A New Look at Chapter Books.
We are reading two very different unrelated books right now and yet they are both chapter books which works well for me and is one of the finer things in my life.
Froggy is reading Frog and Toad Are Friends to me. This is our first real introduction to the Frog and Toad series. They have been recommended to me several times but when I looked at them they left me uninterested. Yet during our last trip to the library while scouting through the "I Can Read" section I picked one up to try since it looked much better than many of the other alternatives. Froggy really likes it. The stories while not fantastic and thrilling to me are appropriate and acceptable (unlike Arthur or Dora). The text is challenging without being overwhelming for Froggy and there are just enough pictures to be interesting and yet not be a picture book.
And I am reading Little House in the Big Woods to her. I read the whole series when I was a bit older than Froggy. I am sure she will probably reread the series to herself when she hits that age but still it is fun sharing it with her. I am amazed and some of the bigotry and judgementalness that I did not rembmer being present. It provides opportunities for discussion. Laura is the same age as Froggy so we have been using that as a tie in and comparison. Laura has so much more responsibility than Froggy and it is motivating Froggy to do more for herself. It was wonderful for me as a parent to watch her talk about "sugar snow" with someone while reading a different Spring book that also had a late March snow storm. Reading this has pointed out how inconsistent Froggy's time sense is. We are now working on a time line to help her understand where all the different bits of history she knows fall relative to one another.
So that is what we are reading this week. Please check out Read Aloud Thursday to see what others are reading.
Froggy is reading Frog and Toad Are Friends to me. This is our first real introduction to the Frog and Toad series. They have been recommended to me several times but when I looked at them they left me uninterested. Yet during our last trip to the library while scouting through the "I Can Read" section I picked one up to try since it looked much better than many of the other alternatives. Froggy really likes it. The stories while not fantastic and thrilling to me are appropriate and acceptable (unlike Arthur or Dora). The text is challenging without being overwhelming for Froggy and there are just enough pictures to be interesting and yet not be a picture book.
And I am reading Little House in the Big Woods to her. I read the whole series when I was a bit older than Froggy. I am sure she will probably reread the series to herself when she hits that age but still it is fun sharing it with her. I am amazed and some of the bigotry and judgementalness that I did not rembmer being present. It provides opportunities for discussion. Laura is the same age as Froggy so we have been using that as a tie in and comparison. Laura has so much more responsibility than Froggy and it is motivating Froggy to do more for herself. It was wonderful for me as a parent to watch her talk about "sugar snow" with someone while reading a different Spring book that also had a late March snow storm. Reading this has pointed out how inconsistent Froggy's time sense is. We are now working on a time line to help her understand where all the different bits of history she knows fall relative to one another.
So that is what we are reading this week. Please check out Read Aloud Thursday to see what others are reading.
I've been reading thru the Little House books with my 9 and 5 year olds. They love them and so do I!
ReplyDeleteThese are both great books. We love all of the little house books with The Long Winter being our favorite so far. My 7 year old has read the Frog and Toad series. It is a great beginner book. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMy girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Laura Ingalls Wilder. YOu can never go wrong with Frog and Toad, either! Great picks!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for linking up to Read Aloud Thursday!
Incidentally, Anna is reading the same book to me this week, and we are also reading an adapted Little House from My First Little House series. I have never read Little House - I grew up in the former Soviet Union, and I am very amused with how the world is presented in this adaptation, but Anna enjoys those books.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, I never read the Little House books.
ReplyDeleteI've tried to get Frog & Toad several times, but Abby wants nothing to do with them. I do remember liking those.
My 5-year-old and I love both of those series! Here are some other chapter books we like that I hope you will like, too!
ReplyDeleteThere certainly are some startling opinions presented in the Little House books, but I agree that it's better to use them as discussion starters than to avoid them. That's one reason I'm reading the books to my child instead of waiting for him to read them himself; I want to make sure of getting the chance to explain these things to him. I had similar experiences growing up when my dad read us Tom Sawyer, for example.