Raising a Reader
As a responsible book lover and librarian, I have made it my mission to raise my daughter to be a reader. I have been reading to her and letting her explore books since she was born. Little H has books everywhere in the house! In the beginning, she had the soft material books and the high contrast books. She’s one year old now, and it’s interesting to see her interests change and evolve. I usually let her explore the books herself but if there’s once I really like or want to read, I’ll give it a try and see if she will listen. I never force her to read something that she doesn’t want to. Now that she’s mostly able to turn the pages of board books herself, I try to model going from one page to the next instead of flipping to random pages. I’ve decided to chronicle what we are reading and how she interacts with these books. It will be nice to see her reading habits change over time. It will also be an opportunity to share some book recommendations for others to check out.
Favorite Books This Week
These are the books in Little H’s rotation this week.
- Elmo & Friends (First Look & Find) – There is alot going on in these pages for a 1 year old but she has been drawn to it because she loves Sesame Street. It began with flipping through the pages quickly by herself. Now she brings it to me and will ask me to read it to her. A look and find scene takes up two pages, and each scene has about 3 sentences asking us to find things that are a certain color. I modeled pointing and naming the Sesame street characters that appear and now she points to them on her own. We are working our way up to pointing out things that match the color that we are looking for.
- Quack Quack, Who’s That – Little H likes farm animals and is getting better at making the right sounds for the animals. This book has big flaps that can be opened easily. I have been emphasizng the name of the animal and the sound instead of reading the actual text on the page. For the most part, Little H knows how a lift the flap works. (Read every night before bed.)
- Hello Panda – This one has text that rhymes and each page has a hole cut out where you peek at the panda bear at the end. There are also little critters on each page that you can point to. It’s a cute little book. (Read every night before bed.)
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Little H loves poking her finger into holes on the pages! I shorten the text on this one because it’s a little long. Her favorite parts are when the caterpillar eats all the random foods and of course the butterfly page. I’d like to read the entire text and maybe count the fruits that he eats if she will let me. (Read every night before bed.)
- Honorable Mentions – In the car, Little H reads Priddy’s 100 Words Board Books. (Linking since they aren’t in the photo) I like these cause she can “read” them on her own. She will make animal sounds or car sounds that she knows. The pages with other babies on them are very interesting to her as well.
Talking about these books makes me miss being a children’s librarian! What are some books that your kids are interested in right now?