Four Great Books to Read with your One-and-a-Half-Year-Old

Reading with your children is so important – it teaches them early literacy skills, gives them a love for reading and learning, and it allows you to spend time with them talking and learning together.  My toddler is loving these books right now!

1.   Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

This book has been around for 60 years!  So many people can remember reading this book as a kid and want to read it to their own children.  Margaret Wise Brown used every phoneme in the English language in this book, so it is great for kid’s speech and reading development.

A young bunny says good night to all the things he sees from his bed before drifting off to sleep.

Buy Goodnight Moon here. 

2.   Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle

Another beloved classic.  And there are so many things you can do with this book! At my son’s young age, we are working on recognizing the animals in the pictures, and as he gets a little bit older he can “help” read the repetitive phrases.  Kids who are older preschool/ kindergarten will be able to recognize that the colors are describing the animals – an introduction to adjectives and nouns!

A brown bear sees a yellow duck who sees a blue horse, and so on!

Buy Brown Bear, Brown Bear here. 

3.   Hand, Hand, Fingers Thumb by Al Perkins

My son loves the rhythm of this book!  We pretend to drum our fingers, thumbs and hands on the book as we read.  It has also made him obsessed with drumming on everything else. 

Monkeys drum and hum and create a rhythmic read that will get stuck in your head.

Buy Hand, Hand, Fingers Thumb here.

4.   Corduroy  by Don Freeman

Honestly, my son always wants to read this book before his nap, and it’s just a bit long for that.  So, I skip lots of sentences and sometimes even pages.  But when you read the whole book as it is written you are struck with the precise language the author uses.  It’s poetic, a heart-warming story, and what young kid doesn’t relate to having a teddy bear?

A bear, Corduroy, wants to be taken home by a shopper, but he is missing a button.  After going on an adventure to find it, he is finally taken home by a new friend.

Buy Corduroy here. 

Check out one or all of these books and read them with your toddler this weekend!

 *Note: I've linked to all of these to board books on Amazon.  Almost all the books we read together right now are board books so that my kids can touch and feel them without messing them up.  I think it is so important for them to have ownership of the book and to be able to physically interact with it.  But, if you'd rather have it in paperback I totally get it!

Hannah

Let them say it (over and over and over)

The other night I was in the baby’s room taking care of her and putting her to sleep, and I could hear the babble of my toddler talking to my husband coming from the living room.  Every once in a while, I could hear my husband say, “Are you okay Bear Bear?” From a distance, it sounded like the cadence of my son’s voice was mimicking his dad’s.

When I came into the living room I asked what happened to Bear Bear.  What tragedy kept befalling him!? My husband said he had fallen off the windowsill once, and our son asked him if he was okay a thousand times! As I was standing there he started again, “You okay Bear Bear?  Ahhhh you okay Bear Bear?”  It was like he was trying to figure out how exactly to say the sentence.  He even came up to us to ask the question as if to say, “Am I doing this right?”

And this is why kids play.  Not only is it fun to throw your bear around with your dad, but it is helping them develop language.  He was asking the same question again, over and over, to really understand what he was saying.  And to make sure he was getting it right.  This repetition can be funny (and also sometimes get annoying) but it is extremely important to his language development.

Let your kids talk and babble and say the same things over and over.  Take delight in it and laugh at them.  Help them hear the proper way to say it, play with them, and soak in the moment.

Hannah

Dinner Party and Hospitality

Have you ever been to a fancy dinner party?  One where there is an actual table cloth and china dishes?  And I mean not for an event, but at somebody’s house?

I can’t remember going to someone’s house for a dinner party; we are usually just “coming over for dinner”.  There seems to be a difference.

I am re-reading Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets Learned while Living in Paris by Jennifer L. Scott because I want to be effortlessly stylish and chic like French women.  Of course, since I’m re-reading it being stylish apparently isn’t all that effortless for me, but whatever.  I’ll learn.   

Anyway, in one of the chapters Jennifer describes how in France it is part of the culture to throw dinner parties.  And they are usually quite elaborate. Madame Chic gave one at least once a week! *gasp* Jennifer describes them this way:

“Madame Chic’s [dinner parties] were always elegant affairs-classical music, aperitifs in the salon beforehand, delicious five-course meal to follow, then some after-dinner smoking for the men, digestifs, and more classical music.”

-Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets Learned

while Living in Paris

by Jennifer L. Scott, chapter 15

While I was reading the chapter on entertaining I kept wondering what these French people would do with their kids?  Did they have these fancy dinners with the kids?  Or did they put them to bed and then have everyone over?  (that would never work!)  I don’t know. 

Kids or no kids, I would like to throw an actual dinner party.  However, I’m not in the habit of simply having people over for dinner.  I don’t usually ask people to come to my house for play dates.  I’m not even in the habit of saying I’ll meet you at Starbucks for coffee!  So what makes me think I could just whip up a dinner party no problem?

Also, what is keeping me from just having people over for dinner? (Ok, I do actually know: insecurity about the way my house looks, fear of how the food will taste, thinking the house won’t look clean because…kids.) But will my close friends worry about that?  I can already tell you. No.  No, they will not.

They will appreciate me having them over and they will offer to bring something.  And when they notice the baby spitting up on the floor they will just clean it up without even mentioning it.

I know this because my two best friends invite us over all the time and that’s what happens at their houses. 

If the toys are everywhere, we don’t care.  If there’s dirt on the floor, we don’t care (if we even notice!)  If one of their kids needs help with something, we help them. 

So, when I realized we had no plans for this weekend, I said, what the heck! I’m inviting them over. I’m just going to jump in and do this. And guess what?  They offered to bring something. So far, so good.

I am trying to get the hose clean and have things be nice.  I want my hospitality to be the best that I can make it.  But I am also giving myself grace for when I fall short of my goal.  And if the lasagna burns and the cobbler is terrible, we will just order pizza and have someone run to get ice cream.

And I’m viewing this simple meal as a plan for more simple meals.  And also as a spring board for more elaborate gatherings.  If I want to eventually get to the dinner party status of Madame Chic, then I need to start small and practice.

Here is our menu for the evening:

·      Salad – from Friend #1

·      Roasted veggies – from Friend #2

·      Lasagna – I’m making it from this recipe: https://thestayathomechef.com/amazing-lasagna-recipe/

·      Garlic bread – store bought (win!)

·      Peach cobbler – I’m making it from this recipe: https://www.gonnawantseconds.com/southern-peach-cobbler/

Now you!  Text a friend and have them over for dinner!  Or for coffee.  Or a playdate.  Or popcorn and Netflix.  Whatever, just do it!

Happy entertaining!

Hannah


Here is a link to Lessons from Madame Chic
https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Madame-Chic-Stylish-Secrets/dp/1451699379