Museums and Books (and Outer Space)

Museum trips can be great fun for kids, and they can learn a lot, too.  If you go to a museum where you find something that really fascinates your children, a book or two to reinforce what they learned at the museum can be a wonderful thing.

My daughter loves science - right now she loves astronomy and she wants to be an astronomer when she grows up.  We went to visit the Smithsonian Institution's Air & Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center today, and I thought that a great way to follow up on our visit would be to look at a few space books.  Of course, there are several great Usborne books to choose from!

She already has See Inside Space - it's one of her favorite books.  I think I might get her the First Encyclopedia of Space.  She's looked at it before, and narrowly chose See Inside Space instead.  Of course, she loves dot-to-dot puzzles, so Dot-to-Dot in Space might be a nice, fun treat.

There are lots of other great choices, too - which space book would your child like?

Some Old Favorites

My daughter got her first Usborne book as a baby.  Her very first Usborne book was That's Not My Dragon, which is unfortunately out of print now.  But she accumulated a nice collection of That's Not My... books.  Two of her favorites were That's Not My Teddy and  That's Not My Dinosaur.  The That's Not My... series is great for babies and toddlers, with lots of different textures for them to feel and adjectives to learn.  They held up to her frequent use really well too - well enough that when she outgrew them, we were able to pass them on to my nephew, and they were still in great condition.  Take a look at the That's Not My... list.  What book was your child's favorite, or which one do you think your baby will love?