Instilling a Love of Reading

I love to read.  I do not always have time to read, but when I read I tune out the rest of the world and dive right in, whether it is the Bible or a novel or an article online.  That being said, I want my children to love to read.  I want them to learn to read and to drink in books from an early age onward.

What books do I read to a baby?  I wondered with my first born.  What books will help him love to read?  How can I build a home library so I have plenty of books on hand?

First, I asked for a book gift themed baby shower so that the guests were encouraged to give a book instead of a card when they came.  That brought a variety of books as each guest had their own favorite or interesting contribution.

Then, I collected a few old favorites like the Berenstain Bears.  When I saw children's books for sale (at a book fair in my work lobby for example while I was pregnant) I bought some books with a "bedtime" theme.

From there I had a good start and simply began reading to my son from birth.  It is hard to remember when certain developments took place, but it was fun to watch him insist on turning (learning how to turn) the pages himself and especially exciting when he started to recognize when a book was upside down and flip it right side up.

As he began to interact more with books I found that first I needed durable books (aka board books).  Then I found that I needed books with fun sounds - think animals that say baa and ruff.  He really liked those.  His favorite for a long time was Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton.  Another one he loved was a neat animal rhyme that had a spot to put a picture of him so he was riding a tractor.

He took awhile to be interested in texture books, but once he decided he liked textures, he absolutely loved the Usborne series That's Not My... which has books ranging from vehicles like trains and trucks to animals like horses and cats to even dinosaurs, monsters and dolls and more.  Each book as different textures on each page such as something rough or smooth, soft or bumpy.

Now my little two year old loves flaps.  Any book with flaps.  He also enjoys plenty of books without flaps, but if a book has flaps, even if it is beyond his comprehension (like a book about how things work) he absolutely loves it anyway.  Usborne Books and More has tons of flap books.  They have tons of amazing books.

Now that I have mentioned Usborne twice I want to say, they are my answer to the question, "What books will help him love to read?"  He has loved every Usborne book I have put in front of him.  Now, he asks to read with me (he cannot read on his own yet) and he will grab a stack of his books and bring them to a chair for us to sit and read together.  Before every nap and bedtime we read two stories together.

For anyone who has not checked out their books, I highly recommend them.  They have books for babies, toddlers and up through the school years.  They have amazing books.  Check them out and see for yourself:   b5027.myubam.com  Just hit "SHOP" at the top and enjoy browsing through what seems to be never ending awesome book options.  In case anyone is wondering, Usborne does have a lot of independent sales consultants and when you purchase through their specific links it helps them, so this link is through the sales consultant that I have used.

Singing off..."A B C D E F G"
Gina

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