Well hello whoever is still hanging around. I thought I would start posting more often after my last post but alas I have been preoccupied with house projects and adjusting to a new routine here at the house. We have been in such a good rhythm the last few weeks even amidst the current circumstances.
I have arrived to the thought that my blogging will remain inconsistent as I only want to blog when I am inspired (this thought has actually been simmering for over a year). This will allow me to post quality material and in hopes that it will be more helpful to you all. If you do enjoy day to day tips/tricks and in the life, I post pretty regularly on Instagram stories.
The past few days, even weeks, I have given much thought about our bookshelves and the types of books we own and the books we borrow from the library. When my eldest was first born, I wanted her to have every book there was but also wanted to be sure those books were of great quality. I happened upon Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt and soon it became my quest to acquire every book listed in her "A Child's First Books: Ages 0-3" chapter. She has somewhere around 60-65 books listed, we own around 20. Hunt was in no way suggesting you need to own all the books in her list, that was the overachiever in me wanting to check the list completely off. However after 4.5 years and two children later, my eldest being 4.5 and my youngest about 2.5, I have come to the conclusion that we do not need to own that many books. Children love repetition and sometimes they get so stuck on one book that they want to read it over and over and over again. Therefore, we would be just as well borrowing other books from the library to still introduce them to new stories and only buying the ones that truly stuck with our family that we are constantly wanting to read over and over and over again. Among owning about 20 books from this particular list, I would say we also own quite a few more picture books. Many of them Dr. Seuss which we did read quite a bit with my eldest her earlier years but not so much with my son but that is another list entirely, haha.
With all the books we own and have borrowed, all the reading we have done between two children, only a handful of books have made a mark for us as a family thus far. We have sweet memories of these stories with one or both of my children and the joy they gave us and we gave them during read-alouds. I hope this short and sweet list of ours will provide special memories and bonding time with your own littles during these early years and that one of these, if not all, will wind up as part of your child's first library.
This was Sophia's favorite one as a baby. She would get so excited when I would use an over dramatic voice "Wheeeeeeeere's SPOT?" and as we progressed through the book, she loved lifting the flaps and discovering what animal was hiding. The thing I loved about this book was the positional words that was used, "Is he behind the door?" "Is he in the closet?" "He's under the rug." It created an easy, natural and fun way to introduce elements in the English language that she will need later on. Reading in general exposes children to so much more than literacy though but that is a post for another day. Just trust me it is never too early OR too late to start reading aloud with your children.
Sophia loved the dramatics of the alphabet falling out the tree and the full moon. She also enjoyed all the alphabet at the back of the book and asking what each one is, we would often start singing the ABC song as we pointed to each one. Bubba has now also started flipping to the back and pointing at specific letters or matching the letter from his alphabet puzzle to the back of the book. Such a great rhyming book for early alphabet introduction.
For this book, there is a very specific one you need to get for it to be great in my opinion and that is the Slide and Find version. Interactive books like this and the flip to look and touch and feel engage babies and toddlers to explore these books on their own. Sophia loved being able to control the slides and Bubba is completely obsessed with this book. He went from knowing one color to knowing around 9 maybe more in two days. TWO days. I did not have to do any extra activities with him, he has flashcards but he mainly used those to sort by color but being able to name each color I give all the credit to this book. Truly shows in the early years we don't need fancy lesson plans or themed activities, just let them play and read them quality books! He also memorized the book and I have a sweet video of him "reading" it to me. I plan to also record him to create a "audiobook" and what a treasure it will be to hear his sweet baby voice once he is a grown man and possibly having his own babies.
I read an article once by a speech therapist saying the beginning stages of learning to speak is learning animal sounds. Those sounds are the building blocks and Sophia was not much of a talker at this time. She grunted and pointed. I knew she could talk if she really wanted to because her ability to understand everything we said was amazing and we would get snippets when she was in the mood (which was very rare). Although Sophia still waited to talk on her own timeline, as she has done with everything else so far, we still highly recommend this book because it is so full of giggles and laughter making sounds with your children and you still get to set up those building blocks for speaking later on.
A very classic book. Sophia enjoys the metamorphosis part when the butterfly comes out at the end of the book. I enjoy the early exposure to counting and the days of the week. Bubba enjoys the "holes" in the books for each food item the caterpillar ate (told ya'll interactive books for young toddlers and babies is where it is at, they love exploring with their hands)
Bonus: A Touch-and-Feel book
Again with young toddlers and babies exploring with their hands. I do not have a specific book recommendation other then having one touch-and-feel book on hand is great for them to explore different textures. Sophia had this one and loved touching the scarecrow (burlap) whereas Bubba had this one and the scratchy (sandpaper) pig was a favorite.
And that my friends is our family's top 5 book recommendations for your baby's own library. I still highly recommend reading as many books as possible so take advantage of your local library! If you need new book ideas, I love referencing the Read-Aloud Revival's A Year of Picture Books list as well as Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt (mentioned above).
I'm curious to know, how many of these books do you already own? What age did you start reading to your child?
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