Baby Preschool Books

This provides a way to introduce God into Halloween in a non-threatening way. It has some debatable theology associated with it, but I think that's only for the adults; I think the children will hear the overriding lessons and miss this aspect of the book.

God is in everything, and this book serves to remind us of that. Man's perspective can be small and petty, whereas God works through all things for good.

A wonderful book to read to children. Liz Curtis Higgs has a God-given insight which she uses to provide quality Christian picture books.

My kids ages 2,3, and 4 love this book! (and the rest of the series) The Bible verses at the bottom of each page is a really nice touch. This past Halloween my oldest asked me to read her this book over and over again. She picked up a few great biblical concepts from our times of reading Pumpkin Patch Parable.

I think it's wonderful book and I'm a christian. Everything was made by god including pumpkins and carving pumpkins is fun. It does not have to be evil and the fact that you can do it and teach your child about god is wonderful. Just wondering if the people who judge the book as trying to turn evil into good buy christmas trees and decorate them?? Did you know that is also a Pagan tradition with roots not honoring god?? How many Christians buy and decorate Christmas trees?? I would say step back and look more closely at yourself before judging others. In the Bible we are not bound by law but by grace. How can anything that teaches about god be sinful?? It does not matter what people did thousands of years ago but it does matter that we honor god in our words and actions today. I don't see the harm in this book.

This is a great story that can help people of all ages, even though geared to children, understand the message of the Gospel in a creative way. This doesn't have to be associated with the celebration of Halloween. I know that many people who profess to be Christians still like to celebrate Halloween and feel that this story helps to tie it to their faith. That shouldn't make this a bad book for those who don't think Halloween has a place in the lives of Christians. Putting a face on a pumpkin to do something fun during fall harvest is a spiritually neutral activity. It just doesn't have to be about Halloween. I am glad that people like Ms Higgs take the time to do something positive for this time of year--something that takes the focus OFF of Halloween.

this book is just what I was looking for. the songs and poems are short and easy. lots of old favorites and new ones, too.

I love this book! I use it all the time when I want to keep kids up to 6 years old busy. I have kids who visit who beg me to bring out the book to do the finger plays. I recommend it highly.

As someone with training in folklore, I always trust a book with Joanna Cole's name on it. This book does a very good job of showing (rather than desscribing) the actions and provides the words and music. As it is folklore, you will find some of the fingerplays or action rhymes from your childhood as well as new additions to your repetoire. As I have come to expect, I believe that the publishing company has underestimated the age range for which the book is appropriate ... listen to your young friends after their first camping trip with the cub scouts, bluebirds etc. and you will find that even at that ages children are teaching children some of these plays.

This book contains 38 finger plays, from the well-known (I'm a Little Teapot) to ones I've never heard of (Here are Mother's Knives and Forks). Each is in big type with large illustrations to show you how to do the fingerplay. For those that are sung, musical arrangements are at the back of the book, along with a bibliography and index.

Excellent resource for the fingerplay challenged!

We loved this product. We use it as an addition to our current curriculum, My Father's World. We liked the books and the word cards in addition to the other projects. I would recommend this product to anyone. 12x18 construction paper can be found at Millers Pads and Paper on line. Great hands on project with easy to follow instructions.

I agree with all of teachingmytwo's comments, so I'll try not to repeat her points. I would add that while the projects have too much coloring, we minimalized this by just not coloring everything. The projects still look good not fully colored.

I do feel that if History Pockets are one's only hands-on supplement for your history/social studies program year after year (from one grade to the next), the projects from the various books do start to feel repetative. However, as each book stands on it's own, I think they're very well done, including this one, Life in Plymouth. The authors seem to choose just the right things in terms of subject matter to highlight from one's history study. So while one is, of course, reading text, real books, viewing videos, etc., Life in Plymouth will provide each child a way to walk away with a "scrap book" of the topics typically touched on.

By the way, the projects could actually be done as a family or in small groups in a classroom with each child doing one of the several projects per pocket. It would just depend on how independently your kids can work and what pace you'd like.

While the History Pocket books are great for making a book, they are a little boring by themselves. There is too much coloring and not enough learning. We have learned more by reading library books, the encyclopedia, watching an educational show, or talking about the subjects.

When we purchased these, I liked the idea. But, after wasting a lot of our homeschool day with the children coloring (by day 3, coloring had turned into scribbles) I decided to use these as supplemental activities. We read and do art projects. We talk about the subjects.

My kids liked their pilgrim puppets, the diorama of the room... and that is about it...

We have several of the HP products. Now, we let the kids chose which ones looked "fun", and skip the rest.

While it is nice to have a book to look at afterwards, I feel they do not serve a great purpose. (And they are a waste of printer paper and ink.) They are nice if you need a "work sample" for school, but I feel they are just "busy work". History can be learned in much more interesting ways.

I used this with my children, ages 7 and 9, to supplement our study of the colonies. It is a fun, hands on way to learn about the different aspects of colonial life. There are eight chapters with simple projects to do in each, and a pocket to store the things in for each chapter. The eight chapters are Voyage to the New World, The New World, Building a Village, Home Sweet Home, The Family, Working in Plymouth Colony, Going to School, What Did the Pilgrims Give Us? The projects involve paper, cutting and pasting, some writing, coloring, diaramas, and a vocabulary page for each chapter/pocket. My only complaint is that some of the projects get pretty repetitive, lots of cutting and glueing. I have other History Pockets books and we will probably only use parts of them, rather than do all the projects in all the pockets.

Adorable book with all the hands on things to do. The problem is ours came in the mail with the battery dying (we may have gotten one rendition of wheels on the bus) and the music contraption totally removed from the book. The glue used to hold the music button/battery pack did not work at all and therefore it is no longer a "sound" book.

This is my son's favorie book over all the others. We read this several times everyday, the flaps and tabs are durable w/ supervision of course. The music goes a lil fast, but you can still sing to it, and it has wonderful illustrations. It has been a great way to teach him animals, bus items like drivers, wipers, passengers, and also things in nature like rain, clouds, birds etc. He loves it so much, if he did tear the tabs I would buy him another one, b/c this has been the best purchase ever. Lots of fun for me and him.

My 17 month old son LOVES this book and song! I had to reglue it after a few times reading it.

I was very disappointed with this book. The age in the description is baby to preschool but on the back of the book it says not appropriate for children under 36 months due to small parts, which my child successfully pulled off. The music plays too quickly so it's difficult to sing along with it and it only plays 2 verses at a time so it does not match with the words in the book. I would not recommend this book.

My toddler loves this book! We have had a lot of fun playing the horn & singing the Wheels on the bus Song! There are moving parts, pop-up's and moving parts on this book.. too cute!! This book has it all,I definatly recomend it! Though I caution that is it fragile for someone who isn't gentle with their books, my baby Sofia has already torn some of the Pices off in her excietment! But we have had fun!

A good description of how a road is made. This book is attractive with simple but accurate illustrations, and charming rhymes with "sound" words. I appreciated that there are a few female workers in the pictures. I bought it for a 3 year old, but I think it is too young for her - it will go to the younger one who is not yet two who will enjoy it for some time to come. Reading level may be 4-8, but appropriate age is younger.

We love this song (of course--it's such a classic) and we have just come to adore Raffi the more we listen to his songs. you can download the songs from any of his books from itunes and listen if you don't want to sing while 'reading'. These books are now such favorites in our house, and the music is really awesome. I'm picky about music, and don't like to listen if it's not great quality or if it's corny or cheesy. Highly highly recommended. Love Raffi!!!! what a voice!

My son has loved the Raffi books since he was 6 months old and now that he is over 2 we still can't get enough of them. Each is so fun to read or sing that it brings joy to his little face. I would recommend these books for boys and girls of every age.

My daughter enjoys having me sing this book to her at bedtime and points to the pages. The words/ stanzas do not flow well with each other. As an adult, I find that annoying but what matters most is that my daughter enjoys it! and it puts her to sleep after reading it a couple of times.

This is such a cute rendition of a book based on this classic song. It encourages being creative and showing your true inner self in both the words of the song as well as the cute story told through the illustrations of a classroom of children putting on a school play and having a great time doing it. My two year old really liked this one.

ISBN 1570640777 - Barney's been around for a while now, and his first set of fans are now just about old enough to have their own kids - and pass on their childhood love of the big purple guy. This definitively moves Barney from a cute TV character to a childhood icon and makes him a great friend to learn from.

In short rhymes, Barney introduces young readers to Barney Says (not to be confused with Simon Says, because Barney doesn't start each "order" with "Barney says..."). Readers are told to tap their nose, march their feet and more, learning the parts of their body in a fun and interactive way.

The photographs by Dennis Fuller show Barney and four young children (not the same four on each page, oddly) on a gray background, leaving only the action to draw your attention. Since the idea is to do, as much as to read, it's a nice touch that the photos aren't too detailed. Also nice is that the children are a somewhat racially diverse group. Best of all, of course, your child can be a Barney fan without being a couch potato!

Let me begin with the fact that I am not a huge Barney fan. We do not spend TV on him. But, I love this book!

We bought our first copy for my oldest son 11 years ago. During the years and three more children, we have had to buy 3 or 4 replacement copies. The easy and fun way of learning body parts is wonderful.

My 17 month old twin girls love this book! They learned nose, toes, ears, and other body parts from this book. It is fun for them to play the game with Barney. And my favorite is that one of my daughters gives me a big hug when we get to the last page where Barney gives hugs.

My 15-month old has never watched the Barney show, but he loves this book! After reading it only a couple of times and doing the hand motions with him, he started doing some of them by himself! He loves to look at the pictures of the children doing the motions (pat your head, tap your nose, now bend down and touch your toes...). There's a different motion on each page.

My 20 month old and I LOVE this book. It teaches different parts of the body and my son knows the book by heart. Very good book. Would recommend it to anyone.

A good friend of mine introduced me to Maisy books when I was pregnant with my first child. I have spread the wealth to all the other new moms in my acquaintance. Babies and toddlers LOVE these books. The characters are sweet, the illustrations are appealing, and the flaps are so much fun! Best of all, they are reasonably priced, so they are a good addition to baby shower gift bags. Note: make sure when you purchase that you get "lift the flap" books. Some Maisy books do not have flaps, but my kids prefer the flap versions hands down.

My kids (18 months and 2 1/2 years) LOVE the Maisy lift the flap books. They love the fun of the flaps plus it is familiar animals for them to recognize/name. The repetition is fun for them as well as finally finding Maisy!

Ayla, my 16 month old grand-daughter, just loves this book. She also loved the Karen Katz books, too, as she is into lifting the flap books.

My 13 months old girl loves this book. Personally, I would like to see some repetitive phrases like "No, not here" on the flaps right before they introduce the sound of the animals so that it will reinforce "Yes/No" concept as well.

If you are the parent of a young child, you probably know who Maisy is. She's a mouse with a duck, a squirrel, an elephant, and a crocodile for friends. Why the crocodile isn't trying to eat the others is beyond me, but that's life in Maisy's world.

Both of my daughters love the Maisy books; there's something about their simple stories and colorful pictures that even appeals to adults. The books are short and easy to read. But, the stories are never obnoxiously simplistic, like so many other books for small children.

This is a lift the flap book in which the childen are lifting flaps trying to figure out where Maisy lives. Naturally, we don't find out untilt he end of the book (hey, it would ruin the plot to reveal earlier, right?). One caution, the kids might get a little aggressive with the flaps and tear a few, resulting in the purchase of a new lift the flap book.

I bought this book because my grandson has many of the titles in the series. It's great fun and educational.

I bought this book for the little sister of one of my horse obsessed grandchilden. We own several in this line and this one continues the tradition of quality. They are wonderful books to cuddle with a toddler! I love the sturdy format and slick, glossy pages. They are the perfect size for a 18 month old's hands. I will continue to purchase titles in this line.

My 5-month old son loves this book - he squeals and laughs at each page. As he grows older I know he'll enjoy it more and more.

This is my 11-month-old son's favorite book. He crawls over to a stack of books, where he knows it is, and pushes them all aside until he finds it. It is a really cute book. The story is silly and the illustrations are colorful and imaginative.

Our two-year-old LOVES this book. It's great for tactile stimulation as well as teaching animal sounds... with plenty of fun thrown in. This has become our new favorite.

I delayed purchasing this lovely book, since I felt that it had maybe one drawback. (Even though I fell in love with it when I saw it at Borders.) The premise of this touch-and-feel book is that a cow is searching for her barnyard friends. While you get to peek and feel some of the texture of the next page, you totally expect it to be the sheep, horse, the duck, etc. But what makes this book so fun (for adults) is that instead of the yellow feathers which obviously should belong to the duck, you see that it actually belongs to a painted panda! Every page is filled with unexpected animals (the monkey in a sweater or a bear in a tutu) until you finally find all the typical barnyard animals at the end. The only reservation I have is that unless your child is familiar with the different animals, they wouldn't really get the irony in this book. That is, unless they knew that ducks were supposed to comes with fluffy yellow feathers (and not pandas) and that sheep come with soft white wool (and not monkeys in sweaters), they'd miss the comic point of this book and could (maybe, possibly) even get confused. I waited a few months more for my 18 month old to learn to recognize different animals from her other books, then bought this immediately from Amazon. She loves it and pulls it out all the time. The one other complaint is that the last page has large flaps that you open and my toddler has already crumpled and folded it. I've gone ahead and reinforced the edges of these pages with packing tape before she could rip it. I'd say that it's the only weakness of this otherwise very durable book.

I picked this book out for my son when he was 4 months old, and at 2 years now, he still loves this book! The colors, craziness, and touchy feely spots on the pages are great to get babies and toddlers engaged and interested in the book. Now that my son is a bit older, he loves the story, too. I like the nonsensical, silly rhymes and I really like that the story can be longer or shorter depending on how much of a hurry I'm in at bedtime or how many times I've read the book that week. The story makes sense even if you just read the first part of each page. When reading with a one year old that wants to turn the pages quickly to feel the next page, shortening the story comes in handy. The only downside to the book is the pages that open out at the end will eventually probably get worn out or torn. I finally had to reinforce our back pages with packing tape, but I guess that's not so bad seeing that it's been read at least a hundred times in a couple of years.
Also, as a former Kindergarten teacher, my son has LOTS of books to choose from to read at bedtime, and he still chooses this one several times a month!