I brought this wonder of literacy (its called 'the Sicilians Virgin Bride' - awesome no!?) home to give a go. Not because I'm into romance - far from it. But the romance section in the library is my section to look after and really? who could resist a title such as that.
I got about 2 pages in before throwing it on the floor. I just can't handle reading books that have some much cliche chucked into 2 pages and characters that are named 'Rocco' and Franchesca' Ew. I can understand everyone needs a bit of light reading but this is definitely not my kettle of fish. Saying that, people look at me like IM nuts when i read Sci-Fi or fantasy [crap] so each to their own.
ZJ had a good time nom-ing on it though so its not at all a wasted.
ANYWAY. I recently read in an article that you should try and read 1000 books to your babes before they are 5 (I'm a librarian and i didn't even know this) Woah!
Turns out its only like 1 book a day for 3 years so that's not really that bad at all but it sounds like alot, and as my partner said 'oh great so we still have a year and a half to get started' :P
But even the littlest of babes get good stuff out of being read to (that i knew :P) as much as the bigger babes.
Here are some of the benefits:
- helps babies develop their eye muscles by focusing on pictures
- exposes your child to new sounds, rhythms and language
- which also helps develop his/her language skills
- research shows that pre-school children who are exposed to plenty of language (books and conversation) tend to do better at school
- its very calming and often a great thing to incorporate into a bedtime routine
- its a fantastic way of introducing your child to something that could be a lifelong passion.
- You probably would cover subjects that may not come up in everyday life (good for the older ones!)
- and best of all, its a great way of bonding with your child. Which as the parent who goes to work everyday - very important to me.
Its amazing the sheer amount and types of books catered to littlies these days and most of these you will have free access to by joining your local library! (just a little plug for my profession there...)
My favourites to bring home to share with ZJ are the 'touch and feel' books (as they are obviously made to be chewed on and touched) and the ones that have pop ups or flaps that you can open.
We have a couple of doozies on floor at the moment which not only have a great story that rhymes (great for developing language) but have a game where you have to find the babe in the book's missing toy. When you do find it and lift the right flap, the noise of that item sounds. The duck kind of sounds like its been beaten over the head with a frying pan a bit, but ZJ gets the idea.
When ZJ was even smaller than he is now, and i was staying home with him, I used to just read to him out of the book I'm reading. It didn't matter about the content. It was calming for him to hear my voice and good for him and his language skills and also meant i could catch up on my reading!
So go on everyone, make sure you pick up a book and read it to your babe today...
Even if it is a crappy romance book where some silly yet stunningly beautiful (in an understated way) thing doesn't want to return home to her remarkably hansom and rich foreign husband :P
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