365 Days of Reading: Tip #27 - Use Recommended Reading Lists

School districts often publish recommended reading lists for each grade level. Do a search for recommended reading to suit your child's age, grade level or reading ability. For babies and toddlers, searching for PreK, PreSchool or Kindergarten lists will yield you great results.

Here are some wonderful books recommended by the Houston Area Independent Schools Library Network, for PreSchool, PreKindergarten and Kindergarten:

365 Days of Reading: Tip #26 - Read-Alouds on YouTube

Parents need a break every once in awhile. One way to get yourself a quick break without inducing parental guilt over too much screen time is to allow your child a few minutes with a read-aloud book on YouTube.

Many contemporary and classic books are available (see my posts about The Snowy Day and Goodnight Moon) on YouTube channels, but the quality and content will vary depending on the presenter.

Before you allow your small child to watch ANYTHING on YouTube, you will of course want to screen it yourself. The best read-aloud videos will come from Reading Specialists and classroom teachers. SammyStoryShop's channel is a great place to start.

365 Days of Reading: Tip #25 - Bilingual Books

The world is getting smaller and smaller through technology's connectivity and our global marketplace. If you're a parent like me, you are more concerned than ever about preparing your children to participate in that shrinking world, which means being able to interact with diverse groups of people.

From my previous posts, you probably already know that children learn language at an amazing pace from birth through elementary school. If you or your family only speak one language, but you would like to expose your child to others, know that many children's books are available in more than one language.

Initially, it helps to choose texts with which your child is already familiar. This will help them figure out the meanings of the words. It also helps to choose books that are picture-heavy and in which the pictures correlate closely to the text.

Here are some great examples of beloved children's books that are available in Spanish:

365 Days of Reading: Tip #24 - Choose Beautiful Books

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but children love to look at beautifully designed and illustrated books just as much as we do.

Beautiful books can be used to teach your little one how to care for books ("look how lovely these pictures are; let's handle them gently"). They can also increase your very young child's stamina for reading, as beautiful books inspire a lot of quiet looking and gazing at details.

Share with them some aesthetically pleasing Caldecott Award winners, especially aimed at the baby and toddler crowd. You and your little one might also enjoy children's literature featuring real works of art or even some coffee table books showcasing world-class photography.