Read Aloud Thursday ::: Groundhogs & George

We have been pulling an eclectic mix from our shelves to read-aloud of late. Being February, the last week has seen us reading up on the groundhog and George Washington and we have found some winners in both categories that were new to us. Last year I wrote a post on several of our groundhog favorites and this year we added one more to the mix.

Groundhog Weather School is crammed full of tidbits of information on groundhogs, seasons, and shadows and my girls loved it. For a picture book, it's so packed with stuff to read, it actually took us two reading sessions to get through it because of all the little facts squirrelled away throughout the artwork. The groundhog really is an interesting little animal with all sorts of quirky facts to learn about it. I'm glad we've taken the time the last few years to stop and read about him on his holiday. : )

We've also been spending time reading about George Washington in preparation for President's Day (and an upcoming review of a Download N Go study that I'm working on). One of the first that we read and enjoyed was George Washington's Breakfast. The young boy in this story is a huge fan of George Washington - they even share the same name! And when he starts to wonder what George ate for breakfast, he enlists the help of his whole family plus the local librarian to find out the answer. This book was full of fun little facts about George, as well as the answer to the burning question of what he ate for breakfast. There is also the added bonus of the message that if you want to learn about something, then research it! Go to the library, ask adults, take a trip (the boy went to Mount Vernon to search for information) to learn about what you are interested in. This is a life lesson that I want my girls to learn and loved to seen woven through this story.

As far as our chapter read aloud, we finished up Mandy yesterday - flying through the last chapters to answer the burning question of whether or not this little orphan girl would be adopted. "They need to just adopt Mandy!" and "Why don't they adopt her?!" was heard frequently from N1 as we pressed on to the end. : ) I loved to see her so invested in the story so we spent a little extra time reading on it the last few days so that we could find out what happened. Just as an FYI for parents, as I read aloud, I did edit out several instances of the Lord's name in vain as well as one mild swear word, however, there is nothing in the book that would keep me from handing it over to N1 in a few years to read on her own. (This book was written with a very British feel to it and the swear word fits in with that style of writing and language, something that can easily be skipped over while reading aloud or even marked out of the book if you are so inclined.) I originally blogged Mandy here if you are interested.

Thanks to Amy who hosts Read-Aloud Thursday so faithfully every Thursday!