Monthly Archives: July 2009

How to Read to Baby

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“How do I read to my baby? Does she understand? Should I be loud? Should I emphasize certain words? Vary my pitch? What do I do if she’s bored” These may be some questions on your mind as you introduce your baby on what you hope will be a lifelong relationship with books. Well, the best answer to ‘How to read to baby is’ -

However feels good to you and your baby. That’s how.

Because, when something feels right, it usually is likely to be. So, to start with, don’t worry too much about rules and how-to’s. Just pick up a book, cuddle up and start reading.

If you still think you could do with some pointers, here’s what I’d do:

1. Start with the cover. See if you can describe the pictures there to your baby. You could say something like,”Hmm..I think this story is about a naughty little mouse. What do you think?” This rouses your baby’s curiosity and anticipation. As your baby gets older, read out the title a couple of times. See if he can repeat it and guess what the book might be about.

2. Turn the pages slowly, deliberately. You could even get the baby involved by asking him to turn the pages. This teaches him how a book works.

3. Let baby explore. At first, baby may not seem to show much interest in the book’s contents. He may be eager to chew it instead. Or maybe he just wants to keep turning the pages or figure out how to hold it. Maybe he’ll turn away when you start reading. Or look at your face instead of the book. Whatever he does, he’s learning. So even if he isn’t listening or watching, keep reading. Which leads us to…

4. Make reading with your baby a regular activity. You could do it at around the same time every day or whenever it’s convenient. Reading regularly is important. Your baby begins to see reading as part of her everyday routine – just like meal time, bath time and play time.

5. Add some drama. Modulate your voice as you read aloud to your baby. Pause. Vary the tempo. Laugh and cry with the characters. Your baby is learning about sounds, words, expressions, feelings and a whole lot more as you read. It’s not just about making her smarter..although that may be a byproduct. So read happily, enthusiastically and with expression.
The only exception to this is of course, when it’s a bedtime story. You might want it keep it mellow if you want Jr to fall asleep anytime soon. Try reading in a soft voice, slowly..almost in a whisper.

6. Keep it interactive. Even when your baby is too little to respond, point to something and ask questions. You could say,” What color is the apple here?” Pause and then answer it yourself. As she grows, you’ll see how eager she is to point out and answer herself. When you read familiar books, give your child the chance to complete phrases, words and dialogues.

7. Have a blast. Reading to your baby could be one of the most enjoyable shared activities you will ever experience. It’s a great way to bond, to help your baby learn and in turn to learn more about her in the process. But it shouldn’t feel like a chore. If it does, try a different book, setting, pace or style of reading. It might take a while for you and your baby to get in-sync with your reading…but it’s sure to happen. And when it does, it’s unstoppable fun.

8. Take your baby to story-times and read-aloud events at the library and book stores. It’s never too early to start. Your baby will enjoy the change of scene and love watching other kids while being read to. And you could pick up some cool reading tips from pros.

Do you have any tips to share about reading to your baby? I’d love to hear them.

Best Baby Books – What to look for

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If you’re a parent eager to start reading to your baby, you’re probably wondering “What are the best baby books around?” As you browse through the bookstore or online, some of the popular titles you’re likely to come across include books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goodnight Moon, The Very Busy Spider and Five Little Ducks. What do you think these books have in common?

Not only are all of these popular, but they are classics in their own right. They have a timeless appeal, this charming quality that has earned them a place on almost every child’s book shelf.

When it comes to choosing the best baby books for your little one, the options will astound you. There are tens of thousands of wonderful board books and other read-aloud books for babies, most of which I had never heard of when I started looking for books to read with M. Although picking up popular choices like the ones above is a safe way to go, how do you know if a your baby will like a book if it’s a title you haven’t come across earlier?

The best baby books around share some common elements. In my observation, some of those elements are

1. Repeated words or phrases appearing throughout the book at regular intervals. So baby forms an internal rhythm after a few readings, begins to identify the sound or phrase. Even if he isn’t ready to speak yet, he is sure to get excited as you pause at the familiar place….he just knows that ‘the phrase’ is about to come next.  This is one of the first indications of comprehension and memory retention in your baby, as far as reading is concerned. I think The Very Busy Spider is a great example. My personal favorite is Baby Shoes by Dashka Slater. My daughter would just squeal with delight as I repeated the silly tongue-twister on each page, followed by “Uh Oh” and “Oh No” that were repeated throughout the book.

2. They have clear, sharp images – preferably one large mono or dual-tone image against a contrasting background, rather than scenes or complex images. M and I love the Elephant and Piggie series.

3. The books have a simple, linear storyline or flow. One page or concept just flows into another.

4. For younger babies, choose books with some texture that the baby can feel easily. Cloth or vinyl books, board books, books with embossed pictures, cut-outs, pull-out tags, pop-ups or touch and feel books are all good choices because they stimulate the baby’s senses as he touches the book. Young babies learn about the world around them by touching things with their fingers and hands and yes, by putting them in their mouths.

5. If your baby or toddler is a little older and understands stories and concepts, pick out books where the characters experience different emotions like sadness, joy, anger, love, compassion etc. As you read along, help your child identify the emotions related with situations by asking questions like, “How do you think little mouse feels?”, “Why is baby elephant not smiling?”

I’m sure there are several factors that make a great baby book. These are some that I think are common to most. In coming posts, I’ll list some excellent but lesser known books that are a lot of fun to read with your baby.

What are your favorite picks when it comes to baby books?

Personalized Baby Gifts – I See Me – Review

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I chanced upon I See Me – Personalized Children’s Books when looking for a gift for my newborn nephew. I have never been more delighted with a product or service.

Personalized gifts are everywhere. But what impressed me about I See Me was how much thought had gone into the making of each book or gift.  They’re not just personalized for the sake of doing so, as is the case in many places.

Each personalized gift is carefully created to reflect the personality of the child or occasion. For instance, I chose the My Very Own Name book for my nephew. It features various animals and birds bringing in the letters from different corners to make up the baby’s name. I thought this was a beautiful way to introduce a baby to his name, to animals, to the idea that he is so special that everybody worked hard to find him the perfect name. I am told that my nephew enjoys being read to from this book. There’s also a My Very Own Name floor puzzle that is appropriate for older kids. To see your name spelled out – what a great motivation for a child to complete a puzzle! This made a good ‘You’re a big sister now’ gift for a niece.

The World According to Your Child, My Very Own Fairly Tale and a book of drawings by your child are some of the other products this website offers. The thought and care that goes into each book idea is abundantly clear. These are gifts that probably won’t be forgotten or discarded when their novelty fades away. They would make great heirlooms, keepsakes or time capsule items that will be cherished long after the child has outgrown them.

Meticulous planning goes into each gift. For example, for the book featuring your kids’ drawings, they actually send you a kit with interview questions to ask your child, color markers, drawing sheets for your child to draw his pictures on and a post paid envelope. You send it all back to them and within weeks can surprise your kid with a professionally made book featuring his own drawings and comments.

If you’re looking for gifts for kids, I See Me is worth a visit. Their customer service rocks too.

Note: I am not being paid to promote I See Me and am not related to them. I’ve used the website and purchased a few products and recommend them to anyone looking for unique, memorable yet reasonably priced gifts.

Protecting Books From Baby

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Have pen, will scribble.  That’s the universal truth when it comes to babies. Regardless of what kind of parent you are, your cultural background, methods of disciplining and no matter how irresistibly cute your baby is.

Scribbling, tearing and crumpling pages of books seems to help them learn to…well…coordinate their hands and eyes, I guess. But, try explaining that to the person you borrowed the book from. ( Jr used page 254 of your book to work on his motor skills. I’m sure you don’t mind.)

Every parent knows. When you tell babies not to do something, the chances that they will most certainly do it multiply instantly. So, good luck with that polite, but firm, “No scribbling on the book Danny!” thing you’ve been practicing.

So, how do you protect books from your baby? Especially if they belong to someone else, say the library for example?

Here’s what works for us.

On any given day, we have at least half a dozen kids’ books at home that belong to the library. But, thankfully, so far, M hasn’t destroyed any of them(beyond recognition, at least). Somehow, we manage to return all library books in fairly good condition. (Sadly, I can’t say the same for the books that belong to us.) So, here’s what we do :

1. From early on, I involved her in the process of checking out books at the library. I would tell her as soon as we were outside, that these weren’t ours, but that we needed to take care of them for the library for a few days.

2. When we got home, we would put the library books on a separate shelf or table or part of the house. So she always knew that the library books were different from her own books.

3. Every time we read a book we had borrowed, I would mention that we were going to read a book we had borrowed from the library. Later, I started asking her, ” Is this book yours or the library’s?” She would usually know.

4. I let her drop the books in the return box at the library so she understands the process. By the time she turned 2, she knew the routine.

5. I enforced a rule early on that she could write on a piece of paper only if it was blank, not if it already had something printed on it. I tricked her into listening by saying, ” Look, this page already has something written on it, so there’s no room for you to write. Let’s find a new blank sheet.” I am surprised at how effective this method has been. Until today, she hasn’t had the temptation to scribble on the pages of a book. She always asks for a sheet of blank paper or her scribble pad. ( Of course, I let her write on the blank side of old bills and junk mail, but first, I tell her, that there’s room to write only on one side and not on the other. So she knows never to write over printed material. )

6. We’ve had our share of accidental tears and spills. But every single time, we “fixed” it immediately. I would ask her to get the sticky tape and we would tape the torn page back together or wipe off the stain. She began to understand that we had to be extra careful around books, especially when they belonged to the library or someone else.

How do you manage to keep books safe in the hands of your baby or toddler?

A beautiful hide-and-seek bedtime story

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My daughter M’s current bedtime favorite is Where, Oh Where is Huggle Buggle Bear? It’s about a little boy who can’t find his favorite soft toy and simply can’t go to bed without him. He looks for him everywhere as he goes about his bedtime ritual. But, Huggle Buggle Bear and his other friends always play a game of hide-and-seek at bedtime. As you and your baby help the little boy find his favorite bear, she’ll have a great time spotting and pointing out to the hidden animals in each room, even as she tries to stifle a giggle, lest she give away the secret hiding place. There’s something about the cadence of the lines, the names of the stuffed animals and the sequence of events in the book that is sure to elicit a sleepy yawn from your active little one who doesn’t agree that it’s bed time just yet. Turn the pages with your baby for a pleasant surprise at the end.

I’m addicted to reading…with my baby!

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Hi there! I’m so glad you stopped by.  This is my first post on this blog and I just wanted to share a little story about my daughter. ( I promise there won’t be too many of these and I’ll *try* to keep this one short!)

A few months ago, my daughter M and I read a book titled ‘ Watch out Wilf’. I picked it out from the library and we read it as soon as we got home. It’s a really sweet story about a Mommy mouse and her son, Wilf who just doesn’t know how to stay out of trouble…although he really, really wants to! Every time his mom says, “Watch out Wilf” it’s already too late and Wilf has invariably crashed into, broken or spilled something.

I’m sure we read that book at least 45-50 times. After we had read it a few times, something funny started happening. My daughter, who was a little over 2 at the time, started acting the book out. So as I cooked or carried out some other chore, she would scamper like a little mouse, pretending to be really mischievous(not that she had to try too hard), and say ” Mommy, now you say, ” Watch out Wilf!”" And so we began pretending to be Wilf and WIlf’s Mommy. She would want to enact the book at least a few times every day. She would invariably remember the events in the book, in random order at times, and as she went about pretending to do all the spilling and breaking, I would have to take my cue and cry out, ” Watch out Wilf!” Now, to anyone witnessing the scene, it might have seemed like the stress of motherhood had driven me bonkers. But to us, it was the most delightful of times. I had such a whale of a time playing it out with M that after a few weeks, when she lost interest in the game, I kind of missed it!!

The sweetest part in the book is when after a really busy day of rescuing Wilf from trouble, Mommy Mouse plops down on her chair, completely worn out. Wilf, who feels bad, makes her a surprise gift basket to cheer her up.

Now, this part, M still remembers!

Some days, when she’s been really naughty and I am clearly more exhausted than normal, she pretends to make me a gift too. It’s usually some scribbles on a piece of paper, wrapped in a cloth or scrap paper she finds in her room. But the gesture is so moving and the imp looks so incredibly cute as she tries to make up for her mischief, that I do indeed feel better instantly.

And that’s why I enjoy reading with my baby so much. It’s not just the few minutes that we read the book together. To me, it’s about creating a memory that’s imprinted in my mind forever. She may not remember every single book we read or experience we’ve shared…but I probably will. When I glance at any of the books we’ve read together, I can instantly recall something funny or silly or moving in connection with the book. I also feel that with every book I read with her, I am becoming more a part of her life and vice versa. After all, it is that shared experience of creating memories and the joy of spending time together that makes all the sleepless nights and changing diapers worth it. Right?

What do you enjoy most about reading with your little one? I would love to hear all about it!

P.S : If you want to know a little more about this addiction I’ve developed, read about it here.