Baby Blog

This coming Wednesday my son’s favorite pastime starts back up: story time at the library. The group is for children from birth to five years old and for all those moms out there who think it’s silly to take newborn babies to story time? Think again. My son has a great vocabulary for his age, is very social and interacts easily with children from ages birth to five years and he’s an only child. I’m pretty sure most of that comes from the great times he’s had at the local library.

Over the summer we’ve gotten a little slack with our reading. Baby Nik has been exploring the world of books by himself. His board books, foam books, waterproof books and coloring page books have become the main stars in his learning library. Mom reading stories has really been on the back burner. I have no excuses; summer’s been busy but it’s time to start reading aloud at a set time every day more than just pointing to pictures and saying words in a board book.

Last weekend we went to the local library and for the first time baby Nik picked out his own books. At 18 months he can follow very simple instructions and all I had to tell him was to pick books with one circle on the spine and he did. The fact that we came home with books about dogs, trains and ducks could have been due to mom’s helping hand but it sure as heck was a good time for baby Nik.

We read stories in the bath. Ever since Nik was little the only time I’ve gotten him to sit still and focus is during bath time. It seemed ideal to read stories aloud during this activity. We read to first level storybooks every night at bath time. When Nik was very young, about six weeks old, he didn’t really follow the books, just looked up when I stopped talking. Now Nik will repeat words I say and point to pictures of the words I say in the storybook. He’s also very good at asking for “nother story.”

Getting back to sitting still and focusing during story time is my main goal when it comes to reading stories at home. I want Nik to into the habit of sitting and listening to an adult read aloud. The fact that there will be a whole different crew of children at story time (as word of this fun baby activity is spreading) it will be good to teach Nik focus when other people are around.

Well, it’s worth a shot. I’ll let you know how things turn out.

Pediatricians recommend reading to your child for twenty minutes every day.