Libraries have a lot to offer

Libraries are a free source of wonderful learning materials and now, in Australia and many other countries, they are a way for parents of young children to connect and learn.

You can borrow great baby books, for free, from your local library and there is usually a specific section of board books which are the absolute best for babies.

This means you can have lots of books in your home for your baby to explore and you can change books regularly. If one or two become favourites then you know which ones to purchase or request for birthday gifts.

Baby activities: Reading 1000 stories

This is my grandson. He loves books.

The more our kids love books,

the more they’ll pretend to read them,

and the more they pretend to read,

the more quickly they’ll learn to read.  MEM FOX*

If you are wondering what to do with your brand new baby, or your 3 month old baby or your crawler, you won't go wrong if you read to them. Children need to hear 1000 stories read aloud before they begin to learn to read on their own (Fox, 2001).

You can read anything to babies, even the newspaper, especially in the first few months, but if you are looking for books specifically for babies there is a list of some of my favourites here. (Older children here) You can purchase many of these books at my baby bookstore but you should really make the library your second lounge room.

Reading aloud to your baby has many benefits. It actually impacts on most of the areas of School Readiness:

Sharing regular time together reading helps healthy Social emotional development as it is a positive interaction which give us a sense of comfort, confidence and safety.
Reading affects a child's approach toward learning and makes them see that the significant people in their life value reading.
Communication and language use is developed by listening to others read.
Cognition or thinking skills and general knowledge are developed as babies look and listen to books.

*Mem Fox is one of my favourite Australian authors and has written many wonderful children's books including Hello Baby! and Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes and my most favourite children's book WHERE is the GREEN SHEEP?

Here are her Read Aloud Commandments

1. Spend at least ten wildly happy minutes every single day reading aloud.

2. Read at least three stories a day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read.

These are the main "commandments" that relate to babies but you can read the rest at Mem's site or in her book Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever

REFERENCES:

Babies Need Books, by Dorothy Butler in 1980 encouraged parents to read to their babies and toddlers. She argued that scientific research showed by the age of four approximately half of an individual's ultimate intelligence was formed.

Set for Success: Espinosa, L. M. (2002). The connection between social-emotional development and early literacy.

NEGP - National Education Goals Panel is a bipartisan and intergovernmental body of US federal and state officials created to assess and report progress toward achieving the National Education Goals that created the Dimensions of School Readiness. 

Baby Learning: the showing and talking game

THE FAVOURITE by Georgios Jakobides (1853–1932)

We have been taking our daily environment for granted for years, unlike babies and toddlers who are intrigued by everything they see and hear. Seeing the world through the eyes of a child is an amazing experience of curiosity. Their brain is stimulated by new sights and sounds and their language is developed by us talking to them.
Sometimes I pick up a baby and just walk around the room showing them light switches and door handles, cupboards and pictures, all the while telling them what we are looking at. They never seem to get bored of this as long as I am showing them new wonders.
I am very privileged to see this first hand as the proud grandmother of two beautiful baby boys and working with babies. After having 5 children of my own I am still constantly amazed and awakened when I see this world through their eyes.

Songs for babies

As requested, here are some song and rhyme ideas to do with your baby.

I always find that children love to hear others singing, rather than listening to a CD. So try and remember some rhymes from when you were growing up or learn a few new ones. Don't worry about whether you think you have a good singing voice - your baby will love it.

Singing songs with your child has many benefits but the main ones are connection and fun. Click on the underlined links to find the full rhyme.

This little froggy - a toe tickling rhyme like three little pigs.

Little Arabella Miller found a fuzzy caterpillar - creep fingers on childs arm or leg

One potato, two potato, - hold their hands like fists and help them do actions

I'm a little teapot - sway child from side to side and tip to side

Like a leaf or a feather, in the windy, windy, weather - stand, holding child and gently twirl around and bend down to ground.

FOR OLDER BABIES:  When they have good head control

There were four fat sausages sizzling in a pan ... - on sizzle give them a little shake, on 'Pop' and 'bang' lift them up and down

Humpty Dumpty - sit them high on your knees facing you, then knees fall down then jig up and down for "horses"

Jack, be nimble, Jack, be quick - adult sits with legs out straight, child on floor to side and lift them over your legs from side to side

See-saw, Margery Daw - Do the same as Row, row, row your boat

Have fun. More songs? go to Kidsongs.

Talking with your baby

 

"Simply talking with an infant is a wonderful way to build attention, working memory, and self-control."  Center on the Developing Child HARVARD UNIVERSITY

 

Babies love "conversations" where there is give and take.  Their response IS with gurgling and babbling. Talking with your baby will help them talk, trust and learn. Somewhere around 4 to 6 months of age many babies will start to make sounds like "mmm" or "bbb" to interact with you.

 

The first language skill to develop is understanding what is heard. By around 6 months of age, most babies recognize the basic sounds of their parent's language.

Babies have the need for social interactions and lots of talk from loving adults also builds healthy relationships and social skills: building trust, dealing with emotional and physical needs, and interacting with others in positive ways. Many babies will calm down or smile when spoken to like the baby in the photo above.

 

By around 8 months of age some babies will try and imitate sounds that they hear. Keep in mind that all children vary in their development of language skills.

 

TALKING AND DEVELOPMENT: Research has shown that children from talkative families may have heard 30 million more words by age 3 than children from less-talkative families and that the more words the children had heard by age 3, the better they did on tests of cognitive development.

 

Having a talk in any language is a wonderful thing as bilingual children have been found to have better executive functioning skills than children who speak one language.

 

Tips on Learning to Talk from birth at Zero to Three

You might also like:

Books for babies
Songs for babies

  
 

Books for babies

Reading aloud to your baby is a wonderful way to spend time together. Being read to is the beginning of the literacy and language skills needed for later reading.

It will help children understand that books are important, that you value books and what books are all about.

When should you start reading to your baby?

As early as possible.
From birth they will enjoy being held and listening to your voice so this is a good time to read rhyming books like nursery rhymes or the Mem Fox selections below.
By about 2 months babies may like to look at brightly coloured or contrasting pictures like the Tana Hoban books.
By 4 or 5 months they will be reaching and grasping and enjoying books with different textures like touch and feel books.

What books should I get for baby?
Board books are great for babies up to 2 year olds or even older. They are strong enough not to tear when little fingers reach for them.
Books made of material or plastic are also good.
Any book you enjoy reading is wonderful as it is about baby hearing your voice.
Books with simple, large pictures on a white background.
Books with babies in them or animals in them.
Books with photos of real things.
Books with a few words on each page.
Rhyming stories.
Touch and feel books.

Some suggested books that are suitable for baby:

I Went Walking by Julie Vivas
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox
Time for Bed by Mem Fox
Nana's Colours by Pamela Allen
When I Was a Baby by Deborah Niland
I can by Helen Oxenbury
I touch by Helen Oxenbury
Tickle tickle by Helen Oxenbury
Black on White by Tana Hoban
Red, Blue, Yellow Shoe by Tana Hoban
White on black by Tana Hoban
Who are they? by Tana Hoban
Night-Night Baby, a Touch and Feel book
That's Not My Teddy by Fiona Watt
Peek-A Who? by Nina Laden

Most of these books and others I recommend are available here.


      

What are your favourite books to read to baby?

Reading tips
Reading the same book over and over is usually enjoyed by babies and helps develop their language.
Hold your baby when you are reading.
You don't need to read the whole book at once.

Do you have any reading tips?

Top 10 baby play activities

In no particular order:
1. Baby massage
2. Finding Faces
3. Talking with your baby
4. Tummy Time and Floor Time
5. Outdoors
6. Singing songs
7. Dancing
8. Stories and books
9. Meditation
10. Make a mobile

What else would you add to the list for playing with babies?