is a thin, paperback book... but something a child will most likely want to look at again and again.  There is a lot of action in each picture, and lots of things to discover throughout!  See an example of what the pages are like: click here.  (Please note: The description of the book on the Usborne website is incorrect.  This book does not address fashion, nor does it have fold-out pages.  Oops!)

[This post does contain affiliate links.  If you purchase a product through a link clicked here, I do receive a small compensation, and I want you to know I greatly appreciate it!]

Read Aloud Thursday: September 22nd

Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope Is the Word  is a fun weekly meme to showcase the books you are reading aloud to your children.  It is so important to continue reading to your kids, even after they've learned to read themselves!  Read to them until they move out if you can!  I read to my 5 1/2 year old a book or chapter every nite at bedtime, and read to him and his younger brother all throughout the day.  Sometimes my older reads to my little, which always blesses my heart!  I also use this opportunity to highlight some of the great Usborne Books & More titles I have to offer.

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We read one or two books each day with our schooling in addition to other books throughout the day or at bedtime.  We read books that we have or check out from our library to go alongside the topics we're discussing in science and math.  This week we are discussing Seasons, and we read a really cute book yesterday called A Bear for All Seasons, written by Diane Marcial Fuchs and illustrated by Kathryn Brown.  It's about a Bear who is all snuggled up and ready for his Winter hibernation nap, but is kept up by his Fox friend.  Fox keeps reminding Bear about why the other seasons are better than Winter... and then he ends up complaining about each one as well.  That doesn't phase Bear, though.  He continues to declare that each season is FAVORITE for different reasons, usually based on the foods he eats during those times.  It's a sweet story with lovely illustrations of the woods and the friends doing seasonal activities like picking berries, swimming, fishing or throwing snowballs.  My son liked this story because he thought it was funny how the Bear was so sure that this season was his favorite, then would turn around and turn his mind declaring that no, THIS season is his favorite.  A Bear for All Seasons is a great way to emphasize the features of each of the four seasons while not coming across as a mere book of seasonal facts (my son wasn't as interested in those books this week). 

I've started reading to my little one before he goes to bed.  I hadn't before simply because it's been a difficult time getting him into a bedtime routine and it was just better for me to put him in his crib and leave him so he could put himself to sleep.  Lots of trial and error on that one.  But the past few nites, I've taken him alone in his room (Big Brother was occupied playing Angry Birds with Daddy, ha!), sat in the glider and read to him before placing him in his crib.  We read Are You Ticklish? and How Do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colors?.  We have many Jane Yolen books, and have always adored them.  They were some of the first books that Preston learned to memorize and recite back to me before learning to read them.  If you haven't read any of the dinosaur books to your kids, PLEASE find some and do so!  They are too fun!

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And now a spotlight on an Usborne book we read from this week: Find The Duck! This book is a crowd favorite amongst kids and parents alike!  The kids enjoy finding the little yellow duck (the Usborne mascot!) on each page and get such a sense of accomplishment by doing so!  I used this book at a story-time I did a few weeks ago, and the kids went CRAZY.  They all wanted to be the first to point on the little yellow guy.  Honestly, I'm not sure they heard any of what I read from the book, they were too busy yelling "THERE HE IS!" but it was such a lot of fun anyway!  The kids even took turns with it after I was done reading it to them so they could look for the duck on each page themselves.  I love the interactive books that get kids excited like that!  There are several other books in this series as well.  You can Find the Teddy, the Kitten, the Bird, the Piglet and the Puppy.  The illustrations are all equally adorable and fun!  The little yellow duck is a reoccurring character in several Usborne books, including the The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales, where he appears on every page!

Read Aloud Thursday: September 8th

Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope Is the Word  is a fun weekly meme to showcase the books you are reading aloud to your children.  It is so important to continue reading to your kids, even after they've learned to read themselves!  Read to them until they move out if you can!  I read to my 5 1/2 year old a book or chapter every nite at bedtime, and read to him and his younger brother all throughout the day.  Sometimes my older reads to my little, which always blesses my heart!  I also use this opportunity to highlight some of the great Usborne Books & More titles I have to offer.

Today is the FIRST day of FIRST GRADE for my oldest!  I am so excited to get started, and cannot wait to share about our successes (and failures, eek!).  But first, here's what we've been reading aloud this week:

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We actually got this book last year but didn't start it until just a few days ago.  Preston earned it as part of Borders Summer Reading Program (aww, poor Borders are soon going to be no more!).  There weren't a lot of choices available for his age, but I figured he'd grow into it.  The book is called Miss Daisy is Crazy!  It's the first installment of the "My School is Weird" series, written by Dan Gutman. It is about a 2nd-Grade class that gets a teacher who, according to them, is "dumb."  She apparently doesn't know anything about reading, writing or arithmetic!  In fact, her students know more than she does and they have to teach her!  Now, I wasn't exactly thrilled to read the part where the kids were saying their teacher was "dumb."  I explained to my son, we don't call people that!  We are nearing the end, and I don't know for sure, but I'm HOPING that Miss Daisy turns out to be smarter than she lets on - and that she is, in fact, teaching her students more than they realize! 

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And now a spotlight on an Usborne book we read from this week: Mini Stories From Around The World! This is a fun "little" book (5 5/8 x 7 inches) with 22 traditional stories of heroes, strange creatures, magic, myths and fables from all around the world, including Morocco, Greece, Spain, Japan, Scandinavia, Italy and so many other places.  There is even a fun world map in the front so you can show your child where the story is from! You can actually take a little peek inside of this book to see how lovely the illustrations are, click here.  I have discussed with Preston about fables and legends, so he understands that just because this story says this is the way a bird got his bright feathers, does not make it true. God gave birds those bright feathers!  It is interesting to read different stories from various cultures and how they try to explain things (like the birds getting bright feathers from a snake that ate colorful flowers.... lol!).  Since this is a mini version of this book, I'm sure there are more details to these traditional stories that are not included, but having them in this version makes for an an easy and quick read for younger children.  There is also a full size version of this book available if you prefer to have it slightly bigger.  Some other titles in this series include Stories from India, Greek Myths for Young Children, Mini Greek Myths for Young Children and Aesop's Fables.

Read Aloud Thursday: August 25th

I recently found out about this weekly meme, called Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope Is the Word  (found it via Homegrown Learners, oh how I love my homeschool bloggers!).  I am excited to take part because I love reading aloud to my kids.  And also, I'd like to highlight some of the great Usborne Books & More titles I have to offer.  There are so many good ones available!!!

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Last week we started on Hank The Cowdog #6 Let Sleeping Dogs Lie.  I'm telling you, my kid is on a Hank kick!  Sadly, we only have #7 and #11 in our collection left to go, so I'm hoping our library has some we can borrow so we don't get out of order!  This book is about Hank's misadventures trying to solve a case (aren't they all?!?)while feeling run down.  He thinks he might be dying, or at least gravely ill.  And there's even a slight possibility that HE'S the culprit!  What?!?  We'll have to keep reading to find out what happens!!! 

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And now a spotlight on an Usborne book we read this week: How Big Is A Million? This books is about an adorable little penguin called Pipkin!  He is on a quest to find out what a million looks like.  Well, have you ever seen a million of something?  Exactly.  So, he visits many animals friends and they show him things like "10" or "100," but will he find someone who is able to show him "1,000,000?"  Here's a hint: Yes!  And, included with this soft-covered book is a pull-out poster that shows you (yes, you guessed it!) ONE MILLION!  Now, I don't want to give away what you'll see... 'cause it's very exciting to find out for yourself.  But it's rather amazing to actually have something to look at that shows you exactly what one million looks like.  It's mind blowing!  Here's a peek inside of this book so you can see just how sweet the illustrations are!  Pipkin is a very curious penguin and is featured in several other Usborne books, including How Big Was a Dinosaur?, How Deep is the Sea? and How High is the Sky? and each of these books comes with a pull-out poster too! Check out my Usborne online store at www.HeyJadeBooks.com.

Read Aloud Thursday: August 18th

I recently found out about this weekly meme, called Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope Is the Word  (found it via Homegrown Learners, oh how I love my homeschool bloggers!).  I am excited to take part because I love reading aloud to my kids.  And just the other day I was asking my friends on Facebook what they are reading aloud to THEIR kids.  And I also, I'd like to start highlighting some of the great Usborne Books & More titles I have to offer.  There are so many good ones available!!!  So, this is perfect for me!

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We finished up Hank The Cowdog #5 Faded Love early this week, and will be starting on #6 Let Sleeping Dogs Lie soon enough.  We don't get many days in between Hanks, that's for sure.  Preston won't allow it!  He read a book to me last nite, though.  It's called How to Catch a Star, written by Oliver Jeffers.  This is a book about a little boy that dreams of catching a star to have as a best friend, but his plans are foiled by logistics.  The star is really high up there!  He tries to recruit a sea gull for help, attempts to lasso it with a heavy life preserver and other such brilliant ideas, but to no avail.  I won't give away the end, but I will tell you that this is a really cute book.  The illustrations are lovely, and the little boy's ideas are intriguing and humorous.  My son loves this one!

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And now a spotlight on an Usborne book we read this week: The Wizard of Oz! This book is probably a lot more like the original story written by L. Frank Baum, because it doesn't follow closely to the movie we all know and love.  That made it actually more interesting to my 5-yr-old because he is pretty familiar with the movie, and he was surprised each time something I read wasn't what he remembered!  It kept him on his toes!  This book is hardback, but paperback sized, and the illustrations often take up the entire page to make it a really fun book to look at and read!  This book is part of the Usborne Young Reading Series Two books, which also includes Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast, Alice In Wonderland and other great classics retold!  Usborne has a fantastic Reading Program with many different levels of books!  Check out my Usborne online store at www.HeyJadeBooks.com.

Read Aloud Thursday: August 11th

I recently found out about this weekly meme, called Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope Is the Word  (found it via Homegrown Learners, oh how I love my homeschool bloggers!).  I am excited to take part because I love reading aloud to my kids.  And just the other day I was asking my friends on Facebook what they are reading aloud to THEIR kids.  And I also, I'd like to start highlighting some of the great Usborne Books & More titles I have to offer.  There are so many good ones available!!!  So, this is perfect for me!

Both last week and this week we have been off our regular routine, so Preston has been getting to bed later than usual.  That means we haven't done our nightly reading regularly and are still reading Hank The Cowdog: Faded Love.  We are about to finish it, though.  Which means we'll be moving on to the next one!

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When I was attempting to rearrange the kitchen a bit to help accommodate our homeschool needs, I decided to make the two bottom shelves of our hutch for the baby.  'Cause, well... he is gonna get into whatever is there anyway, might as well be his.  On one shelf I put a box of his big Duplo Legos, and on the other shelf I brought in a bunch of his little board books.  He's been enjoying making a giant mess of both these past few days.  But earlier I caught Preston reading one of the books to his little brother.  So precious!  They were reading I'd Be Your Hero, a sweet story of a little boy telling his mama all about how he would be a good hero using scripture to reinforce godly character traits.

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And now a spotlight on an Usborne book we read this week: The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales! This is actually a collection of 20 Farmyard Tales that are also sold individually!  It contains stories about a sweet family and some pretty special animals, including Curly The Pig, Wooly The Sheep and Rusty The Dog.  This particular edition of the book comes with a CD that features a man reading the stories in a soothing, English accent and has sounds effects and music to go right along!  Another great benefit of this book is that it can be used it multiple ways.  There is a line of the story that runs along the top of each page, and then more at the bottom of each page.  The lines at the top tell a complete story if read alone, and the lines at the bottom add detail.  So it can be a short story or a long story.  Or, your child can read the top line and you can read the bottom part!  This, like a lot of Usborne books, features a little duck hiding on each page - which makes it a lot of fun for little ones who love to play hide and seek!