Magic Tree House Series Ages 6 to 9 grades 1 to 4

Many years ago, when my son was a preschooler, we were introduced to the Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osbourne.  Little did I realize that it would be apart of our lives for almost another 4 years!  Eventually I  became VERY burned out on them, but I have to admit, that they were a wonderful well thought out collection of books!

When my son was 4 almost 5 I started reading them to my son.  He just loved the adventures and at the time dinosaurs were the bomb with him.  The early half of the series is written for 6 to 9 year old's, grades 1 to 4.  In Dinosaurs Before Dawn brother and sister Jack and Annie stumble upon a tree  house that only they can see.  They climb into the tree house and see all these wonderful books all around them.  One of them accidentally says "I wish we could go there" and before they know it they are whisked off to another time and place.  They realize that they are in a "magic" tree house that belongs to Morgan Le Fay and they start picking up clues as they go.  Next they are whisked off to the Middle Ages in The Knight at Dawn, Ancient Egypt in    Mummies in the Morning and Pirates Past Noon.  The adventures are set in groups of 4, where they find clues, and solve riddles to help save Camelot.  What is also great about this series is the Nonfiction companion books-fact trackers.  Like for  Mummies in the Morning there is  Mummies and Pyramids.  There is also a Dinosaurs , Pirates and Knights and Castles.  In  the next 24 books they have many adventures with Ninjas, Moon, Civil War, Revolutionary War, India, and so many more.

The Next set of books are considered the Merlin Missions, I remember them being slightly more advanced than the first set.  But they have many cool adventures too.  They meet Leonardo DeVinci, and they go to Paris, New York, Japan, China and the Middle East and so many other places.

When my son was in Kindergarten and he was reading ton his own,  we used these books as our social studies lessons. We would follow the books from 1 all the way through 50 each week.  So the first week we studied Dinosaurs and read lots of supporting books and did activities too, then Ancient Egypt, the Middle Ages and on and on.  I really felt like after a year and a half he had had a very well rounded education!

Then there is the Magic Tree House web site Where they can play games and they can take a short quiz after reading a book and get a passport stamp. There is even Random House activities to download .

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