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Montessori Appropriate Fiction about Animals
In our home we tend to stick to five principles of Montessori Appropriate fiction, you can read more about them here, this can be tricky because Alfie LOVES animals and finding realistic animal fiction is tough. I’ve divided this list in two the first section features books with nothing unrealistic in terms of behaviour or ability, the second has some very mild fantasy. I’m happy to include some fantasy (Alfie is 3.5y) because this is a home not a school! Alfie spends so much time with real animals he knows the limits of their abilities. Likewise he can ‘read’ animal behaviours so knows they can think and have feelings eg…
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Christmas Books for Young Children
”Tis the season to be jolly semi-permanently curled up with a good book. This is our pick of the best Christmas books. We don’t make a big deal about Santa (more on that here Montessori and Santa) or the whole naughty/nice thing (more on that here Why There’s No Elf on Our Shelf), neither are we religious so many of these books focus on experiences and family. Pick A Pine Tree We love this book! A simple rhyming story about a familiar tradition that lots of children will recognise. The illustrations are fun and lively and provide plenty of extra talking points. Christmas is Coming, An Advent Book What a…
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Raising Readers: Tips for reading with a toddler
Until Alfie was about 20 months old I’d have described him as a bookworm. His first choice of toy was always a book and he would happily have sat for three quarters of an hour while we read story after story. Then something changed. One day he had less time for reading, in fact he had no time for anything that wasn’t tearing around the garden! It seemed he tossed away every book I offered to him. I was horrified! What had happened to our cosy mornings reading our favourite books? Did this mean that he’d never be a bookworm again? Of course not! It just meant that reading time…
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Montessori at Home; Our Spring Time Books
Some bright and beautiful Montessori books for Spring
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Recommended Reads – Our Bookshelves in Autumn
Well hi there Autumn! Where did you come from? Here’s a little look at some of the books we’ve been enjoying over the last few weeks. Recently a follower messaged me to ask if I could recommend books with less writing as her toddler didn’t listen for long enough to finish the story. We read lots of long books, usually I abridge them until Alfie is familiar with the story and illustrations and we eventually build up to the whole story. Friends This is a treasure of a book! Alfie is obsessed with farming, in fact obsessed might be an understatement so the setting of this story is perfect. This…
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What’s On Our Bookshelves – Summer Books for Toddlers
A look at what’s on our books shelf these days, including books about bugs, beaches, birds and building tree houses in New York.
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What’s on Our Bookshelves
A little look at the Spring books we will be reading with our toddler. What’s that you smell in the air?! It might be SPRING! I can hardly contain myself, while I’m trying to embrace seasonal living and have actually enjoyed Winter this year I’m still ready for longer days, blue skies and getting the feeling back in my fingers. We’ve stocked up our bookshelves with some fresh books for this fresh season. These books will stay on our shelves for a few weeks. They will make up the ‘core’ or our bookshelves, we will top them up with weekly trips to the library as well as a few old…
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My Five Favourite Montessori Appropriate Authors
Choosing Montessori Appropriate books is a minefield so I've put together this list of Montessori Appropriate Authors to speed up your selections and allow you to make requesting books from your library easier. If you’re more a ‘watcher’ than a reader there’s a video version with a look inside the books at the end!
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The 10 Best Picture Books About Ireland
For centuries we Irish have been known for our way with words. This magic is still being worked in bookshops across the country. I love Ireland and want to help my son to love and appreciate his country, and the long literary heritage that is his by birth. In this post you’ll find my choice of the 10 Best Picture Books About Ireland, each book is set in Ireland and features at least one of our famous places and faces. So whether you’re from Ireland or just wish you were there’s surely something for every reader in here! Happy Reading! The President’s Glasses (Peter Donnelly) This is a delightful little book!…
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Raising Readers; When Phonics Isn’t Working and the Case for Storytelling
I’m going to say this and duck…phonics doesn’t work for all readers. Phonics is a wonderful resource and ideal for teaching initial sounds and basic decoding but many children struggle to convert and construct the complex system of phonemes, trigraphs and split digraphs into one fluid sound to produce a word. Even worse they are struggling to string the words they are decoding into meaningful stories. (Don’t just take my word for it though, more info here; The Limits of Phonics) Moving on from Phonics As a former children’s librarian and a teacher I’m familiar with the sight of worried parents wringing their hands when faced with their children’s homework, helpless…
