It's the summer holidays! We are loving these long, lazy days of just going with the flow, playing all day long and relaxing. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you may have noticed that there is one thing that I am trying to do each day with the children, and that's read! It's so important to keep Ethan reading over the summer and to build on Ivy's growing love of books as she is just learning to read. So every day I make smoothies for all of us (get some healthy food in there too!) and we each choose a book to read! It's called Smoothies and Books and it's one of our favourite parts of the day!
We have a great selection of books at home, and we have also been visiting the library and we're taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge here in the UK, which we highly recommend (hopefully libraries worldwide have similar programs). It's another great way to inspire the kids to keep reading all summer long.
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Our Favourite Reading Scheme Books
- Songbirds - these are part of Oxford Reading Tree so they follow the same levels, but they are written by Julia Donaldson, whom we adore, so they're a fun option to have at home
- Oxford Reading Tree - these are the ones that they use at Ethan and Ivy's school, so they're great to keep us on the right level (but we try not to read too many so that they haven't then read all of the schools' books!)
- Read Write Inc Phonics - this is the reading scheme that I used when I was a teacher and I really loved the whole process, so the books are great, especially at the lower levels.
- Read it Yourself with Ladybird - a lot of these books are of characters or stories that are familiar to the children, which is a fun way for them to get into the books.
Our Favourite Picture Books
- The Gruffalo (and anything else by Julia Donaldson) - a modern classic and just so much fun to read and do all the different voices!
- Old Tracks, New Tricks - a fun book about train tracks that makes you see them in a completely different way, and is a great starting point for fun activities (we made tracks in play dough after reading it)
- Green Eggs and Ham (and anything else by Dr Seuss) - my childhood favourites that I love to share with the children
- Semicolons, Cupcakes and Cucumbers - a really cute and funny book that the children really enjoy, and a great opportunity to introduce or review basic punctuation (we also did a punctuation activity for it)
- Where the Wild Things Are - another one of my favourites that the kids also love (Ethan even dressed up as Max for World Book Day once!)
- The Doctor with an Eye for Eyes - a great introduction to Patricia Bath and a great stepping stone for learning more about great women in history.
- Peter Rabbit - another classic which has inspired us to do many fun activities (and another costume for World Book Day!)
- Oi Frog! (and the other books in the series; Oi Dog!, Oi Cat!) - a hilarious series of books that makes fantastic use of rhyming words and I absolutely never get tired of reading!
- How to Catch a Star (and anything else by Oliver Jeffers) - such a sweet and funny book about a boy on a mission who never gives up.
Our Favourite Chapter Books
- Zoey and Sassafras series - finally a series that is aimed at younger children and features a fantastically clever and strong girl character, we love Zoey!
- How to Train Your Dragon series - another great series that isn't too intense for younger children and that Ethan loves to follow along with, great for imagining up situations with real dragons and adventure!
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - my personal favourite by Roald Dahl that inspires a whole lot of creativity!
- Royal Rabbits of London - we've just started this one, but so far we're loving the tough rabbit characters
- Treehouse series - a fun adventure with an ever growing and incredible treehouse
- Grandpa's Great Escape - a funny one by David Walliams
- Captain Underpants - because sometimes you just have to be silly!
Our Favourite Comic Books (and other non traditional reading books)
- Lego Superheroes Space Justice - a fun way to read about characters that Ethan loves in an easy to read format
- Pokemon Handbook - kids don't even know they're reading when it's all about their favourite Pokemon characters!
- Ninjago Graphic Novels - another fun way to read and relax with characters that they love
We are always looking for book suggestions, what are your favourites? And we'd love you to join us for Smoothies and Books, just use #smoothiesandbooks to share what you're reading (and drinking!)For more fun, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest and sign up to receive our newsletter for regular updates!
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* This is a review post and also contains affiliate links, we were sent some of these books to review, all opinions are our own.*
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