The Read-at-Home Kids Report: August 2019

The End of Summer Reading 

We finished tracking our summer reading on September 2nd, meaning that our summer reading logs (which I printed out from RealLifeAtHome.com) covered a full three months. We didn't have a specific goal other than keeping track of the books the girls read (or heard read aloud by a parent and/or in audiobook format), and I was amazed at how many books we went through. Miss Muffet reached 260 books, a good number of which she read independently. Little Bo Peep hit 201, with her last book being a phonics reader she read aloud using her newly acquired knowledge of letter sounds. And Jumping Joan heard 108 books. We didn't count repeat reads of any books, so each number represents a unique title. We've decided to track again this fall and see how our numbers compare!

Family Read-Alouds

We started out the month of August reading Ben and Me by Robert Lawson, which I chose because Miss Muffet was really interested in Benjamin Franklin. Unfortunately, both Miss Muffet and Bo Peep found the book boring and getting to the end was a struggle. (I have to admit to not liking it that much myself.)

After that, we borrowed the first two books in the Cobble Street Cousins series from the library and read them back to back. Both Miss Muffet and Bo Peep loved the characters and the essentially conflict-free plot of each book, and we definitely plan to get the rest of them from the library in the near future.

We finished out the month with The Doll People by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin. The nice thing is that both Miss Muffet and Bo Peep loved the story and begged for just one more chapter each day. We've already started book two.

Little Miss Muffet (5 years, 9 months)

My mom rescued a discarded library copy of a book called Getting to Know the Hudson River, which I read aloud to Miss Muffet largely against her will. I was excited to show her all the landmarks near where I grew up, but she didn't really have the context to appreciate it. She did enjoy the sections about the Erie canal, though, mostly because we sang canal boat songs after we finished reading.

Independently, she read a whole bunch of different things, including The Best Loved Doll by Rebecca Caudill, Did You Carry the Flag Today, Charley? by Rebecca Caudill (on OpenLibrary), Stella Batts Needs a New Name (on Hoopla), The Lost Umbrella of Kim Chu by Eleanor Estes, and By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Little Bo Peep (3 years, 11 months)

Bo Peep has been listening to a lot of picture books on audio, including some Amelia Bedelia books, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, A Bad Case of Stripes, and Corduroy. In response to her recent request for funny books, I went on Open Library and found The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli (which she loved) and A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker (which I love, and of which she was skeptical, until the end when she asked to read it again.) She has also become quite fond of wordless books, including the Carl books by Alexandra Day and the Flora books by Molly Idle.

In terms of reading independently, she read her first phonics reader, Rag, just as the summer ended, and she is working on sounding out more consonant-vowel-consonant words so she can work up to reading more!

Jumping Joan (22 months)

One of Jumping Joan's favorite books lately has been her biggest sister's book about the U.S. presidents. She especially loves the page about Ronald Reagan because it has a picture of jelly beans on it. She was calling him "jelly bean" but now she knows his name is Reagan.  She's also been listening to audiobooks with Bo Peep in the mornings, and she frequently asks for me to read What a Wonderful World illustrated by Tim Hopgood and Gossie (and sequels) by Olivier Dunrea aloud to her. She's also enjoyed acting out From Head to Toe by Eric Carle and flipping through B is for Baby by Atinuke.