Reading to LO

[Lu28]

Does anyone else struggle to read with LO because they keep grabbing the book and eating it?! Maybe it's just us!!

Seriously though, can anyone recommend some good books for around 8 months old? There's such a huge choice, I keep wanting to get some and then get confused and give up! She has an Usborne Thats not my reindeer for Christmas as well as one that's a hand puppet, god knows how that works. She also has a few soft bath type books but I'd like to get her some more.

Thanks

 

[TigerLady]

My LO grabs them alllllll the time! haha!

I have started teaching him to turn the pages at the right times -- I read the pages, then say "DING!" and he is supposed to turn the page. It lets him feel like he is participating actively and gives him something to concentrate on other than playing with the pages.

I like Board books best...

So far his favorites are Brown Bear, Brown Bear (and others in that series -- loves them!) and I Love You Through and Through.

 

[CountingDown]

Olivia loves books and amazon have made a fortune off me this Xmas!! Olivias favourites at the moment tend to be pop up books and some of the sing and sign ones such as Twinkle Little star etc.

I have ordered her some of the classics as well such as the hungry caterpillar and a few more of the sing and sign books like Incey Wincey Spider and the Old Lady who swallowed a fly.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Ruby loves a book called bunbun at bedtime! she cracks up at it. that is, when she's not trying to eat it that is!

 

[Jody R]

One of my favourite subjects this!

I love reading to Joseph (and to myself when I get the time) and he is also eight months old and a grabber and a chewer but it's all part of the fun.

I love the Sandra Boynton books, our favourite is Moo, Baa, La La La but we have lots of others by her too. They are usually made of thick board so a bit of chewing hasn't done them any harm. Hippos Go Berserk is a good counting book and we've even got a floating waterproof one called Barnyard Bath.

We also enjoy the Hairy Maclary and Friends series of books by Lynley Dodd.

There's a great series by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin that I think start with Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type that are wonderful. Joseph loves the illustrations and the silly noises and the story makes me laugh. My favourite is Dooby Dooby Moo.

We've got the Guess How Much I Love You series, the original book and the four that cover each season of the year.

Oliver Jeffers writes some great books with lovely illustrations, we like Lost and Found and The Great Paper Caper.

We also love the Charlie and Lola books and the ones by Julia Childs, The Gruffalo is lovely but Stick Man is my favourite and Joseph seems to enjoy it too.

And we love Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett, only five words in the whole book but repeated in different ways to tell a story and the illustrations are simple but beautiful.

I like to shop in The Works for cheaper board books that I don't mind him playing with and keep some of the others just for reading to him until he is old enough to take care of them. I did order the Sandra Boynton and Cronin/Lewin books from Waterstones because they weren't in stock but that's really easy to do and delivery is free.

 

[lindypops]

I struggle to read to Eve cos all the books we have at the moment only have about five words in! If she didn't eat them it would take about one minute to read them to her!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I struggle to read to Eve cos all the books we have at the moment only have about five words in! If she didn't eat them it would take about one minute to read them to her!

LOL I agree, I make up extra words!

 

[Pyrrhic]

I read to Niamh when she is all ready for bed and having her last bottle. She loves just lying still and listening then

 

[faille]

If I read to her during the day then it's a great game for her, she'll try turning the pages, she's grab at the pages (we have a touchy feely one) etc. But if I read to her just before bed she's quite happy to just sit and listen.

My fave book of hers is Dizzy Dragon (the touch and feel one) - it also makes a noise on the last page which is quite amusing. It's by Priddy I think, I want to get the rest in the series

Only books I try her with during the day are big board books. At night I can make use of the proper paper books lol

 

[Lucy_lu_84]

I started reading to him when he was younger but we kinda gave up ... Naughty Mummy! Must try get back into it, I thought of making it part of his bedtime routine, but we do the bottle in the dark so I can't read to him in the dark!

How do you guys do it? or do you just read to them in the day?

 

[Mary Jo]

OH got his Mr Men books out of his mother's loft so I've been reading them to Adam - he's not been grabbing them, so it's ok for now, but when he is I'll start with the boards books we have. The Mr Men stories are quite long so we read half at a time. I also have a copy of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, and I read that, but will have to stop showing him the pics because some of them are quite scary and I'd hate to think he was having nightmares about a troll under a bridge... (I remember having nightmares about the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood when I was young). But I know he's just listening to my voice right now. I'll have to get more age appropriate soon though.

 

[Lu28]

I struggle to remember to read to her so I might have to try to fit it into a specific part of the day. I have the same problem with the board books being too short, we did one earlier today and we were done in a couple of minutes! She then ate the book for a few more minutes!

 

[faille]

Yeah the books are short so what I do is read 3 or 4 after each other and then sometimes read them all again, giving her plenty of time to look at and touch the pages.

 

[Jody R]

I started reading to him when he was younger but we kinda gave up ... Naughty Mummy! Must try get back into it, I thought of making it part of his bedtime routine, but we do the bottle in the dark so I can't read to him in the dark!

How do you guys do it? or do you just read to them in the day?

Could you put on a story cd to listen to while you do the bottle? And if you feel confident enough you could read the stories out loud and record yourself to play later on while you do the bottle.

I've also read some of the books so often that I have the shorter ones memorised, if there's a story to them and your baby is happy just to drink and listen it doesn't matter about the pictures, it's your voice he's focused on. Look at the pictures in the daytime as well. Or make up your own stories, even if you base them on fairy tales or whatever and tell them in your own words.

With the short books, Joseph doesn't seem to mind if we read the same one three or four times in a row. Repeating things is good to help them learn anyway even if it is a little bit boring for us. But that's the good thing about short books too, even repeating them a few times only takes a few minutes.

We will also read four or five short books in a row to make story time last longer.

 

[elly75]

We have some stories on MP3 for Christian which I'll have to put on CD at some point. In addition, I'd like to try and record our voices reading some other stories so that we can play them for him when we're giving him his last bottle for the night or whenever.