Our favourite Usborne Books

0:00 Hey there parents, my name is Ankita blending Montessori, neuroscience, music and positive parenting to help you follow the lead of your amazing child from day one to forever. In today's video, we are decoding Usborne books. I think we started collecting these books when Aish was one and a half two and now we are at 5:00 and we are still reading most of these books. So let me start from the first Usborne book that we ever got for her. It was the Usborne Art Treasury.

0:29 So this book has from the Starry Night to the Great Wave to the African Mast to Monkey in an Orange Grove. It has some of the most famous paintings for children to see, for children to inspire. I love that this book also talks a lot about the author. So it also talks about what inspired Van Gogh, for example, to paint the Starry Night, a little bit about the history. It also talks about the landscapes that can come out of it, the textures, how children can follow step by step from step one to step 5.

0:58 And really paint the starry night on their own, for example. So earlier when we got this book, we were just looking at the paintings we were just looking at. For example, this is a Pablo Picasso painting and we would just look at a couple of these pages. And around 3:00 is when she was really interested in, you know, making these cardboard masks and doing a lot of like painting with grass. Now I love that this book has a lot of ideas and this can really sustain children. This book will interest children from two to three years. Till about 8:00 to 9:00 when they've tried everything. For example, this pastel dancers, couple of them are a little complicated. They need different mediums also. So it can be really interesting for children to kind of explore this book.

1:42 This is one of the art books that are beautiful to have for children, The Art Treasury. And now I'm going to tell you about the next. Next up we have the Usborne Book of ABC. Now this book is by Felicity Books and Sophia Tullia Tao. This book is really cute. It just has everything in the ABC format. So this is great when children are learning phonics. This is also fantastic when children are learning new words are in that explosion of vocabulary phase. This not everything could be aligned phonetically. For example, Z will have Z and G words both, right?But I think for most part.

2:25 Most of the words are accurate here and I love the illustrations. They're really nice. And like I said, it also helps with, you know, learning a little bit of new stuff. For example, peas in a pot, right?This is not a word, it's peas in a pot, the entire phrase, but it really helps. A pampered pig, pizza, a pigeon pecking, you know. So it has a lot of rhyming going on here as well. And I truly enjoyed this book, I think when she was around 2 1/2 three.

2:53 She still continues to open it because now she can read on her own. So I feel the same books that you got at 3:00 will still sustain you at 5 if you've maintained them. Next up, all about diversity. Now this is again Felicity Brooks and Mar Ferrero. This is a book that we got when we had a lot of questions from Aish on discussion about skin color, why different people around the world have different skin tones, why she has a different skin tone than her own father. That is when we went back and told her that the skin color comes from melanin and it all depends on how much of melanin we have or lack of melanin in our skin. I love this book because it has such beautiful illustrations. It also talks about children, families in different setups and different scenarios. It also talks about children in schools. I love this book because it doesn't just talk about different skin color, but it talks about diversity in general. How are we different?Different in the festivals we celebrate, different in the way we dress, different in the food we eat, and we are different just because of the shape of our bodies. Also just understanding each other in spite of all those differences, you knowAnd this book also talks about different kind of families and what do they eat in those different kind of families. So it also gives a very global perspective to a child. And I love that they've touched upon celebrations and festivals. And then finally it talks about what the child likes and I think that personalizes the whole experience. I think we'll still be reading this book at 9, you know, it has so much of information, so I think this is fantastic. Next up is Usborne's 1000 English Words. Now this particular book we got when Aish was really interested in learning more and more nouns and more and more words. Also, the illustrations are very real looking. They are not very.

4:51 Over the top, I think I really like that. And it has crazy classification. So from home and family to playground to kitchen to bedroom to, you know, people, what they wear to body parts, this is really wholesome. And it can take up to a year for a child to really learn it all because of so many classifications, what the child sees in the town, what the child sees around the world. It is very. Very wholesome. So this is one of the books that you must check out for your children. I'm just showing you all that we have so then you can make a better choice of what you think will interest your child and then pick up accordingly. Please do understand that a lot of times books are also gifted to us by publishers and brands, so I may have more than necessary books, but you don't have to buy everything. And I also feel books are great for gifting. So whenever we go to a birthday party, books are definitely one part of the gift. So this is Asban's book about 1000 Animals.

5:49 This book is really, really interesting because it has all the animals that a child might be interested in and all the categories I mentioned, from Arctic animals to farm animals to domestic animals to bugs that creep to. Animals found in the desert to, you know, animals that live under the ground. The categorization is crazy. To be honest, I myself don't know all of these, right?So this is something we read together when we want to learn. So it's truly wholesome, truly immersive. And what I love is the illustrations. They're very realistic. There's nothing cartoonish about this, which is what makes it Super Montessori aligned as well. And I also like, for example, Spots and Stripes. There are two pages dedicated to Spots and Stripes, so. If your child is interested in Thousand Animals, you may want to get this book.

6:36 But if your child is interested in 1000 vehicles, then maybe you want to get that book. You know, if your child is interested in birds, then there's a whole separate book for that. So please find a book that aligns with your child's interests and go from there. The next book is The Big Book of Body by Usborne. Now this is a very popular book and this is a very interesting book. Let me show you one of the pages that makes this book super interesting. Here you go.

7:03 Uh, this fold out page right here, which kind of shows the entire human body, the skeletal system. And then there is the other side of the page which kind of shows the circulatory system. So this is what makes this book truly fascinating, the fold out flap aspect of this book. Also, it really has funny details and interesting details, like we have 650 muscles in our body. You know, how many bones do we have?And what are we made-up of?This book also talks about what's inside your head, heart and blood.

7:37 Too much in detail. And I think to learn this also, it's going to take children years. Now there are three books that are very, very interesting for children who have a lot of whys. The first one is why do I have to go to bed?The second one is Where Does My Food Go?And the third one is Why Do Things Die?So these are all the questions that Aish kept asking. And there's also a lovely book that we have on what are stars?And basically on every topic, Usborne has books. But this particular book, Why do I have to go to bed?Which is open the Flack book is something we got, I think at 4:00 and at 5 1/2, we're still reading. We're still going strong because there are so many resistances at bedtime.

8:22 So this basically talks about why we need to sleep. Where we need to sleep?What is the bedtime routine that we need to do? Talks about everybody needs to sleep, not just humans but also animals. And why is it dark at bedtime?And kind of really talks about the entire topic. So we can remind our children that even though they don't want to sleep, they probably need to. If your child is constantly asking you where does the food go?Why do I even need to eat?This is one of the books because this talks so much about food that's shoot better. Gets digested better and what happens to the food. It's really lovely, the illustrations.

8:58 Everything is explained in a very simple manner and in a basic manner. Children can really understand how our body functions. So this is one of the favorites that we have at home. And finally, we had a lot of questions around dying, from leaves dying to animals dying to people dying. So this is one of the books we got. Why do things die?So what really happens?You know, why things die?And is it OK to talk about dying?If it happens in the family, then what can we do?And what are we really supposed to do when somebody dies?You know, somebody who doesn't feel good about it, how can they deal with it?And how can you stop being sad if you faced this personally?And how do you remember people who are gone?So this book talks about all of that. And can really help your children understand a little bit of life and death. If they're truly curious, only them get them. If your child is truly curious about it, then this book makes sense for them. Otherwise you just want to skip it. So parents have shown you quite a few books. You can choose the book that aligns with your child. And now that you've seen what these books look like, the level of detail, you can also kind of pick up more books. Amazon is a good place to pick up books, but we also like to once in a while go on to a bookstore and really touch and feel and buy our books if you liked this video.

10:16 Please subscribe to our channel, drop a like and do let me know in comments what other categories of books would you be willing to know more about and I will post it for you. And Please remember to drop your child's age when you put the comment out and I will see you in the next video.