Our Favorite Books

The importance of reading to babies is something that we have all heard over and over. We know it is important but, there are days when you wonder is he even listening? Does he even like books?

Well, those days of questioning are past us! Jacob has found the love of reading! He even has favorite books. Let me just say, there is nothing more satisfying to a teacher than seeing your child find the joy of reading!

We go to the library weekly, we have hundreds of picture books at home (thanks to my teaching years) and what does he love? First word books, of course! These books are often overlooked for their importance. They have simple pictures that are sometimes partnered with the vocabulary word.

Basically, these are great books for small children because toddlers are able to identify pictures of words they are learning and practice their vocabulary.

Jacob loves to look through the books for pictures that he knows. He will find a ball, point and say, "ball, ball, ball, ball...." and on and on. It is very cute because he is truly toddler 'reading' the book! Let me tell you, it does get fairly annoying but it is cute. He also uses sign language when identifying the pictures. He has basically created his own sign language. For example, in the picture above he takes his finger and rubs his lip to symbolize the toothbrush.

On these pages he calls everything, "brooooooom, broooom," but he says it with his arms in the air for the airplane. He spends quite a lot of time looking through books and identifying the objects. He does this with other books as well. He points out the pumpkins, apples, hats, balls, babies, cats, etc. (When he sees a cat his voice goes up about 3 octaves and he says, "kitty, kitty, cat!")

First Word books are great resources to have around the house. We tend not to lean their way because you do not really read them to kids. Board books can get expensive but try used books stores. You can usually find them there and in good shape.

One last thing, if anyone's child hates the car as much as mine, books are a great option!

Keep reading!

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