Themes

One of our favorite sections of the library is the non-fiction area for young readers.  Little Man is captivated by the real pictures and real text on real topics.  He's a non-fiction junkie.  Don't get me wrong he loves fiction books as well, but we don't make it out of the library without an array of non-fiction selections.

Once I realized Little Man's love for science and inquiry, I decided I needed to make our library visits a little more efficient.  During the week, I pay attention to the different questions he asks and what's he's talking about.  Last week, he was really into frogs.  His Great Aunt Mary, an inner city Chicago elementary school teacher, brought him a book about Red Eyed Tree Frogs on her last visit.  Since then he looks for frogs, asks questions about frogs, and wants a frog (not gonna happen) so we checked out some age appropriate frog books. 

Basically, we read the books and spend a lot of time looking at the pictures.  They are amazing.  Here's a few things he picked up on this week from his books...

• Frogs are not all the same. Some are big and some are small.
• Frogs have babies that are not frogs, but tadpoles.
• As tadpoles, they live in the water until they develop legs and can breathe air (or develop lungs-he didn't get the lungs thing)
• Some frogs have poisonous skin that hunter's use to help kill what their hunting.
• Bright colored frogs (poisonous dart frogs) are brightly colored as a warning sign to predators.
• Mama frogs lay eggs. 
• Male frogs have a vocal sac that fills up with air like a balloon.  They make the noise so they can find a girlfriend ;) 

Here's what I learned...

• Poison Dart Frogs lay their eggs in a pool of water on a leaf in the Rain Forest.  After the tadpoles hatch,they wiggle onto the mama's back and the mom delivers them to a larger water source.

There you have it...a learning opportunity for everyone.  It's kind of funny watching our family read non-fiction books, because we have mental light bulbs going off all over the place.

This week we're headed back to the library to search for penguin books.  I have no idea where he came up with the idea for penguins, but as long as he's interested...

As for Chunky Monkey, we're going to get some Cheetah books because he refers to them as Cheetos.  I think we should get that cleared up fairly quickly.  He's quite the interesting little fellow.  He keeps his mom and dad on their toes that's for sure!