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Indiana Babies
Laura & Jason
Interested in books
I know we've talked about this before, but when did LO get interested in books? I so wanted Luke to love books and I'm afraid that we didn't read to him enough up until now. I wanted to read to him every night, but honestly it hasn't happened. (He goes to bed so well if you just go in there, put him down, and leave. Drawing the process out with rocking/reading makes it worse and that makes me sad.) Anyways, I try to read to him and sometimes he'll sit with me and listen. Mostly he fidgets and want to shut the book and wave it around or eat it and crawl away. If we're in the glider in his room he wants to jump off my lap. Will it just come with time?
Laura & Jason
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Re: Interested in books
Honestly, we were in the same boat as you up until about 3 months ago when she actually sat down and let me read an entire book to her. The only way she heard stories before was me reading outloud as she walked/played around in her room.
She had been the same way at night up until about 2-3 months ago (around 21 months old). I always felt like "Why ruin a good thing?" by putting reading into her night routine so we didn't. I just read random books during other times. Honestly, we haven't read to her every day though.
Lately she LOVES reading books and has started to finally truly have some favorites. She brings me her favorites (right now it's I Love You Forever and Goodnight Moon) and wants to read those. 4-5 nights out of the week we now read to her before going to bed and it's usually one of those books. I've tried getting her to read some Christmas books with no such luck because she is so attached to those ones.
I wouldn't stress about it too much. I'm sure if you have lots of books around for him he will eventually "get" what the books are for.
Maya didn't really start liking books until well after her 1st b-day. She'd tolerate her bedtime story but during the day she'd rarely sit still for a whole book (what's that? 2 minutes?) Different story now! She'll bring book after book after book to be read to her. Some days I think that I read 50 books to her and I wonder if she notices that I start to make up different stories because reading the same things again and again make me crazy.
All of that to say, don't worry! There's still plenty of time for him to turn into a book lover
I do think it will come with time.
Are all of the books on a bookshelf in his room? If so, try to put a couple near his toys and just let him explore on his own.
Olivia is completely and totally obsessed with books, but even still when we're reading at night, she'll bat some of them away with a firm "no, no". I usually read to her for about 15 mins at bedtime and early on we would read 1/4 to 1/2 of a book, then move on to another one. She just got bored really quickly
She's much better at sitting still for the entire book.
We read to Andrew every day from day 1 - we read at various times in the day not necessarily before bed. Sometimes he'll just want to read one in the middle of playing and sometimes an hour. I recently went to the library, which is nice b/c he likes some books more than others.
I would just keep trying. Hopefully he'll learn to love it. Try it every day at least once, even if it's just one book! Point to things, ask questions, do whatever to try to engage him.
TTC #2 since 9/09 --- mild PCOS; Endometriosis
IUI x4 = BFN
IVF = sometime in 2012
I thought of one other thing that we did right around the time that she started showing more interest. We separated her books into books that were ok to destroy and books that I wanted to keep nice. The books to keep nice went on the book shelf in her room that she can't reach and the books that are ok to destroy went into a bin that she can easily reach (and empties 15 times/day).
I think having such easy access to more of them, made her more interested. However, they have definitely gotten the corners chewed off and a couple have lost the cover from her swinging them around. I'm glad that I had them separated!
Interesting point - we keep all of ours within reach. Now he reads them to himself. Knock on wood - no destruction, yet.
Here is my mom's take on getting your baby to be a book lover (she's a kindergarten teacher with 35 years of early childhood ed experience/training).
1. Have books in your home. As many as you can afford/acquire. Go to garage sales, go to the library, ask friends whose kids are older if they would like to get rid of their stash. Take all and any books you can find. And don't expect them to stay pristine. Books are meant to be USED, lol.
2. Keep them where the children are. Buy some baskets and have a stash of books everywhere your child is. We have a basket in every room, especially by the potty chair. She recommended that I rotate the stock, to keep J interested in checking the baskets often, to see what's in there. That way he doesn't get bored.
3. Read at every chance, not just before bedtime. Don't wait for the kid to bring a book to you. Bonus points for linking the book subject to the activity he is doing at the time. I.E. playing with trainset, grab a book about trains and go sit by the trainset and read about trains. Or eating in the highchair, grab a book about fruits/veggies, etc. You get the pic.
4. Read it again. It's the most annoying thing ever to sit and read the same book 5 times in a row, but at this age, they are all about repetition. It's the hardest advice of hers, but it totally works.
5. Make the "reading" interactive. Read a page, and then before you flip, ask the kid a question or two. If you're reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see, prompt the child to say the animal/color even before you read the page. Or ask what other things the kid sees on the page. We count all the balls the dude is juggling in the foot book. Doesn't have anything to do with the book/text, but he likes to do it!
6. Have the children see YOU reading. This means that you have to start having books in the house for you and DH, and that the kids should see you guys enjoying the concept of reading. This is really hard to do when there is no time, but I have tried to do this more. I usually only read at night before bed (if I don't just crash from exhaustion). She recommended that we keep our books all though the house, not just hidden away by the bed upstairs.
7. Praise, praise, praise! If he picks up a book to read or to bring you, definitely go overboard with the praising. Pretty soon he will be doing it more and more often.
8. Get some of those books with the actual photographs of real things (animals, household stuff, etc), and use those to improve vocabulary. It's tough for a kid to interpret a cartoon drawing sometimes. Real photos are easiest for them to match up to the real world.
That's as much of her advice that I can remember right now, but if you have specifics, let me know and I'll call her. She has a passion for getting kids to be early learners.
It's working, too! DS1 knew all his letters, colors and numbers before age 2 (I was shocked) and we're now working on sight words and phonics. I'm entirely amazed at his capacity and desire to learn, and now I'm thankful that I have a mom who hounded me into getting him interested in learning.
We did this from the time E could crawl. We've always had a basket of books in the family room, basement and in her room. When she was younger they were board books or book that couldn't be damaged like Shauna said. She loves books and would sit and "read" them for a long time...she's flip the pages and talk about the pictures. I would try having them easily accessible for Luke as long as you don't mind them not being in perfect condition.