Monday, January 11, 2010
Books and preschoolers
We've had nightly book time since my oldest was just weeks old. Lately she has wanted to skip it all together. I can't blame her. Some of the books we've read for over 3 years. We check out library books from time to time to try and spice things up, but still, I think she views it more as interesting to babies (her 19 month old sister absolutely LOVES book time). I'm lucky enough to just about always have my husband home at night so recently I have read books to our youngest while he goes in my oldest's room and they tell stories to one another. I think storytelling is awesome too, but I just don't want my 3 year old to lose her love for books. Any suggestions on books, authors, etc. for the 3+ crowd? When do you start reading chapter books to your kids? Any other thoughts?
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We haven't had this problem yet, because I'm not as dilligent about reading at a certain time every day. When my daughter is in the mood to read books, we read and read and read. But it's not necessarily every night. I haven't tried it myself yet, but I would say that a three year old isn't too young to try a chapter book, like Charlotte's Web. You could just read a chapter every night. It's worth a try!
My sister started chapter books with her sons at this age and they did great. It all depends on the kid. Cedric loves if I just tell stories. You can look up new stories to tell online and maybe do one of those a night to keep her entertained. I am not sure what books to suggest. We have a huge variety! Freecycle is good for getting peoples old books!
We've started chapter books... Margaret loves the Magic Tree House books and we've read Charlotte's Web, Pollyanna and Little Women together. We're working on Heidi now, but we save the big books for when she's laying down just before I leave the room. Other than that, we read 2 books before bed, then scriptures, then chapter book. I am not very familiar with children's authors. I wish I was better. Margaret loves Angelina books and Madeline and the LIttle Critter books, but I don't know any newer books.
Check out the Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease from your library. It's great. And even if you don't have time to read the whole book, he has a huge list of suggested books that are great read-alouds for kids at the end and he has them divided out into age groups and stuff. I love that book.
Anyway, both my girls love to read, so I haven't had to deal with this yet, but I did start Charlotte's Web with my two 3/4 year old and she loved it, and we love David Shannon books, Pinkalicious, The Paper Bag Princess, this great book called Arnie the Doughnut, Amelia Bedilia, Clifford and Curious George and Arthur books, Skippyjon Jones, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and others. All my second graders loved those books too when I taught elementary school...
I've noticed that as kids get older they get more and more interested in nonfiction books, so you may want to check some of those out from the library. Or fairy tales are always fun with girls. Just find what she likes and go with it. :)
Either way, doing storytelling with your husband at night is great too. It's still a "literacy" activity and prepares kids for reading and writing. :)
Matt started reading chapter books to Bauer almost a year ago. Some nights they get a lot read and other nights it's only a couple of paragraphs because he's asking too many questions! It's fun if there's a movie to go along with the book so they "know" who the characters are.
Reagan received her first chapter books for Christmas and loves reading them. We got her the Weather fairies series. I'm planning on trying out the Magic tree house series next. We go to the library every week or two and pick out 15-20 books. That way she always has new ones to read, and the ones we own don't get old. We buy books all the time when they are on clearance, so the girls have an entire 6 shelf bookshelf full of books to pick from. I also look for books that have their favorite characters in them (Dora and Backyardigans). Good luck!
Oh, and ditto to Tiffany about the Read Aloud Handbook. I checked it out of the library and got lots of great ideas for books for both ages of our girls.
Wow awesome responses thank so much!
You could try a book swap with some other moms- meet once a month or so and trade books around the group!
Hey girls,
I read Linz's blog and check out this blog occasionally, even though I don't have kids yet. I just saw this post and had to comment since I'm a reading teacher.
You could also explain to your daughter that reading doesn't just mean reading the words, you can read pictures, too. You could give her the book and encourage her to "read" the story to you. Then it would be fun to go back and read the words and see how your two stories were alike and different. But I don't think reading should ever be forced; if it's going to be a huge fight, just find a way to compensate with other fun activities until you find a book that she really wants to read.
The Read Aloud Handbook is excellent, and I also really like How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esme Raji Codell. She is a librarian and has tons of great ideas for books and activities. She also has a blog (www.planetesme.blogspot.com) with reviews of all the newest things in children's lit.
The nonfiction idea is great as well. I know you guys go lots of cool places (which, by the way, is so important- background knowledge is huge, and the kids where I teach are sorely lacking in that). Maybe, after going somewhere like the zoo, you could talk about her favorite animal and read a nonfiction book about it. (The Step-Into-Reading books are good for this; I just read Hungry Hungry Sharks by Joanna Cole with my kindergartners, and they LOVED it.) That gives her a personal connection to the book, which is really important.
Oh, and speaking of connections- books by Kevin Henkes have become some of my favorite books this year. They are so cute, and really encourage kids to connect with the characters.
Sorry for the long comment. I hope your daughter re-discovers her love of reading soon!
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