What We're Reading!

Earlier this week, the nice folks are New Year Publishing sent Makayla two books to satisfy her new love of reading. Paris Goes to San Francisco and Paris Goes to Lake Tahoe.  These are just two books in a series called My Friend Paris that are writen by a couple of young girls that started the series when they were just 10 years old.  These books are part of her travel series and follow Paris as she explores San Francisco and Lake Tahoe with her family.

If you have been following my What We're Reading! you know that one of the things I am always looking for in the books we choose is that the illustrations be easy for Makayla to see. These books are beautifully illustrated with bright bold colors that cover the whole page.  Makayla lit up as she pointed out all the new details on each page, pointing to the things she hasn't seen yet and asking, "That?!" waiting for me to tell her what each thing is.  I grew up and still do live near San Francisco, and this little girl has seen more of the city than I have!  As we read it, I thought to myself, we'll have to use all the destinations in this book as a checklist of places to take the twerpies to visit as they grow up here.

I am crazy about these books for several reasons.  Although these are not board books like we're used to, because they are written with school aged girls in mind, the pages are not just ordinary paper, so they don't tear easily, which makes them easy to share with my toddlers now, but will make them great books for them to grow into as they learn to read for themselves.  I also love that the author is a young girl, herself.  Reading these books to my daughter is a great way to teach her what young girls are capable of!  Also, since I have twins, I was excited to learn that the main character is a big sister to younger twin girls.



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What We're Reading

After a two week hiatus, it's time to get back to sharing What We're Reading.

Over the past two weeks in which I didn't share our favorite books, Makayla has still been hung up on the Two is for Twins book that I shared last time.  I have to admit that it has grown on me.  I'm sure it has everything to do with how much Makayla loves to read it to us.

Austin has also really started to enjoy reading.  I've found him sitting down and reading books by him self a few times even. This kid doesn't sit still for anything, so it really warmed my heart the other day when I found him sitting against his stuffed frog chair and flipping through the pages of Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.  He was pointing at the pictures and mumbling something out loud, as if he were actually reading each page out loud.

However, this week, Makayla has a new favorite.  It's another one of the Baby Einstein books.  All I can say is, these Baby Einstein folks know what they're doing!  We are currently reading...and rereading...and reading, Baby Einstein: Language Nursery.  This isn't a book I would have picked out on my own, it was a hand-me-down.  It seems a little boring at first glance.  Simple, plain images, very few words, most not even in English.  But Baby Einstien gets it right , every time!

This book has a simple (but bold and easy to see for Makayla) image on one side of the page and on the opposite page there is a short sentence about the image and the sentence is written in about six different languages.  I have yet to actually ready the other languages to them, but the back of the book says that hearing the different languages is good for children during their language learning years.

On the last page, instead of an image, there is a mirror.  This is Makayla's favorite part.  She is always so excited and surprised to find herself in the book!  It cracks her up and she gets supper close to the mirror and kisses herself and giggles.  We have mirrors for the kids to play with, but there is something about having in it the book that makes it SO much more magical!

One of my favorite things about the book is that it's taught Makayla the work "duck."  Of course, now everything that isn't a dog or cat, is a duck...but she's learning!


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What We're Reading!

Well, we're sick again!  All four of us this time.  With less than a week until our big trip to Ohio, we are shaking off what is left of our most recent cold.  I'm hoping that we are all in the clear before we leave on Tuesday.  With Austin's asthma, I really don't want to leave him behind with a flare up ready and able to happen at any moment.

While we are all under the weather, so was the rest of Northern California!  We have been having some very unusual, almost Midwestern weather.  Complete with thunder and lightning storms, and a supposed tornado-watch, just over the hills from us.  Of course, all this makes for great reading weather!

This week we are reading Two is for Twins.  This was a birthday gift to the twins by Makayla's Physical and Vision Therapists.  Although the gift was very thoughtful, personally, I'm not a big fan of this book.  Something about the drawings creep me out a little and the words to the book doesn't flow off my tongue easily...but, what I think about it does not mater, because the kiddos are crazy about this book.  I cannot even tell you how many times Makayla and Austin have demanded that we read it to them.  It's a bit longer than a lot of other books we have read, which I think is part of why they like it so much.  And although I do not care for the drawings, Makayla loves to point out all the details, and goes on and on (in Twineese, not English) about all the things she's finding.