8 Great Picture Books for New Kindergartners

My oldest will be starting kindergarten in a month. He describes himself as "a little nervous but mostly excited" about this upcoming change. I would describe myself as "mostly freaked out" that my baby is old enough for school.

He is full of questions about kindergarten: what will his teacher be like? what will his classroom look like? what will he do all day? will there be food? will there be games? what will he learn? will he make friends?

For those of you who have a new kindergartner who is brimming with questions, excitement, and/or nerves about school, here's a list of books to help prepare for the big day.

In The Pirate of Kindergarten (by George Ella Lyon), Ginny must wear an eye patch to correct double vision and becomes the pirate of her kindergarten class! This fun book could be especially helpful for kids who have any concerns about being different from the other children in their class.

My kids love the Little Critter books. In First Day of School (by Mercer Mayer), Little Critter is nervous about heading to school, and we get to see how he prepares and gets ready for his first day back!

Kids aren't the only ones nervous for their first day of school (as I am experiencing right now). In Dad's First Day (by Mike Wohnoutka), Dad is way more nervous than Oliver for the first day of school. Kids will love seeing that they aren't the only ones with nerves about school.

The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (by Deborah Lee Rose) is a fun twist on a rhyme your kids will probably recognize -- the twelve days of Christmas. In this version, the kindergartners are given a fun new activity in class each day.

For especially anxious kids, Wemberly Worried (by Kevin Henkes) would make a great pre-K read. Wemberly is nervous about everything to do with the start of school. This book is a great way to discuss your little one's worries and learn together how Wemberly fared on her first day!

Some kids' biggest concern for school is simply being away from mom. For those with separation anxiety, The Kissing Hand (by Audrey Penn) is a great read. A kiss from mom on Chester the raccoon's hand is the perfect way for him to remember her and feel comforted by her, even while he's at school.

With its fun rhyming sequence and silly ideas, Off to Kindergarten (by Tony Johnston) will have your little one laughing about their first day. Bill's list of items to bring to school on his first day grows longer and sillier as the book goes on!

The 'how do dinosaurs' books are always a hit at our house, so How Do Dinosaurs Go To School? (by Jane Yolen) is perfect for the big day! This funny book with its colorful cast of dinosaurs teaches kids about what is and isn't appropriate behavior in the classroom.

12 Days of Christmas Book Advent Countdown

One of my favorite Christmas traditions when I was a kid was ticking off another day on our advent calendar. Some years our advent calendar had a treat to eat on each day, or a little prize . . . but this year we're doing the ultimate book-lovers' advent treat: a new book to read each day as we count down to Christmas!

16 Favorite Halloween Picture Books

One of the best parts of each holiday for us readers is finding the perfect holiday-themed picture books to share with our kids! Such a fun way to spend time together and get psyched up for the next holiday. So today we want to share 16 of our favorite (non scary) Halloween picture books to read aloud to kids.

Book Club Gossip: 5 Tips on Raising Kind Children

It's an inevitable discussion when you get a group of women together (most of whom are mothers) to discuss Wonder, as we did for book club last month: we all wanted to know how to raise our kids to be kind, compassionate, and caring.

I think that kindness comes naturally to some children, but with bullying consistently on the rise, it's obviously something we need to discuss and teach at home.

Here are 5 simple tips on cultivating kindness in your children:

Giving Back: Tiny Tim's Foundation for Kids

(Photo by Kellie)

I had the privilege of going to Tiny Tim's Foundation for Kids recently. My very thoughtful and always thinking of others sister in law had the great idea to do a little something different this year for Christmas. Usually we draw names for all the cousins to give a gift to each other. My sister in law thought instead we could use the money we were going to spend on gifts and give a donation to the Tiny Tim's Foundation for Kids and donate some of our time to volunteer at the workshop. It was a little crazy trying to find the right date that most of us could all go. (There are twenty-eight of us that live in the area and matching up schedules was a nightmare and not everyone was able to make it, but we made it work!) The night had come for us to head up to the workshop in West Valley, Utah.
Alton Thacker, the founder of this wonderful foundation, greeted us with a huge smile and welcomed us to his shop. He told us the story of how he started this foundation and where the idea came from. He said that last year they made and delivered 56,000 wooden toy cars to children around the world. Much of the wood needed is donated or scavenged from where ever they can find it. The greatest cost is shipping it to where it needs to go.

He has these hard clear plastic outlines of the five or so different shapes he uses for the cars and we helped him to trace them onto the wood.

After the cars are cut out they are taken to the prison where inmates paint them or they are taken to a blind man in Utah that stains them. Alton told us that this job of staining the cars has given this blind man a purpose to live and that he feels like he has something to contribute to others.

These are the wheels that are power drilled onto the cars.

(Photo by Kellie)

We all sat and listened closely to how we were suppose to assemble the cars.

The kids were anxious to get going. They wanted to trace the cars on the wood and to drill the wheels on. I think that my son wants a power drill for Christmas now. The drills were the perfect size so that the kids could work them.

We had kids there from 3 years old to 16 years old and everyone had a job they could do. If you are thinking of donating to this cause or volunteering please contact them and make a difference in a child's life today. This is a great service project for youth and families and he has other things you can do to help also. So if you are in an organization who wants to do humanitarian things this could be the perfect project for you.

Alton was very nice and let all the kids take a car home for helping. There were smiles all around!

Here are some cars my kids brought home.

Another foundation that they work with is Eyes4Zimbabwe which is trying to help the nearly 80,000 children and youth of Zimbabwe who have bi-lateral cataracts that make them blind and that can be cured by a 15 minute per eye surgery that costs $20 per eye. Three of the Ladies European Tour golfers started this foundation and have helped many children be able to see again. Tiny Tim's gives a toy car to every child that they help. Check out this video if you want to learn more.

This is the time of year where we are reminded to think of others and to think of those less fortunate then us. We have so much and there are many people around the world who would love a small tiny toy car to call their own. While we may be thinking of what gifts we are giving to our family try to give to someone in need also.

I hope you all have a very Happy Holiday Season.

xoxo,

Kellie