Books for Kids

While I usually blog about my life in the paper crafting world, many of you know that my "real" job is as an educator. I taught high school social studies and language arts and have cycled through three different of out-of-the-classroom jobs since then, working in positions that combine instructional coaching, curriculum development, and professional development. 

It's been interesting to combine my parenting with my background in education. With the current heavy nationwide testing emphasis on reading, writing, and math, I am hugely bothered by how that impacts the amount of time spent in elementary schools on social studies and science. I'm also bothered by how much of the math instruction ignores the fun aspect of math. On a positive note, I am encouraged by what is likely to be the impact of the new Common Core State Standards, which call for a shift in the amount of time spent reading narrative vs. informational text. I think the shift towards a more balanced ratio of narrative to informational text is a good thing (a very good thing), but we're still in the early stages of the rollout of these new standards and the shift to more informational text is likely to be slow in coming.  

Given all of what I've described above, I've tried hard as a parent to seek out good social studies, science, and math books that are fun and informative/interesting. I'm going to be looking for some new books for the kids for the holidays this year, but thought I'd share five of our "greatest hits" - the books my kids turn to again and again that have helped them to develop a love of learning and a curiosity about the world around them.


1. The Math Curse by Jon Scieszka + Lane Smith

Whether you read this to your kids or they read it themselves, math becomes fun, funny, and a natural part of the world that surrounds us every minute of every day. My kids stop to laugh, stop to try to figure out some of the problems posed in the book, and start to see and work through math problems they encounter in their everyday life.


2. How to Build Your Own Country by Valerie Wyatt and illustrated by Fred Rix

This book is one my kids turn to again and again, and is a great resource for me to point them to when they claim to be bored. This book educates kids about all of the different components that are important to the functioning of a country and invites kids to create their own fictional country along the way. Kids learn about writing a national anthem, setting up a government, declaring holidays, creating foreign policy, and much, much more. The text is peppered with real-world and fictional examples and has great illustrations. As a result of owning this book, I am now a citizen of the United States, Masketstan, and Halloweenia of Awesomeness, and have three passports to prove it. I was also elected as the first president of Masketstan. 


3. Encyclopedia of Science (multiple authors)

One word best describes this book: comprehensive. It starts with a "How to Read this Book" section that unpacks the structure of each page and provides some pre-reading assistance. After a couple of timelines and information on how scientists work, the book delves into just about every sub-field within science, including human biology, astronomy, geology, meteorology, etc. Within each sub-field, there are single- or double-page spreads on sub-topics, so if a kid has five to ten minutes he or she can open the book and learn about industrial pollution, sound, climates, etc. The end of the book features a "Fact Finder" section that provides some key overviews in graphic format. The illustrations are fantastic. There's a great mix of photographs and diagrams as well as illustrated sidebars that address the history of science or further explain a concept addressed in the main text. I need to read this book myself!


4. Geography of the World (multiple authors)

This book is to geography what the book above is to science. As someone who is passionate about geography (don't laugh!) this book is one of my favorites. So many people think that geography is just about maps, but the reality is that geography is a complex field that addresses all kinds of topics that can be addressed spatially (i.e. anything that can be mapped), including conflict and cooperation, land use, culture, etc. Similar to the Encyclopedia of Science, this book begins with a section on "How to Use This Book." Following that are some overview pages with thematic maps on larger topics, such as climate and population. From there, the book delves into a continent by continent look at geography. Each section begins with a "Peoples of.." section, followed by country profiles. These profiles are rich with interesting and varied topics, from agriculture in Canada to Islamic cities in Uzebekistan to land reclamation in the Netherlands. There's also a sidebar for each country filled with interesting statistics. The book ends with more overview  pages, including political systems, world religions, and rich and poor. As with the Encyclopedia of Science, there are amazing visuals that support and enhance the text. 

5. Two books in one here: National Geographic's World Atlas for Young Explorers and United States Atlas for Young Explorers

These two atlases come with a fun bonus: companion web sites where kids can go for more information. These books both start with "How To" pages that describe how to use both the atlas and the web site. What follows are thematic maps, country by country or state by state detail, and additional statistics. 

So...if you've gotten to the bottom here, thank you for reading! I have lots more books I could share and review here, but this is a start. If anyone out there finds this useful, please let me know in the comments and I'll plan to do another post with more books and perhaps a third post with the books I'm planning to buy for my kiddos this holiday season.

Happy reading!