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Review of Our Favorite Early Chapter Books With Zoe

Updated: Apr 13, 2021






Zoe has read the book she is holding twice, and when posing for this photo, (which by the way she completely set up and directed me!) she got super into the book and read most of it after this photo, it was so cute.


 

Happy weekend! Stopping in with a weekend post because when I posted that Zoe has been zipping through chapter books and that it's hard to keep up (thank goodness for Epic online books, amazon and book outlet!) so many of you reached out to ask for recommendations for your young reader! For reference Zoe just turned 7 and is in 2nd grade!


We have worked hard at getting her diverse books, and I love that some of these main characters look like her, which I never had growing up. My books were always a place I could just escape too, a whole different life brewed up in my head when I was reading and I'd stay up so late just to finish a book. Watching her be able to just get caught up in the story is my favorite thing to witness.


Sharing some favorite early reader chapter books with reviews from Zoe, in her own words she tells us why she loves them.


Mercy Watson Series, "funny and happy books, read them very fast"

My Weird School " hilarious and makes me laugh so hard "

Roald Dahl "funny and a little scary and I never want to stop reading them"

Never Girls (1-4) (5-8 ) (9-12) "love it because it's adventurous and it's about fairies"

Star Friends "I haven't finish it but I love books about friends"

Zoey Sassafras "she is kind of a scientist and cares for animals, funny and mysterious"

Keena Ford "really funny because she gets in trouble for lying to her teacher"

Julians World Series "i love it because it's hilarious, the stories are so good and it's about his brother and him"

Juana & Lucas "so fun, there is spanish words in this book which is great to learn"

Clubhouse Mysteries Series - this reminds me of magic treehouse books but different kids, I love anything that is a mystery or like an investigation"

Sofia Martinez Series - "she is always getting into trouble for mischief and that is funny"

Stella Diaz Series "she is spanish, which is really cool to read, funny too!"

Junie B Jones "funny is always into a lot of mischief, but just in a kid way"

Nancy Drew " mysterious, she is a real detective with a club, i read a book in one day"

Ivy & Bean "really funny, two best friends, they get into trouble and are hilarious"

Magic Tree House "brother and sister and they have real life stories and people but it's like magic and a mystery and so good. and a lot of books so you have a lot to read"

Unicorn Academy Series " i love these books, its really pretend but they are fun and its a pretty picture on the front"

Lola Levine Series " this was a good one too, I only read one of the series and I love that Lola is funny"

Miranda & Maude "love it because its about a princess. She is from another country and meets another girl who is different, and at first this girl is mean to Miranda but then they become friends"

Dory Fantasamagory _ "oh my god this one is so funny, like hilarious, Dory is a super mischievous, and I like to read it to my sister and my mom in the car"

A couple she has not read but on my list!


I love that the girls both love books but watching Zoe's reading completely soar since Kindergarten has been so incredible to witness. My recommendation is to find all kinds of books that they LOVE, even if it's about a subject (like a sport, or country or animal even) that they are very into, this will make reading fun and easy.


And also, for those that have younger kiddos, my advice is to read read read. Listen to books, read out loud, point to words in board books and let them "read" to you. This will instill a love for books in a way that can never be taught.


I try and read in front of the girls as much as I can, magazines or newspapers, audio books and books all count the same, because they all do follow your lead and do as they see!


xoxo

Natalie



Valentine's Day & How We Approach It With Our Girls + Crafts

Updated: Apr 13, 2021




I can't find the red dresses from H&M but loved these heart dress//Pom pom sweaters are old.


Valentine's Day. I've always believed that other than my mama's birthday the 14th of February is a holiday created for consumers to spend and retail businesses to make money. But can we look at it differently? Well I sure have. I am a first generation Latina, and daughter of a single mama who worked her butt off to make life as good as possible for us. She made all holidays pretty special with very little money. And after having kids I realized you get an opportunity to bring a little magic for them, just like my mama did for us. I love creating a little special set up for them the morning of a holiday. But the last couple years I have also used the time to really talk to both girls about how we can make this less of a materialistic holiday, how we can take the day as an extra special day for those we love and care about.


A day for friendship, kindness and love. Not just for lovers and sparkly gifts, although the girls both love small gifts/surprises (definitely one of their love languages), it's also a day to spread kindness and happiness. Especially during these dark times.


I am making sure that we do some special for family, friends and neighbors. Like little heart Valentine's that we will drop in our neighbors mail boxes (we did this for Christmas and it was a big hit!), we are printing the cute pics above for some family and mailing out some other cards to some special people in our lives, a sweet something goes a really long way but most of all taking the time to make them, think of others, thinking of ways to surprise someone or how they will feel when they get it really instills something in these little humans.


So bust out the paint, glitter and get creative or you can get some of these kits that we have been enjoying.

I also love this craft set and have gifted to so many kiddos. I also have this post on Valentine's Day crafts from last year but honestly I love just putting out supplies on our dining room table and letting the girls get creative.


I'll be uploading some really cute things that I'll be surprising the girls with, our favorite books and some cute wardrobe for VDay over the weekend! But here are some ideas linked here and follow me on LikeToKnowIt for more!


xoxo

Natalie







Talking To Kids About Hard Things

Updated: Apr 13, 2021



Well hello there my loves. I was going to just skip over this post since it took me a while to process and get it together butI realized we all need to have this right here. A place to come back to. So here it is, so many hard things happening in our lives, in the country and in the world. And actually these hard things happen all the time not just during a pandemic so lets have some tricks up our sleeves.


I will preface this conversation with this:


EVERY SINGLE FAMILY IS DIFFERENT. You must consider all things best for your little humans. What is best for their personalities and ages etc. So use this post as I intended it, a place to learn from, lean on and support other mamas having to approach all of these difficult conversations.


 

Now that I have said this, as a mixed family we don't have the privilege to skip a lot of these conversations. We don't watch the news with the girls, it's just too much negative that we aren't able to preview/control but we do talk about the things going on around the world in age appropriate words/ways.


The first time I realized that we had to start talking more about things going on and things that had happened was in Zoe's first week of school when her Kindergarten teacher talked about September 11th and the twin towers. Goodness gracious I was not ready.


The school is a couple blocks from where the twin towers had come down and in remembrance of the day they talked all about it. About how the community came together, how it effected so many lives. She came home with so many questions about it all and this mama heart was not ready. My favorite phrase when these hard questions come up, has been, "that is a big big questions, with big feelings attached to it, I need you to give me some time to think about how to answer it, is that ok with you?". It validates the importance of their questions but gives me a second to gather my thoughts.


The following week they had the first of many soft lockdowns at the school, in which they prepared the school for an intruder. Can I tell you the feeling in my gut as we rode the elevator, where my (then) 4.5 year old talked about how scary it was to hide in a cubby and hold her hand over her mouth to be as quiet as possible? How she explained that her hands shook for the rest of the day waiting for it to be a "real one instead of pretend". No, I actually cannot explain that feeling because it's something I had never experienced before, a feeling that I cannot use words to explain. But I can tell you that that night I talked to my husband, and a few mom friends on how to approach talking to her about bad things happening and how we prepare for them.


We talked about how to approach past tragedies, and also how to reassure her that I work on keeping her safe and what she should know if I am not there to keep her safe. (And just in case you needed it this is your reminder that you do NOT have to do this alone! Just like any other type of parenting struggle you can pull in help, support and lean on professionals to talk about any of these hard things. We sometimes have this idea, that if we ask for help or support that we aren't good enough but that is far from the case!)


After reading The Danish Way of Parenting I am reassured that In order for our children to be strong, capable, and confident adult we have to treat them like that as children. And now fast forward to last Spring, George Floyd's death and how one child in her classroom told them all the details in which he was killed by a police officer and that black people should be scared of police. How the punch in the gut knocked the air out of me. How I again felt so unprepared and sad, just really sad that she was not scared for her dad.


And then again most recently with the attack on the Capitol, how she felt hearing that a place that represents the USA was attacked and most of all the fear that she explained was still there for her. She had the same question every time, "how can this happen, how if there are people keeping us all safe, do bad people get in, or take over planes, or hurt other people, how can that happen is we are being kept safe". I told her that as a grown up, I often have the same question. And that we would talk more about it.


All that to share that if you have felt speechless, overwhelmed, and mainly heartbroken with the truth behind these hard conversations you are not alone. Here are some links the moms in my network shared and I found helpful. I'll continue to add to this list as I come across more information.


How to Talk to Kids About Hard Subjects


Talking to Kids About Violence








As always, thank you for being here. And please, if you think of anyone that may enjoy this post or my content in general it is always helpful for me if you share and have them subscribe (so they don't miss a post).


And if you haven't, please subscribe to our newsletter where I do a bi-weekly (and soon weekly) newsletter that is like an open conversation, I share where we are, what we are doing, what we watching, reading and shopping!


xoxo

Natalie

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