Currently Reading

One of the activities which I started to do with Doodle last spring is introduce him to Chapter books. While he obviously cannot read chapter books, he IS learning to focus to longer stories and remember previously read chapters. We typically read a chapter or two before nap time, at night time, and I've even begun to bring the book with us into the car when Mark drives so I can read to the kids. Everyone loves it.

In the spring we read James and the Giant Peach and then followed up our finished book with a family moving night watching James & the Giant Peach. Now that Doodle is back home we've decided to try out the first Boxcar Children novel. The reading is light and moves quickly and the descriptions are simple and easy for preschoolers to remember. We picked The Boxcar Children series also because of its gender neutral story. While Doodle is my primary student, I also wanted something we could continue to read while his sisters were here.



After each chapter we finish I ask three or four questions about what we just read to the kids and have them answer. These questions are simple and not meant to be tricky or hard to recall, but simple to force the kids to think back over what was just read to them and see how much they've retained. I love hearing their answers and how sometimes they've give double the details I was wanting to hear.

We've nearly halfway through the book after just one weekend but I'm so excited to see how well they've been enjoying it. It's also better for ME because I can only do so many of the picture books before I need something a little longer and new to focus on.