Kids Reading: Wallace's Lists and more

Wallace's Lists by Barbara Bottner was book that was added to my reading list after finding it in the Playful Learning book.  I love lists so I was super excited to get this from the library and check it out.

 

In the book, Wallace the mouse would only do things that were already on a list.  He met his new neighbor, Albert.  Albert and Wallace became friends after Albert told Wallace he was going out to paint ducks and ended up changing his mind and painting a place.  Albert told him that changing his mind is an adventure.  Wallace doesn't like adventures because they are not on his to do list.  Wallace had a list of places with funny names and Albert picks Glocamorra to travel too.  They decide to go the next day but Wallace had nightmares all night and didn't fall asleep until dawn.  Wallace woke up and it was raining.  He went to his friends house and there was a note on the door that he left on the adventure because Wallace didn't answer the door.  Wallace was worried about Albert out in the storm so he left to go help his friend.  He went through a lot of obstacles and then found Albert at the airport.  Wallace told Albert all of the things that happened to him and Albert declared that Wallace had his adventure.  Then, they went back together to do some of the things that Wallace did on his adventure.  They had another adventure together and Wallace went home and wrote a list about it as well as a list of his best friends. 

My son and I sat down and read this book.  He liked the book and thought the lists were really interesting.  I asked him if he wanted to write his own list.  He said that he did and he got out the paper and the colored pencils.  He wrote To Do on the top of the paper and then the number one.  I started spelling what he wanted to write and he got bored.  I know that it is a fine line between writing the list for him and letting him do it himself.  I was going to suggest drawing pictures but then he had already moved on to another thing and wasn't interested.  I think that it really depends on your kid but certainly be willing to step and do it with them or let them do it on their own.  

It teaches kids that things aren't always going to go as planned or go their way but to enjoy the journey.  It is a great lesson for kids with a set of expectations.  My son gets upset when things don't go the way he wanted them to go.  If I tell him that we are going to the bank and then the library and I change the order, he is not pleased but I think that this is the best book to read to make sure that children understand that everything is an adventure and we can't plan our life with lists....although they are a helpful tool and a good follow up activity.

It is a great book to read before you have to go run a bunch of errands because you can use the time after to make a list together. If I have a lot to do, I write a list of all of the things that we have to do with a box in front.  My four year old checks off when we have finished things and is very excited (there is sometimes cheering).  It is a great way to get them interested in getting on to the next task and not taking too long at one stop.  He loves checking off things and you have to watch and make sure that he only checks off the things that we have done because he sometimes gets carried away.  This helps with reading and pre-reading skills because you can point to the item that you want them to check off and they can see what letters and words are there which they might recognize next time.

Lists are also great to practice memory.  List off the things that you need to get at the store and ask them a little later what it was to see if they were paying attention.  It is really helpful now because he remembers when I forget and actually said to me as we were leaving the store that we needed furnace filters.  We went back in and bought them.  Great to have a helper and a reminder which will help them too!!

Hope that you pick up this book at your local library or bookstore and see how your kids like it!  It is a great book with great activities to go along.  I hope that I can pull it out again sometime soon when we have a long list of things to do and tell my son that he is going to be in charge of the list just like Wallace.