What Sophia is reading now

Really, she can't read. But she either asks me to read or pretends to read by herself.

Since the "Book it" program started, Sophia's been very into "Charlie and Lola" books. She reads Charlie and Lola books every day, has watched the TV shows and DVDs many times. Now her favorite drink is "Pink milk", because Lola loves it. She just named the paper gold fish she made "Charlie". She says her little sister is "small and funny", which Charlie used to call his little sister Lola.
As a mom, I love those little cute and funny stories, too. Here are a few Sophia's favorite.

You Can Be My Friend (Charlie and Lola)
But I Am an Alligator (Charlie and Lola)
I Can Do Anything That's Everything All On My Own (Charlie and Lola)
Charlie and Lola's I Am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go to Bed Pop-Up
This Is Actually My Party (Charlie and Lola)

I'm Really Ever So Not Well (Charlie and Lola)
Say Cheese (Charlie & Lola)


Another collection she's actively reading is books by Julia Donaldson. I originally ordered those books in Chinese from dangdang.com. (I ordered tons of books from dangdang, will write more reviews in a seperate post.) I like the stories and illustrations very much. So I got the original English version and found they're even better in English.

The Spiffiest Giant in Town
Room on the Broom
Charlie Cook's Favorite Book
The Snail and the Whale
the Gruffalo
The Gruffalo's Child
Where's My Mom?

Book IT Program

Our preschool joined Book IT Program. It's very inspiring for me to read books to my kids.
Here are some very good tips from their website.

Tips for Reading Aloud

Before:

Preview the book and practice reading it. Introduce the title, author, and illustrator. Tell briefly what the story is about.

During:

Hold the book so your child can see the words and illustrations. Vary your tone, volume, and pitch as you read. Pause occasionally to explain, comment, or look at the illustrations.

After:

Discuss the characters and what happened in the story. Ask questions that provoke thought. Help your child relate the story to something personal or another story.

More Great Tips

• Establish a regular time and place. Reading every day for 20 minutes is more beneficial than reading for a longer period of time on a less frequent schedule.
• Encourage children to pick their own books to read together by placing them at eye level and making them easily accessible.
• Cuddle up together and encourage "pre-readers" to repeat words and phrases as you read to them.
• Read favorite books over and over again. Children love to do this, and it is important because it helps them remember words, phrases, and even the sequence of a story so that they can begin to "read" it on their own.
• Be an expressive reader-- it takes practice! When you read every day, your skill as a storyteller will improve.
• Keep reading aloud as your kids grow. Until junior high school, most children are better at listening than they are at reading.

She asked...

I thought it was going to be a tough night tonight because of the time change. Things turned out better than I expected. Now kids are all in bed and I'm relaxed.



During the bedtime story Sophia asked quite a lot,
She asked me to read the book "The rain came down" by David Shannon, she thought David Shannon is very smart because lots of her favorite books were done by him, "Duck on bike", "Pirates don't change diapers", "Too many toys", "Alice the fairy", and "The rain came down". I know that lots of people think David Shannon's illustration scary, but Sophia truly loves his artwork, so do I.
She asked me to buy her playmobil toys when she saw the catalog in her book piles, I recommended her to ask Santa when Christmas comes.
She asked me to bring her to the library to borrow some Charlie and Lola story books tomorrow. She asks me to buy her toys and food but never asks me to buy books, because she thinks library has better books. That is where we should go when we need books.
She asked me to make a calendar for her to check when she brushes her teeth everyday, and asked me turn it in to her teacher on Tuesday. No problem, I'd love to do that to help her brushing.
She asked me to bring her goggles when we go swimming next week. I always forgot, I will remember next time.

With all the above requests, discussion, we read four books together tonight. It took us more than an hour in bed. That's quite normal length of Sophia's bedtime story. I can't imagine when Olivia is older how long I can make both girls to bed.