I have loved introducing our babies to books, and luckily, they seem really interested in them! They LOVE to be read to, and love to explore books themselves.
When we are actually reading to them, we have found we need to lay them down and hold the book over them, or else they can't sit still and just keep lunging for the book =). But they will lay there for the longest time just staring at the pages and watching us as we tell them all about it.
We try and always let them play with the books before and after so they get a chance to become familiar with books too, and they seem to like it.
This makes me so happy, because through my few years of teaching preschool I learned you can't teach the desire to read. You can bribe with stickers and prizes and such, but you can't teach them to enjoy it.
I ordered these books from Amazon.com for Christmas, (thanks for the tip Julia), and I am excited to see what the babies think of them!
I know Luke and Abbey are still very young, but we are doing our best to get them and keep them interested in reading. We have lots of board books that they can explore (beat up, chew on, drool on, etc) and they love it. When they are a little older and less likely to tear at pages, we have TONS of books for them. Not only do I have a plethora of books from my teaching days, but my Aunt Carol gave each baby a big box FULL of Golden Books and a few other great story books for when they are old enough. I can't wait to watch them enjoy these bed time stories!
When we are actually reading to them, we have found we need to lay them down and hold the book over them, or else they can't sit still and just keep lunging for the book =). But they will lay there for the longest time just staring at the pages and watching us as we tell them all about it.
We try and always let them play with the books before and after so they get a chance to become familiar with books too, and they seem to like it.
This makes me so happy, because through my few years of teaching preschool I learned you can't teach the desire to read. You can bribe with stickers and prizes and such, but you can't teach them to enjoy it.
I ordered these books from Amazon.com for Christmas, (thanks for the tip Julia), and I am excited to see what the babies think of them!
I know Luke and Abbey are still very young, but we are doing our best to get them and keep them interested in reading. We have lots of board books that they can explore (beat up, chew on, drool on, etc) and they love it. When they are a little older and less likely to tear at pages, we have TONS of books for them. Not only do I have a plethora of books from my teaching days, but my Aunt Carol gave each baby a big box FULL of Golden Books and a few other great story books for when they are old enough. I can't wait to watch them enjoy these bed time stories!
8 comments:
I hope your twins like them. I've ordered a bunch more for Christmas for our girls. They LOVE them! Hadley knows exactly where the "touchy" part is on every page. Those books are definitely favorites around here :)
This is cool...and helps me to understand babies! ;) I've been taking our son to the library (the one between your house and ours) for preschool story time once a week. After his class, the babies'(0-12 months) story time starts, and I've been curious about how it all works...since I don't know ANYTHING about babies under 2!!!
I'm glad Luke and Abbey are into books, and that you and David are encouraging a love for reading even at such a young age. I'm delighted to do anything that helps contribute to their enjoyment of all things "book".
Love, Aunt Carol
I think that's fabulous! You are definitely fostering a love of reading. My daughter is 2.5 years old and we started reading to her extremely young too. We would read her a 'bedtime story' (very short board book) before every nap and every bedtime starting when she was about 4-5 months old. We increased the number of books as she got older and more and more interested, now we read 3 books before nap and 3 before bed. We usually read at least 3-4 (and up to double digits!) throughout the day too. It actually was a huge help in potty training, she would sit on the potty and listen to the whole story, even try to go potty for longer to get to hear more books! :)
She LOVES to read, she has many sentences, pages and even books memorized. She has a huge vocabulary and will often "read" to herself by looking at the pictures and recalling the stories we read. Nothing could thrill me more! I am a high school teacher and an avid reader myself and I am so happy she loves books and reading too! I agree, you can't bribe a kid to a love of reading - but by making it an integral part of their everyday? They will know and love books all on their own!
You should check out the Bear books ("Bear Snores On", "Bear Wants More", "Bear Feels Sick", "Bear Gets Scared" all by Karma Wilson). My daughter LOVES them and I enjoy reading them because of the rhythm of the story and the gorgeous pictures!
I used to read to you Kiddo's while you were in your cribs (which kept you from lunging at the books, too). You all seemed to like that. I would show you the pictures, and you seemed to enjoy that, too. Later, I would read books as a part of bedtime routines, and you seemed to like that, too... even after you could read. :)
LOVE,
DAD
I just can't believe how big they are getting!!!!!
Never too young for books! We started reading them stories the first week home from the hospital. We made weekly trips to the library over the summer when they were 3-5 months old too because I needed a new selection! (The kindergarten teacher in me relates to the preschool teacher in you. :) )Although I think we created a monster because Sam is obsessed with books- they are by far his favorite toy!
There's a Children's Book linky over at Five Halos today... you can see my recommendations at my site, and find the link up to hers!
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