Mrs. Sketchbook had a great post recently about a monthly book subscription, but I was sad to read that “children from high income families-by age 4-hear a total of 32 million more words spoken in their homes than children from low-income families.” So I think it’s important to start reading to children from birth, and to continue to reading aloud to kids long after they are old enough to read themselves, too.
I’m by no means downplaying the importance of your child reading aloud themselves, because that is certainly an important skill to master, but I think they hit an age where we as adults feel silly about reading aloud. My parent-baby class instructor said she was reading a Harry Potter book aloud on a road trip with her children and a classmate of her 16 year old son. She had just met him — he was heavily tattooed and muscly — and she said he rolled his eyes as she cracked open the book. By the end of the car ride he was leaning over the seat, listening intently, and playing with the hair of a younger child. They arrived at their destination and he piped up that they hadn’t gotten to the end of the chapter yet. He found her years later on Facebook and asked if she still read to her family.
My topic this week at my parent baby class was “books.” I saw it on the schedule and was like, yeah I read to my daughter, boring topic. Boy was I wrong! I learned about the importance of reading aloud and a few great nuggets for choosing a books for your kids or to give as gifts: 
- When buying a lift the flap book, test its sturdiness by taking a walk around the store holding it by a flap.
- Look for a Newberry Medal or Caldecott Medal on the front cover of the book, which recognize the best literary books and best illustrated books.
ADVERTISEMENT - Most libraries offer storytelling time, and even infants can attend. Some libraries even offer storytimes in many different languages. Afterward, ask the librarian to recommend some books – I’m sure they’d be more than excited to talk to someone about books.
- If introducing a second language, pick up a book of nursery rhymes in another language. These types of books will have repetitions and rhythms that exemplify the cadence and rhythm of the language; a baby can recognize speech patterns from birth, and a child’s ability to hear different phonetic pronunciations is sharpest before age 3.
- Check out The Read-Aloud Handbook, a great tool for any parent or teacher. The first half discusses the thought behind reading aloud, and the second half is updated with each edition and lists great book recommendations by age group.
What do you do in your homes to promote reading? Is daily storytime a part of a bedtime ritual? I think books are too stimulating for our before-bed experience (remember I’ve got the baby with the 2am bedtime), but it’s so rewarding to see her get excited about her favorite books, even when she was 4 months old.
blogger / nectarine / 2608 posts
We have books in every room (literally– I checked!). We have books in the car. I take books along in my bag if we go anywhere in case there is down-time. Ellie is a proficient reader (she tested at the fifth grade level, but can easily read simpler chapter books to herself) but she still gets an hour or so of read-aloud time with Mr. T or I reading to her per day. Lorelei is too tired at bedtime, so we read to her during daylight hours. She also gets at least an hour or so interspersed throughout the day. We try to read a wide variety of materials, from newspapers to board books to poetry to comics. Mr. T and I try to be good adult models and often talk to the girls about what we are reading and let them see us read sometimes. Lorelei knows that, “Mama reads a book and drinks tea and she is content. ‘Aaaaaah,'” because she has heard me say it. We love books and learning. Great post! Read-Aloud Handbook is like a religious book at our house.
blogger / clementine / 998 posts
@mrs. twine – i concur with the idea of modeling – reading real books ourselves. even if we have a kindle out, or are reading a book on a phone or ipad, to our kids, we could easily be texting or playing a game
guest
As a former children’s librarian, I actually disagree with number 2. Most Newbery winners are great literary works, but not so great on being child friendly or something that is fun reading. You will most likely see it as classroom reading so I don’t really agree with giving majority of them to kids as pleasure reading. There are some that are good pleasure reading, but as a whole not books I ever recommended to kids.
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
Love the flap test! Such a great call!
blogger / nectarine / 2608 posts
@Mrs. Chipmunk: Mr. T and I are dinosaurs mostly. I use my tablet for recipes, but tend to read only paper books (hard or soft cover). Mr. T is a big magazine reader and is always working on at least one book at any given time. We do have a newspaper subscription to the local news, and both girls get magazines and have print books of many kinds. I don’t own a smart phone. Your point, though, about being intentional models is a really apt one. It’s really great for kids to know when we’re reading, and the many reasons why!
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
The Read Aloud Handbook is one of my all time favorite books ever! I learned so much from that book. It was required reading for one of my grad school classes.
blogger / kiwi / 675 posts
we read a lot too. Gemma is always carrying around books. She goes to our shelf too and looks at all of our books. We read throughout the day and check out books at the library often. Love it. When I was younger my mom took us to the library every saturday, I always loved that tradition.
blogger / clementine / 998 posts
@mrs. twine – i’m a technology dinosaur, too. i don’t have a smartphone either, and neither did my husband up until 6 months ago when he got a new job and needed one for work. i was a bookworm when i was young, but i remember when I was about 13 i outgrew all of the series that i had loved, and i just couldn’t get into “adult” books. i tried tackling things like john grisham all through high school during ussr, but that marked the end of my personal reading. sad!
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
This is a great list! Yeah, most of the flaps are missing from our “lift the flap” books.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
I love reading. I started to reading to M before his naps when he was just a couple weeks old. I bought lots of books and then got a huge basket full of board books as hand-me-downs. We are constantly reading. We read before every sleep event and then again when he wakes. He even likes to read magazines with me!
coconut / 8430 posts
We read every night before bed! I have my little one choose which books she wants every night.
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
We are constantly reading… Books, labels, titles, anything and everything!
pear / 1837 posts
The first thing my 3 year old says when he wakes up in the morning is “READ A BOOK.” (We make him ask nicely before we comply).
A walk to the library is one of our go-to weekend activities and it’s awesome- not only are there books, but there are also puzzles and games and other fun stuff around. And the children’s librarian is lovely. The children’s area is PACKED on weekends when we go, which always makes me happy to see. DS1 really likes going and getting to pick out his own books- we usually allot him 4-5, and then DH and I pick another few books out ourselves. DS1 can read whatever he wants during the day but at night, we do two books and he can pick one, and DH or I (whoever is doing bedtime) gets to pick the other one- otherwise, we’d read almost nothing but superhero books and Mo Willems- mainly superhero books. DS1 keeps a pile of books by his bed and “reads” to himself (looks at pictures and either recites the story if he knows it well enough, or makes one up) for a good hour after we put him down for naptime or bedtime.
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
We are always reading but I like the suggestions and will definitely keep them in mind
blogger / watermelon / 14218 posts
We have books in every room! LMW calls them “boot”. She loves storytime! Wagon Jr. is finally at the age where he enjoys bedtime stories… he looks forward to picking them out every night.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
great idea for the flaps! I never would have considered that.
blogger / pomelo / 5361 posts
On long car trios, my mom always read to all of us. It was some of my favorite memories growing up. I can’t wait for our boys to get more into books, but so far, they are thwarting my efforts.
guest
I’m in my mid 30’s and I still love it when someone reads aloud to me! I’ve read aloud to my brother, my parents, my wards in daycare and as a nanny and my friends, but one of the most memorable things was when I read to street children in Peru. I had a friend who was working with street children and who had started reading aloud to them after work because they wanted to know what she was doing. When she got sick I promised to cover for her, which was slightly mad, since they didn’t know me and I didn’t speak much Spanish, but it was quite a feeling to sit on the stairs of a local church surrounded by 30 or so street children, who were all sitting reasonably still and quiet, listening to someone who slowly and painstaikingly read a battered copy of the Little Prince aloud to them in a foreign language.