My 8yod received a book for Christmas from her cousins which, although a perfect choice for this little girl, we already owned. We decided to return the book yesterday. My daughter had approximately $20 to spend at B&N.
After spending some time in the "animal care" section of the bookstore, she decided to look in the children's section. She immediately went for a Henry and Mudge book. She opened it and began to read. She loved it. That book, which is a collection of five Henry and Mudge books, was her first pick. She had about $15 left to spend.
After many more happy minutes of searching the children's section, my daughter found a book called Days on the Farm by Kim Lewis. It includes the book Floss as well as other precious stories by the same author. She was sure that she also wanted to own that book. She still had about $7 left to spend.
Sweet, sweet choices, I thought. On top of that, she told her 11yo sister that she could use the rest of her money. There's a lot of sister-love there!

This experience opened my eyes to my 8yod's true independent reading level. She is still definitely at a 2nd grade reading level. I think we will go through the entire Emergent Reader year before moving on to the DITHOR level 2-3 books. We already own the Beginners Bible and either own or can get the other books from the library.
Have I mentioned how excited I am to begin Bigger with my daughter on Monday???? I cannot wait!
