What I Read Today: Reading Log for May The Fourth

Hi! Happy Star Wars day! We went to the library this evening and discovered some festivities happening. :)

I've been thinking for a while that it would be fun to keep track of everything I'm reading. But I have to say the prospect of keeping it up seems daunting. I think I'd have to log my reading just for a week or something.  A week is long enough to give a picture, but not so long that I'd get to feeling I could just start tomorrow.

Anyway, here's some of what I read today!

Books:

Secrets of the Vegetable Garden by Carron Brown & Giordano Poloni - Read this to Jubilee on her request. We got this book from my mom for Easter, it's really cool! It's an Usborne Shine-a-Light book. So you read it and then you shine a flashlight behind the page you're reading and a hidden image appears.

A Tale of Two Beasts by Fiona Roberton - Another book from my mom for Easter, and another request from Jubilee. This one tells the same story but from two perspectives. First, a little girl finds a small beast in the woods and takes it home. Second, a little animal in the woods gets kidnapped by a long-haired beast! It's fun to compare the two stories, and has already led to some conversations about perspective and perceptions.

Smart Money Smart Kids - This is the non-fiction grown-up book I'm reading right now. I wasn't sure if I could get into it when I started, but now I'm really enjoying it! We like Dave Ramsey, and this book is by him and his daughter about how to teach your kids about money. I haven't run up against anything that sounds like bad advice yet, and I finally got to the real kicker of a story about how much it would stink to be Dave Ramsey's daughter, haha.

Tyra the Designer Fairy - Can you guess that Jubilee requested this one as well? Yes, she did. We've got it out from the library, and I read the first couple paragraphs to her to bribe her to get into bed. This is a whole series. They're cute. They're fine. When I read them I feel like I should become a ghostwriter, because it seems like it'd be pretty easy to come up with formulaic plots like these.

Avatar the Last Airbender The Rift Part 1 - Also a request from Jubilee, albeit a surprising one. This is a graphic novel targeted to ages 8-12 that I got from doing the Cybils a couple years back. She listened to the whole thing. Ok that's not true. She made me skip a few panels. I had fun rereading it though and am reminded that I haven't read parts 2 and 3 yet. Gotta get on that.

Magazines:

Levi's Ladybug magazine arrived today and while I didn't read a lot of it yet, I did help him a bit with the craft. I wrote more about Ladybug mag here.

From the current issue of the Ensign magazine (put out by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) I enjoyed "A Sacred Trust" and "Choices" both by Thomas S. Monson. I actually listened to them, rather than reading them.

Internet articles:

"No Regrets. Can it Be Done?" about motherhood at Design Mom - I bet the comments section is fabulous. She always gets super thoughtful and good comments from a variety of perspectives. I'll have to look at the comments soon.

"27 Weirdly Hilarious Things Sleep-Deprived Moms Have Done" at Buzzfeed - My friend Meghan shared this on Facebook and it amde me laugh quite a lot. Especially since Meghan added that she once tried to change her husbands diaper in the middle of the night because she thought he was the baby.

What do you think?  If I do log my reading, how exact should I be? I'm sure there were some other things I read, but these were the main ones. And hey, I'm not actually done reading for the day yet, because I'll definitely do a chapter of Numbers before I hit the hay. Was this fun? Would you like to hear about what I read for a week?

Ladybug Magazine

A little over a year ago, my parents gave our four-year-old Levi a subscription to Ladybug magazine.

We have loved it.

In fact, we loved it so much that we made sure our subscription was renewed.

Now Levi is five years old, and wants you to know a few things about Ladybug magazine:

• My favorite thing is there is always an activity in the back.
• My favorite one to read is Molly and Emmett
• I like to read it by myself and reading it together.
• It's 3-6. (Meaning the magazine is for kids ages 3-6)

My favorite has to be the music: I love picking out the tunes on my piano. They are classic sounding, but not songs I've heard before. A quick glance at the issues that are pictured above reveals that two songs have contemporary composers listed, and four are traditional songs from different backgrounds: African American Spiritual, Scottish, and North American. Ok I have heard a couple of these before; Go In And Out The Window rings a bell.

You can see that in this issue they have the music on one side and simplified music on the other.
Pretty cool!

There are a number of recurring features in the magazine, besides music. Each issue begins with a hidden picture page and an easy-to-read story about Max and Kate, two friends who play together. Each issue has poetry, and some long-form stories, and a feature with three little bugs that also pop into the margins of other stories and comment.

And the activities that Levi loves are worth a mention. Once was a little mini book he made, one was a windmill he cut and taped. There was a cute mix and match paper doll, and a wild west valentine he gave to a friend. The activities are on a fold out page, designed to be cut out from the magazine. Most of them require a few other materials (scissors, glue, a straw) but we've always had these on hand.

Ladybug Magazine sometimes comes on the perfect day and saves us from boredom. I love that. We read it together and it's just what we needed. Other times, it comes on a crazy day and we don't get around to looking at it until a few days later.  Either way, we thoroughly enjoy it and I save all my back issues.

I'll put an affiliate link here so that you can check it out some more and shop for it. If you make purchases through my links I get a small commission, so thanks!

click to shop

I also reviewed the Babybug magazine, which is from the same publishers, for ages 0-4. 

Babybug: One Kids' Magazine that Fills Me with Love

So just barely Amy at Sunlit Pages did a post about some of her family's favorite poetry collections. It reminded me that one of my favorite places to get new poetry is Babybug magazine.

Oh my gosh its so cute. It's just really, really cute you guys. And its short, so we can read it all in one sitting -- usually we read any given issue at least twice in a row. Jubilee insists. All the little poems and stories are on a theme. Off the top of my head we've seen issues on wind, and mail, and jumping, and balls, and hats, and winter weather.

In every issue there are a things we look forward to. Jubilee loves the "Kim and Carrots" stories that begin each issue, about a girl and her stuffed bunny. I love the fingerplays, and I used one of them when I visited the boys' classrooms last week. Every issue has a few pictures on the back and asks you to find them within the magazine. When we first started getting Babybug, Jubilee was too young to grasp the concept, but now she gets it. It's just so fun to me to sit and read these to her. Honestly, if the boys are home, they usually drift over to listen in.

Jubilee once insisted on taking her Babybug shopping with us.

The art is always high quality and the magazine itself is very durable. They know that it's going to be read by little ones! It is made of glossy cardstock-type paper, rather than typical flimsy magazine paper. It's bound like a book, rather than being stapled together.

Another good-to-know: Babybug magazine is free of advertising. It means the subscription price is higher, but I think it's worth it. Especially since Grandma is the one that bought us our subscription. Haha! But seriously, We thoroughly enjoyed a year of Babybug and when it was ending I asked my mom if she wanted to renew it for us, or if I should renew it myself, because I wanted to get getting it! We're now enjoying our second year and not tired of it at all.

The thrill of getting it in the mail, the fat little stack of magazines we are collecting, the rhyming and the art and the poetry. I just love everything about Babybug. If you're looking for a gift for a little one, ages 1-5, I'd say, then I heartily recommend it.



I've been meaning to post about Babybug for a long time! And now I've finally done it. You can look forward to posts about the magazines that my boys get from the same publisher. They're called Ladybug and Spider. UPDATE: Here is my review of Ladybug, for ages 3-6.

Do you have a favorite magazine for kids? Or for yourself? I'd LOVE to hear about it.

Happy Read Across America Day!

Did you know that March is National Reading Month? Well it is! And today is Read Across America day!

Because my kids' school celebrates Read Across America day, parents were invited into the classroom to read. You can bet I jumped at the chance.

When I got to Benjamin's second grade classroom, the mayor was there, reading them What Pet Should I Get? The new (posthumously published) Dr. Seuss book. Benjamin was very starstruck that the mayor had come to read to his class. I got to hear the kids ask him a few questions: "Is it fun being the mayor?" He answered that yes, it was. But he had only been the mayor for three months so far. And that it was a hard job too, but that "sometimes the hard jobs are the best jobs, because you get a sense of accomplishment." Good answer, Mr. Mayor.

I had brought a bag of books to read, and these were the ones I read with the second grade class:



They loved them!
The OK Book is a big hit with both my boys, and the second graders thought it was very funny. I pointed out to them that our little hero is made out of the letters O and K, and they thought he was pretty cool.

From the Babybug magazine, which Jubilee gets, we read a poem called Ten O'clock, which you can find in the Feb 2016 issue. Every issue has a poem with actions drawn to go along with it, and we all had a great time acting out a special mail delivery.

Chicks and Salsa really got the kids' excited. They couldn't resist pointing out the black-market mice on every page.

We finished off with Petite Rouge because it's one of my very favorite read-alouds of all time. Since this crowd was very familiar with the classic Red Riding Hood tale, they loved it. And we took a few minutes afterward to talk about time we had eaten spicy food.

Here are the books I read with Levi's Bilingual Kindergarten class:


We had a great time! When I arrived, the teacher warned me that the kids had already had several readers that day, so they might be a bit antsy. I let Levi pick the first book, and The OK Book is the one he chose. Then I led the class in the Babybug poem and they loved it.

Last but not least, we read a little bit from National Geographic's Little Kids First Big Book of Bugs. You'd have to be crazy to try and read this to Kindergarteners straight through, so we just read parts of Chapter 5. For each of the three common pests we chorused "Eeeewwww!" and read a few facts. Then we played the game at the end of the chapter, counting the bugs in Spanish.

Are you planning on celebrating Read Across America day in some way? Please share in the comments! I think I'll continue my celebrations by reading some more of Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson.

If you want to shop any of the books in this post, or just get more info about them, here are some affiliate links for you. When you make purchases from Amazon after clicking these links, I make a small commission. I can't believe what a good price Chicks and Salsa is right now . . . it's worth more than $7 for sure!

  
  

My favorite magazine for kids: Explore! by Kiwi Crate

So I know that *books* are the big thing here on Everead, but today I can't resist doing a review of my current favorite magazine for kids.

I can rarely resist talking about Kiwi Crate, actually. I pretty much talk about it to so many friends so often that I forget who I have gushed to exactly.

Just the other day my friend Abigail was like, "[my daughter] really likes your castle."

"Thanks," I said. "It's from Kiwi Crate. Have I told you about Kiwi Crate?"

"...Yes," she said, in just such a way that I knew I had already told her about Kiwi Crate at length. (Whoops! Oh, well, doesn't hurt to be certain...)

Anyway, one of the reasons I love Kiwi Crate is because of the magazine/booklet that comes in it each month, called Explore!

"It's ok that she colored on it, because I already know ALL about the wild west."
-Levi, forgiving Jubilee because he's already glanced at Explore!

Explore! magazine always starts with a story about Steve the Kiwi, written in graphic novel format. The pictures + words format is just perfect for the intended age range (4-8).  Levi loved one of these stories so much that we read it over and over and over, all month long.

Wait. Let me back up. Kiwi Crate is a monthly subscription box for kids. Inside this special little package that arrives on the doorstep addressed to Levi is everything we need for two awesome, age appropriate themed crafts. Also Explore! magazine, which has more info in the theme, a mini craft, extra craft ideas, book recommendations, nuggets of information, coloring pages, science experiments, recipes, and so forth.

We have been Kiwi Crate subscribers for 11 months now. (I took the plunge after reading many positive reviews, including this one.) I wanted to do something special with Levi since he was not quite ready for preschool , his big brother was headed to kindergarten, and I didn't trust myself to do anything crafty with him without outside encouragement. It has worked out great. Everybody looks forward to Kiwi Crate. We just love it. And after all the exciting crafting is done, Explore! gets read in detail.

The magazine's design is charming -- It is mostly printed in full color, though drawing pages and coloring pages are often two-toned, brown and white. It is a small booklet, measuring 9.5x6.5 inches -- about the size of an easy reader book.

from the "Modern Art" volume

When we got our very first Kiwi Crate I was tossing some of the packing materials and scraps after we crafted. I almost chucked the  Explore! magazine, but I changed my mind and fished it out of the bin. As you can see we now have a little collection, an archive, of fun activities and info (and book recommendations) on a variety of awesome topics.

The bottom line is this: I love Kiwi Crate. I love it so much I paid full price for it, twice (first a 6 Month Subscription, then a 12 Month Subscription). I love it so much I became an affiliate (and this post is peppered with affiliate links, which will get you 30% off your first box). I mean, I'm prrrobably going to end up talking about Kiwi Crate again (right Abigail?), so why not?

Will we make it to the table before we open it?
Not a chance.

If you've got a little one between 4-8, definitely look into a Kiwi Crate Subscription. Also, FYI, they now have Koala Crate for 3-4 year olds (in collaboration with Highlights magazine), and two cool options for the 9-14+ crowd, Tinker Crate and Doodle Crate. (My kids will be that old someday.)

Now, I know I've left out information above. What questions and comments do you have about Kiwi Crate? Or about children's magazines in general? 

Edited to add:  I forgot to say, I love the binding! This little magazine has outlasted The Friend, Highlights Magazine, and Lego Club Jr. consistently, because it is sewn the full length of the center! No more pages 16-18 falling out! Yay!