Advent Reading Round-Up: Week Three

Advent is going by so quickly! Here is everything we read during week three.  

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Day 14 (12/12/15)

David and Goliath
by Jean Marzollo

This is a great adaptation of a Bible story to the picture book format. The text is straightforward and easy to understand and the illustrations are appealing. Along the bottom of each page is a border filled with tiny black sheep who comment on the events of the story, helping young readers to consider the implications of each event in the plot. I only read the story to Miss Muffet, as it was pretty long and her attention span can often be quite short, but I could see a four or five year old really enjoying that extra content along the bottom of each page. Jean Marzollo has done a few others of these, and I will be on the lookout for them!

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Day 15 (12/13/15)

The Wisest Man in the World
by Benjamin Elkin and Anita Lobel

I liked this story, which is a legend about King Solomon. Miss Muffet did not, even though she will typically sit and listen to any Anita Lobel book. A bee figures heavily into the plot, and she was happy to identify the bee and make its signature buzzing sound. She was not, however, interested in hearing about how he had to prove his wisdom to the Queen of Sheba, probably because it all went over her head. This is a great read-aloud for older kids, though. I would definitely use it in a CCD class if I had the chance. 

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Day 16 (12/14/15)

All I Want for Christmas
by Kate Merritt 

I reviewed this board book earlier this week. (See the post here.) Miss Muffet mostly read this one independently ("by self"). It was not quite the favorite I expected it to be, but I showed the cover to Bo Peep and she broke out in a huge smile. This is the ideal book for a one-year-old, so we'll hang onto it for next year.

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Day  17 (12/15/15)

Mary, the Mother of Jesus
by Tomie dePaola

We didn't make it all the way through this book because it tells Mary's entire life story, and I really just wanted to focus on helping Miss Muffet understand the Nativity story. I'm also not sure how I feel about some of the information dePaola presents. The author's note explains his sources, but Miss Muffet certainly isn't old enough to figure out what is known and what is speculation. This would be perfect for an older audience, though, and I'll keep it in mind for future homeschooling purposes.

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Day 18 (12/16/15)

Christmas is Coming 
by Hannah Wood

This one was also reviewed on the blog this week. Because it involves counting and each page introduces a different holiday concept, Miss Muffet was very into it, and she kept returning to it on her own during the week. It's a good one to read when there are ten days left until Christmas - unfortunately, we didn't time it exactly right. Oh well.

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Day 19 (12/17/15)

Olive, the Other Reindeer
by J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh

This strange little book was part of my personal collection before I had kids. The punny title is what first made me interested in it, but I had never really read it until this week. Strangely, Miss Muffet was very into, despite not having an appropriate frame of reference to get the joke. When we finished the story, though, I sang Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to her and it made such an impression, she kept asking me to repeat it. She will appreciate this one more in a couple of years, I think.

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Day 20 (12/18/15)

Where is Baby's Christmas Present? 
by Karen Katz

Miss Muffet was very excited to read this book, and she was thrilled to lift the flaps and name the Christmas-related objects underneath. Holiday vocabulary is all new to her this year, so any opportunity to talk about ornaments, gingerbread men, candy canes, or Santa Claus is always welcome. All the Karen Katz board books are basically the same, and there's nothing remarkable about this one, but it was still a big hit!

Baby's First Christmasby Silvana Paolini

I took this book out for Little Bo Peep, but Miss Muffet snatched it up before it got anywhere near her baby sister. I read it to her once, but after that, she realized there was only one word per page and she preferred to read it herself. I asked her to read it to Bo Peep, but she went and hid it in her book box instead, so it looks like she might not be quite ready to share yet. Despite the title, it seems this book is ideal for second and third Christmases, too!

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Less than a week to go! Our last Advent Reading Round-Up will be posted on Christmas Eve. 

Advent Reading Round-Up: Week Two

Our second week of Advent reading is complete! See below for this week's titles and our reactions! 

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Day 7 (12/5/15)

Sarah Laughs 
by Jacqueline Jules

Our Jesse Tree ornament for this day featured Abraham, so we read this kid-friendly version of his story. It was a bit much for Little Miss Muffet, but she seemed to like the pictures. There aren't many picture book versions of Bible stories, so I don't really have anything to compare this to, but I liked it and would use it again.

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Day 8 (12/6/15)

Santa
by C. Nash

Little Miss Muffet got this book for Christmas last year, and since this was St. Nicholas Day, we brought it out again. There's not much to the story, but she loves that you can "clack" the book and she seems to be a fan of the illustrations. There's also some good onomatopoeia in the text that she likes to repeat. We continued reading this one on and off all week. 

Santa Claus Forever 
by Carolyn Haywood

We bought this book at the library's used bookstore based solely on the author. It's pretty wordy for a toddler, so Miss Muffet didn't pay a lot of attention to it. The story is about Santa Claus deciding to retire and then changing his mind when he meets the greasy salesman who wants to replace him. I didn't like the artwork very much

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Day 9 (12/7/15)

Jacob and Esau
by Mary Auld

We added Jacob to the Jesse tree on this day, which is why we read this book, which we got from the library on the recommendation of The Bleeding Pelican. The content of the story probably went over Miss Muffet's head, but I was impressed by how preschool-friendly the writing was. The art was somewhat generic, but Miss Muffet was willing to sit for almost the entire story, mostly because the pictures kept her interest, so that was a plus. I would be interested in seeing how she reacts to this story in a few years.

The Twelve Days of Christmas
by Jane Cabrera

Cabrera's books are hit or miss, and this was a big miss. She has rewritten the words to this traditional carol so that they make even less sense, and the illustrations are generic animal scenes in her usual style. I read this with Miss Muffet only once and told her she would have to just look at the pictures. (This was a library book and a late addition to our reading list. I have another version of the actual song to share later in the season, after Christmas Day.)

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Day  10 (12/8/15)

Joseph
by Brian Wildsmith

Wildsmith occasionally takes artistic liberties with his Bible stories, but this one doesn't seem that far off from what the Bible says. It's the story of Jacob's son, Joseph, who has the coat of many colors, and who was on our Jesse Tree ornament for this date. The book is long and the illustrations are really intricate, so I tried to just read a little bit to Miss Muffet, but she insisted on finishing the whole book, so we did. I think it will be a good resource for learning about this Bible story when my kids are in elementary school. We may not look at it again until then.

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Day 11 (12/9/15)

Moses
by Maud and Miska Petersham

This book is very wordy, but it's an excellent telling of the life of Moses, especially for early elementary audiences. Had I realized this sooner, I would have brought it to read to my 3rd grade CCD class instead of their textbook. I knew it would be asking way too much to expect Miss Muffet to sit for this one, so I read the first part of it to her as she ate her lunch, stopping before the parting of the Red Sea. I don't think she got much out of it at all this year, but I'm glad to own this one for future use.

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Day 12 (12/10/15)

Merry Christmas, Ollie!
by Olivier Dunrea

Little Miss Muffet is a huge Gossie fan, so when we saw this at the library, I knew we absolutely had to borrow it. We did read about Samuel (our Jesse Tree figure for today) from The Catholic Children's Bible before settling down with this one, but this book made much more of an impression than any of the others we've been reading this week. It has a simple plot - all the goslings are waiting for Father Christmas Goose to arrive - but the pictures are charming and Ollie's impatience and loud expressions of frustration make me laugh every time.

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Day 13 (12/11/15)

Morris's Disappearing Bag 
by Rosemary Wells 

This is a book I owned as a child - and it was my childhood copy that I read to Little Miss Muffet. I don't have any real memories of it - and I had a really negative experience meeting Rosemary Wells that has colored my reading of her books ever since - but Miss Muffet was a big fan. She kept saying, "Morris hiding!" and wanting to flip through the book on her own to try and find him. It's a strange book, in the sense that it introduces a magical element more than halfway through the text, but it's a great wish fulfillment tale for youngest kids who feel overshadowed by older siblings. (It's basically a holiday-themed Noisy Nora.)

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We're only halfway through Advent! Check back next Saturday for more of our reading list!

Third Grade CCD 2015-2016: The Jesse Tree (12/7/15)

This post has moved: http://ccdlessonplans.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-jesse-tree-third-grade.html

Early Literacy Around the House: The Living Room

Your living room (or family room, or den, or whatever you prefer to call it) is a great place to engage the entire family in fun early literacy activities and habits. Today's post provides a few suggestions.

• Read aloud as a family. My husband and I began a practice of reading aloud together before we were even married, and it is a tradition we continue now that we have children. Though our kids are small, we don't just read picture books, but poetry, articles, essays, interesting quotations, as well as children's novels, classics, and anything else we think is worth hearing. Sometimes our audience is our daughter (age 2), but other times, we are reading just for the sake of it, knowing that some of it goes over her head, but that some of it sinks in too. By reading aloud as a family in full hearing of all family members you demonstrate very strongly that reading is an important part of your family life.  
• Look at magazines and point out familiar objects, words and letters. Little Miss Muffet is obsessed with magazines. She does often prefer to rip them, but she has also learned a variety of vocabulary from pointing out different things to me in Parents magazine, or in catalogs we receive in the mail. When she was really little, she liked to look at pictures of babies, but more and more, she is interested in knowing the names of household objects, or of letters in different typefaces. If you have a basket of magazines near your couch, or a stack on your coffee table, don't hesitate to let your kids enjoy them. As long as there isn't any objectionable content, these can be a great way to incorporate novel language into your everyday lives.
• Tell stories about family photos on the wall and in albums. Kids love hearing stories about the people in their family. Use family photos as jumping off points for telling tales about your own life before your kids were born, and your kids' own experiences at ages they were too little to remember. If you have long-distance relatives, a photo album is also a great way to teach kids their names so they won't be total strangers each time you get together. Older photographs of grandparents or great-grandparents are also often very interesting to kids, for whom the 20th century feels like ancient history.
• Put together an alphabet puzzle. A table or space on the living room floor is a perfect place to put together an alphabet puzzle. Make it an interactive family experience by dividing up the letters so that everyone is responsible for a certain few. Have your children figure out whose turn it is based on which letter comes next. 

Will you have a Christmas tree in your living room this holiday season? If so, you might also enjoy this post!