The calendar may say that the holidays are almost here, but the thermostat tells a different story.  How do you get in the holiday spirit when the weather refuses to cooperate?  Good books will always do the trick.  Whether it’s Peter’s snowball that melts in his pocket or Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods, these great stories will bring winter to your home.  So, grab a quilt, some hot chocolate and snuggle up.  The weather outside may be frightful, but these books are so delightful.  Happy Holidays and as always, Happy Reading!

Orange you glad it's fall? The colors and sounds of fall inspire many moments to play and learn.  Your children know what an apple is, but do they know the word orchard?  Reading books, talking about what is all around and remembering to have fun harvests a crop of eager and wise learners.

One of my favorite books to read during this time of year is Ruth Krauss’s The Carrot Seed, about a little boy who plants a seed and everyone around him says, “It won’t come up.” Ah, but it does come up and then some.  Some days it feels like our children “won’t come up”, but with some daily reading they are sure to “come up!” Children that are read to twenty minutes a day build early literacy skills, improve their listening and are prepared for kindergarten. Share some of these Spring stories and activities with the growing readers in your life!

You may not come from a land of ice and snow, but you can go there through books. The stories below illustrate those worlds with words such as: flakes, powdery, heaping, crystalline, radiant, glistening, and even the dreaded infirm. Beautiful language helps define a world. The world of picture books is defined by rare words (words heard outside of regular conversation). And, the amount of words children hear before the age of five defines 90% of their vocabulary for the rest of their lives. Leave word poverty and low literacy rates out in the cold by reading aloud to children everyday.