How to Read to Your BabyBy Rachel Paxton
When my twin boys were born, I was very excited to read to them.
They had received a lot of neat books as gifts, and I was looking
forward to sharing their books with them.
What I wasn't expecting was them not focusing on a book for more
than a second or two so I could read to them! Reading to babies
can be challenging when there are so many things in the world to
explore, but here are some tips that have worked for me.
There are many different types of books available for babies.
Board books and cloth books work best for babies so they can
handle them and drool on them without doing much damage to them.
If your baby isn't interested in one type of book, keep
introducing different books until you find one he is interested
in. One of my sons loves books with pictures of real babies in
them. He loves to look at their smiling faces. For Christmas he
received a board book called "Tom Arma's Paw Print Parade". Tom
Arma (a famous baby photographer) has a new line of baby board
books available at http://www.amazon.com. My son has another
board book called "Happy Baby Words" from
http://www.priddybooks.com. This book pictures babies getting
dressed, eating, etc. He loves to look at the pictures in that
book.
My other son loves cloth books. Sesame Street has a book called
"Get Dressed with Elmo" that is his favorite. This book is
available at http://www.softplayforkids.com. This is an
interactive book where a toddler can zip zippers, fasten buttons,
attach velcro, etc. A baby can't do these activities, of course,
but my son loves to flip the soft pages and play with the items
in the book.
My boys are 10 1/2 months old, and I find that they will look at
books by themselves longer than they will let me read to them. I
make sure to have books in every room of the house that they find
when they are crawling around, and they will stop and look at
them (of course they are finding my books too!). They especially
like looking at books in bed. When they are going to sleep they
will lie in their beds and roll around with their favorite book
in their hands. I've peeked in their room to find one of them
sitting in his bed turning the pages of his favorite Elmo book.
If I were to try to read it to him he would instantly try to
crawl away.
I figure just exposing my boys to books at this age will
influence their desire to want to read, even if they don't feel
like indulging my desire to read to them. I have found one time
they will let me read to them, however...when I plop them in bed!
Right when the tears are about to start I pull out their favorite
book and read it to them in their crib. One son stands holding
on to the edge of his crib (hoping I'll change my mind and pick
him back up) while I read his book to him. I have a captive
audience and they are distracted from their initial reaction to
being put in bed. After I read their stories they generally let
me leave without a fuss!
Happy reading!
(Note to publishers: A baby photo is available at
http://www.christian-parent.com/baby-books.shtml if you would
like to include it with the article.)
