I’ve talked about reading aloud before. I think it’s one of the most important things you can do for your kids, whether you homeschool or not. When you spend a great deal of time reading aloud, though, sometimes you run out of ideas of what to read next, which is one reason I enjoy finding good series to read with my kids. In case you find yourself in the same situation, I wanted to share some of the series we’ve been enjoying lately!
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle: There are five different Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books and each one follows a similar pattern. Children misbehave or display some kind of unacceptable habit, their parents try everything they can think of to stop them, and at the end, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle arrives with an unorthodox but very effective solution. Both of my kids (ages 9 and 4) really enjoyed these books and I liked that each chapter was like a short story, which makes it nice if you have to miss a day and then have to try to remember exactly what was going on where you left off.
Paddington Bear: We just started with this series a month or so ago and again, both of my kids have enjoyed them. Like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, each chapter is like a complete short story where Paddington gets into some kind of scrape and usually bumbles his way out of it. I had started reading these thinking my younger daughter would enjoy them—and she did—but I was surprised at how much my son and I enjoyed them, too. Paddington is sweet and funny and it’s fun to try to figure out where he’s going to go wrong and how he’s going to fix it.
Five Children and It: Five Children and It is the first in E. Nesbit’s trilogy about five siblings who encounter a magic creature and the adventures they have together. My son and I both really liked the first book. The other two are good, also, but they are long and can be a bit difficult with the vocabulary and syntax.
Edward Eager’s Magic Series: With a nod to Nesbit’s classic story, Eager has created a new set of magical adventures with a different set of siblings and later, their children. We’ve just started the third story in this series and are enjoying it very much! These books are easier to read, so if your children like the Nesbit books but you want them to read independently, this would be a good place for them to start.
Happy reading!
