Adventures in Reading With Kids

Many of the comments I get on this blog have to do with lists of books for kids to read. Over the summer, I have run across some great blogs that review children’s books and some even have activities inspired by the books.

Kim Payne is one of a growing number of teachers who are staying home with their kids and writing an education blog. Her blog is Adventures in Reading With Kids The stated purpose of her blog is to write about the books she and her sons read  every night. She plans to highlight 365 books in 365 days. She has just passed her 220th day, so there are plenty of books to choose from. She categorizes the books, so if you are looking for books about dogs (who isn’t?), you can click on the “dog” label in the right hand column and see all 14 books about dogs. If you are on Facebook, you can find her here.

The post that attracted my attention was from August 3 about the Andrew Lost books By J.C. Greenburg and illustrated by Debbie Palen. Next week, my grandson, Noah, and I will be reading the first book in the series Andrew Lost: On the Dog. When we are finished, I will write about it.

Free Money!

Target is giving away up to 2.5 million dollars to U.S. elementary and secondary schools. The way they have chosen to allocate the money is by the number of votes on the Give With Target Facebook page. For every 25 votes a school gets, the school will receive a $25 Target Gift Card. The contest ends on September 8, 2012 or when the 2.5 million has been completely allocated. If you are on Facebook, you may vote for your favorite school(s) just once a week. The week starts on Saturday (if you vote on a Monday, you can vote again on Saturday). Tell your friends! It is FREE MONEY!!

Bedtime Math

The main focus of this blog is reading but this was such a great idea, I had to pass it along. Yesterday, on NPR’s Morning Edition, Laura Overdeck was interviewed about her nightly math problem ritual with her children. You can listen to the interview here. Overdeck wanted her children to be math literate so she started giving her children a math problem at night along with their nightly bedtime story. Her friends started asking her for math problems for their kids and her website Bedtime Math was born.

Every day there is a story, today’s is about anteaters and their prey, with math problems for wee ones, little kids and big kids. The problems for the wee ones are simple adding, subtracting or counting ones. The little kids and big kids problems are more complex and take greater skills at each level. There are also bonus questions each day. You can sign up to have each day’s story and problems e-mailed to you. Try it out with your family!

Air-Oh-Dynamics

The Children’s Museum of Sonoma County’s Museum-on-the-Go will be at Friedman Bros on Santa Rosa Avenue on Saturday, August 4th from 9AM to Noon. The KidsWorx Creative Workshop will feature interactive exhibits about aerodynamics. The workshop is recommended for children 3 and up.