For the Younger Sprouts

Baby Books Need a Fair Share
I noticed I’ve posted almost exclusively about the books we read with B, and felt a little like I was leaving T out. Fear not, T gets lots of reading too, but I think I write more about B’s books for a few reasons. First, B’s books are more often new to me as well. Most of T’s books are hand-me-downs from B, and even the ones we check out from the library are often repeats of those B checked out. While I still love them, they aren’t quite as “novel.” Second, B is better able to express which books he enjoys most, which inspires me to write about them. Third, we often end up including T in the books we read with B, and the activities that follow (as you can see from many of my pics.) But I decided that I’d focus on T’s age group this week and share a couple favorites.


Who Doesn’t Love Peek-a-Boo?

Peek-a-boo is one of those games that crosses generations, classes, and continents. Every baby is tickled by it, and conveniently, it serves as a handy tool in developing the cognitive concept of object permanence for infants. We play peek-a-boo under the covers on the bed, behind the high chair, under the t-shirt getting dressed in the morning and undressed at night, and anyplace else we need a quick diversion for T. And B is an enormous fan of hide-and-seek, which is really just the big-kid version of peek-a-boo, right?

Get Your Hands on This Book

My favorite thing about Hello, Baby! (part of the Begin Smart series) is that it is so friendly to little hands. Many peek-a-boo books have flaps that are just too flimsy to stand up to curious babies, and I feel strongly that part of learning to love books is being able to explore them without restrictions. It’s a board book, but beyond that, every other page has a sturdy foam core (can you see it in my photo?) that allows for a hole that “peeks” to another page without sacrificing the strength and integrity of the peeking page. The text is super simple: variations of Hello, Baby! Where’s Baby? Here’s Baby! and Peek-a-Boo! The illustrations are simple drawings of baby faces, hidden and then revealed by a blankie, a hat, a bib, etc. The publisher recommends this book from birth to six months, and T certainly enjoyed it at that age, but he is continuing to enjoy it beyond that because the game is still fun and he love being able to manipulate the pages and put his fingers through the holes! The other fun thing is that the simple text allows B to “read” to T. Even if he doesn’t get the words just right, he makes the pictures make sense. We received gifts of two books from this series, which groups their books into 6 month intervals from birth up to 2 years. I checked out their website after discovering 64 listings on Amazon. I don’t have the cash to spring for the whole series, but we’ll be looking some up at the library and adding our favorites to our wish-lists. The website has some good tips on early literacy if you’re an info-lover like me. For now, T’s favorite thing to do is turn pages, over and over again, and this book is perfect for that. How did your kids first “interact” with books?


Appropriate for: babies

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