Read With Me: Books 1-10

I mentioned last week that my son was showing more interest in reading and I wanted to encourage that.  My husband reads several books at a time.  Me, not so much.  I loved Hunger Games but that's about the only reading I've done in the past couple of years so I try and make reading a priority with my children.  So, I'm taking him through the top 100 children's books over the next few months.  We started with books 1-10 this week.

1.  Where the Wild Things Are

This book is so great for little adventurers, like my son.  He can be quite sassy like Max, too.  :-)  For some reason, I wasn't expecting this book to be ranked #1.

We did a craft for this story.  I found this adorable mask tutorial here and knew we had to make it.  It was super easy and we had everything we needed to make it.  We had fun and anytime Hosea gets to use glue is a win in his book.

2.  The Giving Tree

This book makes me really sad.  Does it anyone else?  I was reading on Wikipedia that there is a lot of controversy surrounding the book.  Is the boy selfish or is the tree merely self-sacrificing.  I asked Hosea if he liked the book and he said no.  I asked him why and he said, "Because it's only about a tree."  Ha!  Cute little 4-year-old minds.

After reading the book, we made a tree.  We painted Hosea's arm brown, put some sticker leaves and thumbprint apples along the tree.  And then I talked about how the tree was willing to give things to the little boy because he loved him.  And then we talked about all the people that he loves.

I love how he draws people right now.  No bodies, just legs and arms coming directly from the head.  And his ears on every person look like antennas.  So cute!

I found a couple of cute craft ideas on Pinterest.  This one is cute and so is this one.

3.  Goodnight Moon

This is a sweet classic.  Hosea is a bit old for this one but he always likes when I read it to Sarah.

4.  Green Eggs & Ham

This is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books!  Hosea really likes this one and this book is great to try and talk your kid into eating something new.  I refer to this book often when we're having something new at dinner.  "Remember, Hosea, how Sam wanted to get the other guy to try green eggs and ham and how the guy didn't want to but then he did try them and loved them? That could be how you feel about broccoli."  :-)  It works occasionally.

We didn't do a craft with this book but there is so much out there on Pinterest.

5.  Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

I've never read this book before.  It's really cute and Hosea thought it was cool how food just came from the sky.  I couldn't help but wonder how gross everything must have been in that town with eggs and milk coming down on the top of the houses.  Yuck!

We didn't do a related craft but here is a cute one and here is another.

6.  The Very Hungry Catterpillar

This is one of our favorite books.  I love everything about it - the story and the beautiful illustrations.  His illustrations are so lovely in each and every one of his books.

We've actually done a bunch of crafts associated with this book.  You can see my post and crafts here.  I'm so excited because we got some caterpillars and are waiting for them to turn into butterflies.  They just entered the cocoon stage!  I got to watch one of them spinning itself in its cocoon.  Cool!

7.  Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Day

I hadn't read this book in such a long time so it was fun for me to re-read it.  Hosea really liked this one and thought it was funny that Alexander was in such a bad mood about everything.  There's actually a cartoon that he watched on Youtube.  It's a 3 parter and it's pretty cute.  

8.  Guess How Much I Love You

Hands down my favorite book on this list.  Just LOVE IT!  I love everything about it - the sweet, sweet story, the lovely illustrations.  Everything.  It was my favorite book to read to Hosea when he was a baby and it's my favorite one to read to Sarah.

9.  Pat the Bunny

I've never read this book and they didn't have it in our library system.  :-( I checked out what I thought was an audio recording of the book, but it turns out that it is just a bunch of songs.  So, I have no opinion of this book.  :-)



We did make a cute bunny craft though.  I really try hard to let him do what he wants to do when we craft.  Of course, I wanted him to fill in the whole paper plate with cotton balls but that's not what he wanted so I let him go with it.  :-)

10.  Love You Forever

Okay, I know I'm going to get a lot of flack on what I am about to say - I don't really like this book.  It weirds me out too much that the mom is creeping around her grown son's house, climbing up a ladder into his room while he's sleeping, sneaking in, cradling him as a grown man.  I just can't get past it.  Sorry!!!  I have many friends that just adore this book but I can't get into it.






I can tell this is going to be a lot of fun to do with Hosea each week.  I've been sitting on the couch with the kids on either side of me and just reading books to them.  Hosea is really enjoying all the new books and it's been fun to find related crafts (of course).

See you back next Wednesday for books 11-20!


Linking Up To....... Crafty Moms Share