Happyeverafterbride: Reading with your little ones

Wednesday, 26 July 2017

Reading with your little ones

Mr.HEA and I loved reading growing up. We don't read books for pleasure very much anymore these days admittedly. I probably average about 2-5 books a year these days and the husband opts for audio books instead. Our reading material mostly consists of journals, blogs and the e-newspapers. So it was by utter fluke that we ended up with our little one loving books as much as she does.

I adore this hobby of hers. Starting very early on with her just saying random sounds and words of the picture books to now fully narrating the pictures or repeating the stories which she has memorised word for word. She spends at least an hour a day reading and is always pestering us to read a book to her at all times of the day. On the potty, at meal times, bed time (she sleeps with a book instead of a teddy), whilst on the pram her hunger for stories knows no bounds.

I remember my horror when I first picked up a baby book to 'read' to her when she was four months old. There were no words! I had to google what to do in that instance and learnt quickly that I had to narrate the pictures using as many descriptive words or stories or sounds to keep things interesting for her.

We then graduated to toddler books when she was 1- 1.5 years old with very simple stories to help build her attention span.

Then around the time she turned two I bought her a set of early readers books earlier this year and discovered that even though the books are wordier, she really enjoys learning new words as well as listening out for the vocabulary she already knew. We emphasised the words she understood. Paraphrased into her level of understanding sometimes and would even sing her songs if it related to the story or event we were narrating. This seems to really help captivate her and now, a few months down the track she is devouring story books like Winnie the Pooh and Grimm brothers' fairy tales. I think she likes looking at the pictures more. She is always studying the pictures and describing them when she 'reads' by herself. Over the weekend I got really amused when she pointed at a 'multicultural foods' book she has and said, "Here's the Baba Ghanoush on a plate,"

So yes I swell with pride when every educator's feedback to me has been how amazing her attention span is that she can sit quietly and read. Or how much they find she loves books. Now I know she isn't the best at finger dexterity or balance. She isn't the fastest at running or greatest at climbing either. And my cousins in Asia tell me that their three year olds are reading and writing full sentences in school and six year olds are reading full novels which I simply cannot see my LO doing just quite yet. I am still working on getting her to draw with purpose which she is getting better at, but I am terrified at the prospect of teaching her how to write because she appears to be left handed and neither Mr.HEA and I are.

My only way around this is to let that worry resolve itself when the time comes. I will enjoy our present as it is and the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from my LO saying to me after I finish reading yet another Grimm brother's fairy tale to her, " I like this one mummy". It's her way of showing me that after three attempts of reading the same story to her, she finally understood it.