When it comes to our at-home studies, I take a much more casual approach with things. I have figured out what works best for our family and what gets the kids working hard, but enjoying it. One thing that trumps everything else right now when it comes to these two younger cubs is reading. Owen left public school in first grade and already had learned how to read the previous year. Obviously, he is still a new reader and needs to strengthen his skills, but does pretty well with things. Blair is brand new. She was only two months into kindergarten when we pulled the kids out and hadn’t tackled this task yet. If I’m being honest, it was definitely one of the more intimidating things to think about tackling on my own. However, I simply make sure that we make a lot of space for reading, being read to, and then rinsing and repeating. I wanted to make sure and share with you our favorite books for younger children and the reads that we are currently enjoying in our home.

First up are a few of the books I made sure to have in our library if we didn’t already specifically for learning how to read:

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

The Mixed-Up Chameleon

The Hungry Caterpillar

Green Eggs and Ham

May I Please Have a Cookie

Goodnight Moon

I’m Not Just a Scribble

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

Next up are ones that we have enjoyed so much with the kids, ones that they have not grown tired of and books that are classics that I think every home should have for littles ones to know:

Swimmy

Where the Wild Things Are

The Hiccupotamus

The Rainbow Fish

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

Ferdinand

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales

Dragons Love Tacos

Dragons Love Tacos 2

The Pout-Pout Fish

Seeds and Trees

Any and all Berenstain Bear books

Any and all Little Critter books

Any and all Arthur books

Jumanji

Frog and Toad Together

Any and all ‘How Do Dinosaurs’ books

As a family and especially with the youngest of the group, we adore the Moonlite Projector Books. They are adding more and more to the collection that you can purchase and the kids love gathering on our bed, turning off all of the lights and being read to in a new way. Even the older kids join in on it. They work alongside an app on your smartphone and projects from there while you read from your phone and turn the story wheel. It’s awesome because it is set to music and sounds and completely brings each story to life.

A new tradition we have started since diving into the adventure of homeschooling is reading classics at night. The younger cubs love being read to especially when I use different voices and really perform for them and I like that they can sit back and relax without having to do more work in reading, but get the benefits of being read to. Benefits like language skills, listening skills and helps to instill a love of reading.

I have loved collecting these classic versions that are exclusively sold at Barnes and Noble where they carry a collectible line. The books are absolutely beautiful – I love that the spines are intricately designed especially when you see them lined up on the bookshelf and the illustrations inside are vintage and classic. They are truly beautiful and I loved my time with my cubs as we get lost in the stories of Beatrix Potter, Alive in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan and more. My goal is to have them all eventually.

I have gathered all of the books I have mentioned in this post to hopefully make things easy and accessible for you if you would like to start adding to your own collection. You can browse everything on my Amazon page right here. And if you ever need it in the future you can find the link in the sidebar to the right here on HausofLayne.com. And as we grow our library, I will continue to add our favorite titles to share with you there.

Do you have a favorite book or books that you enjoy as a family? I would love to know your favorites so we can enjoy them too. Share about them below!