Reading with Little Miss Muffet: June 2015

New Book Behavior

• "Read!" This month, at 1 1/2, Little Miss Muffet started to verbalize what she wants done with her books. Now when she flings a book at me, it is usually accompanied by a demand of  "Read!" or "Lap!" While she often changes her mind just a few pages into a book, it's nice to see her developing the vocabulary to talk about reading - and to ask for a story when she wants one. 

Current Favorites 

• Once Upon a Potty by Alona Frankel 
  We have not started potty training yet, but this was my favorite potty book as a kid, and we found a copy at a used book store that was in great condition, so we figured why not see what Miss Muffet thinks? And she loves it! She is very interested in Prudence, the main character, and even claps when Prudence successfully uses the potty. 
• Baby's Mother Goose illustrated by Alice Schlesinger 
  This tall board book is Miss Muffet's most frequently requested read-aloud right now. She is beginning to know some of the rhymes so well, she can fill in the blanks if I leave out words, and she spends a lot of time pointing at the characters in the illustrations and labeling whether they are boys, girls, babies, animals, and/or asleep. 
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle 
  Miss Muffet does not yet seem to understand that each color is a different entity, as evidenced by her identification of every color  as red. I took this book out in the hopes that it might help her start to make sense of the concept, and it became an instant favorite. The repetition makes it possible for her to fill in words as I read, which tends to keep her more interested than just reading it myself. She can also label almost all of the animals, and she learned the word "teacher" after just a couple of readings. This has been a long-time story time staple for me, so it's wonderful to see her falling in love with it, too! 

One Tip from Mom

• Act out your books! Toddlers are busy people, and sometimes they literally can't slow down long enough to sit through an entire story. With Little Miss Muffet, I have found that it helps during her "wilder" moments if we can act out a story together. We just borrowed a new book from the library: Baby Love by Angela DiTerlizzi. The baby in the story is described in terms of his body parts - tiny toes, sleepy eyes, etc. When I read it aloud to Miss Muffet, I asked her to follow along by pointing to each body part as it was mentioned. For the first couple of pages, I had to prompt her, but then she caught onto the game right away and really got into it. I also enjoyed it because there are several places in the book where the baby gives a hug or a kiss, and she happily shared one with me each time! 

Early Literacy in Everyday Places: The Campground

Going camping is a favorite summer pastime in many families, and it's a great way to take a break from the stresses of regular everyday life, including technology. Bond with your kids during this screen-free time by sharing some of the following early literacy activities.

• Tell stories around the campfire. Besides eating s'mores, this is the best way to enjoy a campfire. Though it might be traditional to tell spooky stories, if these are too much for your little guys, try telling your own versions of fairy tales, funny stories from your family's own history, or round-robin stories, where each member of the family takes a turn adding to the story. 
• Look up the names of the plants and animals you discover. Borrow or buy a field guide for the region you will be visiting. This will help you identify unfamiliar animals and plants you may encounter at the campsite or on a hiking trail. (This is actually a fun activity to do at home, too. My husband and I still talk about the day a brown thrasher popped out of a neighbor's bush and scared us half to death!) 
• Talk about the names and stories of the constellations. On a clear night, without the light pollution of more heavily populated areas, you might be able to show your kids some of the constellations. Identify the ones you know, and tell their associated myths, then have your child look for his or her own pictures in the stars and make up stories to go along with them. 
• Sing call and response songs on hikes. Though I never went camping as a kid, I did go to Girl Scout day camp, and I can remember singing many call and response songs as we walked the hiking trails. Here are some good ones to get you started: 
• I Met a Bear
• Book-Chick-a-Boom
• Bill Grogan's Goat 
• The Littlest Worm 

For more outdoor early literacy activities, check out my posts about early literacy in The Backyard, The Mud, and The Park.

48 Hour Book Challenge: Finish Line

My 48 hours expired this morning at 8:15, when I was still fast asleep. I managed to read for a good chunk of time last night, though, including 15 minutes before bed, which left me with a final total of 14.5 hours spent on the challenge.

During that time, I read 10 middle grade novels:

• Bandit's Moon by Sid Fleischman
• Bull Run by Paul Fleischman
• Saving Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea
• Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar 
• The Sister Solution by Trudy Trueit 
• Secret Coders by Gene Luen Yang
• Ava and Taco Cat by Carol Weston 
• A Handful of Stars by Cynthia Lord
• Boy with a Pack by Stephen W. Meader 
• Drive Me Crazy by Terra Elan McVoy 

Some of these have been sitting on my Nook for months, so it was great to finally get through them. I wish I could have done more, but considering I was chasing a toddler all day Friday and out half the day celebrating Father's Day yesterday, I think I did pretty well. I'm definitely not disappointed! 

Here is the finish line, where I'll be adding my post in just a moment. 

48 Hour Book Challenge: Check-In Post #2

I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough last night to read quite as much as I wanted, so in the past 16 hours, I've only read for about four more. My total time now is 10 hours, 10 minutes. Reaching 18 hours is seeming less and less likely, but I will certainly make it to at least 12 and maybe a bit beyond that.

Since last night's update, I have once again read four books (all ARCs from NetGalley and Edelweiss) and started on a fifth. Full-length reviews won't be up for a while, but brief reviews are below:

• The Sister Solution by Trudy Trueit
  This book has an odd premise - a genius little sister is promoted two grades mid-way through the year, joining her sister as an eighth grader and immediately complicating her social life. The characters were fairly well-developed otherwise, but the far-fetched situation made the overall story feel like it didn't quite hang together cohesively. 
• Secret Coders by Gene Luen Yang
  This is another strange - but quick - read. Unfortunately, I didn't know it wasn't a stand-alone and it ends on a cliffhanger, so I was somewhat dissatisfied. I did like all the coding lessons within the story, though. There aren't any other books like this one. 
• Ava and Taco Cat by Carol Weston
  I really liked Ava and Pip, but the sequel is really just more of the same and it isn't as well done. There was also too much cliched cat stuff for me to really connect with it, and though some of the wordplay and jokes are funny, it felt like too much. 
• A Handful of Stars by Cynthia Lord
  This is not Lord's strongest work. A solid three-star book, but not especially memorable. The main character wants to make enough money for a surgery to save the eyesight of her beloved dog, while her friend, a girl from a migrant family, wants to win a pageant to earn money for college. The story moves very quickly, which interferes with the reader's ability to connect on an emotional level. It will definitely win points with readers seeking more diversity - but I enjoyed last year's Half a Chance more.

Even after being charged all night, my Nook battery is super-low again from this morning's marathon reading session, so my next two books are not ARCs, but library books: Drive Me Crazy by Terra Elan McVoy, which I have just barely started and Boy with a Pack by Stephen W. Meader, the 1940 Newbery Honor book my husband has been bugging me to read for at least a week. (I am heading outside to read that one while he stays in and supervises toddler nap time. It will be a nice change of pace, as the other books I've read this morning involve lots of girl drama!)

And... with the 20 minutes it took to write this post, I am now at a solid 10.5 hours. Time to get back to it!