Other Countries, Other Cultures - A National Geographic Picture Book: One World, One Day by Barbara Kerley

With the earthquake in Haiti, we've all been thinking about a country other than our own (for a change) and what it is like living in another country. So when I came across this book at the library on the "new" shelf, I grabbed it and wanted to share it with Ricky.

Other than brief clips on Sesame Street, Ricky's never really been exposed to other countries. I mean, we went to the Dominican Republic on vacation 2 years ago when he was 3 but that was on a resort - so he didn't really experience much other than the resort.

This book is interesting because it shows how kids across the world get up in the morning, eat breakfast, go to school, learn in school, eat lunch, go home, do homework, eat dinner, and prepare for bedtime. Ricky liked this book because he could relate to what all these kids were doing. He found it interesting that 2 girls in the pictures had nose rings and we ended up having a conversation about nose rings and why people want them and what they mean. He was actually grossed out!!

Anyways, this is a good book for kids because it exposes them to other cultures. The photography is excellent but I expect nothing short of excellent from a National Geographic book!

Published by National Geographic Society, 2009

Teaching Your Preschooler to Read? A Gizmo For You: Leapfrog's Tag Reading System

Ricky will be 5 years old next month and goes to 4 year old preschool. Since I stay home full time, I've taken it upon myself to teach him at home. He enjoys numbers way more than reading. He's been able to count to 200 since he was 3 and finished the preschool math website in 2 weeks - 1,400 math problems! But reading? Forget it. He just tells me flat out that "mom, I wanna do numbers. Not this."

Right now I've been trying to teach him some phonics, sight words, and concepts that will teach him how to read.

So he got this for Christmas. So far, he has The Cat in the Hat, Po's Tasty Training, and the set of Short Vowels. I've sat down with him and done the Cat and Po books and it's pretty nice. The pen will read each page to you. There is also games. I am kind of disappointed in the sense that I expected it to have an option where it reads each and every word to you as you run the pen across the words - but it doesn't do that. I don't know if the short vowels set does that yet - maybe it does. I'll have to review this again after he gets more books.

In any case, this is a great educational toy because it gets your child interested in independently reading or just simply sitting down with a book.

I'll blog again about this product later on when Ricky's used more books!

More then Just Your Typical Numbers Book - One Wolf Howls by Scotti Cohn, Illustrated by Susan Detwiler

When you go to the bookstore or your local library, there are tons of number books to choose from. We probably own a good 20 of them - they mostly count to 10, involve animals, and rhyme. This is a pretty successful formula. This particular book - One Wolf Howls by Scotti Cohn, kicks things up a notch and takes the learning thing to higher levels. My soon-to-be 5 year old son really enjoys this book - and it has done more than just reinforce the numbers 1 through 12.

Ricky's impression of wolves was largely based on the mean wolves who served the Ice Queen in the Chronicles of Narnia movie and the mysterious pack of wolves in the Polar Express. When we read this book he is able to view them as animals who have a family, who hunt for food, and take care of their pups.

In addition to the nature element, the book has reinforced the months of the year - along with the corresponding seasons and the weather those months bring. Scotti Cohns' writing is appropriate and engaging for preschoolers and very enjoyable to read aloud for parents. The illustrations are picturesque and look very life-like. I feel that this age group has too many books that are cartoon-like already - and they are old enough to start looking at more accurate and life-like pictures. In other words, it's good to mix it up!!

There is a surprise at the end of the book for readers - a matching activity, fun facts, life cycle, and a calendar activity. There is also a page that discusses hunting and endangered wolves.

I highly recommend this book for preschoolers. It goes beyond your ordinary numbers book and tricks your child into learning months and seasons. Since I'm committed to looking into more educational materials for my kids, I've chosen this as my very first review for the new year.

Explaining Death to Small Children: I Miss You by Pat Thomas & What's Heaven? by Maria Shriver

We just lost my dear aunt last month to cancer. She was very close to us, and even babysat Ricky for the last year and a half when I started working part-time. So Ricky was pretty close to her. I wasn't quite sure how to explain death to him - he just turned 4 - and with all the craziness, my mother-in-law was sweet enough to pick out some books about death and mail them to me to read to Ricky.

I Miss You: A First Look at Death by Pat Thomas is a great book for kids ages 2-6. It was the perfect book for Ricky - short, sweet, and had loads of pictures. It reaffirmed what he was experiencing: loving someone, not seeing them anymore, and missing them. At a very high level it mentions how everyone is born and everyone dies, how you attend a funeral, and the feelings a child may have when losing someone. The loved one in the book was an older female - could be a grandmother or an aunt, but obviously everything in the book is applicable to losing any kind of loved one. It acknowledges that cultures deal with death in various ways and it does not focus on any specific religious belief. I strongly recommend this book for little kids who lose someone they love.

I felt that What's Heaven? by Maria Shriver was above Ricky's head. It is more appropriate for a 6-8 year old audience. It is long, very descriptive, and you need a really good attention span to benefit from it. Also - with the heaven thing - it's pretty Christian. We only got to page 2 and Ricky was already asking to read something else. Maybe if he were a little older, things would have been different. In any case, this book will be useful when he is older and has questions about death and heaven.

In any case, it's great to have books to address all kinds of things - from potty training to death. My parents never read me any books to explain anything - other than puberty!

Roar of a Snore by Marsha Diane Arnold, Pictures by Pierre Scott

This is the story of the Huffle family and their pursuit of the person or animal responsible for a huge snore that keeps them awake. The story has repetition as each family member joins in the search.

It's a cute story and the pictures suit the story very well. It's funny to see who the culprit is in the end.

2007

David Goes To School by David Shannon

To be honest, I stayed away from the David books when I saw them at the bookstore because I was afraid they would give my son some bad ideas on how to behave. But a few weeks ago Ricky told me that his teacher read a David book during library time so I relented. I ordered this book with his Scholastic book order.

In this book, David does all the things you shouldn't be doing at school - is late, won't sit down, chews gum, won't keep his hands to himself, you name it. At the end he does a good job with his punishment so he's "good" and is allowed to go home. That's the entire plot. This book is based on a book the author wrote as a young boy - with David and no as the only words he could spell - showing all kinds of naughty things David is doing.

I do like the illustrations though. I see the humor in the book. Ricky always says that David is a bad boy.

Maybe a Bear Ate It! by Robie H. Harris; Illustrated by Michael Emberley

This book is about a dog/cat (I can't tell what the heck it is) who reads a book in bed, dozes off, and somehow loses the book. It goes through all these possibilities as to what may have happened to the book- "maybe a bear ate it, maybe a stegasaurus stomped on it, etc."

I think Ricky will enjoy this book because the story line is funny and something he can relate to as he is always asking me where this toy and that toy went - but also because the illustrations are so cute. I hate using "cute" all the time but there really is no other word that best describes these pictures.

This book would be good for 2-3 year olds. It may be too babyish beyond 3.