Books are about more than just words!

I think I'll start with a book that my two girls have been enjoying for the past few days -

There's a Mouse About the House by Richard Fowler follows the antics of a little mouse as he scurries around the house looking for food. The book comes with a little mouse, tail and all, that children slip through a slot in each page, following a dotted line to the next slot. He goes under doors, up a nightshirt, and appears under flaps on his way to the pantry, startling everyone he comes across. While the text is only somewhat catchy, it narrates the path, helping to guide little hands.

What the kids don't realize (or I at first!) is that they are working on some important skills here!
1. Slipping the mouse through the slots takes some fine motor skills (such as is needed for wielding a pencil, crayon, or paint brush), as does following the dotted line. [Draw some dotted lines on a paper for your pre-school age children to follow with a pencil or crayon. It can be a lot of fun and is a great pre-writing activity!]
2. The dotted lines go from left to right, also a pre-writing and pre-reading skill builder (for most languages).
3. It's important to turn only one page at a time or the mouse will be nowhere to be found!

So I'll let my kids think they are just having fun as they 'read' this book over and over again. And when the little mouse gets worn from all his scurrying, there are directions on the back of the book for making a new one!

Visit my Usborne Shop to buy this book!