Book List: 3-4+

Heres is a book list for ages 3-4+. You can introduce these before age 4 but some of the books will have concepts above their understanding.

+ Indicated the book is a Caldecott Honor or Medal Book

All Things Bright and Beautiful - Cecil Frances Alexander

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - Judy Barrett

Stone Soup - Marcia Brown

Our Library - Eve Bunting

Mike and the Steam Shovel; The Little House - Virginia Lee Burton

The Mixed-Up Chameleon; Pancakes, Pancakes; Walter, the Baker - Eric Carle

Trucks; Freight Train - Donald Crews

+ Strega Nona - Tomie De Paola

Planting A Rainbow; Eating the Alphabet - Lois Ehlert

The Story of Ping - Marjorie Flack

And Then It Was Spring - Julie Fogliano

A-Z Picture Book; Oh What A Busy Day - Gyo Fujikawa

Owen; Chrysanthemum - Kevin Henkes 

Bedtime for Frances - Russell Hoban

Danny and the Dinosaur - Syd Hoff

The Red Apples - Pat Hutchins

Carrot Seed - Ruth Kraus

The Owl and the Pussycat - Edward Lear 

Mouse Soup; Frog and Toad; Owl at Home; Grasshopper on the Road - Arnold Lobel 

Frog Went A Courtin’ - John Longstaff

All the Places I Love; What You Know First - Patricia MacLachlan

Time of Wonder - Robert McCloskey

Too Much Noise - Ann McGovern 

Roxaboxen - Alice McLerran

Tikki, Tikki, Tembo - Arlene Mosel

Marshmallow - Clare Turlay Newberry

Katy No-Pocket - Emmy Payne

+ Puss in Boots - Charles Perrault, illustrated by Malcolm Arthur

Bee Tree; Thundercake; The Keeping Quilt - Patricia Polacco

+ Baboushka and the Three Kings - Ruth Robbins

Rattle Trap Car - Phyllis Root

In November; The Old Woman Who Named Things - Cynthia Rylant

Swirl By Swirl - Joyce Sidman

+ The House in the Night - Susan Marie Swanson

Balloons Over Broadway - Melissa Sweet

Whoever You Are, My Love Will Find You - Nancy Tillman

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile - Bernard Waber 

The Biggest Bear - Lyn Ward

My First Little House Series - Laura Ingalls Wilder

A Chair For My Mother; Three Days On A River In a Red Canoe - Vera B. Williams

Silly Sally - Audrey Wood

Miss Suzy - Miriam Wood

Harry the Dog - Gene Zion

The Seashore Book; The Storm Book - Charlotte Zolotow

A Book List 2-3+

Here is a book list for ages 2-3+. It is fine to introduce these before age 3 but some of the concepts may not be understood.

+ Indicates a Caldecott Honor or Medal Book

LMNO Peas - Keith Baker

Madeline - Ludwig Bemelmans 

The Mitten - Jan Brett

The Little Island - Margaret Wise Brown

Opposites - Eric Carle

Bear Snores On - Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

Mrs. Wishy Washy’s Farm and others - Joy Cowley

Dancing Feet; Farmyard Beat - Lindsey Craig

Let the Whole Earth Sing Praise; Haircuts for Woolseys and many more - Tomie De Paola 

Mary I Bring a Friend? Beatrice de Regniers

Time to Sleep; Count - Denise Fleming

Corduroy - Don Freeman 

Ox Cart Man - Donald Hall

A House is a House For Me - Mary Ann Hoberman

Goodnight Owl; The Wind Blew; Rosie’s Walk - Pat Hutchins

+ Snowy Day; Peter’s Chair - Ezra Jack Keats

Ferdinand - Munroe Leaf

Always Room For One More - Sorche Nic Leodhas

Swimmy; Frederick; Alexander and the Wind Up Mouse - Leo Lionni

Chicka, Chicka Boom, Boom; Barn Dance - Bill Martin

+ Make Way for Duckling - Robert McCloskey 

When the Leaf Blew In - Steve Metzger 

Amazing Airplanes; Terrific Trains - Tony Mitton 

The Little Red Hen - Diane Muldrow

Dogteam; Canoe Days - Gary Paulsen

A Year at Maple Hill Farm - Alice and Martin Provensen

Looking for a Mouse - Phyllis Root

Night in the Country; Bunny Bungalow - Cynthia Rylant

Richard Scarry books

Caps for Sale - Esphyr Slobodkina

Dr. De Soto - William Steig

Owl Moon - Jane Yolen

A Book List: 2+

Here is a book list for children 2 years and up. These could also be read to younger babies as well but the 2+ range is when the children will begin to understand the concepts in these books better.

+ indicates a Caldecott Honor or Medal book.

Booklist 2+

Airport; Trains; Planes; Boats and many more - Byron Barton

ABC; Slowly, Slowly, Said the Sloth - Eric Carle

Noah’s Ark; The Maisy Series; Jazzy; Country Animals; Garden Animals - Lucy Cousins

In the Tall, Tall Grass; In the Small Small Pond - Denise Fleming

Kitten’s First Full Moon; Little White Rabbit, My Garden - Kevin Henkes

A Hole is to Dig - Ruth Krauss

Rainstorm; Trainstop - Barbara Lehman (Wordless)

+ Over in the Meadow - John Longstaff

The Little Train; The Little Auto, Policeman Small and many others - Lois Lenski

A Color of His Own; Swimmy - Leo Lionni

Frog Series - Mercer Mayer (Wordless)

The Little Engine that Could - Watty Piper

The Tale of Peter Rabbit and many others - Beatrix Potter

We're Going on a Bear Hunt - Michael Rosen

Dr. Seuss books

+ The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night - Peter Spier

+ A Sick Day for Amos McGee; Bear Has a Story to Tell - Philip Stead

Mouse Paint - Ellen Stoll Walsh 

Wonders of Nature; Prayers for Children; A Day at the Seashore - Eloise Wilkins

A Book List 0-2 Years

Each Peach Pear Plum - Allan Ahlberg

Barnyard Dance!; Pajama Time! and many others- Sandra Boynton
 

Goodnight Moon; Runaway Bunny; Big Red Barn - Margaret Wise Brown

Dear Zoo - Rod Campbell
 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar; The Very Quiet Cricket; The Very Busy Spider; From Head to Toe - Eric Carle 

Jamberry - Bruce Degan

Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? - P.D. Eastman

Where is the Green Sheep? Mem Fox

In My Den; In My Forest; In My Nest; and other - Sarah Gillingham

123s - Charlie Harper

A Good Day; Old Bear; Little White Rabbit - Kevin Henkes

Beep Beep; Choo Choo and others - Petr Horacek

Counting Kisses and many others- Karen Katz

Pat the Bunny - Dorothy Kunhardt

Let’s Play - Leo Lionni

Brown Bear, Brown Bear - Bill Martin, Jr.

Guess How Much I Love You - Sam McBratney

Mini Masters - Julie Merberg

I Like It When... - Mary Murphy 

Goodnight Gorilla - Peggy Rathman

I Like Fruit; I Like Vegetables; I Like Bugs - Lorena Siminovich

Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? - Dr. Seuss

I am a Bunny - Richard Scarry

Haiku Baby - Betsy Snyder

We Belong Together - Joyce Wan

Raking Leaves

Last week, I really wanted to get outside! I've been holed up in our house trying to get unfinished projects finished and taking care of Wesley who had a bad stomach bug. The weather has gotten warmer so we took advantage. We raked up a big pile of leaves and Wes had a blast jumping in them. David sat on a blanking cleverly trying to find leaves and grass to eat. Despite all my efforts to keep the leaves and grass out of his mouth, every time I looked at him he had a stem or a blade hanging out of his mouth. One time I pull a full hard crunchy leaf out of his mouth! And happily, he went after another. Finally, he became contented with his toys. Here are some pics of the afternoon.

Pumpkin Pecan Bites

On Pumpkin Day, Wesley and I made these delicious cookies. They were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I think adding chocolate chips would be a good addition too even though they are great without them. 

Pumpkin Pecan Bites

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup and will probably use even less next time)

1 egg

1/2 cooked pumpkin

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I used 1 tsp - this makes the cookie sweeter when you take away some of the sugar)

1 cup all purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 regular)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon (I used a little more)

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat Oven to 375F. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer. Add the egg, pumpkin, and vanilla. Sift the dry ingredients together (except for the nuts) and add to the mixer and stir. Mix in the nuts. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Makes about 30 cookies.

Taken from “The Kid’s Nature Book: 365 Indoor/Outdoor Activities and Experiences” by Susan Milord. 

Pumpkin Day

This year, I decided to call Halloween Pumpkin Day. We don't really like all the scary stuff and Wes and David certainly don't but, I love all things pumpkin so we made it a day of pumpkins. Here is what Wes and I did while Papa was hard at work.

We've just introduced him to glue and he loves it! So I came up with lots of pasting activities. Wes colored paper pumpkin parts and then pasted them onto paper. Then, he sorted out big and little paper pumpkins and glued them in the appropriate box. Then he had to match up pumpkins and glue them in the matching box. Lastly, though not a glueing activity, he traced lines from the family to the pumpkin patch and did very well, on the first one at least. After that, the trace got worse and worse. Something to note later. Too much of something doesn't always mean better. He also colored the letter P and different things that start with P.

After that we read 4 library books about pumpkins. Our favorite was called Pumpkin Cat about a black cat and a mouse trying to grow a pumpkin. 

Then we moved into the kitchen. We placed our real pumpkin on the floor and sang "Ring around the Pumpkin, pocket full of seed, leaves, leaves, we all fall down" sung to the Ring around the Rosie song. Then we marched around, hopped around and stomped around. Again, I found that too much of something doesn't always mean better. Very surprisingly, Wes got tired of hopping and marching around the pumpkin! 

Next, we carved the pumpkin into a kitty cat face inspired by the Pumpkin Cat book. Sadly the pictures I took with Wesley in them didn't come out good. 

Then, we took the scooped out seeds and roasted them in the oven with a little olive oil, salt and pepper at 350 until they started turning a little brown. Yummy!

Lastly, we made Pumpkin Pecan Bites (Cookies) from a recipe I found in The Kid's Nature Book I found at a homeschool book sale for $1. :) They were delicious! They were crunchy on the outside, at least for a while, and soft on the inside. 

Later in the day we went to our church's neighborhood fall festival. Wes had a great time! We kind of lost track of all the candy he was eating which is a bad thing because he never eats any. We paid for it later, especially since it was the first day of really feeling better after a week long stomach bug. He lost all of it and then some. Yuck! We felt terrible. 

David didn't really know what was going on but just smiled at everyone. 

I guess this is a Tigger the Tiger costume. It fits his personality. He's happy and bouncy. Usually when he's sitting up at the table in his high chair he just happily bounces and smiles at us. 

It was a great day! I hope next year to invite a few people over and do much the same thing - celebrating Pumpkin Day with lots of fun crafts and baking. I would have done it this year but I thought up the idea literally the night before! 

This is our friend Jamie (sorry her face is so blurred!) holding David and his friend Logan the Lion at the Fall Festival. Logan is just 4 weeks older than David.