Joe has been doing a great job reading Bob Books.
Our only problem is that he thinks that he can only read Bob Books.
Forget that the same words are in other books.
He has it in his head that Bob Books are it.
So we’ve been branching out.
Last week, he made a little book out of the Things That Grow workbook. He was so excited and proud that he had cut the pages and stapled the book together.
He read it to me. He read it to Jake. And then again to Daddy. Then, he put it in his bookshelf “just like all of my other books”.
This week, he’s been talking about rhymes.
At first, he was having trouble grasping the concept.
“Mom, snake rhymes with silly!”
After explaining to him a couple of times what a rhyme was, he started to get it.
“Mom, fox rhymes with socks!”
All day he’d call out rhymes. Sometimes he’d get them right and sometimes he’d say book rhymed with bacon or cookie with carrot.
That gave me an idea.
We have many Dr. Seuss books. The boys love the rhyming, the singing and the silliness. I’ve used the ABC book to teach both boys the alphabet and beginning letter sounds.
Yet, until Joe started rhyming words, I hadn’t thought to use Hop on Pop or Fox in Socks to teach them words.
I had it in my head that Bob Books were it.
Hop on Pop, Dr. Seuss’ ABC and Fox in Socks aren’t really stories at all.
They are more like pages and pages of flash cards.
They are books full of silly rhymes and, sometimes, made up words.
Make it a game. Make it fun. Make it silly.
Play and learn.
a pinch of homestead 