Hi, Here is one problem which I had with my son. As children’s reading ability increases, so does the length of the books which they are interested in. After a while the chapter books have 100 to 200+ pages. When my son was 5, he read Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang in the original version, --it has 114 pages. So it might not be possible to read 5 of those books a day. But happy reading anyway! and all the best
Sorry to bring an old post up but I’m about to start the project with my 3 yo. I’ve put aside many new French and English books and I’d like to keep track of what we read. We only read in bed for nap and night time so I’d like a piece of paper to write the titles and day on, we would keep this on the bedside tale. Is anyone aware whether such a document exists? It doesn’t need to be too fancy…
You could create an excel spreadsheet and print them. That way you can set it up exactly how you like 
I found that it is a proces to get them to sit down and read, in the begining they wount sit much time at all, but it increeses as they see that you enjoy reding with them.
I started bedtime reading with my older son when he was 1,5 years old, he has always been on a really strict sceduel, so dine, bath , story time. I started story time so he had something to do with his mother and father with out his little sister, just as a special activity, and he loved it, we could read for an hour at a time, he would have done more, but sleeping time is someting I don´t play with ;-).
I did finde him being really calm and it took not much efort to put him in bed, the days we didn´t do reading he would be to excited to go to sleep, and it took a bit more calming down.
so, my expirince, start with a page, and go increesing as the child demands more.
Before brillkid,as a mother and teacher I researched as a junior associates in child development and family welfare .I astonished with the reading habit of a seven month baby.
I am agreed with msocrro,because my baby made my research true.she is very cheerful with new and interesting of books.She enjoys reading as play.Infact she loves book.she is growing with her library.I become a hunter of books for her. :yes: thanks to the Brill kid team.It supports me and my playschool.
Hope my searching will ends here.
Thanks waterdreamer for your reply. I’ve been using a simple notebook instead of printing out paper
Really this is an great step.you are trying to the top if not possible you must find yourself nearest to the top.
That’s the great idea.I am very much inspired by your challenge.I want to get these books for my playschool library and of course my little reader.
If any one can please instruct to find these.I am from India.how many days it will take to deliver here. lol
Hi Iwini
I source my books from my own childhood collection, my town’s library and bookdepository.co.uk, which offers free shipping in most countries worlwide.
The challenge for me is to read as many books in English as in French (our mother language), and it adds up quickly to buy new English ones. It would be great to have an online website selling second-hand books with free shipping lol
Hypatia! How are you?
I have the same problem but in reverse - I am trying to get her to read as many French (and Spanish) books as English books. It helps to have a French bookstore in town but it is still getting too expensive even without shipping costs. I wish we lived near each other then I can just borrow from your French collection and you can borrow from my English one! lol
One question: when and how do French children typically learn to read phonetically? As you probably know, Ella can already sightread a lot of French words but I am at a lost how to proceed from here onwards. Do you know of any good French phonics program similar to starfall? Any other suggestions?
Hi Aangeles!
I had just finished watching a youtube video of Ella sounding out words on the Ipad when I saw your message 
I don’t have much to suggest for teaching phonics in French. At school teachers use their own curriculum, when children start CP (I think it’s grade 1?), at 6 years old. They have textbooks.
I’ve searched for a method and found one called La planète des alphas. All letters are characters doing things, like ‘Mister a who holds his cane’, Mister O who is very surprised and blowing bubbles, and for consonants they have the name of objects, like the J is Jet d’eau (water sprinkle). They live on a planet and are very friendly.
I only bought the basic kit which consists of the characters (you can play along with them), the dvd of their story and a book without text which shows what’s in the dvd. It’s only to get kids interested in the characters, but I’d like to purchase the next step, like textbooks, which are usually purchased by schools, but can be ordered on their website.
All I know from the method is that you don’t say the letter, just its sound, however I don’t know how they start combining letters and forming sounds.
If you’re interested I can browse around for you to see what else they have available?
Otherwise we use the Ipad and the same program you are using to sound out words and spell them (Montessori dictation?). There’s very little to teach phonics in French, I look for good programs everyday on the appstore.
You can also have a look at the website I had suggested www.genikids.fr and the ‘lecture’ section.
My challenge is called the 1000 book in one year challenge (because 1500 was a little ambitious), and it consists of 1000 books read only once - most will be read at least thrice but I only count individual books.
For longer books like chapter ones, I will count a reading session (at least 10mn, or two chapters) as one book.
When we’re finished reading at night, I simply put the books on the floor and write their titles on my litle booklet the next day. I’d rather not do it electronically after what happened to waterdreamer 
Oh, and at the back of the textbook I write down my own books: My own challenge is simple: 52 books!
Anyone wants to start the challenge with me and their children?
Hi Hypatia,
I will take the challenge with you! :yes:
If you are still looking for a way to keep track of the books you have read or are reading with your dd, check out the My Library app on the Ipad. It is actually an app for cataloguing your personal media collection (books, CDs, DVDs) but I am also using it to keep track of books we have read. I like it because after we finish reading a book, I can just scan in the barcode at the back of the book using the Ipad camera and it automatically imports all the data (no more manually typing in or writing out everything). If it is a borrowed book, the app even tells you where you can buy the book and compares the prices, or tells you which libraries have it in their collection. We have a huge personal collection of books in several languages and, so far, the app does a great job of recognizing even our Chinese children’s books!
We are doing this challenge again this year. We start on my son’s birthday (June 9th) and so far we have read about 700 books. We’re using a sticker chart to keep track.
Last year I was super picky and made it so only books we read together counted, and we could only read the book once, any more and we could not count it in. Well I discovered when your child is learning to read, rereading books is sometimes helpful. So this year I have also counted in books he has read with his father and tutors. Right now we are averaging 5-10 books a night depending on the books length , usually an hour of reading. Starting next year I really want to do a page challenge since we will be reading lots of chapter books. But I’m not sure what a reasonable amount would be.
Hi Hypatia,
I will take the challenge with you! :yes:
If you are still looking for a way to keep track of the books you have read or are reading with your dd, check out the My Library app on the Ipad.
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Hi Aangeles
This is a great suggestion!
I’d love to, but unfortunately I do not have Wi-fi, simply a dial-up connection. My Ipad is only connected to the internet when I found a wifi spot in town.
I’m sure many members will love to hear about this app!
Anna your ella do not need any special program to leanr to read phonetically in french . she can already read in english . it is different when kids learn to read french as their first language , planet alpha or other programs could help , from my experience with tina , we just picked a cp french book and tina took off , she learned her french alphabet from professor toto , the first few reading lessons in the cp books break the words phonetically and put the silent letters in grey . it was all she needed , and she progressed through the lessons and now can read well in french . i need to remind her sometimes when she sounds U as uh in english , that we are doing french so she corrects it to uuuuuuuu.
i love the book we are using : leo et lea cp level .
now all i need to add is the curisve writing but still cannot decide on the font i like to use . the french schools use PLUME which is very straight cursive , not slanted like some english cursive , but i find little resources online for worksheet practice . i might have to write them myself .
we are still working on a book written by a romanian professor write from the start , it leads to nice cursive writing but the workbooks are mainly drawing shapes and curves no letters or words , and tina likes it this way .any resources for french cursive writing hepatia ??
love
viv
love
viv
what about online books Hypathia ?? my little ones love raz-kids books , they have huge library of fiction and non fiction books , those could count and a lot cheaper than buying physical books . i am actually looking for similar french paid website for online french books if you know of any you could recommend please
viv
which french books and CD do you use bella?
We are thinking about dong it too!
We will start next month though ( after our family emergency is over, and we will be back to our routine hopefully)
I was thinking, may be we can share the titles and recommendations here too, what do you think?
We are reading in English and Russian.
We get some of our books from library book sales, garage sales, Craigs list.
Excellent website, where you can get lots of books for just a fraction of price is www.alibris.com
Here is another one, where you can register and swap books for free with other members: http://www.paperbackswap.com
Hope these ideas help…
Thanks so much to everyone for inspiring my family! As my daughter just turned two (I have her on video reading animal placards at the zoo at 13 months!), we are adapting the challenge to simply keeping a log of all the books we read each day! And how many times, as she is two and desires repitition! ( and repetition, and repetition, and repetition… )
We have always tried to create a ‘book flood’ for her, so there are bookcases and colorful boxes of books in EVERY room in the house. But now that I know she will have a permanent record of it, it reminds me to read, pushes me to read to her! I have never seen her so happy! Every night I ask her if she wants 15 minutes more of playtime, or does she want to read an extra book…guess what she chooses?
I have also looked at digital ways of storing our list, and came to a different conclusion: I went out and purchased an expensive, beautiful, hard- bound leather journal that simply begs to be written in and cherished…now, she will have this record forever, proof of her accomplishments, a memory of beautiful times with her parents, and possibly something to reference and share with her own children…I am all about convenience and technology, but please consider giving this gift to your own children… It isn’t easy, it is a huge pain, and yet, I carefully make each entry. I now plan to do it every year.
Thanks for all the inspiration…
Love it, Kerileanne99, beautiful idea!