1  | 

I found this helpful Thank You! Your vote will be tallied soon!

All of the experts say that reading to your baby is so important. It promotes an interest of reading, it teaches them about things not normally found in their environments, and it is a bonding experience.

Of course, it feels a little silly to read a book to someone who would rather chew on the pages than listen to the story. I'll admit that when Cordy was a baby I didn't read to her very much. Occasionally I'd bring out one of our copies of Goodnight Moon and attempt to read it, but she would squirm and look around and bat the book away, and I felt like I was reading it to myself, not to her. If I'm going to read a book for myself, I'd like something more advanced than a picture book about a bunny going to bed.

As she grew into a toddler, I made more of an effort. I sought out books on topics she was interested in, and I would carve out time each day to sit down with her and read a book or two. She still would wander off half of the time, though. Bedtime was the one time a book would always be read. We had a small group of bedtime books that we picked from each night, and she loved the routine of reading the singsong rhyming words right before she went to bed. She now doesn't want to read before bed, but Cordy does have a bookcase devoted to her books, and often takes one off the shelf and curls up in a chair to look through it.

The second child rarely gets as much attention as the first, so I worried that Mira would never see a book until preschool. But as a routine has formed for us, I've found a few minutes here and there to grab a quick board book and read it to her. Surprisingly, Mira is more focused on a book than Cordy was. She looks at the pictures, occasionally batting at them, and even when she's playing on the floor, she'll pull a book towards her and flip through the pages. I have a feeling that playing with books now will lead to a desire to read them later.

There are so many fun books that I recommend for babies and toddlers. Here's a quick list of my absolute favorites: The Foot Book by Dr. Seus, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, Time For Bed by Mem Fox, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr., and the entire Skippyjohn Jones series by Judy Schachner.

What books do you like to read to your kids?