Language Arts- Reading

I started Ballet Girl on some more interesting stories. Since they are longer, I read them to her before she attempts to read them herself.  The stories that I have picked are funny stories, stories that she can laugh with and stay engaged. This particular story we read as a read-aloud last October and it proved to be very entertaining.







Pirate Mom, oh, my! This is a fantastic, silly story. Sunlight boy could not start laughing. Great story to keep you entertained. If you want to go deep you can discuss if we always know the consequences of what we want. Sometimes, often, we do not know in what ways the world around us will be impacted by a particular action or phrase of ours.

And, last but certainly not least, here is this gem of a silly story about a stinky giant and how he impacts the lives of two kids. Again one can relate it to the message that since we are not alone in the Universe, we might as well be mindful of others our actions and words can impact. I highly recommend this stories for their entertainment value as read-alouds, and as self-paced readers. Since the text is longer than what Sunlight boy has been reading thus far, we split the reading over 3-4 days. Knowing the story upfront helps her, plus before she begins the new section, we review/recall/re-read the story thus far.


My child is approaching the fluency stage; she decodes and deduces from the context with relative ease bigger, unknown words. However, she is not interested in chapter books without pictures or in chapter books with only black pictures. She is interested in funny, silly, colorful child fiction. The series listed above
satisfy her desires.

I do not like the early chapter books that are typically recommended to readers at this stage. The only chapter books that I have found satisfying are the Piggy books and the Mercy Watson books. Most chapter books intended for the emergent reader are plain dull and speak down to the reader. Some even use incorrect grammar and/or spelling. My main complaint is the content. I am glad that there are interesting, simple non-chapter book alternatives that we can resort to at this stage.