Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Reading to Babies in Utero

Charley Harper's ABC Book

Matt and I try to set aside a few minutes here and there to bond as a growing family. It usually happens right before bed. We'll touch my stomach and talk to "Coconut." The best was when Matt had his face pressed up against my belly and he got a swift kick to the head from our little baby.

One night we read an alphabet book to our little boy, and we had so much fun we started reading to him more often. Since we only had a total of two children's books in our house (the rest of mine are in my classroom!), I decided to use my teacher "points" from Scholastic to order free books to read as a family.

Here are the books I ordered:
  1. Every Minute on Earth: Fun Facts that Happen Every 60 Seconds
  2. National Geographic: Elephants
  3. National Geographic: Whales
  4. National Geographic: Butterflies
  5. Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type
  6. Commotion in the Ocean
  7. Down by the Cool of the Pool
  8. Giraffes Can't Dance
  9. Cock-a-Doodle-Doo! Barnyard Hullabaloo
  10. Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale
  11. Words Are Not for Hurting
  12. Peek-a-WHO?
  13. Brown Bear, Brown Bear
  14. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
  15. If You Give a Pig a Pancake
  16. If You Take a Mouse to the Movies
  17. If You Take a Mouse to School
  18. If You Give a Moose a Muffin

I love our family reading time. It's a relaxing way to end the day, and it gives Coconut a chance to hear Matt's voice in very close proximity.

My students have started making books and giving them to me to read to Coconut. Here's one of my favorites:

Title: Space
This is the spiral galaxy.
God made things.
Even children.
Even...pencils.
Even computers.
Even books.
Coming Up: Cars.




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7 comments:

Michele said...

You have some of our favorites there! Especially the "If you give a...." series. Jilli and Rory now say at the start of most books "Written by Laura Numeroff, Illustrations by Felicia Bond"

My favorites when they were super small were Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny....very calming.

Michele said...

Now that I think about it...we have quite a few books that we have outgrown. Want me to box them up and send them to you? EM me your address...

Carrie said...

I recommend having lots of board books, especially the peek-a-boo kind, so baby can interact with the pages easily. We love, "Where is Maisy?" and "Where is Maisy's Panda?" as well as any peek-a-boo book that reveals animals.

Rebecca said...

My husband and I are Charley Harper fanatics! We have 2 prints in our house and plan to get one for the nursery for our "little squirt" arriving in April. We'll probably have to get some of the books too. We already have a good collection of Dr. Seuss and National Geographic to start our child's book collection.

Sara said...

I highly recommend The Secret Circus by Johanna Wright. She is both the illustrator and author. Her artwork is beautiful and kids really seem to love the story - great for bedtime. Also, I always loved the Old Mother West Wind books by Thornton Burgess.

Liz said...

Goodnight Moon and Harold and the Purple Crayon are must-haves, I think! I like cloth books over board books for when they're old enough to 'read' them on their own, too, because there's usually a lot going on texturally as well as visually.

Jillian said...

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes and Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold are my favorites. I read them often to my first grade class. I also love Shortcut by Donald Crews but that might be a little intense for belly reading!

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