A Year of Books:
A Good Start for Your Baby
November/December 2009
A note about board books: Board books may not be placed on hold. Many board books are available at every Library location. Please ask your librarian to recommend board books for you and your baby.
Everyone knows that it is important to foster a love of reading in your child. What many parents do not realize is that this can begin at birth. You may think your baby doesn’t understand you or you may feel foolish pulling a book out when your baby is a newborn, but don’t. The baby and you will reap many benefits of sharing a simple book together. I have had the privilege of reading to my baby for the past year and a half.
Before my daughter was born sixteen months ago, we had a small library of board books ready for her. I pulled one out after we got through the first few months of adjusting to one another. As I snuggled her close, I read Five Little Ducks by Gabriella Buckingham to her. It's a simple and classic story and ends with a duck quacking. Of course she was oblivious to what a duck was, but that was not the point. The point was that we were taking time out of our day to do something special. My voice is what she recognized and loved hearing.
A few months went by with a nightly ritual of us snuggling in the rocking chair reading a book before she was put to sleep. Sometimes I would sing a song to go with the book. I kept it pretty simple. One of our favorite books at this time was That’s Not My Dinosaur by Fiona Watt. She loved the pictures and I would run her finger over the feely parts. By the time she was 6 months old, we were taking her books everywhere with us. Most of time she would chew on them, but she seemed to know that they were something special.
After she became a crawler at 8 months, she was even more interested in the books. We read Peek-a-Who? by Nina Laden at least 10 times a day! At this time she became interested in books that had pictures of real babies. One book was called Baby Talk by Dawn Sirett. I bought a few more titles that I thought she would love; some she did and others she didn’t look at twice. My only advice at this age is just to keep it simple. Don’t get books with too much text, their attention spans are so small. Your baby may seem interested in the book at the beginning but crawl or walk away seconds later. Don’t get frustrated, just try again later. Remember they have a long way to go before they are able to sit still for long picture books. Watch for their cues. If you think your little one is ready for something more advanced, try it. They will let you know if they are interested.
By the time our baby was one year old, we somehow had a collection of over 20 board books. Reading was not just reserved for the bedtime ritual, but it had expanded to throughout the day. My husband got involved and made voices in a book that only a dad can make. Around this time, my baby would bring a book over while we were sitting on the floor and scoot herself until she was able to sit in our laps. We read that book and then she would go and get another and another, sometimes reading 4 books in succession. We wouldn’t finish all the books. Sometimes we would get halfway though and she was off finding another that suited her better.
Now at sixteen months, my baby has had the great advantage of being a librarian’s daughter. I see new board books come in all the time, and we are able to try them out. Her favorite book right now isn’t even a story book but a word book. It is First 100 Animals by Roger Priddy. Recently we took our first trip to the zoo and she was able to see that the animals in her books were real. After we got back, we pulled out a book that had an elephant in it and it was like a light bulb went off. She got it.
If you are new to reading to your baby or toddler, but want to develop it into a daily routine, start off simple. Try setting a time during the day or evening, when baby is not fussy. Perhaps your reading time could be early in the morning, before or after nap time, or the evening bath. Try taking at least five minutes each day to read a book. You can always add more minutes and books as your baby’s attention span increases. There is no set time you should be reading to your children. The important thing is that you do read, not only to increase their vocabulary and language skills, but to also bond with your children and spend time together. I have two children, a sixteen month old and a thirteen year old. To this day my thirteen year old still remembers her favorite book as a preschooler, Go Dog Go by P.D. Eastman! As your child grows older they will remember the stories and you will both have many fond memories of your daily or nightly ritual of books.
By Joan Vigil, Senior Librarian, Valdez Perry Branch of the Denver Public Library
Sign up for the Literacy Newsletter!
|
