4-month Book List
For posterity's sake....
I posted about 2 months ago about the books Pearl was enjoying. Here's a list of the books she enjoys now that she's nearly 4 months old:
*Peek-a Who?
*But Not the Hippopotamus
*Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
*Goodnight Moon
*Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
*Rosie's Walk
*A Child's Garden of Verses (the shorter poems*)
*some Eric Carle books (these are hit and miss - she loves the illustrations but the books are long)
*Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb
*some Mother Goose nursery rhymes
Occasionally I'll get her to sit through something much more advanced. She seemed to like The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses and she sat all the way through Lentil. And she will usually sit through Corduroy. And of course, I'm still reading aloud to her from whatever book I happen to be reading - but that's usually in a soft, soothing voice right when she's almost asleep.
In general, she likes most stories that have 1) funny sounds; 2) a rhythm; 3) brilliant illustrations. That's not surprising, but I am surprised at how long her attention span is when she enjoys the book. It's obvious which books she likes because she'll stare at them and sit still for ages. When she doesn't like what we're reading, she fusses and cries after a page or two.
What did your babies like to read at this age?
*By "shorter" I mean ones with short lines, not poems with few words. As long as the rhythm and rhyme pattern repeats quickly enough, she is enthralled. Example: A Good Boy bores her (although it's short enough we can get through it), but Picture-books in Winter is fine.
Categories:
babies/kids
,
books
I'm amazed at how different personalities can be even at this young age. Savannah is fascinated with books, but to her they are Toys, intended for the Baby to play with and never for the Mama to hold and read.
I have never seen a preference based on either writing or illustrations. (If anything, she preferred my books, whose pages were full of words, to her own picture books.)
At 4 months she would touch the pages, maybe crumple them. Now she loves to fan through the pages of any paperback she can get her hands on.
Only in the last month or so has she started to be willing to sit in my lap to read -- her current favorite is "Babies" by Gyo Fujikawa. She started pulling it off the shelf because its dimensions made it stand out, but now I almost think she enjoys it now when we get to the last page -- "But good or bad, all babies like to be hugged and cuddled and loved." -- and I wrap her up in a big hug. (Yes, I've memorized the book already!)
I think it's great that Pearl is so obviously paying attention to what you read her. I'm just trusting that Savannah is absorbing more than she seems to when we read. It's a little discouraging sometimes... we're really looking forward to the day when she can enjoy a good story, but I know that will come with time.
Although obviously I wasn't around, sounds like Pearl and Savannah are much like their mommies were.
Mom can confirm, but wow... it does seem like Savannah is a little you, Laura, and Pearl is a little me. And that alone should make you feel better. After all, your mental capacities certainly haven't suffered from your inability to sit through a book in your early years. ;-)
You inspired me to pull out "A Child's Garden of Verses" and read to my youngest 2 while they finished lunch. Caitlyn(1) was calm and Tara(2) wouldn't let me put it down, she kept saying "read book". We read a lot, but the older kids usually dominate our choices. I have to remember to read to the littles too.
Hi, My boys loved the DK Board Books and the Baby Faces Board series. Babies love to look at other babies. The Baby Faces book have faces of babies with different settings with different expressions. It used to crack them up. And then they would mimic the words...It was hilarious and fun to watch them respond to the pictures. Now they are lot older but I think the early reading helped them become early speakers and readers.
Alice
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Repost of Sherry's comment without the babies' real names. ;-)
Yes, JunkMale is so right, Pearl is definitely fitting the pattern of Harmony & Savannah is fitting Laura's, except she seems to be more willing to be read to than Laura was. I was lucky to get one minute of still time in my lap, 5 seconds was more like it. I was thinking that when Laura was sick she would sit in my lap for hours, so with ear infections every 6 weeks or so, maybe we got more reading time in than I remember. I have pictures of Harmony holding "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" when she was 18 months old. I know she liked all the Little Golden Books, but especially "A Child's Garden of Verses". Rhythm seemed to be the deciding factor with pictures being second most important. She also liked all of the Mother Goose stories. Again, I just think she liked to be held, so it didn't matter what we were doing. I liked to be busy so I would read out loud a lot. I guess it was a perfect combination.