Around the Year Picture Books with Beautiful Illustrations

Reading picture books with beautiful illustrations is a wonderful way to draw our kids into reading and help them appreciate that which is objectively good and beautiful. Illustrations play an important role in the development of our children’s imaginations, so we want to make sure we give our children lots of beautiful books.

Here are twelve of my favorite illustrators (some classic, some contemporary) for around-the-year picture books with beautiful pictures.

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A Year of Picture Books with Sequencing

Sequencing is such an important skill for little people and especially for those with delayed language skills. It helps build comprehension and memory, and it helps children to narrate, which in turn supports the development of speech.

Reading a picture book and re-ordering or retelling the sequence of events is a very simple yet effective way to build language skills. When I can, I use visuals to support the sequencing of events. But often we just practice telling what happened next, or who did what next. So, I’m always on the hunt for picture books with clear sequence of events.

Here are some of our favorite picture books for sequencing:

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Just Released: A Novel your Daughters will Love

Anne of Green Gables. Heidi. A Little Princess. These are classics your daughters should read during their childhood. But have you noticed they’re all about orphans? Even the Pevensie children of the Narnia series are often estranged from their family. Where is family life as it should be in the realm of children’s literature? Thank goodness for Little Women!

Here’s another novel in the heart-warming style of the classics, but this time it’s about a young girl and her large fun-loving, rambunctious family: Clara of Strawberry Fields.

Check it out:

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How to Homeschool Preschool and Kindergarten

Some moms have asked me how I homeschool preschool and kindergarten. For many moms, homeschooling preschool is the testing ground. It is one way of discerning if teaching their children at home is something they can or want to do. Of course now, many parents have no choice but to do a little kinder-school at home. Distance-learning at such an early age just doesn’t work. But the good news is doing preschool or kindergarten at home can be simple and inexpensive. Plus, it’s really fun!

Each time I’ve homeschooled a preschooler, it has been different from what I’ve done with my other children. How I teach has evolved over the years based on family circumstance and the individual child. Some of my kids were eager to start “school” with books and crayons; others wanted to learn in a context of play. Doing “preschool” with Junior (which is essentially speech and occupational therapy) is a whole new ball game, but it’s so much fun. There is no one right way to teach preschool or kindergarten at home, but here are some ideas that I hope will help you find helpful:

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