My Kids like these Books. Yours Might Too
The Real Epidemic: Functional illiteracy
Throughout the days, majority of the time, I’m engaged in a book. Whether in audio form, digital, or a physical book. For whatever reason beyond words, I genuinely enjoy it. I’d imagine it has something to do with this natural sense curiosity to learn and understand more and more each day. With that being said, I’m constantly working on building this characteristic with my children.
I have 2 boys, one at age 9 and the other 7. I know at these ages the sense of curiosity is standard, how else will they learn to navigate the world, but to instill this sense of wander is the key. Society will slowly eat away that wander. Nothing wrong with it, that’s just how things are. Although, if anything has been proven to be true, it would be that reading will make all the difference. With that being said, we read and listen as much as we can and thought I’d share some of titles my boys enjoy with you.
Pete The Cat by James Dean
My older boy came home one day from school with a Pete the Cat book by James Dean that he had checked out from the library. Since then, this has been his favorite. What’s most appealing with these books is the mixture of lessons on navigating the world with kindness, simple sweet stories and if you heard them, catchy songs like “I Love My White Shoes” and “My Groovy Buttons” James Dean, Kim Dean, and Eric Litwin make great books that are engaging, fun and educational for kids.
To learn more visit their website here: Pete The Cat Books
The Berenstain Bears Stan and Jan Berenstain
When my youngest boy started kindergarten, The Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain was the title he came home with. It was a blast from the past for me and I was a bit excited to see something from my childhood. What we love about these books is the navigating of life lessons as a child and teaching values worth having as a family. He enjoys these books so much, his kindergarten teacher gave him a head start in his collection of these titles. These books will forever remind me of my son correcting me on how to say Berenstain. Always worth having in your library!
To learn more visit their website here: Berenstain Bears
Holes by Louis Sachar
The first two titles, among others, we read at night before bed. Holes by Louis Sachar on the other hand was an audio book. We listen to audiobooks on the way to and from school. I would say this helps with their listening skills and helps with context since this would be a higher level of reading which still allows my kids to build their own vision of the story. Holes is a great story of circumstances beyond your control and what can change just by the people you meet. My kids we’re engaged constantly asking why certain things happened and why each character acted a certain way. Story telling at its finest and would recommend to anyone this book and the benefits of audio books.
I didn’t want to make an exhausted list of titles or a top 5. There are just so much more titles from Captain underpants by Dav Pilkey , Dr Seuss, to Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang. I guess the point of this newsletter today is give your children the opportunity to fall in love with reading. Now with technology, it’s now harder to keep kids engaged with books. Reading takes time and concentration, while short form content is short and dopamine fulfilling. I face these challenges too. But I believe persistence is key and we never know what story might make all the difference. If you have children I’d love to hear how you engage with them to read and how you navigate the struggles of technology!