Written by: Elaine Lambe of www.littlesheep-learning.co.uk

Tobias is now just over a year old and already appears to have inherited his mummy’s love of books, so I’d like to share how we have started ‘reading’ and some of his favourite books so far.

I think I spent the first few months in shock along with other first time mums. As we were breastfeeding we had a while sat down together and I got fairly proficient at holding a book with one hand. He seemed to like listening to poetry and the Wind in the Willows, but I guess it was probably the sound of my voice he liked and I could have read him the shopping list and he would have been interested.

By the time Tobias was a few months old we had progressed to looking at books together. A definite favourite was ‘Mirror Me’ (Julie Aigner-Clark, Baby Einstein) with mirrors on each page – obviously he couldn’t imitate the faces but he seemed to like the light reflections and looking at the gorgeous baby in it. Children’s poetry books ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ (Giles Andreae, Orchard Books), and ‘Emergency’ (Margaret Mayo, Orchard Books) seemed quite popular with their bright pictures.

In a mission to support me as an Usborne Books at Home organiser, Grandma bought lots of Usborne books! They are at Grandma’s house and are certainly loved for novelty value when we are there. His favourite one is ‘Animal Hide and Seek’ (Jenny Tyler, Usborne Books) a book full of textures to feel and flaps to lift, new skills that were quickly learnt. It didn’t take long until Tobias knew exactly where they were and how they worked!

Christmas came and Tobias had his first taste of Christmas books… Spot’s First Christmas (Eric Hill, Puffin Books) was popular and Tobias seemed to totally grasp the idea of looking behind flaps. As he was sitting proficiently in the bath ‘Bathtime for Father Christmas’ (Fiona Watts, Usborne Books) became a hit (we are a bit bored of this now it’s June!). He also was given two lovely Nativity books. ‘The Christmas Baby’ (Tim Wood, Scripture Union) which is a ‘zigzag’ book with beautiful illustrations of the stable scene on one side and another illustration depicting the journey to Bethlehem with the story on the reverse, and ‘Sleepy Jesus’ (Pennie Kidd, Lion) a simple nativity story, board book.

Tobias started nursery and crawling. Crawling meant that he could reach his toy box and select his own books. His favourite was definitely ‘That’s not my dinosaur’ (Fiona Watts, Usborne Books) with it’s bright illustrations and easy to turn pages.
At his 8 month check Tobias received books as part of the ‘Bookstart’ scheme; ‘Goodnight Poppycat’ (Lara Jones, Macmillan Books) and ‘Lullaby Lion’ (Vivienne French, Walker Books). ‘Lullaby Lion’ was definitely the favourite with Tobias pointing to the lovely bold lion faces but it might have been a hit because he liked to hear us roar!

Unfortunately, with teething meaning that everything entered his mouth, some of his books have been ‘tasted’ too! He loves the feeling of cloth in his mouth and enjoys chewing the rabbits ears in ‘Frog’ (Fiona Watt, Usborne Books) and the treasure coins in ‘Let’s find Jack’s hidden treasure!’ (Boots).

The bedtime routine now incorporates story time with daddy after milk with mummy – which gives some more important quality time with books. Daddy recites ‘Alfie’s Alphabet’ (Shirley Hughes, Red Fox) a book, which he memorised at Grandma’s house, a lot and we joke that this bores Tobias to sleep!

Tobias now well and truly loves books, they are a staple in the changing/going out bag and keep him generally behaved when at church/eating out. He turns pages of board books with ease and appears to be listening much more intently to the stories. He loves looking at different books and I really must remember to join the library so that we can get new ones more frequently.

I’m looking forward to sharing many more books with him especially titles from my childhood, like Paddington Bear and the Topsey and Tim stories. As well as seeing him ‘read’ to his toys for the first time and of course eventually start reading properly.