Mama & the Munchkins: Mama-Read-To-Me-Monday #1!

Welcome Everyone to AM2CW newest feature "Mama-Read-To-Me-Monday" with the Munchkins. It will be a regular feature and sponsored by Kids Can Press on A Mama's Two Cents Worth..., on the first and last Monday of the month. I decided that this would help show you the books for our summer reading. The books will cover ages from birth and up, covering the Juvenile readership, so that Monkey and Princess can tell you what they thought of the books. Some of the features could include a series or an individual book.
I will include the ISBN of each book featured here. I hope you will enjoy the reviews as much as we enjoy the reading process. I chose to start a regular feature showcasing books to help promote the importance of reading to your child and having your child involved in reading no matter what the age. Without books we would never learn the importance of the written word.
Our rating system for our reviews will be based on 3 thumbs up (highest value) to no thumbs up (lowest value). I began reading to my kiddies in vitro, and continue to pick up a book or encourage them to pick up a book and read with them.

Today, we are reading a board book series, called Learning with Animals by Melanie Watt. It is a 5 book series, enabling them to discovery over 60 animals in these colourful concept board books. The series of concept books are geared toward the little ones ages 1 - 4.
This series includes  Shapes with Ocean Animals (ISBN: 1-55337-833-4), The Alphabet with Wild Animals (ISBN: 978-1-55337-829-1), Numbers with Farm Animals (ISBN: 978-1-55337-831-0), Colors with Tropical Animals (ISBN: 1-55337-830-X), Opposites with Polar Animals (ISBN: 1-55337-832-6).  Each book has a curriculum connection that varies from Visual Arts to Math to Language development to Skills & Strategies. On the Kids Can Press site there are stickers available for  parents to print off and use to coincide with the book series feature some of the animals from the books. At the parents discretion the stickers can be used as part of incentives, rewards or in a matching game.

With young children's facination with animals, these books offer a method of incorporating the animals in the learning process via various different settings, whether it be the ocean, the jungle, the farm or the polar settings; they all create a point of interest for many children full of bright colours. Whether we were delving into the tropics to check out the colours or counting the animals on the farm. The eye-catching colour and artistry got the Munchkins interest from start to finish of each book. Princess enjoyed the series quite thoroughly as did Monkey. I even made the book, Numbers with Farm Animals, into a song per say engaging their interest and asked to perform the song over and over again. Princess was asked to count the animals on each page to see if she could recognize the number. monkey was asked to identify the animals as well as the sound associated with each animal on the pages. We also would make the sounds of the animals for the number of them found on each page. This was the most fun for us because we had to combine the concepts. I would have to say that this was the favourite all because of the activities we were able to create to go along with it.  monkey also really loved the Shapes with Ocean Animals book, because I would ask him to identify the shape in both pointing as well as by words. The book, Opposites with Polar Animals,  was the biggest challenge for Princess because we are still talking about the opposites right now so it is a work in progress. Using this book also we were able to discuss some things such as camouflage as well as animal identification. The Colors with Tropical Animals, was fun for both Monkey and Princess on varying levels. Princess could identify all the colours while Monkey was just learning his colours. Very colourful book in the series featuring the tropical animals so widely from the Toucan to the snakes. Finally, the Alphabet with Wild Animals, 26 animals from around the world and some even unknown to me. We made a song game out of it where we focused on the phonics of the letters as we said each animal associated with the letters of the alphabet. Princess had fun and learned about a few animals, as did Mama. Monkey just like to sing the alphabet and tried to name the animals he was familiar with. 


All in all, we give this series of concept board books, Learning with Animals, 3 thumbs up for their well-researched topics, colourful and eye-catching imagery as well as the ability to bring learning more prevalently on in the various levels for the age groups they encompassed. 
**Melanie Watt, is the Author and Illustrator of the Learning with Animals Concept Board Book Series.
This board book series is a great addition to our library and will be read repetitively I am sure over the next few years as Princess and Monkey grow.


We hope you enjoyed our book review and look into the series as a chance it becoming apart of your summer reading.
Please come back and check out the activities we incorporated into our days in association with this book series over the next couple weeks.
See you on the last Monday of the month for our next instalment of "Mama-Read-To-Me-Monday".


Disclaimer: We have recieved the books reviewed above free of charge from Kids Can Press in exchange for our review. There was no monetary gain made from this book review, no money changed hands. The opinions and point of view expressed here in this review is that of my own and to some extent the Munchkins. Please feel free to make your own choices.


Ciao for now,

 & the Munchkins