Kindergarten books we've enjoyed...

So, now to step it up with a post about actual homeschooling stuff. =) Our library system is just so awesome. It really is. I need to make the children's librarians those cookies I keep threatening to make (and then never do) because they soooo deserve them.

I rely heavily on the library for the books that I get to supplement our Five in a Row reads. Come to think of it, I have only bought one of the Five in a Row books. And they actually have a category in the catalog there for "Five in a Row." I swooned when I saw it pop up.

Anyway, I request books online every week or so, and then I go to pick them up, and the librarians give me ideas for books that I might not have thought about when I was requesting.

As I've gotten to know the non-fiction stacks at our library better, I've discovered some books and series that are just better written and more accessible for kindgergarters than others.

My favorite series so far is "Let's Read and Find Out about Science." I'm linking to this one on Amazon because the boys couldn't stop talking about it, but we have loved their books on ducks, flying, clouds, muscles, etc. These are well written, and they often have simple experiments in them for the kids to do. For example, in the book on flying, they had the kids stand up and hold their arms out while spinning to illustrate the principle of drag.

We have also enjoyed a simple series of books on individual countries. Our library has several of them, but I wish they had more. Basically, the titles are "Insert Name of Country In Colors." We've read China in Colors and Russia in Colors and some others. They're simple and have beautiful, large illustrations. The boys have remembered more from these books than they have from other, more complicated books we've read on the same countries.

And I turned up my nose at this series in the beginning, but I've decided that being a snob was in bad taste. Yes, they're not original Dr. Seuss, but the books from the Cat in the Hat Learning Library are great fun... and they provide a lot of details for the preschool and kindergarten set. "Clam I Am" is one of our favorites, but they're all good.

And if you don't have these in your local library, and you'd like to see them, I suggest using interlibrary loan. I do it all the time, and then I can see the book so I can decide if I want to invest in the purchase for our personal library.

P.S. I started this post ages ago when we were computerless in January and just now finished it up. :)