How to Read to Baby – Tip 3 – Reading=Bonding

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Pick Shakespeare or People magazine if you want. Your newborn couldn’t care less about what you’re reading.

In the initial days and weeks, when your baby is still getting used to sounds and stimulation, reading is more about the shared experience, than about vocabulary or language.

So, when you begin reading to your baby, approach it with this idea in mind. When you think of reading time as one-on-one bonding time with your baby, the experience is refreshing, fulfilling and rewarding, even.

- Create pleasant, positive associations with reading – This begins with ensuring that your baby is in a good mood. Make sure she is not hungry or uncomfortable in any way. Pick a comfortable spot for reading together. Consider the light, posture, ventilation and other aspects that impact your reading experience. If you wish, you could have soft, instrumental music playing in the background as you read. Or read in your patio, with the sounds of nature accompanying your voice. Look at it this way – if you had the entire afternoon off and all you wanted to do was curl up and unwind with your favorite book, which spot would you pick? In all likelihood, your baby will share your view, if she could express herself.

- Touch and feel – Now that you’re in the perfect spot, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t make the best of it. With very young babies, reading together translates to cuddles, hugs, kisses, rubs and tickles. Babies thrive on caring human touch and studies show that babies who are held and touched in a loving way grow up to be healthier and less aggressive than those who are not. Reading time is a wonderful way to nurture your baby with touch. Choosing books like Counting Kisses or Ten Tiny Tickles could get you started.

- Communicate - You probably can’t tell but from the moment your baby is born he is constantly learning, forming connections in his brain, making associations and picking up language. So, when you read to your baby, remind yourself what you’re really doing – forging bonds and communicating with him. So, don’t just stop at reading. Make eye contact with your baby. Smile at him. Speak to him. Ask him questions (even if you have to answer them yourself). Sing to him. Joke and laugh. Be expressive. Treat reading to your baby as a conversation.

- Make reading time a priority – Reading and keeping your baby engaged may seem like a chore, especially in the initial weeks or months, when you’re sleep deprived and probably haven’t settled into a routine yet. But, if you treat it as an opportunity to forget about everything else and unwind with your child for a few minutes, you will begin to see how rejuvenating it can be. So, give reading time the importance it deserves. When you’re reading to your baby, avoid interruptions and distractions like the urge to answer the phone or check messages. Let your baby know that the time you read together is special and that all your attention is directed at her for those few minutes. Soon, you and your baby will start looking forward to those precious moments to relax and bond.

Reading to Baby Tip 2 – Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

One day in the not too distant future, your 7 or 8 yr old will declare,”But I’ve already read /seen/ played/ done that like a hundred times. I’m bored” when you suggest he go read/watch/play or do something and stop bothering you.

But for now, if your baby is just a few months old, you can relax. You won’t face that particular problem. Yet.

Babies love repetition. And when it comes to reading to your baby, you’ve got to take advantage of this fact. It not only makes things easier for you, it’s also exactly what the Doctor prescribed for your baby.

This advice may seem easy to follow, but until you’ve read Goodnight Moon or a book of Mother Goose rhymes at least 137 times, you won’t know what I’m talking about.
Seriously. Babies are crazy about repetition. ( Am I being clear enough here?)

So, how do you bring this advice into practice?

Choose books with repeated words or phrases
Take Goodnight Moon, Where’s Spot or The Very Hungry Caterpillar for example. See what I mean? When you read these books over and over again to your baby, she starts to enjoy the rhythm, the predictability of the sounds, the repetition.
Choose the same book or set of books
With very young babies, it doesn’t really matter what you read to them, as long as they get to hear your voice and some sounds. But, as they grow older, maybe around 4 months or so, they start to develop an interest in certain objects and sounds. They begin identifying familiar things. Around that time, your baby may even develop favorites. Don’t be surprised if she really likes one particular book and won’t calm down until you’ve read that over and over. This is one of the phases babies go through and for some, it lasts longer than others. Your baby may just prefer to read one book repeatedly instead of exploring new books. Just be aware of the signals your baby sends you as you read and if you think she enjoys a particular book or set of books then by all means, repeat the same books for as many days or weeks as she continues to be interested.
Repeat as you read
Read a silly phrase or a funny word twice, maybe thrice. Repeat certain lines. Or names of characters. The more you repeat, the better the chances of your baby registering what you’re reading. Don’t overdo it though. Take your cue from your baby’s expressions. If she looks bored or distracted, turn the page or move on to something new.
Rotate books
When you’ve read a book several dozen times with your baby and she seems to be losing interest, don’t discard the book right away. Keep it aside for a few weeks, explore other books and then bring it back. When you read a book with your baby after a few weeks or months, you’ll be surprised at how much she has grown and learned since the last time you read the book together. This time around she may be able to repeat some of the sounds or point to pictures or even attempt to complete the phrases, depending on how old she is, of course. I find this an amusing exercise to do with my daughter. I bring out the books we used to read when she was an infant and watching her respond to those books now – it amazes me how much she has grown in three short years.

Reading to Your Baby Tip 1- Let Your Baby Lead

It sounds simple enough.

New parents are often advised by pediatricians, nurses, midwives, aunts, nannies, parents and other assorted well-meaning people to let their baby take the lead. Whether it’s feeding, weaning, crawling, potty training, sleep training or any of the other countless aspects of parenting, we’re often advised to watch and observe if the baby is indeed ready and if he shows interest in what we’re trying to get him to do.

The same rule should apply to reading to your baby too.

Of course, your baby isn’t going to automatically show interest in books or reading if he doesn’t know such things exist. So the best thing you can do to get your baby interested in reading, is to expose him to the concept and introduce him to books. But, once you’ve done that, allow your baby some space and time to ‘find’ books and reading.

But, what constitutes baby-led reading?

- Show her the Way – Yes, it does start with you showing her how to start. Around the age of 7-10 months, babies begin identifying objects and picking them up. So if you leave a few cloth or board books lying around near her, when you ask her to pick a book, she may automatically choose one over others. (She may either be showing preference or simply be making the most convenient choice by picking the book closest to her- either way, she has led the way)
- Read your Baby’s Face As you read, watch her face. Observe what her eyes are looking at, what colors, images or sounds seem to perk her interest. This tells you a great deal about how she is processing information. If she is staring at the picture of a teddy bear for a long time, she’s probably trying to relate to it, figuring out what it’s called or comprehending that it’s a familiar object. So you could point to it and say “Look, a Teddy Bear, just like yours!” When she’s older, you could stop and ask her what it is, or ask her to point to the teddy bear in the picture.
- Allow Your Baby to Enjoy her Book If your baby is observing a page, wait. Allow her some time to absorb the images and texture on the page. If she just wants to feel a certain page with her fingers or explore turning the pages of a book or stare at the cover, let her. There’s no rush to finish reading the book. It doesn’t even matter if you read just one page. If you had your baby’s undivided attention for those few minutes, it’s time well spent.
- Remember Why You Read to Your Baby If your baby starts babbling midway through a book, resist shushing her so you can finish the book. Remember why you started reading to her in the first place? That’s right – to introduce her to language and all that great stuff. So, when she IS trying to form sounds or is pretending to repeat what you just said, enjoy it.
- Encourage her to Choose Books Allow your child to pick out the books she wants to read from the library. You could try this when she’s around 1 or 2 or whenever you think she has the ability to identify pictures and make a choice.
- Know When to Stop When after reading for a few minutes, your baby looks bored, fidgets or tries to shut the book, move on to another book or a different activity.

These are just a few tips to encourage baby-led reading, based mostly on my experience with my daughter. How do you approach reading to your baby?

Could a Baby Be Too Young For Books?

The short answer, of course, is No.

A librarian friend was telling me about how it makes her crazy when she hears people tell her their babies are too young for books or story time.
I see what she means.

* After all, researchers agree that 75% of brain development – emotional and intellectual- happens in the first few years. So, babies actually begin to learn the moment they are born.

*During this time, nerve connections are being made at a rapid pace in baby’s brain. The more a baby is nurtured and stimulated, the more intricate the connections in his brain, thus improving the chances that baby develops to his full potential.

* As mentioned in this Babycenter article, studies show that a baby’s language skills and intelligence are directly related to the number of words he hears every day.

* The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends reading aloud daily to your baby starting at 6 months of age. But, the fact is, you don’t have to wait. It’s never too early to read to or play with your child. (I know many parents who started when their baby was just days old. I am one of them.)

“But my baby doesn’t seem interested!”
Newborns may not respond to your reading, so it may be difficult to tell if they’re really even listening or benefiting from your efforts. But, you will see that with time, your baby will begin to understand the routine, be curious about the book you’re holding, show interest in the pictures and generally, begin to enjoy reading time. The advantage of starting early(if you want to) is that by the time your baby is 6 months old or ready to observe pictures and register words, she would already be familiar with the books. She would already have a head start and you will actually have to put in very little effort to get her interested in reading with you.

When M was an infant, we lived in a small town. I used to drive her to story time at a book store about 50 miles away every week, since our library did not have a children’s program then. The story time lasted 30 mins, the drive took 45 minutes each way. You might wonder if it was really worth taking all that effort with a 3 month old infant. And I have wondered too.

But here’s why I think it was worth it -
- I picked up useful tips and tricks on reading to my baby from the professional at the book store
- M enjoyed the visual and verbal stimulation. She watched other babies, stared at the picture books, listened to the storyteller and peered curiously as she read. I bet her brain was busy making dozens of connections every time I made the trip.
- We began to form a routine – just the two of us. It became our special Mommy and baby story-time date that I began looking forward to, maybe a wee bit more than her!
- It became a habit. Going to story time and reading events at the library or book stores is something that’s as much a part of our lives as going to the park or shopping. We make time for it, no matter what.
- And because of that, reading, checking out books from the library, returning them once we finish- have all become part of M’s routine too.

So, when you start early, you actually don’t have to work too hard to raise a reader. It just happens.

Kitchen Dance – A Bedtime Tale with a Tango-like Twist

Experts will tell you that when it comes to babies, being predictable is good. A bedtime routine. A daytime schedule. Familiar bath-time rituals.

And it probably is.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons why so many bedtime books for babies have similar themes and storylines. Because, obviously they work.

But, once in a while, it’s fun to throw in some unexpected excitement. Your baby will love it and maybe even begin to expect it!

Kitchen Dance is one such bedtime book that stands out in my memory. It’s completely different from the dozens of bedtime storybooks I’ve read with my daughter right from the time she was a baby through her toddler months. Now, many of those books were good, most of them well-written and illustrated. But, why does Kitchen Dance deserve a special mention?

Because, for one, you really can’t tell it’s a bedtime book. Think about it. Does the title give anything away? And the cover is equally misleading…in a good way, of course.

Kitchen Dance is basically a love story. It begins with the narrator, a little girl who wakes up to the sounds of dishes being scraped and scrubbed downstairs in the kitchen. But accompanying the mundane sounds of cleaning and washing is a soft voice humming a tune. Curious, she wakes her brother Tito up and they both tip-toe down the stairs to take a peek into their kitchen.

They stand there with door slightly open, watching wide-eyed as their parents tango around the kitchen, cleaning dishes, wiping plates and putting leftovers away – all to a magical tune that seems to float in the air and flow through their souls. The regular, almost boring stuff that mommies and daddies go about doing after the kids are in bed somehow take on a fairytale aspect. The kids stand watching, mesmerized by the graceful, yet light-hearted dance movements of their parents as they carry out the kitchen chores.

The parents catch the kids spying on them and soon pull them into their ‘circle of family’, as they all sway gently to the tune the father continues to sing, ‘¡Cómo te quiero! Oh, how I love you. Umm, hmm’.

Kitchen Dance depicts the strong bonds of love and affection that exist within a family that may not be always be expressed explicitly. In their own subtle way, the parents in this lovely bedtime tale, express their love for one another and for their children.  Cleaning and putting away dishes in the kitchen may seem like the least romantic of occasions for a couple to be enjoying one another’s company, but this story is a reminder that simple moments like those could be just as beautiful, if not more, than dinner at a fancy restaurant.

The musical lines in this book are matched by the cheerful illustrations that bring each member of this family and their home to life. Whether it’s the sway of the mother’s bright skirt or the father’s soft features or the sleepy delight in the kids’ eyes, Maurie J. Manning as the author and illustrator does a splendid job of making the book speak to you.

There’s something about this family and the way they enjoy each other and the place they are in, in life, that strikes a chord. Which is why it remains one of my( and M’s) all-time bedtime and anytime favorites.

What if Baby Doesn’t Love Books?

Maybe you have been visualizing reading to your baby since the day the strip turned blue. You may even have blown a huge portion of your ‘baby budget’ on books you hope to read with the little monkey and just can’t wait to get started. But what if baby has other plans? (They usually do.) What if, to your utter shock and distress, your baby doesn’t seem to show interest in books?

Relax. You’re not the first parent to discover that when you read, your baby turns away, looks bored or heads towards some action.

It’s too early to allow your heart to break. No. Your baby is not likely to be any less smarter just because he has missed out on a few reading sessions in his infancy. So, breathe easy.

Ok. So, baby doesn’t love books – it’s no big deal.

If at first, your baby doesn’t seem to share your love of reading, it’s probably normal. After all, with all the musical toys, TV shows and multicolored, multidimensional stimulation around, getting even older children to choose books over the other attractions could be a challenge. Your baby who’s just a few months old, is still getting to know his surroundings. It’s only natural for him to be easily distracted by noises, colors, toys and any opportunity to wriggle out of your arms and go exploring on his own.

But you, being the grown-up and all, still have the edge. There are things you can do to trick the little guy into liking books.

- Expose your baby to books. Lots of them. Bring home different kinds of baby books and leave them on the coffee table, near his crib or diaper changing station. Wherever he can see them easily and can’t help getting a little curious. (If he has a particularly destructive trait, consider buying cloth books or baby board books.)

- Let baby watch you reading. Babies tend to watch, observe and imitate grown-ups. So, if you enjoy reading yourself, you’ve probably won half the battle already. The more often baby sees you reading for pleasure, the more likely she is to show interest in books herself.

- Make fun, positive associations with reading. You could use your tone of voice to suggest it’s reading time. Or use reading time as a treat to reward her when she’s been good. Does she have a favorite spot or room? (Under the table, beside the fridge or the near the laundry?) Make that your reading corner.

- Make reading seem mysterious. “Hmm…I wonder what book we’ll find to read today.”  Get her excited about the prospect of reading something new, as you look for the ‘perfect’ book in her shelf.

- Give her some alone time with books. Leave your baby in her playpen, crib or a safe play area for a few minutes with some books and no other toys to distract her. She is bound to pick up one of them and begin to explore it in her own way. Set aside some time everyday for your baby to be around books by herself.

- Take her to story time. Check your library for weekly story-time and other activities for your child’s age group. Many bookstores also have weekly reading programs for kids. Make it a point to take her to at least one of these regularly. Here, your baby watches others her age with books in their hands or being read to. She also has the advantage of being read to by professionals. Besides, there’s something about the atmosphere in these places that attracts one to books, even a stubborn baby who doesn’t like books.

- Read anyway. It would be great if your baby responded by showing interest in what you were reading.  But, even if she doesn’t*, keep going. Sometimes, kids may not appear to be paying attention, but you’d be surprised if you knew how much they had registered even with casual listening. So, even if your baby isn’t looking at the book or does not appear to be listening to you reading, read anyway.  For all you know she is absorbing and assimilating it all in her own unique way.

* – At your baby’s next well-baby visit, bring up any concerns you have about your baby’s developmental milestones – observation, attention spans, interests etc that you notice. The pediatrician may be able to put your concerns to rest.

Give it a break.  If even after trying consistently for a few weeks, your baby really doesn’t seem to favor reading much, becomes fussy or distracted whenever you start reading, almost always ignores her picture or board books and prefers to play with other toys, maybe it’s best to take a break. Maybe she’s really not interested in books at the moment. Remind yourself that that’s perfectly ok and that even though you’re not reading to her, you still have several other ways of helping her learn. So, take your baby’s lead and figure out what kinds of activities really get her excited.

After all, if your baby knows what she wants and how to get it, you’ve got to admit – she’s already ahead in the game.

Take Your Baby Beyond Reading

I must have been around 7 when my dad bought me my very first book- Snow White. It was a gift he brought back from a business trip and I remember being completely fascinated with the book, its hard cover, glossy pages, the beautiful images and colors and the crisp, poetic text that I couldn’t take my eyes off of.

You might think that 7 years is kind of late for a kid to be reading her first book and well, today, I’m surprised myself when I look at it that way. After all, I did start reading to my daughter when she was just days old. And her collection of books is probably bigger than my husband’s and mine put together.

But the fact is, when I was growing up in India in the late 70′s and 80′s, I think it wasn’t uncommon for someone not be reading outside of the school curriculum at the age of 7 or 8. I don’t remember seeing any of my friends or cousins at that age reading books. They would either be doing school work or playing outside on the street. (TV had not yet entered our lives in a big way. )

But that did not mean we had any shortage of stories as kids. I remember vividly the tales my dad would spin at the dinner table just so I would finish up my vegetables. He would somehow keep going until my plate was clean. I didn’t realize then how much effort and creativity must have gone into those tales that would run into hours sometimes.  There were times when I would deliberately chew slowly so the story would stretch a little longer. I remember lying down beside my granny and listening to her narrate incidents from the great Indian epics of Ramayana and Mahabharatha. So, in terms of visual and verbal inputs, language development, vocabulary and knowledge building – I don’t think that kids who like me, grew up listening to, not reading stories are any worse off than their reading counterparts.

But, of course, things are different today. Fast forward a few decades and here I am, making sure I bring home at least a handful of books from the library or book store every month to read to my 3-year-old.

As any parent who’s ever read to his or her kid will attest – babies tend to pick up language really fast when they’re read to regularly. We don’t speak English at home.  But the number of English words and phrases my daughter has picked up, simply by being read to is astounding. I’m sure the same is the case with most babies. Somehow, when you read to them, even if they don’t understand what’s being said, they seem to learn the language. And of course, with the number of books available around, you can never really run out of stories to read to your kids. In fact, the opposite may be true. (If even after reading a dozen stories, your kids ask for one more, raise your hand.)

So, today’s kids grow up in a reading environment. ( Or are supposed to anyway, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, authors of parenting books and baby magazines) There are kids who start reading when they’re 4, some even younger. ( There are reading programs out there for 10 month old babies – have you seen them?) So, I’m guessing, that if a baby is read to regularly from the time she is a few months old and is exposed to a variety of books on a regular basis, then, it’s really not surprising that by the time she is 7, she is certainly likely to be better read than I was at her age.

And that’s great. I mean if my daughter is able to read by the time she is 4 or 5 and is a voracious reader by the time she turns 8, sure, I would be proud. (Just as I would be if she showed interest or aptitude in music, cooking, arts, sports or some other area)

But, in the process of making readers out of our kids, I wonder if we haven’t traded off imagination for reading comprehension, silly, made-up stories for timeless classics and granny’s memory for fairytale books.

I mean, who has the time or energy to come up with stories anymore? When was the last time you actually ‘told’ a story? And anyway, why bother when you have so many books to read aloud from? In fact, finding the time even to read to your baby for the recommended 20 minutes every day could be a challenge.

Which is fine, I guess. As long as we are exposing kids to language and literature, it probably shouldn’t matter if it’s from a book or from someone’s memory.

But, when I think back to the days when my cousins and I would listen in rapt attention to my granny or an uncle or my dad narrate a story, I get the feeling we experienced something that we are depriving our kids of.  As the grown-ups narrated, we kids would hang on to each word they spoke, absorb each description, conjure up images relating to the setting or period. The beauty of it all was there was no visual aid in the form of a book to limit our imagination. I’m pretty sure each of us kids imagined the scene and characters differently although we were listening to the same story from the same narrator at the same time. With today’s children’s books, the scope for visualization and imagination is probably narrower. Kids are already shown what the scene or characters look like. So, there’s little left to the reader’s imagination.

Reading to your baby is definitely one of the most valuable and enjoyable shared activities you will ever experience. There is no question about that.

But if like me, you want to give your child some of the magic of listening to narrations that you experienced as a child, maybe you could mix it up a little. Every once in a while, take a break from books and make up silly stories with your kid instead. Instead of accepting the image in a book, encourage her to come up with a description of a castle or farm and then you could sketch it together. Add a twist to a fairy tale you read every night.  Instead of reading from her favorite book again, see if you can narrate it to each other, taking turns with sentences or dialogues.

Reading to your baby is great . But when you don’t just stop with reading, and take it a step further, extraordinary things begin to happen. Your child develops better memory. His confidence gets a boost. He is likely to be less shy and more comfortable expressing himself. As he grows, he develops public speaking and communication skills.  Kids who can make up stories and games are less likely to become bored easily.

Story-telling is a skill not too many of us care to develop or use. Now that we’re parents, maybe, it’s time to take it up.

Why Reading to Your Baby Trumps Toys and TV

A lot has been said about the benefits of reading to your baby, starting as early as possible. Yet, you can never really overemphasize its power – reading enhances language, learning, vocabulary, imagination, emotional skills, memory and parental bonding among other things. Regular reading also lays the foundations for good writing and communication skills.

But, you already knew that. So I won’t go into it here.

Here are five other reasons why a book trumps other forms of entertainment any day. And these have nothing to do with stimulating your baby’s brain.

1. A book doesn’t run out of batteries. Now, how many of those ridiculously expensive, flashy ‘educational toys’ can claim that? They may sing and dance and jump out at you in the dark, but one day, they will stop doing all those things and they won’t be as much fun any more. A book, on the other hand lasts forever. (Well, theoretically, at least, until the imp figures out how much fun shredding is. For tips on protecting books from your baby, head over here.)
2. Baby books are far more affordable than baby toys. And if you’re a member at a public library, they don’t cost a dime. Imagine that. You have free access to countless baby books and you never run the risk of her outgrowing a book or becoming bored with one. You could just keep restocking her shelf every week.
3. A book travels with your baby Ever spent hours inside an airplane, in a car, a waiting room or a doctor’s office with your baby? I have. I’ve endured..err enjoyed an 18-hour flight, a 7-hour drive and several instances of waiting with M during the three years that she’s been in my life. I think those occasions elevated my appreciation of the value of the printed word by several degrees.
4. Books don’t make noise. Well, at least the old-fashioned ones anyway. And after listening to a multitude of toys programmed to sing the ABCs, 123s and a variety of rhymes and poems throughout the day, I can’t tell you how much the blissful silence of a book means to me. And I have a feeling babies enjoy that quiet too, once in a while.
5. Books are relatively safer. With the number of toys, baby foods and other items being recalled these days, can we ever really be sure if anything off the shelf is safe for our babies? So it follows that books are not completely free from risk either and I know that there is concern about the lead content in some children’s books. Not too long ago, Congress passed a law banning the sale of children’s books published before 1985. Also, you can’t deny the choking hazards associated with certain types of clip-on books or those with fancy accessories.  That said, I still believe that by far, a good old-fashioned, hard-cover book or cloth book is likely to be safer than many of the plastic and electronic toys we find today. (Safer on so many levels, by the way – but that’s for another post.)

So there you have it. Five fabulous new reasons to read to your baby even if she’s already a genius.

How to find the time to read to your baby

Reading to your baby will probably be the last thing on your mind during the initial weeks and months after she’s born. Despite best intentions, you simply may not have the energy or be able to make the time to read with your baby.
Does this scene seem familiar? Your house is a mess. You can’t find two shoes from the same pair, leave alone your favorite pair. The Diaper Genie needs to be emptied. It’s almost dinner time and you haven’t even had a chance to shower yet. You’ve yet to return phone calls and respond to emails congratulating you on the birth of your baby. And the parenting book you’ve been reading recommends you read to your baby for at least 20 minutes. On top of everything, you now feel guilty that you aren’t doing everything you can to make your baby smarter.

Don’t throw in the towel, just yet. Reading with your baby doesn’t have to be another of those things on your ‘To-do’ list that you never get around to doing. Cuddling up with a pile of books in a quiet, cozy corner every afternoon may be the fairytale way to do it, but it’s not the only way.

You can find time to read with your baby no matter how crazy your day. In fact, spending a few minutes reading to your kid may be a great stress-buster and you may even emerge refreshed.

If you want to make some time to read with your baby but are having a tough time figuring out how to squeeze it in your schedule, try these tips, modifying them to suit your lifestyle/day.

1. Combine reading with another activity. Bath time or meal time can be incredible opportunities to read with your child. Keep a few water-proof board books or vinyl books handy near your bath tub. Read to your baby as she splashes around. Sit her down on her high-chair or swing and read to her as you feed her.

2. Turn into your baby’s mobile DVD player. Stash a few books in your car’s seat pockets. If you’re taking a trip with your family and are not in the driver’s seat, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use the time to read to your little one. ( Of course, it may be your only chance to have an adult conversation with your partner…but, maybe you could work out a routine that works for you. For example, when we go on road trips, I set aside a couple of hours to read to and sing with my baby and the rest of the drive to chat with hubby or take the wheels.)

3. Go shopping with your baby. Reading doesn’t have to be from a book. Take your baby along to the mall or grocery store and make a reading adventure out of it. Point out to road or shop signs, read to her from labels on cereal boxes or from the covers of magazines near the check-out counter.

4. Read while waiting. At the restaurant or cafe, read out the menu or descriptions of dishes as you wait for your order. At the doctor’s office for a well-baby check-up? Is the doctor notorious for long wait periods? Perfect! Pick up a book and start reading to your kid.

5. Whatever you’re reading, read it aloud. If you’re preparing for a presentation, studying for a paper, reviewing something you’ve written or just reading a paperback…simply pretend that you’re reading it to your baby. Not everything you read to her has to be out of a picture book. Remember, it’s about exposing her to sounds, language, tone of voice and the printed word. By reading out from your paper, presentation or book, you’re accomplishing the task on hand while packing in some one-on-one reading time with your child.

Bottom line – on days that you can’t set aside time for reading, combine reading with an errand, activity, outing or chore. You’ll see how you’ve made time to read with your baby, almost like magic.