Tuesday, July 27th: Reading Day!

We read a lot today and I also let Monkey watch his favorites...Blue's Clues and Curious George.  I love DVR and will totally miss it when we move for hubby's grad school!  Guess I better buy the DVDs soon!

We started by reading about the Letter M.

We discovered a series I think we'll really like at the library.  It's the Sound Box series.   We started with
My "m" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure.  It uses rebus (or symbols/pictures with words or in place of words) to help get your child involved in the story.  Our first book we read with this method was Benny's Big Bubble.  We read it tons.  Monkey kept gravitating towards that book.  I ended up buying it for him because he loved helping me read so much.  It took him a few times through to recognize all of the words but that book also comes with flash cards to help you child identify the word and to help them see what it looks like.  Back to the book we read today though.  This book was great and had a list of the words with pictures in the back.  That's what we read before reading the book.  Monkey enjoyed helping me tell the story-he especially loved the monkeys in the story!

The other "M" book we read today was Muhammad's Monday and the Letter M Alphabet Friends by Cynthia Klingel and Robert B. Noyed.  It also had some rebus in it.  This is also seems to be a fun alphabet series.

After reading our M books we read Marley & Me: Marley to the Rescue! (an I Can Read! Level 1 Beginning Reader).  We said "mmm" after every word that began with an M to help Monkey learn the M sound (we're BIG fans of Leap Frog's Letter Factory).  I thought it wasn't as well put-together as most of the I Can Read! books so we won't be purchasing it but it was fun to borrow from the library to read together (the story seemed a bit choppy).

Mouse Tales by Arnold Lobel (also an I Can Read Book) was our next book.  Monkey thought the stories were funny.  The story was that a daddy mouse was putting his 7 babies to bed so he told them 7 stories-one for each of them but they couldn't make a peep after he finished.  The stories were silly and Monkey had some giggles.

Monkey started getting antsy so we read Morris and Boris at the Circus which I thought he'd get a kick out of but it was too grown-up for him to understand.  Maybe in another 6 months-year.

Monkey loves dogs so we then read Henry and Mudge Under the Yellow Moon (perfect for a Fall or Halloween theme-that's why I'm adding the label to this post).  It was a fun book and Henry and Mudge continue to be our favorite dog/boy pair.

We also picked up My Dog, Buddy by David Milgrim (the Amazon link SAYS it's a level 2 but it's totally a level 1 reader).  We enjoyed it and the simplicity of the book and are adding it to our wish list.

Then it was time for the actual book of one of Monkey's favorites The Tooth Book by Dr. Seuss.  He has the board book (which he calls "Teeth Book"-the board book is condensed and starts with the "Teeth, you find them everywhere..." page) and has loved it so much he's ripped parts of it to shreds (yes that does mean he loves it-he only rips his favorites apart and then cries when we can't read them any more-he's no longer allowed to have books in his room because he's quite destructive).  We enjoyed the full-length version.

Monkey is also fascinated with ears which he calls "Glee-doughs" (NO idea why-he pronounces everything else so clearly except for hair which he calls "Wee" and our Wii which he calls "Amy").  We had to get The Ear Book by Al Perkins because of that.  The cover of the one we borrowed looks different but I assume the text inside is still the same.  It was a really fun and cute book.

We finished with another rebus book, Dog Wash Day by Maryann Cocca-Leffler (an All Aboard Reading Picture Reader).  It was also a fun book and we plan to read it again.  Monkey wasn't too interested in it at this point because an hour of reading is about the maximum we can do.

M is for Music

I got this book because of the keyword "xylophone" but the theme of the book is music. The one we got was a board book. My son loves music so I thought he'd like it and he did. He enjoyed the rhythm and flow of the words.

I Make Music by Eloise Greenfield

The toddler girl in the story plays music on several instruments and her parents make music/cheer her on. It is a fun and simple book for all children. It would be great for a beginning reader.

Another Curious George

Curious George Goes to an Ice Cream Shop
This was a fun book about George going to the ice cream shop and wanting to scoop ice cream. He always has his way of getting the owner of stores mad but in the end they all have a good laugh. It was a fun book.

Curious George

We LOVE Curious George at our house. We own this book and we love to read about George. My son's nickname is Monkey and I call him George a lot because he likes to be curious and get in to trouble (like any other 14 month old!). I highly recommend that book. It has all of the original books in it by Margret and H.A. Rey. We decided to check out all of the books that our library has about George so look forward to another post soon when we get the rest of them!

Curious George Visits a Toy Store
I wouldn't say this is our favorite George book but it's still fun. There's a new toy store that opens and George is excited to check out the new toys. He learns how to Hula-hoop and helps children get toys off high shelfs. The owner is mad at him throughout the book because he keeps making messes but in the end realizes that he made the grand opening a big success.

Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon
George and his friend visit Mt Rushmore on a vacation. Workers are working on Mt Rushmore and George wants to go in a helicopter to see what they're doing up close. They have to run to see the hot air balloon race though. While everyone is distracted George sees a rope and MUST climb it. While he's climbing the rope up to a balloon the rope that's holding the balloon down comes undone so he starts going up and up with the balloon. George ends up at Mt Rushmore again and helps save a stranded worker. They land and a big crowd rescues them. George then gets to go on a helicopter ride to see Mt Rushmore closer.

Curious George's First Day of School
I really liked this one and think we'll have to buy it so we can read it over and over when we're learning colors.

George is invited to visit school. He is very helpful all day. They get to paint and only have red yellow and blue paints. He decides to make more colors. He ends up mixing them all together and makes a big mess. He tries to clean it up but makes more of a mess and gets upset that everyone is mad at him. His classmates help him clean up.

Curious George Feeds the Animals
George visits the zoo and feeds the animals. He gets in trouble for feeding the animals until a lost parrot finds him. He's told not to feed the animals but is thanked for helping find the parrot. There are a lot of animals he sees (you read what they are) so it's great for learning animal names.