Home Education at our House: B is for Butterflies (And help! What are your favorie children's books?)
Thanks for all your great suggestions and ideas last week, here's this week's lesson plan:Week #2: The Letter "B"
Bible Time: Read one story from the Bible and review ABC Bible verse book
Memory Verse: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."
Character Theme: Forgiveness/Peace-making using first story/poem from Teach Them To Your Children
Song: "Be Ye Kind"
Tracing Sheets: B is for Bumblebee
Letter Review: ABC letter-readings from Alpha-Phonics (at the back of the book for those who have this book--I just have her read half a page per day and plan to review these at least a few times per week while we're studying A, B, and C. We'll continue on like this with each letter so that in 26 weeks, she should be very familiar with all the letters and their sounds).
Science Study: Butterflies (we checked out books from the library on butterflies and are also raising our own butterfly using this kit, thanks to Jesse's family)
Books to Read (1-3 per day, all somehow related to diligence/working/helping):
Just Four*
God's Happy Family*
More About Copy-Kitten
Little Church House Takes a Ride
The Big 10 For Little Saints
*These are Little Jewel books (highly recommended!) available from Rod and Staff Publishers.
Lengthier Book to Finish (read a chapter or so per day): The Family Under the Bridge
And could all help me out here? We are quickly running out of good books to read and could use some suggestions: what would be your top five or so recommended books for toddlers/preschoolers? I'm especially looking for shorter pictures books which teach Biblical principles and/or character qualities, have realistic pictures and characters in them, and are wholesome. Leave a comment with your top picks and I'll add them to our library list or see if I can request them from PaperBackSwap.
Labels: Home Education at Our House
posted by Crystal Paine at 1:30 PM
62 Comments:
Wow, you posted this right as I left my last comment! I should have known that you'd already be doing something as fun as raising your own butterflies with your girls :) Although they are to advanced for preschoolers to read on their own, I absolutely love Max Lucado's children's books; they teach wonderful lessons through the eyes of a child. Eric Carle is another one of my favorite children's authors, and I know he has a few books about animals for preschoolers.
Hope that helps!
-Erin
Hi, I also love Max Lucado's books. Our favorite is The Crippled Lamb. A personal favorite of mine (not sure if it meets what you are looking for, though) is the old version of The Little Engine That Could. I love the illustrations and of course the message of not giving up.
We also enjoy Karma Wilson (she is a Christian), and have been enjoying lots of alphabet books too.
The San Diego Zoo books have a series of baby animal books in board books, but all the books are factual! They are excellent and we still read them with our 3 year old. Sea World also has a series.
We also love Elizabeth George's girls books, they are fabulous!
Oops, I forgot Hand Commands as a way to memorize the 10 commandments and the Jesus Storybook Bible!
My 2 little ones are a similar age to yours and we just started school in May with my almost 3 year old (October birthday).
Karma Wilson's Bear books are very fun and there is a unit set up for those books over on homeschoolshare.com since you are looking for free resources. I practically live on that site when I'm planning our school weeks.
I recomend the Eric Carle books too, and some good nature fact books are written by Penelope Arlon. We're using "Tree" and "Plant" written by her right now for our Plant unit, and I love these books. They have flaps on many of the pages for the interactive quality, and real photographs. They're available at our library.
the very hungry caterpillar by eric carle is a classic on how the caterpillar metamorphasis.
I know you frequent your local public library, but does your church or a nearby church of similar theological persuasion have a library? We get a lot of books given to us from parents and grandparents, but we also have a church library to chose from, which tends to have more of what you might be looking for. I got frustrated even trying to read "Christian" books to my kids because I thought they were too shallow or missing the point, so I just read Proverbs every day and we discuss it. We have ventured into other old testament stories and even a few new testament books as well.
I'm pretty sure they're no longer in print, but my MIL graciously gave us their old set of Arch Books, which are great old Bible stories written in Dr. Seuss-like rhyme schemes with neat artwork. We enjoy those.
Merrilee
Crystal, here are some books that you very likely have heard about or even have, I don't know...
The Lord Builds the House: The 127th Psalm:
http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Builds-House-127th-Psalm/dp/0974361615/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214422459&sr=8-2
Bless the Lord: The 103rd Psalm:
http://www.amazon.com/Bless-Lord-103rd-Johannah-Bluedorn/dp/1933228024/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214422459&sr=8-3
God's Wisdom for Little Girls:
http://www.thealertstore.com/1006384
Those are 3 of my very favorite books for children (and for me!). Johannah Bluedorn does beautiful artwork, and keeps children of all ages quite intrigued and interested. She has some other books she's done if you search for her name on Amazon. We had a bunch of Arch books when I was little, but even with them you've got to be so very careful because a lot of children's Bible books in general change the story around, or put things in there that aren't right, or play it down to a 'fairy tale' type story, which is sad since we want to teach our children the true Word of God.
So, those are my ideas. :)
I like the Bearenstein Bears. It has a meaning and teaches values within the stories :) PS Im doing your plan with my 2 little girls-thanks !!! Keep it up. Stephanie
Check out books by CandyCane Press. They are excellent. They have books about God wanting us to be kind, parents' unconditional love, etc. They are so good and cute too!
There are some great Little House picture books. The illustrations are beautiful and life-like.
When I was little, I loved Blueberries for Sal, Make Way for Ducklings, The Ox-Cart Man, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney - anything by Barbara Cooney - she has wonderful illustrations as well as good story lessons, although they aren't specifically Christian.
I also recommend Eric Carle and how about Beatrix Potter? I have a compilation of stories by here (the bunnies, can't think of their names) and my kids loved them! We also read the fairy tales (not the scarey ones!) and a lot of Dr. Seuss...but that isn't very educational is it? I read The Little House on the Praire series to my boys at this age and they learned so much!
Blessings,
Carie
The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh,
The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter,
The Story of Ping,
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel,
You might check out the Five in a Row series. They always have good book recommendations. We enjoyed lots of history books about famous people.
Okay, I have to admit I felt really old when I read this post. :) I can't even remember what my kids were reading at this age! LOL! I do remember that my younger daughter especially loved The Beginner's Bible: Timeless Children's Stories by Kelly Pulley (Illustrator). However, I'm actually commenting to recommend a book for kids who are a little older. My two are 11 and 8, and have outgrown most of the Bible story books that we had, but sometimes the Bible itself seems a little 'big' to them (I don't know if that's a good way to explain it, but it's the best that I can do). My MIL just got both of them The Children's Illustrated Bible by DK Publishing. It's great for kids who are a little older, because the stories are a little longer and more in-depth, but also because it contains not only drawings and maps, but it also contains photos of things. For example, on the pages for the story Jesus of Galilee, it has a map of Galilee, a photo of the Sea of Galilee, several drawings of people in the time, and then photos of people who live there now. When it talks about Jesus and the Children, it shows pictures of marbles that kids in Jesus' time played with, and lists other items that children played with at the same time. Sorry to write so long!
Wow, great books mentioned above. Perfect for the "B" week is the Biscuit book series. What a sweet puppy and nice repetitive two and three letter words ( Up, up, up) Your oldest will fall in love with Biscuit if she hasn't already. . . and no squabbling siblings in these books.
I just joined Paperbackswap under your link. Thanks!
all of the little people Rod and Staff books are wonderful! and the Miller books,
blessings, Penny Raine
http://www.pennyraine.com/blog
While they are not Christian books, I'm pretty sure I was around 3 or 4 when my mother started reading the "Little House" books to me.
All the Little House books are a favorite, my Mom read them to me at age 6 and I still find myself picking them up and reading a chapter as a way to relax.
lele www.xanga.com/manse_life
One of my family's favorite picture books is The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman. It's a sweet story about a family with seven young children and the illustrations are adorable!
We love raising butterflies! Your girls will love it!!
As for my favorite books, here are a few. There are two many to pick just five but here goes...
Winnie the Pooh series by AA Milne and Ernest H. Shepard (Winnie-The-Pooh, the House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young, Now We Are Six). Accept no substitutes for the original stories!
Beatrix Potter series
The Little House by Virginia Burton
The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
Ox-Cart Man by Barbara Cooney
I love also the Burgess Bird book but it might be too advanced for your girls to listen to right now. It all depends on whether they like to listen to a story without the benefit of lots of pictures.
Mother Goose and any and all quality children's poetry is a must around here!
The choices are endless but the final result of good quality literature read to them from a young age will be life long readers and book lovers!
Isn't homeschooling wonderful?!
Oh, I forgot this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Butterfly-Alphabet-Kjell-B-Sandved/dp/0439079470
It is the perfect alphabet book for your butterfly studies! It is simply beautiful with actual photographs of butterfly wings. You can take a peek inside at the above link and you will surely be able to find it in your library. It's very popular.
Hi Crystal--
Love both your blogs--thanks for sharing so much of yourself with us! I wanted to recommend "Little Mommy" by Sharon Kane. It was my favorite book as a child and it was out of print until recently (it actually became a collector's item!). It was written in the 1970s, and it shows a little girl going about her day being a "little mommy" to her dolls. It celebrates the traditional roles of women in a very sweet way. I think your girls would like it a lot! (Note: I haven't actually seen the new version--I'm assuming and hoping they kept the original text and illustrations.)
Cindy R.
hi Crystal,
I agree with the other comments that suggest Five in a Row as a starting point for good preschool books - we love lots of books from that list.
Here a few others to consider:
We Help Daddy by Mini Stein illustrated by Eloise Wilkin
We Help Mommy by Jean Cushman,
illustrated by Eloise Wilkin
Carrie's Gift by Efner Tudor Holmes
Just Like Mama by Beverly Lewis
~Anna
We love the books by P.K. Hallinan from Candy Cane Press.
http://www.idealsbooks.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=152
Free Spirit has the "Learning to Get Along Series" that teaches children to "behave responsibly and respectfully toward themselves and others."
http://www.freespirit.com/ltga/
We also read the "Best Behavior Series" from Free Spirit. These books help "children to choose peaceful, positive behavior."
http://www.freespirit.com/catalog/catalog_detail.cfm?cat_id=25
Dear Crystal,
Answer in Genesis sells a lot of children's books. The ones that I have seen are good.
Lulu
Books Children Love is a great resource to finding quality books. The Before Five in a Row book would have great titles too.(You can just look at the titles--I'm not advocating the curriculum this young).
Goodnight, Gorilla is a fun book. Guess How Much I Love You. Prayer for a Child is beautiful. Nursery rhyme books--kids love the sing-song of rhyming books and its great for their development. Uncle Wiggley's Story Book is great--he's a rabbit that helps a child out of a predicament in each chapter.
Leo Lionni, Eric Carle, Shirley Hughes, Jane Hissey, Virginia Burton, Holly Hobbie, Robert McCloskey, Thornton Burgess, Beatrix Potter are all authors you can't go wrong with.
I would go to the library and fill two bookbags as full as you can. And then read, read, and read. Oh, how I miss those days.
Kim
Hi Crystal, no books to recommend here but I did want to invite you to check out Tot-School, which I host on my blog. I have been a Money Saving Mom reader for quite sometime, and just recently joined up with Biblical Womanhood on my reader, and obviously this post caught my attention!! I have a 2 and 6 year old and dedicate much time to homeschooling our tot. We have a little growing community of moms homeschooling tots, they have all been such an encouragement to me on my journey, I wanted to share this with you in case you wnated to gather some more ideas!
God Bless,
Carisa
I have bought several books at www.keepersofthefaith.com for my children.
I recently found their book Bible Stories to Read (I think they just offer it, but it's published by Rod and Staff) on PaperBack Swap. KOF has a lot of Rod and Staff books available on their website. It would be worth checking into. I have bought some homeschool curriculum from there as well.
A friend sent this link to me some time ago; perhaps you'll find it a useful resource:
http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html
I think Eric Carle's books are fabulous- The Grouchy Ladybug, From Head to Toe, etc. He does a great job incorporating multiple topics (time, size relationships, days of the week) in each story.
God's Wisdom for Little Girls- love it; we used it as a devotional each night and we have the one for little boys that our son has also enjoyed.
There are so many- the link above has great suggestions.
Tara G.
Hey Crystal, just wanted to share my love for Handwriting without tears. You should check out their website and watch their video. They offer prek workbooks that are quite inexpensive. My son loved learning his letters using the sticks, creating Mat Man, rolling playdough...The program makes learning to write a lot of fun and not just tedious tracing work. Plus my son loves the songs! Like "Where do you start your letters? At the Top!" Their songs really reinforce simple writing rules. Also they use "child friendly" language in teaching how to write....go up like a helicopter etc.
I was doing the tracing sheets online, but my son was becoming bored with just tracing and writing the letters, now he enjoys writing, HWT has made learning to write enjoyable and full bodied.
But he is a boy! Your daughter may be quite content doing tracing sheets--I just wanted to share this info in case you had not heard of HWT before.
I love that you are sharing this insite into your homeeducation--perhaps you should do a linky on it, everyone can share teaching ideas. I had a linky for awhile titled "TeachingTips Tuesday", but I dont get the amount of readers you do so it wasn't flying. Well just a thought! Take Care
I may be double posting this, sorry if so. Anyhow a few of our favorites are
The Tale of Three Trees
If Jesus Came to My House by Joan Gale Thomas
Ox Cart Man
Noah's Arc by Peter Spier
The Little Red Lighthouse & the Great Gray Bridge
There are so many others. We love books around here! We got all these at the Johnson County Library. Hope this helps.
D'Arlyn
We got the set of Alice in Bibleland books off of eBay.
Have you seen this site?
It may give you more ideas for each letter of the alphabet- I used this for my first born son--
http://www.letteroftheweek.com/
As for book lists..how about this?
http://www.johnsenfam.com/charbook.htm
http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html
hth
http://littlefunlittlelearning.blogspot.com/2008/05/fun-filled-friday-caterpillars-and.html
Crystal - I just took some notes from this site about butterflies to use in our school time next week.
Crystal,
A reference book that has been extremely helpful to me is Honey for a Child's Heart by Glydys Hunt. I would highly recommend it. She includes booklists geared to your child's age. I have often taken her book to my library and it has saved me so much time.
Elizabeth George has some sweet ones for girls and boys. For girls there is a little girl after god's own heart as well as god's wisdom for little girls. you can visit elizabethgeorge.com for a complete list of her books. Also, for devotions we use leading little ones to god....i heard john macarthur recommend it once and it has been a wonderful tool in our homeschool. have fun!
heather in pa
Bearing in mind that I do not have children nor have a I read these books I'd like to offer up a suggestion. Last year on Family Life Today they had a gentlemen who was the publisher of lots of "Older Stories" that were a lot more morally based that the ones coming out today. Stuff that was printed in the late 1800's early 1900's and they read experts on air and they were really good. Anyway the name of the publisher is "Lamplighter Publisher". Just google it. They have age specific categories.
Hope it helps. =)
-Jen K.
I have used this site to help find books for teaching character education. Towards the bottom of the page there is a section with links to book lists for the different age groups.
HTH!
Bwahaha Your feed came into my email box (because the email display ran out of room) as ..."B is for Butt." lol
We, too, like Eric Carle, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar would be perfect. I'm sure your library has it.
Dittoing the recommendations of Max Lucado and Elizabeth George, too. We also like Norman and Sidney, which is by the author of the VeggieTales stories, although its main characters are pigs, not people.
I will be the dissenting voice, though, regarding the Little House books. I would, personally, not read these to my little girls (who are 5 and 1). Laura Ingalls Wilder was rather feminist and not always particularly respectful. For an older child, these could perhaps be overlooked, but I don't want my impressionable tiny girls internalizing these things. We enjoyed The Five Little Peppers as a readaloud. Another excellent readaloud, especially for girls, is the Noonans' version of The Three Weavers.
We like The Princess and the Kiss. (It's a picture book, but it's loooooong for mama to read, so be warned. lol) We like Robert McCloskey's books, with the exception of one line from Burt Dow, Deep-Water Man, which we skip.
We don't really have a lot of what I would call picture storybooks, though, because I think there's a shortage of what you're describing. :(
You might be interested in checking out Daughters 4 God (www.daughters4god.com). This is a family-run business specializing in resources for girls. I have no affiliation with them; I just saw them at our local homeschool convention and noticed that they sell nearly everything on my "I really want to get this for my girls" list. :)
We love books in this house so here are some of our favourites:
The tiger who came to tea by Judith Kerr (good for hospitality). Brambly Hedge stories by Jill Barklem (a bit old maybe but lovely). No matter what by Debi Gliori(all about loving no matter what).
I also love the Max Lucado books about the Wemmicks "you are special" is one.
Happy reading.
Rachel--you gave me a good laugh this morning. ;)
We've read the first Little House book and I definitely had to re-word and skip some things since I didn't appreciate all the attitudes displayed, etc. I suppose some could think I'm terribly particular, but I just really try to be careful what I fill my daughters' minds with. That's the beauty of reading aloud, though, as I can edit it as needed. :)
As a kindergarten teacher in a classical Christian school, this is one of my favorite book lists to pull from: http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html
Thanks for all the great book suggestions! I'm adding a bunch of them to my list and they'll probably start showing up here and there in our weekly home education posts. :)
One of our favorites: Eloise Wilkin Stories - these are stories and poems written and/or illustrated by Eloise Wilkin (from the mid- 1900's mostly). Several of the poems are classics by Robert Louis Stevenson. The stories are so sweet- about God, nature, helping Mommy, doing things by yourself (getting dressed, etc.), getting a new sibling, things to see and hear, etc. Best of all- the illustrations are simply beautiful. Incredibly real and detailed. My little boy LOVES to sit and read this whole book through! It's published by Little Golden Books, and comes in a nice hardback for about $9 on Amazon.
When I was a Children's Leader for BSF the children all loved the Adam the Racoon books. All had biblical principals in them. Wonderful books that kept the children's attention.
I would recommend Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings (themes: Parents love and protect children, thinking about and helping others),
Alice Joyce Davidson's The Story of Jonah (rhyming Biblical story), Mary Alice Jones' God Loves Me and God Bless Me (both books are "Timeless Treasures" put out by Dalmation Press). These books are wonderful but short with lots of pictures!
Hope this helps!
Hi Crystal,
you need to check out the books by Jane Belk Moncure "My First Steps to Reading". She has a book for each letter and the illustrations are sooo cute. Each book begins with sound box and the children find things that go into the particular box. Our library has them. They would go perfectly with ya learning a letter a week.
This is one of my favorite things when a child is learning to recognize letters and begin to read. It truly opens them up to God's wonderful world!!!
Blessings, Monica M.
mcgillfamily@sbcglobal.net
Oh, how I love books. I have a two shelves in our playroom that are for christian/moral books. I have found a few that are great. First, most things by P.K. Hallinan like Let's Play as a Team and Let's Be Helpful. They have cute illustrations and neat rhyming verses. Next is Buster the Kangaroo by Daniela De Luca...so cute and will be good even when they get a littl older. We also love My Book of Thanks by B.G Hennessy and 20 Bible Verses Every Child Should know which is a Focus on the Family book and CD. Even though you are learning other verses, each song is accompanied with a life lesson.
My mom used to work in an elementary library for a christian school and she said the kids loved The Treasure Tree and The Two Trails by John Trent. My girls (6 and 3) loved The Treasure Tree and we are about to read The Two Trails.
We just got Gigi, God's Princess by Sheila Walsh from my mom and my girly girls loved it and I loved the object lesson.
I would also recommend looking at the Newbury Classics. While I don't always like them all, they have some great stories that have been mentioned on here. Also, Sonlight Curriculm has a lot of recommendations for each age of great books. You can check out www.sonlight.com and request a catalog.
Our favourite children's Christian books hands down would be "Just Like Mama" by Beverly Lewis, about an Amish family.
And if you can get them secondhand, the 1964 editions of Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. These are full of short stories with beautiful paintings set in both the 1950's and bible times. They are published by the SDA's. We are not SDA, but most of them are doctrinally sound- a few we don't use or I adapt slightly- our children love them. My hubby and I both enjoyed them as children. They also have another set for wee ones called "My Bible Friends" which are written in rhyme.
Claire
I would add two books that have not been mentioned yet. My 4 year old fell in love with "Sophie and Sam When to Say "Yes" and When to Say "No" by Tori Cloud. We checked it out of the library so many times that we finally bought her a copy for Christmas. It has 10 stories highlighting different character traits. Each story concludes with an applicable Bible verse. We also use "The Children's Book of Virtues" by William J. Bennett for character study.
Our very favorite...
Blessings Everywhere by Dandi D. Mackall (Simple but profound:)
Most of All Jesus Loves You by Noel Piper
Where is Jesus by Alan & Linda Parry
God Gave Us You By Lisa Tawn Bergren (beautiful illistrations!)
Crystal,
I think what you are doing is really neat. I hope you have lots of fun. I meant to comment last week about "A" but I never got it done. Last November we went through the alphabet haveing a new letter each day. We had lots of fun eating foods that began with that letter, dressing in ways that went with the letter, doing activities, etc. I have a post that outlines our plan. I will leave you the link in case you would like to check it out.
http://proverbs31living.blogspot.com/2007/10/alphabet-adventures.html
We had a lot of fun, though doing a new letter every day kept us very busy!! I think the weekly idea is good.
This year we are having fun working on a different learning idea every week. We have been studying (reading, eating, doing activities) about a different state every week. We have been going through them in order of statehood and are on Missouri this week. That also has been a lot of fun.
Any learning that can be done throughout your daily routine and is fun is so neat. It teaches our kids to love learning and also how to learn on their own (and that it doesn't all have to come from school books) which is so important.
Have a great day! Abbi
I scrolled through, but I don't think I saw The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown mentioned. It was one of my and my brother's favorites when we were your girls' age. It is short, beautifully illustrated, and a sweet story on two levels - the mother rabbit's love for and dedication to the little rabbit can also be read as an allegory of God's nurturing love for the soul of each of His children.
Jessica
My children love Jan and Stan Berentstain's alphabet books. Their favorite is the B Book. It's so fun!!!! My kids basically have it memorized but they still ask me to read it. They also love "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".
The best children's books:
Where the Wild Things Are
All the Places to Love
Guess How Much I Love You
Love You Forever
Goodnight Moon
Apparently at 28 weeks pregnant I have no memory!
I forgot to mention Debbie Anderson's books, they are great, our favorite is "God Knows my Name".
We also love Stormie Omatian's "I Can Talk to God" all about prayer.
One of our girls' favorite books is Miss Rumphius. It is a beautiful story about contributing something positive to the world and it has beautiful illustrations.
I'm repeating other posts, but we love Ox Cart Man at our house. Another children's book that is EXCELLENT is Leah's Pony by Elizabeth Friedrich. You must look up that book and try to get ahold of a copy of it, it is wonderful.
I second The Tale of the Three Trees (also called The Legend of the Three Trees). It is an AMAZING Christian story of how God places us where He wants us to be, despite what we think is best for us.
That, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Giving Tree are among the books from my childhood that always make me cry!
My top favorite books to read aloud to my boys have been Little Jewel books from Rod and Staff. they are not probably at your library, but are very cheap at about $2.50 each and are nicely made. I have found that they last really well. They do have Mennonite families in them which bothers some people, but are simple great stories.
My favorites:
Molly Helps Mother
A boy to help
The lost Milk Jar
This is Mohan
Tattletale Sparkie (which is not a Little Jewel book, but a bunch of short stories, with applicable lessons for little ones.)
I know it is more than five, but I also have enjoyed reading books from Usborne books, they are not christian so you have to check sometimes, but they have great photos and lots if info in the stories.
The Usborne Beginners are a great series on many different subjects.
I also got a series at the library for my son who was beginning reading on the five food groups, there was one book about each one. It was great!
By the way, my mom read me the Little house books and edited out things too, it is a great way to do it. With my older son who enjoyed listening to them, we discuss it.
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