Lindsay

10 great picture books to read aloud

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Books

I had several friends ask for a list of the 1,000 books we read before kindergarten. However, I decided to break it down into smaller posts instead for several reasons:

  1. I wouldn’t recommend ALL of the books we read. Some of them weren’t great, and I don’t want you to pick up a poorly written book if I can help it.
  2. Do you really want to scroll through a list of 1,000 books and try to find them at the library? The answer is no. You don’t. I also don’t want you to print off a list of 1,000 books and roam the shelves in confusion.
  3. You could easily plow through 10 picture books in a week. Breaking it down makes reading to your child more manageable, because you absolutely could read one or two books to your child each day.

I am really picky when it comes to picture books. If the rhyme scheme is off or it’s trying too hard to be goofy/funny/different, it’s off the table. Here’s my list of books I enjoyed reading aloud to my kids — and it’s in alphabetical order by author’s last name, just in case you do want to search the shelves while you’re waiting for your library holds to come in.

  1. No Sleep for the Sheep by Karen Beaumont. I immediately bought this book online when we read it the first time, which says a lot. Poor Sheep just wants to sleep, but the other farm animals keep coming to the barn and making noise. You’ll be able to quote this book when your kids won’t go to sleep, and everyone in the house will be laughing while you read it.
  2. Little Excavator by Anna Dewdney. This is currently my son’s favorite book. Written by the author of the popular Llama Llama books (which I also recommend), this story has the same rhythm and easy-to-read rhyme scheme, and the pictures are darling. Who doesn’t love a tale about an underdog that saves the day?
  3. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. To protect himself from being eaten, a mouse tells all the creatures he meets about a scary “gruffalo” he’s about to have lunch with. This book is SO fun to read aloud, and I adore the illustrations.
  4. You Don’t Want a Unicorn by Ame Dyckman. This one is on the weirder side, all about the hazards of owning a unicorn you don’t know about (they poop cupcakes, for example). Yet its goofiness is endearing, and the pictures (and the fact that it directly addresses the reader) make it even better.
  5. The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman. I count this as one of my top 10 favorite children’s books. Easily. Any mother whose kids won’t eat what she makes will relate to this book about Mrs. Peters, who has to make different foods for each of her seven children every day. One of them only eats applesauce, for example, while another only likes milk. Marla Frazee is also one of the BEST illustrators, in my opinion, and her pictures make this story pop.
  6. The Bad Seed by Jory John. I admit that when I first picked this book up after seeing it everywhere, I skimmed through it and went What? When I actually took the time to read it, I loved the subtle message about how everyone can change and no one should be stuck being a “bad seed.” It’s an interesting book to discuss with your kids, and the illustrations make it fun.
  7. Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen. Even though this was published 13 years ago, I just discovered it this year when a blogger posted a picture of her reading it to her daughter’s class. This sweet story is about a lion who comes to the library but gets in trouble for roaring when they’ve told him to be quiet. There’s a gentle message about how sometimes you need to break the rules to help someone (and that libraries don’t always need to be quiet).
  8. I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll. My mom actually gave us this book years ago, and it’s been well-loved and read many times. In a fun twist, the boy in this story realizes he needs the monster who normally lives under his bed to help him go to sleep. When his monster leaves unexpectedly for the night, other monsters audition for the role — but they’re just not the same.
  9. Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin. I loved this book so much I actually used it as a theme for my kids’ fourth birthday. The dragons love tacos and eat boatloads of them (seriously — the illustrations even show this), but if they have any spicy salsa, it gives them the tummy troubles and they breathe fire. You can probably guess where this is going. I laugh every time I read this with my kids.
  10. Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds. This funny book won the Caldecott medal, and it absolutely deserves it. The illustrations only include varying shades of grey, white, and orange and perfectly complement the story about a bunny being pursued by creepy carrots. My kids often ask for this one (and the companion book, Creepy Pair of Underwear, is just as good).

Have you read these? Share your favorites in the comments!

3 easy ways to become a better writer

Posted on August 26, 2019 by Writing

I’m one of those obnoxious people who notices typos in a menu and groans out loud when I see yet another Instagram business post heralding a “sneak peak.” It’s more of a curse than a blessing, really, since friends always think I’m judging their grammar, and my husband is afraid to text me without proofreading first.

I get it. The English language is tricky, and many of us sat in our high school or college English classes wishing we were anywhere else. For the record, I didn’t have to diagram a sentence until I was in college, and I found the exercise ridiculous — and I was an English minor! Rather than bore you to tears with rules about language, I thought I’d discuss three simple ways you can become a better writer. No college degree required.

Read everything aloud

If you frequently add or leave out words when you’re typing, this one tip will solve A LOT of problems. Before you send a text or post something or print off a really important work document, slowly read everything out loud to yourself. You’ll be surprised what you notice once you hear yourself saying it.

Reading work aloud is also a good way to gauge whether a sentence is too long or whether you need to add commas or dashes or some other form of punctuation. It helps you realize if you need to change your tone or make something sound more professional. If you don’t trust yourself to read something, ask a friend or colleague or even your child to read it to you. I promise you’ll get the clarity you need.

Keep it simple

I made the mistake in college of majoring in communication (with a print journalism emphasis) and minoring in English. On paper, these may seem like similar fields, but they are vastly different. Journalism is all about simplifying and making copy as clean as possible. English scholars, on the other hand, use the longest phrases they can think of and try to sound as smart as possible by stuffing hundreds of words into a critique of Beowulf.

While I loved my creative writing and young adult literature classes, it quickly became clear that my quick, punchy writing style (with short paragraphs) did not fly in some English classes. I had embraced simplicity and couldn’t go back to meandering on for pages and pages.

No offense to any of you English majors out there, but the real world doesn’t usually want to read 1,500 words about a topic when they could have read it in 300. Your boss isn’t going to be impressed that you used a thesaurus and replaced all the words you thought were boring with “better” ones.

There’s a time for big words and giant passages. One of my favorite books, Anne of Green Gables, often features Anne’s long-winded soliloquies and dramatic imaginings. For the most part, though, people are in a hurry and respond better to short, to-the-point dialogue. “Stated” should be “said.” “Assist” should be “help.” “Utilize” should be “use.” Substitute a shorter word for jargon like this, and you’ll already notice a big difference in your writing.

Give yourself time

If I have to write something big and it just isn’t sounding right, I’ll often work on something else and come back to it in an hour or so. Sometimes I’ll even wait until the next day to finish it up. This isn’t always realistic at your job or if you have to text someone back RIGHT NOW.

While you may not have the luxury of waiting to send something, you CAN spare five minutes or even one minute to give yourself a breather. Check email, go get a drink, or take a walk around the office (or around the block or your house or wherever you are). Then come back and look at whatever you’re writing with fresh eyes. You may notice you have the word and twice or you misspelled your friend’s name (trust me, with the name Lindsay, it happens all the time).

Taking the time to read through something later also gives you the opportunity to rewrite or revise if you need to. The best writers are also the best editors — or, at least, they have the best editors.

So. I’d love to hear if these tips work for you. What are the biggest writing or editing challenges you face?

How to read 1,000 books before kindergarten

Posted on August 23, 2019 by Books

It all began with the summer challenge from Little Mama Shirt Shop to read 100 books to your kids before Aug. 31. I have read to Henry and Norah since they were babies, but we generally read one or two books a night and weren’t really in a hurry to meet any goals. I knew this challenge would help me make reading a priority, since I intended to finish 100 books in about a month.

THEN, when I posted on Facebook inviting friends to join us on our challenge, a sweet friend asked if we were participating in our local library’s program: reading 1,000 books before kindergarten. Um, this was the first I’d heard of it — and we had less than two months to cram in more than 350 books if we were going to make it.

Here’s the thing: I couldn’t care less about sports or games, and I’m not a competitive person. When it comes to books, though, I will rise to meet the challenge. I knew it would take some planning, but I also knew we could make it.

Guess what? We CRUSHED our goal and finished our 1,000th book with almost two weeks to spare, all while juggling full-day preschool three days a week, a full-time job, and several family trips. I say this because if I can make it happen, you can make it happen!

While you probably won’t be cramming 350 picture books into 50 days like I did, you can still read a lot of books in a short amount of time — or you can start planning now, while your kids are small, to read 1,000 books before kindergarten. Either way, these tips can help:

Keep track of the books you read in an easy way

I dislike paper (more about my obsession with recycling later) and often misplace notebooks anyway, so the easiest way for me to record all the books I read to my kids was creating a Goodreads list. If you’re not familiar with Goodreads, it’s a website and app that lets you record and organize all your books. I simply added a new shelf called “hn” and added titles to it whenever we read another book. I also went through their bookshelves and added all the books we’d ever read to it.

If you prefer writing down books by hand, get a cute notebook or journal so you can keep track of them. My sister is much craftier than I am and actually made a paper journal herself, complete with pressed fiber paper, and she keeps her list there. No matter how you do it, it’s important to know which books you’ve already read. You’ll be surprised at how many you’ve already read to your kids once you start adding them up.

Use library holds to your advantage

If you don’t put holds on the books you want to read at the library, you’re doing it wrong. OK, not really, but this is an easy way to always have new reads on hand. Use your library card to log in and then search for books you’re interested in. Once you find one, place a hold, select a library close to you where you can pick it up, and repeat.

I used to put two or three books on hold and then have to go to the library several times a week to pick them up before the holds expired. While you certainly can do this, I find it’s much easier to put, say, 10 books on hold at a time. Then you can pick them all up at the same time (hopefully) and read them all before heading back again.

Make reading a habit

Most families read bedtime stories at least occasionally, but do you read consistently with your child? I actually find it hard to read books at bedtime sometimes, because my kids are wound up, I’m tired, and I can’t get them to sit still to actually listen and look at the pages. In our home, reading a few books at mealtimes works really well, especially at lunchtime. I work from home several days a week, so we can make this happen, but you could also try reading at breakfast or dinner.

No matter which time of day works for your family, be consistent. You’ll miss a day here or there or end up just putting the kids to bed without a book sometimes, but it’s much easier to achieve your goal if you read a few books every day around the same time.

Pay attention to your kids’ interests

My son is still obsessed with all tractors, trains, and fire trucks, so I try to find interesting books about these topics so he’ll want to listen. My daughter loves mermaids and unicorns, so I’m on the hunt for those books as well. I want to introduce them to lots of different books, so I get one or two books on their favorite topics and then choose the rest from authors I love or titles friends or bloggers have recommended.

Ultimately, you want to have a good mixture of books that meet your kids’ interests and stretch them to try something else they might like. This keeps things fresh and doesn’t make reading together a chore.

Remember the real reason you’re reading

It’s awesome to tell friends you read 1,000 books to your kids before kindergarten or even 100 books in a month — but the real reason I read to my kids is that it has massive benefits for them. Reading aloud helps your child develop their vocabulary and concentration and critical thinking skills. It also helps them speak and read better themselves and helps to cultivate a love of learning.

Reading aloud has connected me better to my kids and helped us have important conversations about a lot of different topics, including kindness, empathy, embracing differences, and being yourself. If you need a motivator to keep reading to your kids, pick one of those benefits (or the many other reasons reading is so important). It’ll help you achieve your goal and keep reading long after you achieve it.

Have you done a reading challenge like this before, alone or with your family? Share your experiences with me!

Lindsay

Welcome! I want to help you squeeze in more time for reading — and find books that won’t make you wish you were watching TV.