Christmas Mice

We added a new Christmas board book to our collection, by Richard Scary. It is called Christmas Mice. On the back of the book it says it was originally published in 1965 as The Santa Claus Book. I think it was one of the old, old Golden Books. It would be so fun to get my hands on some of those! However, the newly published version is a great second best. The story is simple, the pictures amazing, the perfect read aloud for a toddler! The story tells about two mice who are the first ones awake on Christmas. They go around the house exploring all of the wonderful presents Santa left and wonder if Santa forgot them. Do you think Santa would forget them?

Who's Coming to Our House

Who's Coming to Our House, by Joseph Slate, is another great Christmas board book for really young children. It is the story of the animals in the barn preparing for the birth of baby Jesus. Little kids will love the animals and the rhyming text and parents get the chance to talk about the Christmas story after the read the book to their children. It is the perfect way to introduce the story of the birth of the Savior in a very simple, child-like way.

Favorite Christmas Board Book

Christmas in the Manger, by Nola Buck and Felicia Bond, is my favorite Christmas board book for really small children. The illustrations are wonderful and it has a great rhyming text that is cute, but not too cute. The story keeps the spirit of the real reason for Christmas, but is not preachy or too difficult for small children. It is the perfect Christmas book for a baby or small toddler!

The Mitten by Jan Brett

Jan Brett is one of those authors you can always count on. Every one of her books is amazing. She is a brilliant artist with an eye for detail. We have her book, The Mitten, in board book format and it is the favorite of the moment for my almost 3 year old daughter. She loves animals and this book is full of them. It is the story of a little boy whose grandmother knits him some white mittens. She warns him that they will get lost too easily in the snow, but he insists. Sure enough, he loses one immediately, but the forest animals love the mitten. One by one they squeeze into the mitten together until it is stretched all out. In the end, the little boy finds the mitten and takes it back home, but his grandmother can't figure out why it is now huge. One of the great things about Jan Brett books is that she usually puts an extra illustration to the side of the page that is some sort of hint of what will happen on the next page. Kids love to look at the mini illustration and try to figure out what will happen next. It is great practice for getting them to learn about making predictions. While your kids are fascinated with the first snowfall, take some time to read a book like the mitten that captures that interest!

My Favorite Board Books

My sister requested that I do a post about some of my favorite board books, the ones I would buy first if I were starting over with my first baby. The first book I think every child needs to have is a copy of Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown. We also love In a Big Red Barn, by the same author. I believe the most important type of book to read to very young children is Nursery Rhymes. There's a lot of research out there saying how important nursery rhymes are for beginning readers, so kids should be familiar with them from the very beginning. It doesn't really matter what versions you choose, but my own personal favorites are by Mary Englebreit and Tomie daPaola. You should also have a couple of counting books. Some of our favorites are Doggies, by Sandra Boynton and One Hungry Monster by Susan O'Keefe. ABC books are also important. Again, it doesn't matter which ones you pick, but in my opinion, Dr. Suess's ABC is a classic. Next, make sure you have several books that have rhyming, sing song text. Sandra Boynton's Snuggle Puppy is wonderful! Several others that are personal favorites are Mrs. Wishy-Washy, by Joy Cowley, Peek-a-WHO? by Nina Laden, and Is Your Mama a Llama, by Steven Kellogg and as many Dr. Suess books as you can get. I beleive it is never too early to read to your kids. I start with mine from the very beginning and I do my absolute best to try and read some with them each day. Reading out loud to young children every day is the very best thing you can do to help them be successful in school. It doesn't matter if it is the very same book every day. In fact, I try to read nursery rhymes to my 5 month old almost every day. I know how hard this is, but our natural instinct is to take the books away from babies and toddlers because they chew on them and we are afraid they might ruin them. That is part of how little ones learn to love books. I'm not saying you should give them your very best, expensive books, but you need to make sure that you have at least 10 or so books that your child can have that you don't care if they chew on or ruin. One of our copies of Goodnight Moon, has no cover and is beaten to death, but we still read that copy regularly, because that is the one my kids love.