How often do you read to your toddler?

Hi! My children are all older now, but I can, from years of experience recommend some great and timeless books for young readers and tiny listeners. The following books were favorites of our three kids; two girls and a boy, they all loved them. We would make up music, and read in differing voices which grabbed and kept their attention when they were really young. We began reading to them while still in my tummy; my husband thought it would make them happy, so each night he would read to my stomach. Silly man lol So, books that may not make your child a genius but will I promise; instill a love of reading and with luck, writing. Where the wild things are- Great for toddlers! You can make up music for the pages without text and your child might even dance while looking at the great artwork on the pages. Noisy Nora- by Rosemary Wells- This is a fabulous but little known book (it seems) about a young mouse. The story has a lot of opportunity to use differing voices and volume, and makes kids want to know what she'll do next! Any Richard Scarry book- his books are fabulous for not only teaching the spoken language but also identifying objects, their sounds/names and learning the foundation of writing. "Light in the Attic", "Falling up", "Where the sidewalk ends" "The Giving Tree" - by Shel Silverstein- These are just a few of his childrens books. Many are full of wonderfully silly poetry which children love. We started reading these to our kids as infants; as they got older they began reading them on their own and would change them (the poems) to suit little plays they would put on. They would even have contest's to see who could read a certain poem or passage the fastest. Great for ages 0 to 100. I truly believe Shel Silverstein and Richard Scarry are the reason my kids are such great and avid readers today. The Little Critter's books by Mercer Mayer- We loved these books as much as the kids did. Full of cute characters, great subtle artwork and attention grabbing stories for young minds. The Ugly Duckling - A classic that will go on as long as we maintain the written word! lol The Piggy in the Puddle- by Charlotte Pomerantz- This was a family favorite and my husband would have a blast reading this one with different rhythms while the kids laughed and yelled "NOPE!" along with muddy little piggy. Great book! Corduroy (the bear) books- various authors I believe- these books are great at telling about everyday ("first's) situations that children will find themselves in; such as getting a hair cut, first dental visit, babysitters, meeting new friends and other of lifes' "little-big" situations. I spy books are an amazingly fun way to play with your child while getting him used to holding books and viewing them as fun alternative to other types of activities. Wow..I'm just going on and on! There are just so many great book's I would love to share with new parents that are actually interested in reading to their children. There are not enough parents like you! I am so passionate about reading to kids when they are young, I am proud to say I have also seen the benefits of doing it. (proud mom moment coming) My childrens school actually had to change their accelerated reading program because of my kids! They had to start bringing in college level books for my K-3 kids! It was great to see their names next to the new category. My son who was in kindergarten at the time had chosen "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson to read and test on. He passed, the AC monitor caught it (the one day she was doing her job rather than chatting) and pitched fits saying he had cheated. They pulled the records of my two girls and said they cheated as well. After much retesting and interrogation the school decided to implement a new rule "no reading above your grade level", their reason behind this was "it makes the other students feel inferior", "it throws off the statistics for the schools reading program" blah blah blah. We fought back with "you are stifling children", "you are making children feel that they should fail in order "to fit in" etc etc.. we won!! A bright new college level catagory was added. (proud mom moment over) So anyone reading this who has young children, it is never to early to begin reading with your child. Teach them their ABC's and the foundation of reading and writing BEFORE they go to school. It makes the experience for them less stressful, and will in turn give them a love of school and learning. Okay, I'm done. I apologize for this being such a long post. You are a great Parent! Keep it up!

Thanks! I've noticed lately that he is really listening to the stories and looking at the pictures. When I was reading him my books, there wasn't anything really for him to look at. Now that I've traded my books for his books, it's so cute to see him looking and waiting for the next page.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all of the book recomendations! I'm sorry it took me eons to get back to this post to see them all, but I appreciate it so much! I have a huge stack of books to read to him right now, but I'm going to see about getting those books that you mentioned at the library. Thanks again!

That is really good news. My son really does enjoy his stories. I hope I'm making him really smart ;)

My son definitely likes me reading to him, but he really loves his Elmo and Sesame street on tv LOL :) I'm just glad he is learning about books too though :)

Isn't it great when they think they have become independent ;) I'm going to be sad when my boy doesn't want me to read to him anymore. I know there will come a time when he wont want me to rock him to sleep or read to him.

That is so nice that they memorize the verses. I think that's a great idea. Thanks for sharing.

LOL you have all sorts of readers in your house. I really like reading and often find that I dont get time to do it, so I've now incorporated with something that him and I can do together. I'm really liking it, even when I'm reading his books, and not mine :)

That's really good. I can tell my son really enjoys our reading time. I can't wait until he can read to me :) Thanks for sharing.