Literacy Based Helpful Websites, Links, and "Stuff"

A while ago, I went to a Parents as Teachers literacy meeting. The meeting was all about how to encourage a love of reading in children. I found it very interesting and thought I would share some of the information.

Websites:

• Storyline Online. At this website, you can choose a book to be read to your children by a famous person. Just looking at the first page, they have readers like Haylie Duff, Betty White and Elijah Wood. I like putting this on when I'm trying to make dinner and need the girls to sit still for a while. 
• Robert Munsch. Robert Munsch is a very popular children's book author. My favorite book by him is called "Love You Forever" and I swear it makes me cry every time I read it (I'm not talking a lady-like cry either - I'm talking about a nasty, ugly, must-call-my-husband-and-cry-to-him-even-though-he-just-rolls-his-eyes-and-tells-me-to-get-over-it kind of cry). At his website, if you click on the "books" tab, you can choose books and listen to an audio file of Robert reading his own books. 
• Star Fall has all kinds of materials for pre-reading, phonics, letter recognition, and phoneme practice. Additionally, if you click on the Learn to Read tab, you can choose from a variety of early reader books the child can practice and play with. 

Some good authors for young children:

• David Shannon, most famous for the No David books. Funny anecdote: After this conference, I went to my public library online and requested some of the books mentioned thinking that I was an awesome Momma. I go to pick up the books with the girls making a very big deal about all of the fun books we were getting. By bedtime, Amita could hardly sit because she was so excited about the books. I let her pick which one she wanted and she picks the No David book. I sit down, put the girls on my lap, and open the book only to find out that it was in SPANISH! That's right, Mommy of the Year requested the Spanish version. (((Sigh))). We just made up our own story for the night but I got the distinct impression that Amita was a little underwhelmed after how much I had built up the new awesome books. I still haven't read her the actual book. 
• Mo Willems, talked about in my post earlier for his awesome book Knuffle Bunny. He also writes the Pigeon series. 
• Jan Thomas writes Can You Make a Scary Face? and Rhyming Dust Bunnies, among others. 
• Iza Trapani has some good books with great illustrations.
• Gail Gibbons has some really neat non-fiction books. 

Some good series books for children:

• Good Dog, Carl
• Pete the Cat (one of Amita's favorites)
• Knuffle Bunny (another favorite although we haven't branched into the other books in the series)
• Piggie and Elephant

Some other gems from the meeting:

• Don't forget about the importance of non-fiction with early readers. It is important for them to have a wide base of knowledge - a lot of which can only come from non-fiction. I mean, it's not like they come across Bengal Tigers and the French Alps in daily life - but it is still important to know what those things are. National Geographic for Kids has a magazine for kids. Time Magazine also has Time for Kids with some great resources. I've thought about getting my kids a magazine subscription but have just assumed that Ashima will tear it up and eat it. Maybe when they are a bit older. 
• Scholastic also has a lot of resources. Remember those book fairs when we were kids? They were awesome!
• Remember Highlights? It was one of the best things about going to the Doctor's office when I was a kid. Again, I've thought about getting this for my kids but want to wait until Ashima is past the paper eating phase. 
• Rereading books to kids is a lot like listening to your favorite song over and over. This phrase has given me the ability to read Night Night Little Pookie about 8,000 more times than I would have other wise. I had, at one point, also hidden some books around the house that I swore up and down I just couldn't read EVER AGAIN. I dug most of them out and gave them back to the kids feeling only mildly guilty for hiding them in the first place. 
• Rhyming is very important for early reading. It helps kids make connections. Say, for instance, they are sight reading a word they haven't seen before: Hat. If that have also seen the word Cat, and know that they rhyme from reading the Cat and the Hat, it will be much easier for him/her to figure out the new word than it would if they didn't recognize the rhyme. 

The biggest thing I took away from the meeting: literacy in children starts with us, the parents. We need to be open to reading (and rereading and rereading and rereading) books to our children. We need to be the ones to show them the joys of a good book. We are the ones who plant the seeds and then watch them grow as the children grow. 

If any other mommas/educators have more links/helpful material, please comment on this post and I will add it. Let's all share the great information we have!