Recommended Reading for Little Ones?
October 30, 2009
I received this question from a reader:
I have a question for you (and pardon me if I have overlooked something regarding this issue that you may have already put up on your website): are there any good children’s books (for toddlers and the very young) that emphasize children helping mommy and daddy in their work? I’m having a hard time finding any.
Thanks, Joanna O’Brien
This is a great question! My problem is that I do not know of any for the very young. I have recommend books for children about 8 and older HERE.
One book we have is The Book of Virtues and it is EXCELLENT! All of the stories in this book are divided into different categories, such as Work, Kindness, Responsibility, etc… They are all short stories that can easily be read at one sitting. They are stories rich with character and content, without one shred of political correctness!
This book is written for 9-12 year olds, but I can tell you as an adult I LOVED IT! This book could easily be read to young children and discussed. There are no pictures, but teaching children to picture it for themselves is always better anyway. Another option would be for the parent to read the story and then retell it in their own words. Storytelling is a great past-time that families have lost thanks to the TV being on every night!
A separate book has been published for young children, although I have not read it, but if it is anything like the original book it is worth every penny!
What are some books the rest of you would recommend?
Topics: From Our Mail Bag, Recommended Reading | 4 Comments »
Comments (4)
How about “My Apron” by Eric Carle?
I have heard very good things about books from Rod & Staff. I don’t know specifically if they cover the topic of helping mommy and daddy in their work, but I’m pretty sure you would find some good stuff through them.
WE LOVE Teach Them To Your Children.
http://www.visionforum.com/search/productdetail.aspx?search=teach+them+to+your+children&productid=17820
Hello,
Personally, I have found that when the action is just a natural part of the story it often strikes a chord better than when the story is specifically about the topic I am trying to reinforce. If the child is picture book/early reader age, then try walking through the picture book/early reader section of your library and pull out a few and read through them… look for opportunities in the story where you see the child behaving as you would like (or, maybe differently if you are trying to impart a different sort of lesson!). That said, here are a few books that I liked and read with my family…
Many of the “Little Bear” stories by Elsa Minarik show Little Bear (and sometimes his friends) helping Mother Bear around the house. His help is usually woven naturally through the story, as opposed to a story specifically about helping his mother, so you can pretty much pick up any one of the little books.
Several of the Berenstein Bears stories have been adapted to early reader books and they are usually pretty good. Make sure you read them first, though, as sometimes the children try to ‘put one over’ on the parents, and even though they always think better of it and there is typically a good discussion when it happens… you need to make sure you’re comfortable with the resolution! Some example titles relevant to this discussion are “Berenstein Bears Clean House”, “Berenstein Bears Down on the Farm”
Another good one, which is not a picture book but was a great snuggle-up-on-the-couch-and-read one, is “The Country Bunny” (by Du Bose Heyward). The mommy bunny teaches each of her 21 baby bunnies how to take care of the house and home. When she is selected for a “special mission,” she at first declines so that she can stay with her family, but the baby bunnies show her that the “special mission” is important to so many children around the world, and that she has taught them how to take care of the house for the little while that she will be away. You can also use it to teach about some math aspects, such as how she divides the children into sets of two, what does she do with the remaining child, etc.
Lastly, this happens to be a time of year when we can use talk of Thanksgiving and the “pilgrims” in our conversations… so to that end there are two terrific picture/early reader books that I used with my youngest when she was in 1st grade: “Sarah Morton’s Day” (by Judith Bauer Stamper) and “Samuel Eaton’s Day” (by Kate Water). Both are set in the Plymouth colony in the early years after the Mayflower settlers arrived. The Sarah Morton book follows Sarah helping her mother and learning from her father, while the Samuel Eaton follows him helping his father on his first big job. So for us, the books provided a depiction of sense of duty to help around the house, and a sense of duty to help our community… not to mention the opportunity to ‘contrast and compare’ their household chores to the way we do them now!
All of these I found at my local library… if you don’t see them on the shelf ask your librarian!