Early Chapter Books

Meet Mercy Watson, an entertaining little pig. I have been on a quest for simple chapter books for Princess. This quest is not an easy one. We have read all of the Young Cam Jansen books, some of them more than once. 

Princess enjoys the experience of reading chapter books of her own. There are some chapter books that she is almost ready for and truthfully she could read them, but she is intimidated by the length.

Mercy Watson by Kate DiCamillo (the one who wrote The Tale of Despereaux) fits the bill. The chapters are short, there are lots of pictures and the story is very entertaining (not at all dark like Despereaux). Princess was laughing out loud.

There are six books in the Mercy Watson series.

• Mercy Watson to the Rescue
• Mercy Watson Goes For a Ride
• Mercy Watson Fights Crime
• Mercy Watson Princess in Disguise
• Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig
• Mercy Watson Something Wonky This Way Comes

 Check them out! They're fun!

A Good Book

Who can resist a good book? Yesterday, Princess read three books and one chapter from a chapter book. I do admit that this is more than normal, but it was really cool to see her love of reading begin to blossom.

As for me, I have discovered a love for the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I found the hardcover set at Costco for $46! Currently, I am reading book three. You just have to look past the high school setting (which is pretty easy to do) and an interest in vampires doesn't hurt. I happen to love vampire stories, especially ones like this.

Library Card

A while back I posted about Princess' reading success. Since then her reading has really skyrocketed. One day, about a month ago, we were at the library and Princess asked when she could get her own library card.

Here she is smiling proudly with her new library card and her first library books.

Here is the most recent pile of books that she requested from the library. She loved that the hold slips had her name. She wanted to request level 2 "ready to read" books about...wait for it...PRINCESSES! I guess it's not necessarily all about the pink.

Unschooling Reading

How do you unschool reading? With unschooling, the theory is, you just live life and things happen. I admit that I had wasn't certain this could work with reading. We bought Fridge Phonics years ago, which Princess really liked. We later got Word Whammer. This she played with a little, but wasn't all that into it.

What she really loved and still does, are the Leap Frog movies: The Letter Factory, The Talking Words Factory, The Talking Words Factory 2 - Code Word Caper and The Storybook Factory. In fact she hard a very hard time parting with them when Freckle's son was going to borrow them. These movies she watches over and over and over again.

I have the Hooked on Phonics learn to read program, but we aren't about sitting down to a reading lesson. I just put the books in a basket and left them out for Princess to read whenever she chose. It seemed like things were going well, but slowly.

I bought Dora the Explorer Phonics: 12 Book Reading Program because she knows the characters. I thought these books would be more interesting. I'm not sure why it's called a phonics program, because it's not just phonics. It's simply a basic early reader.

When the books arrived we decided to start a reading time in the evening. The idea was that I would read to her, then I would help her with the Dora books...or so I thought. We snuggled together and I read for a bit. Princess was excited to have her turn. She opened the first book and BOOM, Princess was reading! She does need help with some words, but for the most part, she is really reading. How did that happen?! I know it may not be for everyone, but for us...unschooling rocks!

The Fairies Are Coming

At least I hope so. My daughter and I spent the afternoon making the coolest fairy house ever. We are reading the Daisy Meadows books starting with the rainbow fairies. In the middle of Amber the Orange Fairy the idea to build a fairy house struck me. We started on the structure then headed out to Michael's Crafts to purchase some essentials. We had a great time creating it and are excited to do more. I've even come up with ideas for making fairies! Fun, fun, fun!