Friday: Play!—Reading with your Toddler & Infant

March 7th, 2008 in Friday: Play!, Books/Reading, Children Product Reviews, Children's Books

Reading with your Toddler or/and Infant

Reading has to be the number one thing I love doing with my children, we spend a good hour every day spending time together reading all different sorts of stories.

The first thing we must do at my house is get comfortable. We get out our long purple reading pillow, lay it under our mobile of butterflies, get our stuffed animals and all lie down.

We all choose books, my toddler picks some out that she thinks my infant would like, and some of her own.

She loves using different voices for the characters, and she really loves when we read it in a different accent.

We take time to notice all the details in the illustrations, laugh about the silly parts, talk about the rhymes and if things are the same or different tin the picture. I ask lots of questions about which one is her favorite, or what she thinks will happen next or how she thinks the character feels.

Books can hold her attention very well but with her friends that come over sometimes I but the story short on each page so they will last throughout the book. Her friends usually love to turn the pages also.

Every child seems to have a different interests, and choosing books to go along with them will help hold their attention. Monsters, Ballerinas, Food, Dinosaurs, Dogs, Trucks, Imagination, their favorite TV shows usually have a whole collection of books. (Even though some of them are horribly written!)

There are many books that have different textures, which both of my children have loved when they were very little, and still do. My toddler is really getting into the books that have to do with the character’s just every day activities, something she really can relate to.

Reading has taught her to count, her colors, animals, letters, seasons, I really do believe reading has taught my daughter far more than I have.

It is such an important daily activity, for when its raining or to read outside on a blanket. Reading in the car, before breakfast, before nap, before bed. Going to the library is something any family can do on any budget and many libraries have fabulous story times.

Here is a great website on reading with your children, Reading is Fundamental: http://www.rif.org/

These are the books we started with in my home, that my child loved from just a few months old. She is now into more detailed books, but she still enjoys these.

That’s not my puppy! That’s not my teddy bear! That’s not my princess! You can find them on the usborne book website. They were some of my daughter’s favorite books when she was very young because she loved to touch the different fabrics on each page.