The childcare kiddos have been keeping me hoping. Â We are adjusting to the new school schedule which is a real relief. Â Right now, until the two new babies come, I have four or five. Â It’s so nice and really relaxed. Â It’s been good as it’s allowed me to work with my foot in the walking boot.
These three are big time readers.  Thursday when they were here we had a reading marathon.  I read books again, again, and again.  Some of our favorites are series books including Dog’s Colorful Day: A Messy Story About Colors and Counting, Little Blue Truck  and  No, David!
If anyone knows of other children’s books they recommend, send me suggestions.
We’ve been going lots of color related activities. Â This one was sorting by color. Â These were fun foam shapes I found at the thrift store….they made an easy learning activity.
The kids keep me hopping but I have taken more time over naptime to work with my foot. Â All the kids sleep at the same time now. Â It’s such a blessing. Â That way I can get a break, go to the bathroom and work with my foot.
Carver came one day to meet the kiddos. Â These kids are going to be his family away from his family. Â He better get used to them!!
The kids love anything that involves what they think is painting. Â Here’s something really simple we did that you can easily do with kids in your life….
Start out with paper towels. Â Have the kids color them with washable markers. Â They MUST be washable.
Then they paint over it with water.
They LOVE painting…the result is this.
It’s a simple activity that teaches about absorption..but mostly, it’s just fun.
I’ve been working on collecting a few simple masks and headbands with ears. Â I don’t have room for a big dress up area. Â This much works. Â I can’t tell you how popular this mask has been. Â They use it all the time.
I love my job…of course there are moments..but every job has that.
I have great families and a great spouse and family who tolerates the toys and mess the kids leave. Â These guys really do make my days fun.
I bought 5 copies of I’ll love you forever. 2 for my nieces who have just had babies, one for a close friend of my daughter, and one for each of my children. (For whenever they start their families) It was popular when my kids and my brothers were young. If you like repetition, it’s perfect. “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living,my baby you’ll be”
Anything by Jan Brett. My favorite was Berlioz the Bear. She has a website with activities for each book.
Press Here by Herve Tullet is a fun book for kids that age. It’s interactive by following instructions on each page of what to do with the book. I gavethis book for a xmas gift and read it 10 times before I left the party!
The favourite book among the grandchildren (6, ages 6 and under) at our house is “One” by Kathryn Otoshi. It has colours and numbers and the basic theme is about bullying. Great story that we read over and over again.
Christine from Ontario
Dr. Seuss’ Sleep Book and The Real Story of the Three Little Pigs. My grandsons loved these books.
A childhood favorite, that I can still recite much of is “Never Tease a Weasel”, which has been reprinted and according to Google is available at Target among other places. Rhyming and reminders about kindness in one book.
When I volunteer at the school, the Llama Llama books are always great. The repetition really helps the kids remember and then they are able to “read” them to me. Now I have my littles hooked on them. I have copies in the netting on the back of the car seats and they always ask for them.
Diannia McDonald
When my kids were preschoolers, they loved Old Black Fly. https://www.amazon.com/Old-Black-Fly-Jim-Aylesworth/dp/0805039244
It rhymes, which makes it fun to read and every few pages, it says, ‘shoo fly, shoo fly, shoo.’ My kids loved to say that line over and over. Maybe your library has it.
They also liked The Monster At the End of This Book, a little Golden book and The Color Kittens, also a little Golden book. Whose Mouse Are You? was a favorite of my younger siblings. I read that book so often, I can still recite it.
Reading to my kids is the one thing I really miss. They could easily talk me into 45 minutes worth of books at bedtime.
When my sons (now 40 and 42) were young, I loved to read Bill Peet books to them. Always a moral to the story and they usually got it! Lovely books!
Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton is a darling book. Got my granddaughter dancing. Too cute. Sandra Boynton books are short, rhyming and silly. So cute. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Daisy Head Maisy, A Fish Out of Water are three more books that were hits at my house.The Monster at the End of This Book someone mentioned before is a real favorite of my kids.I also have that one on my iPad and that’s really fun, it’s interactive.
Anything by Sandra Boynton, the Otis the Tractor books, and ALL the Graeme Base books. The illustrations are INCREDIBLE, and great for slightly older kids as they almost always have tons of things hidden in them, and can keep the kids looking for a while. The Book With No Pictures is great, too. The Underpants books are good, as well.
As kids, we LOVED the Dr. Seuss books. The rhymes are fun and we had some of them memorized because we read them so many times.