Reading to Toddlers

I have been trying to read to Sirah every day from age appropriate books. As much as we read in this house I found that I was always focused on reading to the older kids and we have so much variety that I had to remind myself to pull out the classic younger child books and read and read and reread them to her over and over again. There is a reason that we have "Goodnight Moon" and "Marvin K Mooney" memorized and can recite them without the book as we have read them hundreds of times between all the kids. So lately I have been rediscovering our favorite younger books and thoroughly enjoying the time I am spending with Sirah. I remind myself when they are this young, repetition not variety is the key so we have settled into a few favorites of mine and a few she has established to be favorites of hers and I pull from these several each day. While this is not an exhaustive list it is pretty representative of the books we are reading to Sirah who is now 14 months old.

Goodnight Moon - Brown, Margaret Wise
Time for Bed - Fox, Mem
Counting Kisses - Katz, Karen
Kisses - Szekeres, Cyndy
God Made All the Colors - Lion Publishing
Five Little LadyBugs - Gerth, Melanie
Jesse Bear What Will You Wear - Carlstrom, Nancy White
DK Touch and Feel Series (Pets, Wild Animals, Baby Animals, Cats, etc)
Baby Animals: Black and White - Tildes, Phyllis
Playing Poohsticks - Milne, AA (adapted storybook)

Tigger's Breakfast - Milne, AA (adapted)
My Many Colored Days - Dr Suess
Marvin K Mooney Will You Please Go Now - Dr Suess
Baby Games - Nayer, Judy
Good Morning, Good Night - Mitchell, Melanie
Carrot Seed, The - Krauss, Ruth
I am a baby - Hathon, Elizabeth
Learning Numbers - A Sparkle Book

I try to read her atleast 5 of these a day - though often it will turn into all of or most of these each day - with repeats of course. Lately her favorites have been "Five Little Ladybugs" and "Goodnight Moon". My favorites are Goodnight Moon, Counting Kisses, Kisses, and God Made All the Colors. She is really starting to enjoy being read to and I love watching her go over and pick out a book, bring it to me and sit on my lap waiting for me. She is so much fun and a wonder at this age.

Peace,
Tenn