Review: AGE 3 OR SO
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 26, 2013
Yesterday was Christmas Day. I saw my great-niece, age two and a half, open a package with a few board books and immediately begin to identify pictures. (When she got to chocolate, she rubbed her tummy- smart girl!)If her mom had read this book to her a few times, I have no doubt that she could begin 'reading' it to herself.There are two methods of teaching reading: phonics, and word recognition. If those board books continue to hold little Liz's attention, she'll learn that c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e spells and means chocolate. She'll have to learn her alphabet at some point, but no one will need to hold her hand and teach her how to read.My mom taught me how to read by word recognition. She put her finger under each word as she read to me. But Mom was surprised when I began to read. She had no idea what she had done.Because this book repeats the same basic phrase, your child will pick up some words more quickly than others. Some children might see certain animals for the first time in this book.Be sure your children know their are different types of farms. Some farms are just dairy farms, produce (pronounced with a long o and a long u sound) farms, farms with pig parlors (bet that's a new one for you city folks), as well as farms with a little bit of everything.And some people, like my former neighbors, were parents who each worked but had a big garden (they canned what wasn't eaten immediately) and raised chickens, too. They didn't consider their five acres a farm, but did put their land to good use.Most farms these days are gigantic corporations. I hope you can be lucky enough to take your child to visit a much smaller farm. It will make this book come alive.