Tuesday 31 December 2013

Reading to Baby

I am a huge fan of reading to children, being a teacher and all! I believe that it is never too early to start reading to your child.

I found an old facebook post that read:

WHY READ 30 MINUTES A DAY WITH YOUR CHILD?

*If daily reading begins when they are born, by the time the child is five years old, he or she has been fed roughly 900 hours of brain food!

*Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes a week, and the child's hungry mind lose 770 hours of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and stories.

*A kindergarten student who has not been read aloud to could enter school with less than 60 hours of literacy nutrition. No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours of mental nourishment.

*Therefore...30 minutes daily = 900 hours
30 minutes weekly = 130 hours
Less than 30 minutes weekly = 60 hours


I’d like to think that I will start before birth, as I am buying books for later in my baby’s life I would read to them.  I also read a lot myself, and hubby and I sometimes read together, so baby would get used to the sound of oral reading.

After baby is born I would love to read at all kinds of times. I can imagine reading the cards or messages that people have sent for the birth – “This one is from aunty Moo and says...” I love the idea of reading to baby after feeding, and getting into the habit of reading before bed at night right away. As the baby is a little older and able to focus more closely and hold things more easily, I’d love to have a whole range of cloth ‘feely’ books (I have made a few of these myself!) Books about animals, about colours, about numbers. Read through them, play with them, just have them around.

I also think is important to read stories to a child, even when they may not understand all the words or concepts being mentioned. Settling down for some quiet time with a book is a good habit to form early and the rhythm and tone of your voice along with the pictures in the book will keep interest for a start.
I have no doubt that my baby will be surrounded by books. They WILL see books as presents, as things to be treasured and valued and to be shared. I still have many of the books I received as a child and there are many favourites which I now share with my students, I look forward to sharing them with my own child.

 Animalia Where Is The Green Sheep? My Cat Likes To Hide In Boxes



I have two very clear images when I think of life with baby: one of me sitting in a chair with baby on my lap reading a book, I think it is a book of traditional stories or an old favourite of mine. The other is of my husband, lying on the bed next to the child, snuggled up close, reading a bed time story. It’s a funny book, about soccer or something that they both love and the child is in awe of the page, staring at what daddy is reading, while daddy is in awe of the child and this wonderful person that we have made together.

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