Next month it’s National Bookstart Week (8-14 June 2015), and this year it’s all about jungle adventures! Getting into the habit of reading with your child: sharing stories, books and rhymes every day is the message behind National Bookstart Week.

Stories are an essential part of our activities at nursery, whether it’s painting pictures of our favourite characters, or singing songs based on well-known tales, it’s all part of our learning. We set aside time to read stories to the children at our nurseries every day, as well as having a quiet corner where children can choose a book and read to themselves.

Reading With Your Baby or Child

Of course, we all know how important it is to learn to read. Without this skill the opportunities available to us as young people and adults are going to be limited. But there are also real benefits in fostering a love of books in your baby, toddler or child that’s not just about academic success.

Reading aloud:

• Teaches a baby about communication,
• Introduces numbers, colours, shapes and letters,
• Encourages listening, memory, and language skills,
• Teaches them about the world around them,
• Helps them develop a lifetime love of books.

It’s also a wonderful way to spend time with your baby and child, developing emotional and social skills, and fostering curiosity and an interest in the wider world.

What To Read And When?

Everything and anything! If your child expresses an interest in a book, magazine or even the writing on the cereal packet, embrace it! You might need to share the content in an age appropriate way, but unless the reading material contains content that is truly inappropriate (perhaps upsetting images in a newspaper), try to nurture their interest rather than saying it’s “too old” for them.

When it comes to buying or borrowing suitable books to share with your baby or child, there’s lots of choice. For starters the BookTrust run the Bookstart scheme that provides baby book packs and preschool packs to all children in England. These consist of a selection of suitable books and tips for sharing stories and encouraging reading. You should receive the baby pack before your baby’s first birthday via your health visitor, and the toddler pack will be handed out at nursery or another early years setting.

Books For Babies

Board books are the obvious choice as they are hardwearing and easy to handle. We like authors like Helen Oxenberg with titles such as Clap Hands, Friends, Say Goodnight and Tickle, Tickle. These books are great because the pictures are of babies (just like your baby!), and the text focuses on actions that parents can model and your baby can imitate.

We also like books with textures or cutouts. Classics like The Very Hungry Caterpillar are available as a board book as well as paper version, letting little fingers explore as you read. Touchy feely books like That’s Not My Monkey are also great, each illustration includes textures that babies can explore developing their sensory skills as well as their language skills.

Books For Toddlers

Children at our nurseries love rhyming books. In fact many of them know our favourites off by heart and join in at story time. The Gruffalo is always popular, but also We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, Giraffes Can’t Dance, Duck In The Truck and loads more…

Visiting the library is a must, and it will save you a fortune! Gone are the days when the librarian would shhh any noise from the toddler corner! Now you might join a song and rhyme time group at your local library, storytelling sessions and nobody minds an excited pre-schooler. We’ve visited our local library with the children at our settings and let them choose books for our theme weeks. They love the opportunity to actually pick up the books to see if they’re interesting, something you might struggle to do in a bookshop, and I think it’s important to allow them to find books for themselves rather than inflicting your personal tastes on them.

We’re planning a few activities at nursery for National Bookstart Week to help encourage those budding readers! In the meantime we would love to hear your recommendations of books for babies and toddlers. What books do your children love? Share with other parents in the comments below.