Motivate Your Kids to Read with BookBoard

I have been a reader for as long as I can remember. Even when I was in first grade, I remember that I loved the excitement of opening a book and starting a new adventure. When I got into fourth grade, I was 2nd place in my entire school for reading level and reading the most books. My love for reading still continues. I bet I read more than 4-5 books a week. Bookboard can help your kids become interested in reading!


When you make reading fun, your kids will automatically want to learn. If you also throw positive reinforcement in there, they’ll want to learn even more. Perhaps a sticker of their choosing for every book they complete. After they get so many (depends on their age) they can turn the stickers into a present. A new DVD, a trip to the zoo, a toy? It’s all up to you, and them of course.

With BookBoard, it’s even easier to get them interested in reading. You can install the app on your Ipad and let them read away! Long trips, waiting at the dr, office, or just at home. There are over 400 books to unlock on Bookboard!
The Library..
We were always going to library on a weekly basis. My kids enjoy choosing their books, reading them with me, and returning them for more. Now, we don’t have to wait for our weekly trip to the library with so many different books at our fingertips!

I love once we signed up, I could create each of my kids their very own ID, with their nicknames and cute little icons beside their names to represent them. For each book they complete on Bookboards they unlock more books and earn personal achievements! That’s even more exciting than a sticker system!

I love that there is such a wide variety of books. Of course, boys and girls will like SOME similar books, but they also differ. It is more than likely that my son will love to read something with dinosaurs, airplanes, or cars, while my daughter would pick something like the Bernstein bears, Dora, or fairies.

Owning every single book that your child is interested in isn’t possible. That’s the reason we were always lending from the library even when they were very young. We did accidentally misplace one book, and another got juice on it from a spilled drink inside a backpack. With Bookboard, you don’t have to worry about paying for books to own or even if they get misplaced if they are owned by the library.

You should definitely check out their Top 15 Books of June 2013. These are books picked out by kids just like yours. These are the 15 top read books of last year, and there is a vast variety of different books. Learning about bullies, trucks, zoo’s, being fair, and more!

They even have a huge list of non-fiction books. I always try and throw a couple of the nonfiction in my kids reading list every week. So that they are learning about the world too. There are panda books, alphabet books, music and more!

About BookBoard
Designed to motivate your kids to read, Bookboard offers a digital library subscription with over 400 books for kids up to age 12 to discover, unlock, and collect.  The service grows with kids’ reading level and interests, and reinforces the experience of story time that instills a love of reading in kids.
This post was sponsored on behalf of BookBoard, all opinions are my own.

Sign up on the BookBoard Website

Thanks,

Jessica

Book Review: My Baby Compass Two-Four Years by Kathyrn Gruhn, MA, CCC-SLP

I am truly in love with this book. There is NO feeling in the world like teaching your children skills that they will use and continue to develop their entire lives. The book I received was the My Baby Compass, an Easy Program to Help Your Child Think, Speak, Move & Thrive, Two to Four (Volume .

Just flipping through it for the first time, I could definitely tell that Kathryn has 35 years of experience in Child Development. The book is simple to read and put to good use! It’s an amazing book, I seriously feel like this is a how-to guide for 2-4 year olds, lol!

I love that she teaches the value of one-on-one contact with children, and how to easily teach them through this contact. It is a nice step down from our high-tech world that usually revolves around the T.V., Smartphones, and Tablets.

There is NOTHING better than sitting down with your child and playing games while also helping them learn. If you make it fun and engaging, they will definitely love it and want more of that positive interaction.

It is very straight to the point and interactive to both the child and the parent. It makes each parent realize what skills their children should be able to do by what age, and then helps us engage in teaching them those skills with just simple games, demonstrations, and a fold out milestone checklist so we know what skills are yet to show up in our kid so we can focus on those!

This book is broken down into easy to find Chapters:

Ch. 1- “Getting to Know Your Toddler”

Ch. 2- “ “The Communication Process”

Ch. 3- “Tracking Your Child’s Progress: The Baby Compass Checklists”

Ch. 4- “My Child Did Not Meet a Milestone, Now What?”

Ch. 5- “Age-Appropriate Toys and Playtime”

Ch. 6- “Music and Rhymes for Fun and Learning”

Each checklist identifies milestones that your child should be reaching or have already been reached. They are skills, behaviors, physical developments that commonly occur around each age.

*Speech/Language

*Hearing

*Cognitive/Reasoning

*Physical

*Vision

*Social/Emotional

 

I love that the activities in this book are fun, quick ways to stimulate those skills and behaviors. It is something that you’ll both enjoy! Something that can just be added to your daily routine. Not only will your child benefit but you will also. This is special one-on-one time that will help not only learning but helping you connect on another level with them!

Throughout the book, you’ll notice certain symbols. The beginning of the book breaks these symbols down and explains them to you so that you’ll know what it means. I really like this because it tells you what to expect from certain games. Whether your child will gain help in speech, social, vision, physical, or reasoning!

It also helps you understand how to use the My Baby Compass Checklists. There is a color-coded Checklist of milestones in each booklet for these areas:

* Two-Year-old/Three-Year-Old Talks (Speech/Expressive Language) Color Code- Red

* Two-Year-old/Three-Year-Old Hears (Hearing/Receptive Language Color Code: Orange

* Two-Year-old/Three-Year-Old Understands ((Cognitive/Reasoning) Color Code: Yellow

* Two-Year-old/Three-Year-Old Moves (Physical/Motor) Color Code: Green

* Two-Year-old/Three-Year-Old Feels (Social/Emotional) Color Code: Purple

Here are some examples of what is inside the book:

Toys and playtime activities. There are other months, I am just sharing from the 37-42 months section. She is beginning to sort color, size, and shape. You can help her by having her sort all of the same colors, shapes, and sizes, naming them as she plays. Use the words “big”. “bigger”, and “biggest” in addition to “small”, “smaller”, and “smallest”. This teaches that an object can have many different attributes (color, shape, AND size).

I love that it not only shows you how to “teach” your kids, but it lets you know from a teacher/parent point of view of what they will be gaining. That way if your child is behind on a certain skill (such as Motor development) you can just focus more on those activities.

Here is a sample of one of the checklists. I love this! It is definitely amazing just as a journal for your child’s accomplishments. This is a keepsake! You could keep this so when they get older and ask “when did I do this or that?” you’ll have something to show them.

They have a baby version of this as well. I wish I had known about it. I would have gotten one for both my son and daughter. My son was really premature and I had to write all this stuff down in a regular notebook for his checkups and specialist appointments.

This book is hands down AMAZING. Not only would these books be awesome for parents but they could definitely be given to child care providers, teachers, and even relatives such as aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

 

About the Book:

My Baby Compass, Two to Four Years, is an easy program that has 275 skills with checklists and activities in five developmental areas. It will allow busy parents a quick assessment to see if their child is on target which will provide a history to share with their child's health care providers. There are corresponding simple activities to facilitate these skills, along with appropriate toys, nursery rhymes, finger plays, sign language, music selections and useful resources. This program is recommended by child development specialists. It is great for teachers, health care providers besides parents. Everything you need in one simple book.

Buy it:

My Baby Compass, an Easy Program to Help Your Child Think, Speak, Move & Thrive, Two to Four (Volume  Spiral Bound Book with pull-out checklists $39.94

You can also buy it from the Baby Compass Website

Jessica Renee