Let me start off by mentioning that it seems totally weird to title this post “…for the preschool mom,” even as I typed it, my fingers outpaced my mind and typed “toddler” before I could stop them. delete. delete. delete. my fingers quickly got with the program, I am now the mother of, technically speaking, a preschooler. Although he doesn’t go to preschool, this is nevertheless the group that I now associate him with. Weird. How did that happen?
How can I hang on to the last little moments of his early childhood before he is just in “childhood” and considered school aged altogether.
Reflecting on the term “preschool” settles my thumping heart just a tad. After all it’s “pre” not current, right?! As I settle into the realizations of how quickly time goes and how little of it we all actually have, I attempt to answer some of those questions. And I come to at least one conclusion. READ. Read like I’m never going to shut up. Read it all. Read it with funny voices. Read it with a regular voice. Read during specific designated reading times. Read random street signs. Read in our special reading place. Read in random places. Read at the same time everyday. Read randomly all throughout the day. Just Read. Snuggle close and read.
When I say of my firstborn, “he was an active toddler”, this simply cannot truly be understood by words on paper. He was ACTIVE. But by the grace of God he was always and still is captivated by stories. In the heat of the Florida summer, I was pregnant with baby number two and way too huge and hot to go outside, so my little rambunctious toddler and I would settle in on the cool tile floor with pillows to read. And read we did. I remember sitting in the back bedroom of our Florida home, leaned against the block walls warmed by the sun. Heat radiated from behind me while cold hair from the ceiling blew down on the both of us. And we would sit for hours and read. Writing this now, seems like an exaggeration, even to me. But reading—story telling—always got him. And three years later, it still does. At age four now, he’s still the one who prefers to curl up in my lap, begging for just one more book, while his younger two year old brother roams in circles around us and on most days launches an array of toy debri around the house.
But as we enter the preschool age, I realize I must hold on to this time for dear life. Not only for the many benefits reading offers to the growing mind but also for the many benefits I have seen it offer this little growing soul. I continue to learn of and experience the positive impact of reading on children, All the while extracting the benefits for myself as well. The benefits for reading out loud are vast and more and more research seems to be coming out regularly. A quick google search on the topic will leave you in a google daze for days. I could write a whole other post regarding the benefits, and maybe I will. But for now, I just wanted to share some practical resources that I have sourced out over the little time that I’ve been immersed in this read aloud world.
There is no doubt in my mind—reading is gold. Luckily for my kids, I have always been a talker. And I’ve been told once or twice (or maybe three times) that I talk just to hear myself speak. Talker + Reader = Writer. What can I say? My degree is in communication! It’s safe to say there is no end to the amount of out loud reading I can do!
So as I jump on the read-aloud bandwagon here are some great practical reading resources for the preschooler mom, or really for any mom who wants to dive into the reading world.
Random reading resources every mom should look into: (aka: a few practical, easy to do things that I wish I had done sooner).
1.) Dolly Parton’ Imagination Library– this is something that I’ve vaguely known about since my boys were little, as I had a friend in Tennessee who automatically got signed up for this at the hospital when she had her babies. Little did I know, that it is open to SO MANY other counties in states all across the country. (kicking myself now) But both my boys are now signed up. Basically, the Dolly Parton Foundation partners with local community foundations to send kids a book EVERY MONTH from birth to age five! You have to go on the website to check if it’s available in your county. If it is, it’s a pretty easy sign up: Click>Getting Started>Affiliate Locator> Print out the form> Mail it to your local organization and wait about a month to get your first book! Plus, my kids love getting the mail that is addressed to them! Every month it’s a race to the mailbox checking it everyday until the books arrive.
2.) Highlights Magazines– Same principal with the love of getting mail here. (There is a cost to ordering these magazines, I think around $20 for the year subscription— a great grandparent gift if it’s not in your families personal budget). I’ve known about the Highlights magazines forever. I think I even read a few when I was younger. But they had fallen off my radar until a friend gave me a stack of old ones that her boys were done with. My oldest (age 4) absolutely loves these. Honestly, they aren’t my personal favorite to read through. I prefer a longer narrative. (These magazines have short stories, poems, activities, crafts, etc). But I am not the target audience, my kids are. And for them it hits the nail on the head.
3.) The Read-Aloud Revival– Okay this is a super practical resource that every mom should be aware of! Sarah Mackenzie runs this website and podcast to promote reading aloud to your kids. She is also the author of the best-selling book, The Read Aloud Family. When you sign up to receive e-mail updates from Sarah on her website, she sends you a downloadable print out of monthly library lists. You can then search and save and/or reserve the books at your local library online, and voila, you’ve got a new plethora of books to read each month.
4.) Reshelving Alexandria: Okay so this one I am back and forth on. It’s a really cool concept by a group of people who love quality books. (think Charlotte Mason, living books, if your familiar with that homeschooling method). It’s membership (relatively low, I paid $5/month but I believe their fees will be going up if they haven’t already). They provide book lists, synopses and great info regarding living books. The reason I am on the fence is because from what I have seen so far, it really will be more handy for school age reading and I am just not there yet. We are still mostly in mommy read aloud picture book mode, so I don’t see a need to pay for a site that I am not quite ready to use. HOWEVER, it will be super helpful I believe when my kids start reading on their own. Mainly because I will be able to cross check books for quality, appropriateness, etc.
5.) Websites, Books & Podcasts:
Websites— In addition to the sites mentioned above, here are a a few more. Some of these I visit frequently and others not so much but they are good to have in your favorites if you don’t already:
- Your own counties library- online system. The online library system where I live looks like this.
- SallyClarkson.com & LifeWithSally.com— not completely dedicated to reading, but Sally Clarkson is a guru of all things living books. She raised and home schooled 4 kids in a literary & verbally rich environment and a lot can be gleaned from her teaching, training & resources.
- Thriftbooks; Wonderbook; Discoverbooks; BetterWorldBooks— these are great sites for used and hard to find books. In fact Reshelving Alexandria has a great article about thrift store book shopping without ever leaving your home. You can read it here.
Books about Books—I am sure there are waaaaay more than the books listed here, these are just the ones I am familiar with. I think it’s a good idea to have one or two of these handy when looking for good reading material. All too often I can get sucked into the rabbit hole of Google or Pinterest when searching for “good books for preschoolers.” Having a physical copy of one of these has save me a few times from the overwhelm of the internet.
- Read for the heart and Book Girl by Sarah Clarkson
- Honey for a Child’s Heart by Glady’s M. Hunt
Podcasts—there are amazing people talking about amazing books and highlighting amazing resources. By listening to podcasters who have a passion for reading you will inevitably pick up on resources along the way. Afterall that is where the inspiration for this blog came from! Here are a few of my current podcast favorites:
- A Delectable Education
- Sally Clarkson’s Podcast
- Read Aloud Revival Podcast
- All the Wonders
If you are interested in finding more podcasts, there is a great post here about Podcasts specific to kids literature.
Happy Reading Everyone!
Blooming And Becoming 