Favorite Children's Books for Spring

Books are immensely powerful. 

Earlier this week I read the SILLIEST book to a group of little ones I teach, and most of them declared it was their "favorite book ever". They were all so engaged, giggling, and generally enthralled. 

We created a memory I am sure.

The more you read to your children the more memories you create. 

Some of our most fond reading memories come from books tucked in an Easter basket, read aloud outside during the beautiful spring weather, or about various animals that seem to surface when spring arrives.

I hope you enjoy this list of our favorite spring books! 

(And when you are done with this, go check out my list of easy spring crafts -- pairing a book and a craft can be fun, too!)

---

Favorite Spring Chapter Books

Spring signifies new life, hope, and rebirth.  The following books all have a special place in my children's hearts - and in mine, because I got to share these books with them.

That is why authors like E.B. White and Thornton Burgess are among my favorites for springtime reading.

The first book is my ULTIMATE favorite. I have a memory of my then 5 year old son sitting in the back of our van listening intently to the audio of this book -- during the very sad ending he was sniffling and crying - looking out the van window so I wouldn't see him cry.  

Charlotte's Web

The Trumpet of the Swan

The Secret Garden

The Burgess Bird Book for Children 

The Adventures of Peter Cottontail and his Green Forest Friends

A Nest for Celeste

---

Favorite Spring Picture Books

I love to keep seasonal baskets of books available in our home.... we have a Christmas basket, spring basket, summer basket, etc... It makes the books seems fresh and new at the time and also helps me keep them organized! 

What's really fun is when your kids are in their teen years and you pull the basket out and they want to sit and read the books AGAIN. 

It's Not Easy Being a Bunny

The Easter Egg

Llama Llama Easter Egg

Happy Easter, Mouse!

The Easter Story

The Parable of the Lily

The Biggest Basket Ever

The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit

Marshmallow

The Velveteen Rabbit

The Tiny Seed

Teddy Bear's Picnic

Make Way for Ducklings

Planting a Rainbow

When Spring Comes

My Garden

Like a Windy Day

April Foolishness

Spring is Here

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms

---

Click the books below to find out more...

---

Do you have any favorite books for spring that you have shared with children?  

Leave me a comment and let me know -- we'll add them to the list!

You might also like:

Easy Spring Crafts For Kids

Five in a Row

Notebooking and Classical Conversations

Notebooking is our favorite way to learn.

Each week we take the Classical Conversations memory work and print applicable notebooking pages. I put them in Grant's memory work binder, and as the week progresses he completes pages that interest him.

(Remember, I do believe the MEMORY WORK IS ENOUGH... but for a child who needs a little more I've found notebooking to be perfect!)

We have notebooked through all three cycles and through all areas of the memory work. Honestly, the sky is the limit!

Notebooking not only helps a child memorize the material, but also lets them dig deeper in certain areas and have a tangible keepsake of their hard work.

---

Getting Started With Notebooking

If you are a beginner with notebooking, you might want to read Getting Started With Notebooking.  This is a general primer that can help you get a quick start. 

Our favorite notebooking resource is Notebooking Pages. We have a Lifetime Membership that enables us to download anything in their treasury --- and there are literally thousands upon thousands of pages!  

What I love about notebooking is that you only need the following:

• notebooks (we prefer 3 ring binders)
• colored pencils, crayons, or your writing instruments of choice
• scissors
• page protectors (if you want to save your work for years to come)
• printer

---

Notebooking and Classical Conversations

I get so many questions about notebooking, so I want to explain exactly how we have done this over the past four years. 

We've notebooked in TWO ways through our Classical Conversations journey.

Our first year we kept it very simple. I purchased a HUGE three ring binder and used dividers for each section of the memory work.  Then, as we went through each week of CC we printed notebooking pages that interested us (Notebooking Pages has things organized and they are easy to find) and I let my son take the lead.

The best way to show you is with this video below -- I'm laughing because the video is three years old.  Look how cute he was!  

---

(In case you were wondering about the nifty little memory work book you see in the video, you can download and print this from CC Connected.)

The second way we notebooked was by creating a smaller notebook for geography, history, and science. I sat down the summer before CC started and searched for pages and printed them, then put them in the binders.  Each day of the week my son would notebook through a different area of the memory work.   

Here is an example of our history binder for Cycle 3:

Grant also loves to include his map tracings (have you read my post about Geography and CC?) and other goodies in the memory work binder.

The sky is the limit when you are notebooking!

Notebooking allows for a lot of structure, yet much creativity with the weekly memory work.  

Less is More

Once I figured out that memory work really is enough, homeschool became much more simple.

We review the memory work each morning during our morning time and then Grant gets to work in his notebook.

Add a Saxon math lesson, quality read alouds, reading instruction (we recommend All About Reading!), and plenty of time for play.

I know I'm saying it a lot, but we are SO THANKFUL for Classical Conversations!

---

How do you reinforce the weekly memory work at home?

 

You Might Also Like:

All About Reading - Tips, Tricks & Why We Love it So Much

5 Simple Tips for the Foundations Tutor