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Over the last three months, we have been participating in the Reading the Alphabet Challenge in our homeschool. This challenge started one day at the library when I decided to find books that started with each letter of the alphabet.

My 3 year old daughter was too busy playing with the toys at the library to pick any books of her own. My solution, in order to avoid either choosing books completely at random or choosing only books with titles that I found interesting, was to choose books starting with each letter of the alphabet.

The Challenge of the Reading Challenge

In the beginning, it was easy to find books representing each letter. A-B-C-D-E – I wouldn’t be surprised if a quarter or more of all kids books at the library start with those letters! But as we continued, it became harder to find the letters we needed.

Eventually, last week, the librarian who knew that we’ve been participating in this reading challenge needed to help me find books. We were down to the letters T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z. As I found each letter, I placed it on a table and was telling my daughter which letters to look for. The last two letters that proved to be difficult were U and X. I heard a voice from the desk tell me that Xander’s Panda Party was written by Park. I found it right in front of my nose on the bookshelf I had just been browsing. She then shared a book from the Spanish section for U which I quickly found as well.

Progressing through the Alphabet

Whereas it was easier to find books earlier in the alphabet, the reverse was true with actually reading the books. In the beginning, K wasn’t exactly eager to read the books I chose (but she also didn’t want to choose them herself). I think this was more due to her age as opposed to the book content. And if I’m being completely honest, we had fallen out of the habit of regular reading and only took time to read bedtime stories when it was convenient and the kids got to bed early. O becomes extra grumpy anytime he deems it too late if I’m not singing him to sleep yet.

As we continued to read stories, K began to enjoy them more and more. By the time last week came along, she was eager for us to finish the challenge and brought me several books at a time to read. She also wanted to read a few of the books over and over again because she liked them so much. This surprised me since she had other books that she’d picked out at the library we could’ve read instead. But I was definitely happily surprised. Considering how much I enjoy reading, it’s exciting that she’s getting more into it.

Our Reading Challenge

As I mentioned earlier, this was our first time through the Reading the Alphabet Challenge. To make it easy, I looked around the children’s department to choose books that began with each letter of the alphabet. I think next time it might be fun to look for award winning books or maybe find really popular books based on Amazon reviews. I’ve been requesting homeschooling books on inter-library loan and could easily request our Reading the Alphabet books in the same way.

If you’re interested in checking out the books I read with K, here’s the list! Although these are affiliate purchase links, you could easily find many or most of these at your local library.

A-Z: the Books We Read

• 📖 Ali and the Sea Stars – Ali Stroker: what do you do when the rain throws a wrench in your plans?
• 📖 The Bad Mood and the Stick – Lemony Snicket
• 📖 Click, Clack, Boo! – Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
• 📖 Duck Duck Moose – Mary Sullivan
• 📖 Emeraldalicious – Victoria Kann
• 📖 Fire Truck to the Rescue – Ann Martin
• 📖 Gabby – Joyce Grant
• 📖 How the Sea Came to Be – Jennifer Berne
• 📖 I Stink! – Kate & Jim McMullan: the story of a garbage truck… need I say more?
• 📖 Just Because – Mac Barnett
• 📖 Kindness – Jane Belk Moncure
• 📖 Life on Mars – Jon Agee: do you think there’s life on Mars? Follow a small astronaut as he searches to find out!
• 📖 Miss Emma’s Wild Garden – Anna Grossnickle Hines
• 📖 No Fuzzball – Isabella Kung
• 📖 Once Upon a Book – Grace Lin & Kate Messner: a beautifully illustrated story, though it’s probably more for older kids and parents to appreciate.
• 📖 Perfect Square – Michael Hall: so creative – I loved this and K enjoyed it too!
• 📖 Quickly, Quigley – Jeanne M Gravois: so sweet!
• 📖 Rhinoceros – Louise Martin
• 📖 Summer Beat – Betsy Franco
• 📖 Tiny and Bigman – Phillis Gershator: this was so much fun to narrate as it shows the importance of being yourself.
• 📖 Uncle Nacho’s Hat – Harriet Rohmer: K asked me to read this a few extra times, including reading some of the Spanish translation.
• 📖 Viva Frida – Yuyi Morales
• 📖 Who’s Hungry? – Dean Hacohen & Sherry Scharschmidt
• 📖 Xander’s Panda Party – Linda Sue Park: when you want to throw a panda party, but you’re the ONLY panda, what do you do?
• 📖 Yummy, Yummy – Judith Grey
• 📖 Zen Shorts – Jon J Muth: great stories within the story, plus it’s another panda!

Take the Challenge!

Take the Reading the Alphabet Challenge today! It’s free, it’s fun, and comes with a cool completion certificate. 

Thanks for joining us today In Our Homeschool.