Here are the two books both M and I loved this week (the ones in the carousel above are really good too!):
Little Bear’s Friend, by Else Minarik
I remember this book from my own childhood and so enjoyed sharing it with M! He is allowed to watch Little Bear on TV once in a while and just loves it – and now that he’s able to sit for a longer book I was anxious to introduce these to him. I know some of you have mentioned these books in your weekly posts, so thank you for reminding me of them! The simple illustrations in this book and the sweet story of friendship make it one that any child will love. It is separated into 4 chapters or stories, but M insists on reading the entire thing every time. And I am happy to oblige. ;)
Wilfred to the Rescue,by Alan MacDonald
This is part of a series called “Stories from Brambly Hedge”, and it’s the first one we’ve read. It’s very good, and just adventurous enough without being frightening. It teaches a bit about being brave and helping others as Wilfred the mouse helps rescues a small vole named Sissy who has drifted out into floodwaters during a game of “hide-and-squeak”. It’s a great book for my adventurous, brave little guy to act out again and again.
As usual, I’m linking this up to Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns, and to a new (to me) linky at The Adventure of Motherhood, called Feed Me Books Friday.
Have a beautiful day! :)
M has named 
, by Don Freeman as his favorite book since we first read it almost 2 years ago. I’m sure everyone reading this knows about Corduroy, the bear with the missing button, who wants to find a home and a friend. He is very loveable. :) 
Recently we picked up 
Then Vanessa, over at 
, also by Don Freeman in 
. We read it this past week. Without a doubt, this one is my favorite Don Freeman book (of what we’ve read so far). Earl is spoiled by a little girl named Jill and has no idea how to get his own acorns, which irks his mama to no end. Eventually he ends up getting some acorns on his own in a very unusual way. It’s just a cute, funny story. And well, who wouldn’t love a squirrel named Earl, right? :)
, by Cathryn Sil. 
This book has lovely illustrations (I think watercolors and perhaps acrylics… I couldn’t find the exact mediums used listed anywhere in the book) by John Sil, a well-known wildlife artist. The text is brief and easy to understand, and this book acts as a wonderful introduction to various kinds of birds, as well as simple facts about birds (ie. some birds fly, some swim, others run). 
, by Priscilla Belz Jenkins. 
This is a “Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out-About-Science” Stage 1 book. It is chock-full of great information and detailed illustrations! It talks about many different kinds of birds, but gives detailed information about Robins in particular. It explains and illustrates the steps of making a nest, shows the development of a baby bird within an egg, and there is a great feather identification page with 24 different species listed. This is an amazing book and M was pretty interested in it. I appreciated that the book had “normal” text on each page and then additional little blurbs throughout for more info. It can get to be a bit long and you can take cues from your child about whether they want to know all the additional information or not.
, by Margret and H.A. Rey (the writers of Curious George). 
This is just a cute and fun book. We love the Reys and pretty much anything they’ve written. Little Whiteblack wants to collect some exciting stories to tell his friends in Penguinland. So he sets off and has quite an exciting adventure! The more we read this book the more interesting it became… I enjoyed the difference between the cold land Whiteblack is from and the camel he meets from the desert. He also meets up with an ostrich family, another bird that can’t fly. I think there’s a lot of great conversation starters in this book as well as good jumping off points to learn about other animals and their habitats.
This book is just funny, funny, funny. M loves it and laughs at it every time we read it. Two birds return to their nest to find a very large egg in it and although they have a few misgivings they decide to keep it and let it hatch. The baby “bird” doesn’t really look much like a bird, and he’s very hungry… extremely hungry. Eventually it’s time for him to learn to fly and this is where M really cracks up. :) It was a great book for learning that many animals, not just birds, come from eggs.
, by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Garth Williams. Now, I know that’s a bear on the front, and I’m not sure why since the two main stories in it are about bunnies; but this is the best bedtime book ever. EVER. It has poetry and songs and two adorable stories…
, by Marasabino Russo. 
We’ve read this book before and I’ve enjoyed reading it again, although I do worry that it might give M a few ideas I don’t want him to have! These naughty little bunnies keep getting out of their beds and getting into mischief. Mama and Daddy keep going upstairs to send them back to bed, getting a bit more stern each time. But these bunnies aren’t so easily stopped. :) This is a super-cute and funny book!
M just loves cutting pages, so I created some quick shape ones for him. He cuts out the shapes then finds the same sized “blank” spot on the second page. To add a bit of excitement this time I had him use tape instead of a glue stick. He LOVED it! He definitely needs more practice with the tape, so we’ll be doing more of these!
A backpack of lacing buttons, animal shapes, spools, and little discs, from our toy lending library (still loving that we have one of these!).
Playing in the jump-o-lene with cousin S. Do you like his cheesy smile?
A great find at Dollar Tree – a target game with sticky balls so we can work on our aim.
A huge foam USA map mat (the kind that has foam squares that lock together). He stands on Minnesota and jumps to Florida a lot because that’s where Grandma and Grandpa currently are. :)
I set up M’s ABC train cards in the pocket chart, leaving a few out. We went through the ABCs until we came to a blank spot. Then he decided which letter was missing and found it in the pile on the floor. He did great with this, and it was fun to switch the game up a little bit from what we normally do!
The sensory bin has been full of very hard and very soft things. You can mainly see the soft things in the picture – cotton balls and pom poms. There are also small and large glass pebbles, glass marbles, and some plastic crystals, along with a scoop and a couple of small containers. 
