3 year old girl

What can you recommend for a 3yr old?

Now, I happen to know that this 3-year-old is a little girl, so I'm going to focus on that for right now, though some of the choices could be for either boy or girl.

My second favorite Usborne set (behind Farmyard Tales) is the Pipkin Poster Picture books.  Oh, how we love Pip!  Pipkin is a little penguin who asks BIG questions.  And these are questions that your kids have probably asked too!  These books have beautiful illustrations and tell the story of Pip finding the answer to his big question.  At the end, there is a big fold-out poster to illustrate the answer!

How Big is a Million?

The poster has a million stars!  Probably our favorite poster!

How Big Was a Dinosaur?

The poster shows the sizes of different dinosaurs and also compares them to things of today!

How Deep is the Sea?

Where do Baby Animals Come From? (And Baby People too)

Every preschooler asks!  We got this one when we were expecting Baby #4.  Very sweet, age-appropriate book.  

We also love these Story books.  They have beautiful illustrations and the pages have just the right amount of words for little attention spans.  These are combined volumes, which means there are multiple stories in one book.  A great bang for your buck!

Usborne Stories for Little Girls

Usborne Classic Stories for Little Children

And some other Picture Story Books:

Usborne Animal Stories for Little Children

Usborne Stories from Around the World for Little Children

Usborne Stories for Little Boys

These are adorable clothbound books with classic stories, rewritten for young listeners.  I love the binding, it seems classic and special :)

Usborne Big Book of Little Stories

And some other special books:

Usborne Fairy Tales for Bedtime

Animal Stories for Bedtime

The Usborne Children's Bible Stories

And since we're on the topic of fairy tales, what little girl doesn't love a good fairy tale?

The Usborne Fairy Tale Treasury

The Usborne Book of Fairy Tales

The Usborne Book of Princess Stories

These are both in the same style as Farmyard Tales, perfect for a Preschooler who will be learning to read!

And every little girl loves stickers!  I love the Sticker Dolly Dressing series.  The stickers are goo-free stickers, which means that when (not if, I have 4 kids, so I'm well-versed in sticker removal) they end up on furniture, windows, walls, floor, etc, they are easily removed and don't leave a residue!  They have a SDD for whatever your little girl is into - Back to School, Ballerina, Bridesmaids, Fairies, Action, and lots more! 

Sticker Dolly Dressing Princesses

There are also some Sticker Dressing books for boys - Extreme Sports, Knights, Pirates, etc!

I hope this helps!

**Disclaimer - The links on this page go to my personal UBAM consultant page.  I receive a commission on any sales made on that site, but your price stays the same. Being an Usborne consultant is a small way I support my family. **

 

Readers, Fairy Tales, and American History

Can you recommend something for ages three to five who are learning to read? Also, I have had children requesting fairy tales (I would read them aloud) Our third grader could use some books on Native Americans, the Revolutionary War, or the Wild West to supplement school.

Another sweet friend sent this request in.  I talked some about readers yesterday, but I'll add some more to that.  We love the Ted and Friends Phonics collection.  It's similar to the Very First Reading Set, but without the obvious parent-child collaboration.  Instead of letting the child exclusively work on learned phenomes (letter sounds), the Ted and Friends only emphasizes certain letter sounds.  The Combined Volume (CV notation) means there are several books in one, and you get a great deal since it's bound into one book!
Ted and Friends has 12 of the 16 Phonics Readers.  This is the same illustrator as Farmyard Tales, so you know it's a favorite at our house :)

Now onto Fairy Tales.  The Usborne Illustrated Stories are phenomenal.  Beautiful illustrations and any collection of stories you can think of.  These are great as read-alouds, but as you get more confident readers, they will enjoy curling up with these books. Here are the Fairy Tale specific books:

Usborne Illustrated Grimm's Fairy Tales

Usborne Illustrated Fairy Tales

Usborne Illustrated Classics for Girls

Usborne Illustrated Classics for Boys

If Usborne has a fault, it is the lack of early American history material.  Lots of modern history, lots of ancient history, not a lot of American history.  This is one that I've used:

Who Were the First North Americans?

A little easy on the reading level, but the material is good.  The Internet Links are also helpful - you know they're safe, so no worries about what 'interesting' things he may find while researching.

Hope that helps!  

**Disclaimer - The links on this page go to my personal UBAM consultant page.  I receive a commission from sales on that site, but your price remains the same.  I am an Usborne consultant to help contribute to my family.**

Elementary Reference

What are some good books to have on hand for the early years of homeschooling (pre-k through 6th or so)? Books with good general information, that can be used with a variety of curriculum and homeschooling styles?

Having a well-stocked library is the key to the love of reading and learning.  Kids are naturally curious about the world around them, so having good reference materials makes learning fun!

The Children's Encyclopedia is a favorite in our house.  We have used it as an integral part of 2 years of curriculum, but it's also been a good reference book just for fun.  It is very well loved in our house! I recommend the large version.  The smaller version is cheaper, but this book is used a LOT and I really like having the larger print version.

The Usborne Children's Encyclopedia New Edition

Every kid has trouble spots.  But rather than make them do boring practice, make it fun!  It's as simple as laminated cards and a wipe-off marker.  We have Brain Puzzles, Logic Puzzles (both are good for improving concentration), Math Puzzles, Word Puzzles, French, Tricky Words to Spell, and Grammar and Punctuation

Another of my very favorite resources is the Learning Palette.  The base is sturdy and you can buy card sets as your kids grow.  (PS, This set is pricey, but it's a great reason to have a Book Party, the Usborne hostess rewards are awesome!).  You can get cards for math and phonics, all different levels.  These are self-grading, so kids can do them on their own!  

Learning Palette

There are also some great math facts practice with the Wrap-ups, also self grading!  Great tools for extra math practice that aren't worksheets.

Learning Wrap-Ups

Now we have reading.  Teaching or helping kids learn to read is a daunting task.  Usborne makes it fun and easy.  I'm going to give you a couple of different options, you can choose depending on your needs.  

First option is a reading program, something to teach your kids to read.  Usborne has two great Reading Programs.  The Very First Reading Program comes with 15 books that progressively walk through the phenomes.  The books start with a lot of parent reading, with just a few words that the child can confidently read.  As you progress through, the child reads more and more.  It also comes with a parent guide.  These are great books that we use in our homeschool.  Fun, engaging stories that help build reading confidence systematically.  

There is also a Start to Read Pack with stickers, activity book and poster and 8 paperbacks from the Very First Reading Set.  There's also a free website to practice the first stages of reading - teachyourmonstertoread.com 

The First Reading Program is the next step with great stories that get progressively harder.  Fun stories with great illustrations.  It also comes with a Parent's Guide to help you through.  

If you don't need help teaching phonics, but instead are just looking for great easy readers for young children, look no further.  My absolute favorite early readers (we love them so much, it inspired my blog name!) are the Usborne Farmyard Tales.  There are 6 different titles in the series.  They are written especially for young readers (though my 4th grader still loves to read it).  Three of the books come with CDs.  This is an undervalued rescource, in my opinion!  These stories are so good, your kids will want to listen to them all the time, but what mom has time for that?  Pop the CD in and they can read along (Note: the CD does not have page-turn sounds, but if they are semi-familiar with the stories, they can kinda follow along without the sounds).

Here is a look inside.  If you notice, the top lines are simple, the bottom lines are more complex.  The top lines alone make a whole story.  This is so a young reader can read the "whole" story all by himself!  What a confidence booster!  The bottom lines add detail to the story.  He can read it with you and take turns, he reads the top line, you read the bottom lines.  As he gains confidence, he can add the bottom lines and read the entire story by himself.  The stories are cute, the characters lovable.  And since we live on a farm, we have fallen in love the Farmyard Tales.  Our favorite is The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales, but I'll list them all for you below.

The Little Book of Train Stories (with CD)

Bible Stories

The Usborne Book of Fairy Tales

The Usborne Book of Princess Stories

I hope this helps!  Usborne has lots of reference materials, Science, Math, History, but these are my favorites that tend to be classics.  

**Disclaimer - The links on this page go to my personal UBAM consultant page.  I receive a commission on any sales made on that site, but your price stays the same. Being an Usborne consultant is a small way I support my family. **