Potty Training Books

I really find that reading potty training books to your toddlers will help to prepare them for what potty training is going to be like and will make them feel less afraid about it when they start.

I've only bought 2 potty training books for Kaitlin and borrowed the rest. Though Kaitlin is halfway into potty training, I intend to borrow more from the library in both English and Chinese titles.

The titles below are the ones we have:

via Amazon

This was the first potty training book I bought for Kaitlin. Back when I bought it I had not done any research about potty training at all but I thought reading such books about using the potty might be a good way to get her interested. So glad I bought it cos it definitely helped to introduce the concept of potty training to her.

via Amazon

I love reading lift-the-flap books to Kaitlin as I find them great for getting young kids like her interested and involved. I like how this book by Karen Katz is written from a child's point of view and encourages children with positive phrases.

Some other titles to check out:
Potty by Leslie Patricelli
Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi
Diapers Are Not Forever by Elizabeth Verdick
Once Upon a Potty - Girl by Alona Frankel
Once Upon a Potty - Boy by Alona Frankel

'Today I Am' Book Review X GIVEAWAY!

Kaitlin loves reading, so when we received the 'Today I Am' book written and illustrated by Mies van Hout I couldn't wait to introduce it to her.

'Today I Am' is the second English translation of the award winning Dutch children's book "Vrolijk" by Mies van Hout. First published on June 2011 in Netherlands, the book has since garnered many accolades including being nominated for the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (German Children’s Literature Award) 2013.

"Vrolijk" is such a well-received book that it has been translated into German, Italian, French and Basque and there are even plans to have it translated to Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin, Thai, Tagalog and Vietnamese.

Filled with pages of beautiful illustrations, it's no wonder that Kaitlin enjoyed this book about emotions. "Today I Am" is actually targeted at kids aged two to seven years old. However if you ask me, I find that with such a story, no matter how young or old, everyone will surely enjoy flipping through this book.

 

Daddy Li read the book to Kaitlin and she immediately took a liking to it. He also took the opportunity to act out the different kinds of emotions, and needless to say Kaitlin was pretty amused. Here's an example of how he portrayed the emotions to her!

I liked how the book wasn't wordy at all and the illustrations were colourful and clear. This makes the book great for reading to toddlers like Kaitlin who have a short attention span and are at an age where visuals play a big role.

Kaitlin enjoyed the story so much that after we read it to her, she decided to just flip through it herself!

I personally find that teaching children about emotional awareness plays quite an important role in raising happy and healthy children, and "Today I Am" does help in teaching that. For example, it helps kids learn about what is it that they are feeling, the different kinds of emotions there are and even how emotions can be expressed on paper. Often, we find ourselves telling people that we are "okay", "happy" or "sad", but really there are more emotions than that like "carefree, "frustrated" and "jealous".


Besides that, I find that "Today I Am" which features 20 common emotions and feelings will come in handy as a fun and useful way of broadening Kaitlin's vocabulary.

As an extension of the book, there's a "Today I Am" e-book iPad app that allows children to read on the go.

On top of that, they can also record their daily emotions and discover new words. If you're interested, you can download it over here.

*** Giveaway Closed! ****

Now, all good things should be shared...so here's a special WORLDWIDE GIVEAWAY for all Hello Little Sunshine readers! Courtesy of Fish Book Co. I've got five books to giveaway. Here's what you have to do to win:

1. Like Hello Little Sunshine's Facebook page
2. Leave a comment on this post with your name, email address and Facebook account name

Winner will be picked randomly. Giveaway closes on 10 September 2013. Remember it's a worldwide giveaway, so readers residing outside of Singapore you can join in as well!



***UPDATE!***
Thank you to all who participated in the giveaway! Here are the winners:



Congratulations to Yvonne Lim, Jackie, Jasmine, Kylie and Adeline! I will be emailing all of you soon to get more details, so do check your email inbox/spam folder.

For those who did not win, there will be more giveaways soon, so do remember to check back every now and then, and giveaways aside, of course I do hope that you'll continue to read and support Hello Little Sunshine :)

Home Learning - Fruits and Vegetables/Planting Theme [Books to read]

For our home learning activities, I tend to like to relate them to what Kaitlin learns in school so that it serves as a reinforcement. I usually base the books we borrow and our activities on the theme they are teaching for the term. 

We've been reading books to Kaitlin for the longest time and though she wasn't interested at first, now she loves to read! Sometime's she'll take the books herself and ask us to read it to her or she'll open and look at them herself. When I fetch her from school, I can even sometimes find her just sitting down at the table with a book waiting for me to pick her up. I make use of the opportunity that she loves to read to teach her new words and themes.

This term, her school is teaching about fruits and vegetables. So here are some of my favourite books for teaching this theme that you can buy/borrow from the library:

I love the books written by Lois Ehlert! They are big which are great for telling stories to preschoolers and they are colourful! What better way to get your kid's attention especially if you are just starting them out on reading.

Growing Vegetable Soup goes through the process of growing vegetables then gathering them and cutting the vegetables up to prepare for cooking the vegetable soup. It's great for teaching beyond vegetables alone which she labels in the book. They learn words like 'seeds', 'grow', 'cut' and so on. There's even a vegetable soup recipe included at the end. I find it a great way to get fussy kid eaters interested in eating their veggies.

This is another great book by Lois Ehlert with great illustrations. It's not exactly about fruit and vegetables, but I borrowed it anyway as it does talk about planting, which I felt is a topic that we could explore and expand from the fruit and veg theme. The story is about the plant cycle from seeds to flowers. Lots of new words can be learnt from this book. It introduces a great variety of flowers, and at the same time teaches the different colours of the rainbow.

The Little Gardener by Jan Gerardi is about planting and gardening. Again, it's not a fruit and vegetable theme book, but it does teach useful keywords involved in planting, and what is needed for plants to grow. The book puts the concepts across in a very easy to understand manner and is quite a fun read with its rhyming text. I like it as it is a lift-the-flap-book and it's not wordy at all, making it a very interactive read.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a classic and needs no introduction. I like how they teach  about fruits and at the same time incorporate counting. I love the illustrations in this book and how interactive it is. It's also good for teaching young children about healthy eating habits. Kaitlin loves when we get to the end of the book when they caterpillar becomes a butterfly. She'll always do twirls and dance when we get to that page.

Hope you and your children will have an enjoyable time reading these books. We usually borrow our books from the library but if you're interested in adding them to your child's book collection, you can check out Book Depository. I find that sell a wide variety of books and are sold at lower prices than the stores in Singapore.

*Picture credits to Book Depository.