The Most Important 20 Minutes of Your Day, Read with a Child

  

      As the school year begins and your little ones start an exciting new year we are left thinking about some things that could help your nanny or our VIP Parents aid in their child having a successful year.  Did you know that parents or caregivers that read to their children at least 20 minutes every day before a child enters a school setting is setting then up for major success when they enter the classroom?     

      Spending just 20 minutes a day reading to a child, in any language will aid in the cognitive development and shape young developing minds.  One of the most important factor, they learn to recognize words and it aids in giving your little guys a boost in their speaking and listening skills.   Not only are the words important in reading but recognition of pictures when they are very young. 

      We have taken the time to give you a list of some of our favorite books as well as some of our VIP Nannies favorite books that you can share with your family.  Some of these books are classics and others work in a series to help with colors, numbers, shapes, manners and even concepts like love or the importance of friendship.  All of the books listed you can fins at your local book store or Amazon.  We hope you enjoy them as much as we do, and remember: The most important 20 minutes of your day, read with a child!

The Story of Ferdinand by: Munro Leaf Ferdinand is a little bull who much prefers sitting quietly under a cork tree-- just smelling the flowers--to jumping around, snorting, and butting heads with other bulls. This cow is no coward--he simply has his pacifist priorities clear. As Ferdinand grows big and strong, his temperament remains mellow, until the day he meets with the wrong end of a bee. In a show of bovine irony, the one day Ferdinand is most definitely not sitting quietly under the cork tree (due to a frightful sting), is the selfsame day that five men come to choose the "biggest, fastest, roughest bull" for the bullfights in Madrid.

Where the Wild Things Are by: Maurice Sendak Max dons his wolf suit in pursuit of some mischief and gets sent to bed without supper. Fortuitously, a forest grows in his room, allowing his wild rampage to continue unimpaired. Sendak's color illustrations (perhaps his finest) are beautiful, and each turn of the page brings the discovery of a new wonder. The wild things--with their mismatched parts and giant eyes--manage somehow to be scary-looking without ever really being scary; at times they're downright hilarious. Sendak's defiantly run-on sentences--one of his trademarks--lend the perfect touch of stream of consciousness to the tale, which floats between the land of dreams and a child's imagination.

Corduroy by: Don Freeman Have you ever dreamed of being locked in a department store at night? The endearing story of Corduroy paints a picture of the adventures that might unfold (for a teddy bear at least) in such a situation. When all the shoppers have gone home for the night, Corduroy climbs down from the shelf to look for his missing button. It's a brave new world!

The Giving Tree by: Shel Silverstein "Once there was a tree ... and she loved a little boy." Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk ... and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave. This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return. 

Madeline Adventures by: Ludwig Bemelmans These are the stories of a young orphan girl in Paris and her curious behavior. The is nothing frightens Madeline—not tigers, not mice, not even getting sick. To Madeline, a trip to the hospital is a grand adventure. This series has a ton of different stories for children to follow Madeline and her adventures.








The Little House by: Virgina Lee Burton The Little House, a poignant story of a cute country cottage

that becomes engulfed by the city that grows up around it. The house has an expressive face of windows and doors, and even the feelings of a person, so she’s sad when she’s surrounded by the dirty, noisy city’s hustle and bustle: “She missed the field of daisies / and the apple trees dancing in the moonlight.” Fortunately, there’s a happy ending, as the house is taken back to the country where she belongs. A classic!

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by: Laura Joffee Numeroff and Felicia Bond If a hungry little traveler shows up at your house, you might want to give him a cookie. If you give him a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. He'll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn't have a milk mustache, and then he'll ask for a pair of scissors to give himself a trim.... The consequences of giving a cookie to this energetic mouse run the young host ragged, but young readers will come away smiling at the antics that tumble like dominoes through the pages of this delightful picture book.

Chicka Chick Boom by: Bill Martin Jr. In this bright and lively rhyme, the letters of the alphabet race each other to the top of the coconut tree. When X, Y and Z finally scramble up the trunk, however, the weight is too much, and down they all tumble in a colorful chaotic heap: "Chicka Chicka . . . BOOM! BOOM!" All the family members race to help, as one by one the letters recover in amusingly battered fashion. Poor stubbed toe E has a swollen appendage, while F sports a jaunty Band-Aid and P is indeed black-eyed. As the tropic sun goes down and a radiant full moon appears, indomitable A leaps out of bed, double-daring his colleagues to another treetop race. This nonsense verse delights with its deceptively simple narrative and with the repetition of such catchy phrases as "skit skat skoodle doot." Ehlert's bold color scheme, complete with hot pink and orange borders, matches the crazy mood perfectly. Children will revel in seeing the familiar alphabet transported into this madcap adventure. Ages 2-6.


Goodnight Moon by: Margaret Wise Brown In a great green room, tucked away in bed, is a little bunny. "Goodnight room, goodnight moon." And to all the familiar things in the softly lit room--to the picture of the three little bears sitting in chairs, to the clocks and his socks, to the mittens and the kittens, to everything one by one--he says goodnight. In this classic of modern children's literature, beloved by generations of readers and listeners, the quiet poetry of the words and the gentle, lulling illustrations combine to make a perfect book for the end of the day.




The Series of Book by: Karen Katz Where is Baby’s Belly Button and Toes, Ears, Nose! 

The Series of Books by: Sandra Boynton Her books are funny stories dealing with lots of different topics and have some of the most entertaining illustrations that children specifically toddler age LOVE. Moo Baa La La La and But Not the Hippopotamus

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by: Eric Carle Eric Carle's classic story begins one sunny Sunday, when the caterpillar was hatched out of a tiny egg. He was very hungry. On Monday, he ate through one apple; on Tuesday, he ate through three plums--and still he was hungry. Strikingly bold, colorful pictures and a simple text in large, clear type tell the story of a hungry little caterpillar's progress through an amazing variety and quantity of foods. Full at last, he made a cocoon around himself and went to sleep, to wake up a few weeks later wonderfully transformed into a butterfly!

Blueberries for Sal by: Robert McCloskey "The adventures of a little girl and a baby bear while hunting for blueberries with their mothers one bright summer day. All the color and flavor of the sea and pine-covered Maine countryside."