...Simple Steps to Successful Parenting
BEST PARENTING ADVICE
BEST STARTS FOR KIDS
Loving Reading
IDEA: Instead of buying a birthday card put a birthday message inside a book's cover, that way the child can reread your message over and over, even in many years time.
If you encouraged people to give a book for your child's baby shower and then another as a birth gift instead of a card and you have twenty friends/ family members who would normally write a card for each of the occasions that means your child will have begun their life with forty books.
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If you include books in every birthday or Christmas present around areas of your child's interest you're supporting their love of reading.
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​I've devised my favourites from those suitable, from around the age of 1 year onwards.
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Go to the link My Favourite Children's Books below:
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Introduce reading from around 4-6 months of age beginning with simple board books
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Building a positive night time ritual of reading daily before bedtime, helps build vocabulary and comprehension
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Children will look forward to reading if you make it enjoyable
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Building upon children's interests helps them see books as a source of information and joy
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Books are a way of building upon real experience and exposing your child to new experiences
Every evening as part of my children's night time ritual I read to them. Sometimes I lay in bed with them and I read them book after book. I frequently reread their favourites and usually tried to introduce a new book a night as well.
Both my husband and I modeled reading ourselves as part of our everyday lives. We shared things we'd learnt from books both with our children and with each other. ​​​
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I'd never thought about how many children' s books were available in my home until a visiting child counted them. She said there were over six hundred.
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There's a trend to build early learning around children's interests, which is great. However at the age of three and four, children's life experience can be somewhat limited, so books can be a great way of expanding children's knowledge, skills and understanding.
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And a child can relive a real life experience or extend their real life experience through books.​
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Board books and plastic books are a great way to start.
Many of the plastic ones have interesting features such as pages that make crunching or rustling noises and children enjoy exploring them and putting them in their mouths. Although I'm becoming more reluctant to use plastic due to the environmental cost, they have the advantage of being able to be rinsed off and dried, which board books can't be.
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At around six months, while they were still too young to feed themselves with a spoon, reading kept them occupied between mouthfuls.
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Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.