Chicken Count is a game for kids 4 and up.  It doesn’t require any reading, so for us, it made it a lot easier for Madison to play.  Your goal is to collect the most chickens by the chicken coop is built.  It is pretty easy.  You draw cards.  If you get a chicken card, you keep it.  If you get a chicken coop card, you pick a chicken coop piece and place it on the coop.  If you draw a fox, you lose all your chicken cards.  When the chicken coop has been built, the person with the most chicken cards wins.  it is a pretty fast pace game, so it is great for this age group who have a short attention span.  We had lots of giggles when we played this.

Where Do I Live? is a memory game.  Your goal is to have the most pairs at the end.  You try and turn over cards and match animals to their homes.  For example, bee matches to beehives, house to a boy, and a pond to a frog.  Not only is this game fun to play, it really opens a dialogue with your kids.  You get to talk about all of these animals and their homes.  This game is for kids 4 and up and doesn’t require any reading.

These two games are winners in our house.  They are very age appropriate and have been played here quite a bit.  We had lots of fun, and you will too.

I personally believe books always make great gifts. We have installed into our children how important reading is, and you can tell. Both my one year old and my four year old can often be seen flipping through books without Bill or me even around.  This is why I l love companies like GiftLit who make it easier to give books as gifts to both children and adults alike.

GiftLit has an advisory board of librarians, educators, authors, and industry experts that select the books that are sent out, so you know these are great books. They have books for every age too!  They have books for toddlers on up.  They way this works is you pick with selection of books you want.  If you are looking at the kids books, you can choose which age group you want.  For adults, you can pick anything from fiction to mysteries to history.  You can also choose how long you want your gift subscription to last.  You can buy them in 3, 6, or 12 month increment.  The best part of this is that this is the gift that keeps on giving.  Instead of the one present you get Christmas morning, you can potentially have a gift every month of the year.

We have this come to our house, and we love it.  The books are great quality books that I would have never thought to check out.  Also, what kid doesn’t like to get mail for them?  Actually, what adult doesn’t like getting a present in the mail each month?  This is truly the gift that keeps on giving, and I am deciding which book lover in my family is getting this.  If you’d like to get this for yourself or as a present, just make sure you use the code LISA1130, so you can get 10% off your order!

Another great children’s book to get this holiday season is Tim and Sallys Beach Adventure. The first thing you will notice that the lines in the his book rhyme. I think that helps keep my kids attention, because they really like this book. Madison is always talking about going to the beach, so reading about the beach was right up her alley.  This is not a long book.  However, it is broken up into sections such as “They Get Started” and “They Are In Sight of The Beach”, so you can easily break down this story into several sections (and several nights of reading).  You get to read about swimming in the ocean, the animals that inhabit the beach, the tide, and sandcastle just to name a few things.  I really like the word list at the end of the book.  It has a pictures of key things in the story like bathing suits and crabs.  Then underneath the picture they have the word.  Since we are working with Madison with reading and sounding out, this is perfect for us.  It makes it a lot easier for her to sound out the word if she has a clue what the word is.

If you want a great story, Tim And Sallys Beach Adventure is a book you need to get at your house.  Mom and dad will enjoy it just as much at the kids.

Wipe Clean Letters is a must have book for any preschool aged children you have in your house.  This book comes with its own dry erase marker (and a place to keep it too!).  The book is made of cardboard, and you are able to wipe clean any work your children do in the book.  Each page has a litter of the alphabet on it.  it also has words that start with that letter or have that letter in it.  It has the uppercase and the lowercase letters on each page to trace.  Some of the pages even have a small activity to do on them.  Madison can spend hours with this book.  I love that it is teaching her picture and word recognition, and that it is still fun for her.  If you want a great interactive book, this is what you should get!

In my house, the question of when is my birthday is asked often — usually weekly.  Madison is dying to turn 5 years old.  I am not sure what she thinks happens when  you turn five, but she can’t wait.  The book When Is My Birthday? comes in handy after being asked that question a hundred times in one day.  The book starts off with Elmo helping his mom get ready for Daisy’s, Elmo’s sister’s, birthday party.  Elmo gets jealous and wants it to be his birthday too.  He finds himself jealous that daisy got a toy truck.  However, we find out at the end of the book that Elmo’s birthday is close by, so he doesn’t have to wait for long for his turn.  Daisy also shares it with him too while he waits.  I find that this book helps Madison, somewhat, with patience and sharing.  Plus, kids always enjoy reading about parties, presents, and cake.  When Is My Birthday? is a great book for impatient little ones waiting for their birthdays.