Life
Home is where we spend most of our days and nights, and it's a place that's often taken for granted. With a little imagination though, a house can become a place of wonder and mystery. Introducing your kid to children's books about the magic of home is a great way to get your little ones excited about the great indoors, especially if they've been spending more time inside their home than usual.
After you've tried every craft project on Pinterest, made your kids' eyes glaze over with your impromptu homeschool lessons, and exhausted all the movie options on Disney+, your kids are sure to be less-than-thrilled about having to stay home, even it means unlimited screen time. A good book might be just the thing to break up the monotony and shed new light on the current situation.
Some of these books will inspire kids to use their imagination in new ways despite seeing the same four walls over and over again each day. Others will show them how to embrace everything their home has to offer, like the people they love or those special items that hold meaning for your family. All of these titles emphasize the places people live with beautiful illustrations.
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1'Little House On The Prairie' By Laura Ingalls Wilder
The nine-book Little House series highlights the simple pleasures of home and family life as it follows the Ingalls family and their pioneer adventures. For younger kids, My First Little House picture books feature easy-to-understand illustrated versions of stories from the classic chapter books.
2'Let's Go Home' By Cynthia Rylant
The gorgeously illustrated book Let's Go Home describes how the things and people inside your home are what make it a place worth being. Different areas of the home are highlighted throughout the book to show kids how to appreciate the true joys found within their home's walls.
3'Goodnight Moon' By Margaret Wise Brown
This classic children's story is likely already on your kid's bookshelf and can sweetly reinforce the idea that everything around your child can be familiar and comforting. Try reading Goodnight Moon together with your kids and talk about all of the things in your home that you love to see (and say goodnight to) every day.
4'The House That's Your Home' By Sally Lloyd-Jones
This charming book describes a home from the perspective of a parent telling their child all about how special their home is. The House That's Your Home features watercolor illustrations that depict all the wonders of a home and a rhythmic writing style that is easy for kids to follow along with.
5'Where The Wild Things Are' By Maurice Sendak
Using their imagination, kids can do just about anything from the comfort of home. Where the Wild Things Are helps kids learn about the importance of using their imagination and the magical possibilities it can hold, even when they can't leave the house.
6'If You Lived Here' By Giles Laroche
Just because your kids are stuck inside of their own home doesn't mean they can't learn about the wonders of other homes. If You Lived Here describes unique homes throughout different times and places around the world, including how they were made and what it would be like to live there.
7'My House Mi Casa' By Rebecca Emberley
My House Mi Casa is the perfect place to start teaching Spanish to little ones. This bilingual book features descriptions of things within a house in both English and Spanish to help kids easily identify things in a new language.
8'In A People House' By Dr. Seuss
The Dr. Seuss classic In a People House is a simple, joyful book that younger kids can enjoy reading to embrace the concept of home. Told from the perspective of a friendly mouse showing a curious bird everything there is to see inside a house, this silly story is perfect for little ones to read over and over (and over) again.
9'Building Our House' By Jonathan Bean
What better way is there to teach kids how to appreciate being in their home than to show them how a home is constructed? In Building Our House, a girl and her family pack up their home in the city and build a new house in the country. If your kids love learning about construction, this unique story is sure to keep their attention.
10'If I Built A House' By Chris Van Dusen
Kids can use their imaginations to think about what type of house they might enjoy building one day as they follow along with If I Built a House. In the book, Jack imagines what it would be like to build a house with fantasy features like a racetrack and a giant slide. This is a great read to help kids think outside of the box but still appreciate the ways they can make being in their own house fun.
11'The Big Orange Splot' By Daniel Manus Pinkwater
When a bird carrying a bucket or orange paint dumps it over Mr. Plumbean's house in The Big Orange Splot, he must learn to embrace his creativity to help make his house look even better than it did before. A book like this could encourage your kids to take on some household art projects while you're all staying in at home.
12'Me And My House' By Liesbet Slegers
Toddlers and preschoolers may not understand why they can't be anywhere but home for a while. Help younger kids embrace being home and learn about what's inside of their house by reading Me and My House, the bright and colorful book meant just for their age group.
13'Soft House' By Jane Yolen
The whimsical picture book Soft House is about kids stuck inside and bored on a rainy day, not stuck at home because school is shut down due to a viral pandemic. Still, readers can relate to having to find different ways to stave off boredom — including building the ultimate fort where all of their imaginative adventures can take place.
14'Home Is A Window' By Stephanie Ledyard
Home Is a Window is the perfect book to help your children understand the true meaning of what makes a house a home. Although the premise of this book revolves around a family who moves to a new home, it still showcases how things inside of a home — a rug, a window, a person — define what a home is to their family instead of the structure itself.
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