Capturing a love of reading with your child
Did you read to your baby while they were inside you? Did you notice their movement increase or stop moving to listen? Reading to your newborn is simple and it doesn’t take much from you, just your voice, the baby and a book. Your baby just likes to hear your voice and cuddle; they don’t care what you are reading to them. You have the amazing ability to open up a world of imagination just by reading to them.
Reading to your baby not only teaches them about communicating, but it also helps with concepts such as colors, shapes, letters and numbers. It helps build vocabulary and listening skills and gives them information about the BIG BIG world around them.
Reading from birth through adolescence “can improve language skills, foster literacy development and help with other less tangible qualities. Parents who spend time reading to their children create nurturing relationships, which is important for a child’s cognitive, language and social-emotional development” (The American Academy of Pediatrics
http://www.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/06/24/aapnews.20140624-2)
Books with texture, flip tabs, faces, contrasting patterns, mirrors and bright colors keep babies more stimulated. So find a comfy spot, snuggle them in your lap and read for a few minutes every day. You can make reading time more fun by reading with expressions and using different pitches and different voices for different characters. Sing songs, make funny faces, animal noises and move their hands or feet while you read. Don’t worry if you can’t get through the entire book or if you skip or make up words, they don’t know what is on the pages, so HAVE fun.
The more stories and books you read aloud, the more words your child will be exposed to and the larger vocabulary they will have. Here is my list of 25 great books to read to babies, along with their authors, in no particular order:
Love you Forever by Robert Munsch
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathman
Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Hugs and Kisses by Christopher Loupy and Eve Tharlet
Chika Chika Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault
If you Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura J. Numeroff
More More More, Said the Baby by Vera Williams
Big and Little by Margaret Miller
My Mom Loves Me & My Dad Loves Me by Marianne Richmond
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt
Peek-a-Boo by Roberta Grobel Intrater
Close your Eyes by Kate Banks
Black on White by Tana Hoban
On the Night You were Born by Nancy Tillman
Baby’s Lap Book by Kay Choran
Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow
Corduroy by Don Freeman
Time to Get Dressed by Elivia Saradier
Are you My Mother by P.D. Eastman
Hop on Pop, Green Eggs and Ham, 1 Fish 2 Fish….by Dr. Seuss (anything by him)
So, now that you have 25 books to choose from, which ones will you read to your baby? There are so many books out there that your options are limitless. Register for books for your baby shower, get into a book exchange with other moms, borrow some from your local library (many libraries have story time just for babies, too) or go to a second hand store and buy and return them as often as you want. Remember to grab one or two for yourself so you can be your baby’s reading role model.
Contact me today to learn more great tips as you progress through your parenting journey.
https://www.yourfamilysjourney.com/contact-me/
