Our Favorite Children's Books: Goodnight Stories

There's nothing quite like a good night time routine with the kiddos and one of the best parts for our family is the stories right before bed. Here are a few of my family's favorite bed time stories.

Such a simple, cute story about the bed time routine. Two little ones walk through each step of getting ready for bed and these are almost in identical order that our family does our night routine. And on top of it, the little girl has blonde, curly hair just like our oldest. 

This is just one of those classic stories we all remember and love. My girls began some of their first memorization "reading" with this story. Plus, finding the mouse on every page is an added bonus!

This picture book has a few words but most of the story is told by my girls' description of this mischievous gorilla and all his zoo animal friends. Finding the mouse with the banana on every page following his gorilla pal throughout the book gives them extra laughs. On nearly every page they also search for the balloon and moon and we are able to talk about the balloon getting smaller and smaller each time we turn the page. This book always gets the girls laughing. 

This sweet book says time for sleep or time for bed on each page with beautiful illustrations of a parent and child animal on each page. It's adorable and I especially love the end, again, because the little girl at the end looks just like our oldest child. It's not so much that I love blonde, curly hair children but my daughter loves seeing a child that looked like herself. 

This story is similar to the one above but by the beloved author of Goodnight Moon. Each page is illustrated with a parent and child animal as they snuggle in closely, ready for sleep. 

What good night books help your little ones snuggle in and get ready for a sweet night of sleep? 

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Our Favorite Children's Books: Winter Time

The snow is falling all around the country and schools are being closed for plummeting temperatures. We are certainly in the middle or winter! And on these super cold days, I love to snuggle under a blanket with my girls and read a few of our favorite winter stories.

My oldest daughter has had a love for owls from a very young age, so a story about going out "owling" in the ice cold is a perfect story for my family.

I absolutely love this story. All of the pictures in the book are photographs and the author creates an imaginative story with the beautiful images he captures. It is such a unique book and reminds me of the many wonders of childhood.

This one is just a simple lift the flap board book, but my baby girl just loves to read about the snow in this book!

A great learning book that discusses the unique qualities of snow flakes and the differences between snow and other forms of precipitation. 

You just have to love Clifford the Big Red Dog. This one is a story of Clifford and his doggy friends and a lesson of not missing out on the fun we can have just because we are afraid of something new.

This book is one of my all time favorite children's books. My oldest daughter has also always had a love for penguins. This book is an adorable rhyming story about of all of the things penguins can do. There's also some great info at the end about all different kinds of penguins for added learning.

I hope you stay safe and warm this winter while snuggling and reading with your little ones! What are some of your favorite winter books to read to your children this time of year? 

Also - if you happen to have any snow coming your way, be sure to check out my snow ice cream recipe!

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Favorite Children's Books: Christmas Stories

It's Christmas Time! And with that, brings out our Christmas decorations and lots of Christmas books! No Christmas season would be complete without nearly daily readings of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and a new favorite, The Elf on the Shelf. These are wonderful Christmas stories, adored by most. For this post, I would like to share with you some of our favorite Christmas books that are not as popular. Over the years, we have collected many books including Rudolph and Jingle Bells stories and many others, but the ones listed here are my very favorite!

 I love the Strega Nona story! So really what can be better than a Christmas story with the lovable Strega Nona and Big Anthony? This story really embodies the spirit of giving during the Christmas season and is a wonderful read!

 

This story is actually a little sad for a typical Christmas story. However, I do enjoy it for many reasons. One reason is that I actually got this book from a children's hospital after I had outpatient surgery as a kid. For me, that automatically makes it special. But when my daughter saw it, she says, "Oh! One of my favorite stories!" that just makes it a favorite! We love any story with animals, so that's just an added bonus!

This is a very simple but very cute story. When the little mouses home gets destroyed she has to find a new home and ultimately finds the perfect place! It's so sweet!

  

This is a great Christmas story with beautiful illustrations. It's completely different from any other Christmas book we have and one that the children just love!

What are your favorite Christmas books? 

 

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Favorite Children's Books: Most Obscure

This new series on the blog is a fun way to share some of the favorite stories we read to the girls.This time, I'm sharing some of our favorites that are most likely not on the regular list of  children's books!

 

First on the list is the Life of John Lennon. I have loved the Beatles for as long as I can remember and it's interesting to read about John Lennon in the children's book version. (Yes, there are lots of details omitted). I'm truly an awful singer but I try to sing the song lyrics that are within the book. My inability to hold a tune won't help my kids appreciate music, but I'm hopeful reading about one of the greatest artists will!

I LOVE this book! It's most definitely my favorite of the most obscure. Since I'm a child of the '80s, and grew up with Weird Al's parodies, it's funny to think of him as a children's author. However, this book really hits home for many adults because I think so many of us remain unsure of what we want to do when we grow up! I also love that it gets the kids thinking about their future profession. And best of all, it makes us giggle!

Weird Al's second attempt was not quite as good as his first, but honestly, Billy is such a lovable kid that it makes me love this book. And it, too, has a wonderful lesson behind i.

Marcel the Shell is most definitely not one of my favorites. However, this book makes both my husband and kids laugh like crazy. And, really, there's nothing better than a good laugh! So, for that reason, it makes it one of my favorites!




 



What are your favorite most obscure or LEAST common children's books? My family is always looking for more books to enjoy, so please share! 

 

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Our Favorite Childrens Books: Halloween and Fall

 

One of our favorite things to do as a family is read together. It's something we have done ever since my daughter was a week old. You see, my first child was hospitalized for the first week of her life. When we got home from the hospital I realized I had yet to read her a story. It made me sad that our lives had involved needle sticks and worry and not reading books. But at one week old I read to her from our small story book collection and we haven't stopped since. We read each night as part of our night time routine and the girls often ask for stories multiple times throughout the day. Our book collection has grown significantly in four years and it's so fun to watch the girls delight over their favorites, memorize large portions of books and just have an overall joy of reading. 

For this reason, I have decided to share some of our family's favorite children's books in a series that will include a new topic for each post. I occasionally mention books in posts such a my gardening with kids and Father's Day posts so I will include those in this series too.

My very first topic is:

Halloween and Fall

 I found most of these books at a garage sale. They were from a retired preschool teacher (apparently named Aubrey). Talk about a perfect find!!

This is a simple and great book that talks about all the fun things you can do with leaves!

All about growing pumpkins from the very beginning until trick or treat time!

One of my favorite things this time of year are apples! And this is a great book to go through the entire process of how apples grow and includes zoomed in pictures with the scientific names. Fantastic learning book!
 

  

Who doesn't love the Berenstain Bears? I grew up with this wonderful family of bears and love sharing these stories with my girls today. The Halloween addition has a great moral that looks can be deceiving! 

  

 Another great apple story! This is one of three of the books featured with a great illustrator, Shari Halpern. 

The reason behind the leaves changing colors is pretty fascinating to kids and this story tells it well. It has a few repeat statements for better learning. I love that it has illustrations of many different types of leaves with the names included so we can find the different leaves while out on walks and then identify them.

  This is one of our family's all time favorite fall stories. I had a 1 month old and 23 month old in October of 2012 and I feel like we read this story daily (or more) during our long snuggles on the couch that year. It has a great story line but also just brings back all those happy memories.

Those our favorite Halloween and fall children's books! What are your favorites?

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