The days following Christmas are always a bit interesting. Prior to the big day, we're always busy with the kids decorating the house, baking Christmas cookies and making all the final arrangements for Santa's arrival. But once December 25th has come and gone, it can admittedly be a little rough getting through that next week before school starts back up.
As a parent, keeping the kids entertained throughout each day is usually where most of my energy goes. During the summer it's usually easier since you have the benefit of outside activities to help mix things up. However, during the winter, particularly this year because of COVID-19, it can be quite the challenge to find enough activities to keep everyone sufficiently occupied. There's only so many times a child is willing to play with the same toys over and over before it's time to move onto the next thing. We also have tried our best to limit the screen time as well (although some days are easier than others).
That "keep the kids entertained" struggle is never more evident than the week after Christmas.
All that said, we did have a really enjoyable Christmas season this year, all things considered. While we may not have been able to visit family in person for obvious reasons, we thankfully were able to get the girls a few presents that they've really enjoyed. Among the new toys and games they received this year, we also made sure to add a few new books in the stocking as well. When it comes to keeping the kids entertained this week, those books have really come in handy.
For our book list this week, we're highlighting a few of the new picture books we gave our daughters this year. They've really enjoyed them all and we encourage you to check them out as well!
My oldest daughter loves all of the Todd Parr books. He's someone we write about often on this site because his books always carry a great message and have really unique, colorful illustrations.
The Joyful Book is Parr's latest release and one my daughter had not yet read during our various library trips this year. And although this new book isn't necessarily a Christmas-themed edition within Parr's series, it does have a lot of holiday imagery within it, including Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah references. I liked it so much that I made sure it made our list of best Christmas books for kids for 2020.
As the title suggest, The Joyful Book is all about highlighting traditions, activities and things that make you feel joyful. Like other Todd Parr books, each page contains just one sentence in a list-style format and comes with very bright artwork to compliment it. The final page of each of his books contain a brief letter Parr has written to the readers, which is always my oldest daughter's favorite part.
We recommend checking out any of Todd Parr's books, including The Joyful Book, for kids between 3 and 7.
My 5-year old's favorite author is Mo Willems. We have a ton of his books already on our bookshelves, including many from his popular Elephant and Piggie series. So when it came time to pick out a new book for her Christmas gift, I knew I wanted one from him.
The trouble, however, is that she's read nearly all of his collection already. There are more than 25 books in the Elephant and Piggie series. Usually during our library trips, at least one of those books make their way into our bag. Thankfully, as a I looked through the shelves at Barnes and Noble, I found one that we haven't come across yet.
My New Friend Is So Fun! was written back in 2014 but is pretty new to us. And although neither my daughter or I had come across this one until now, it's immediately become a favorite.
When the story begins, we see Gerald and his friend Snake talking about how their best friends, Piggie and Brian Bat, are hanging out together. While the thought of them making new friends is initially a reason to be excited, that enthusiasm quickly turns to worry. What if Gerald and Snake get replaced as best friends!? Their paranoia leads them to rush to find Piggie and Brian, only to discover that they've spent the afternoon drawing pictures of their best friends, Gerald and Snake.
The book has all of Willems' trademark comedy and comic-book like illustrations. My daughter has laughed out loud every time we've read this book this week. You really can't go wrong picking any books in the Mo Willems collection, and we certainly recommend My New Friend Is So Fun! as well.
Some of my kindergartner's favorite books come from the author/illustrator combo of Jory John and Pete Oswald. The love for their books started with The Good Egg, which led us to also check out The Bad Seed and The Cool Bean, as well. So, when we saw the pair had a fourth book in the series released this October, we had to pick it up.
The Couch Potato fits perfectly into the series since it combines likable characters, an important message and a humorous tone.
As the title suggests, the story is about a Potato who loves staying put on his sofa watching tv. All day, every day, the Potato doesn't move from his spot and takes in life through the view of his screens. But when there is a sudden power outage, he decides to take a walk outside to kill some time, only to see what's he's been missing this whole time.
Every parent has probably experienced the challenge of balancing screen time with their kids. Books like Jory John's The Couch Potato are great for teaching kids the value of mixing in other activities and interests beyond the television. I really liked the way the subject was presented since it doesn't completely dismiss the value of screen time but rather stresses the notion of balancing it appropriately with other interests.
Reading stories with my one year old has become one of my favorite things to do. Over the last few months, her interest in books has really picked up. It's so fun seeing her get really excited when she picks out a book from her shelf and walks it over to our big glider chair in her room.
Among her favorite books currently, many of them are the lift-the-flap variety which are great at keeping her interested from start to finish. So when we found a flap book that also featured one of her favorite characters, Llama Llama, we had to check it out.
Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama Hide and Seek is the perfect board book for toddlers. It's a short book that takes readers through little Llama's room in search of his stuffed toy. Each page has a flap for toddlers to lift up to see the surprise behind. The final page of the book even has a peekaboo mirror behind the last flap which usually gets a big smile from my daughter.
While this edition of the Llama Llama series isn't as rich in story as the other books, it's a great, interactive choice for the youngest fans of the books.
The last book on our list this week was a Christmas present for my youngest daughter. If there's anything better than a traditional flap book to her, it's a pop-up flap book!
DK Publishing's Bedtime Pop-Up Peekaboo is a large board book featuring pictures of toys and stuffed animals. In the book, bunny is looking for her friends so she can tell them goodnight before bed. Every other page of the book contains a large flap that reveals a pop-up surprise on each page. It's a great, interactive book for toddlers just before bedtime.
One word of caution, however, is the flaps of the book are paper and can be easily ripped if your little one tends to be a little rough on books. We have a number of these pop-up books and most are accompanied with multiple strips of tape to keep the pop-up elements intact.