Preparing Miss.SingSong for Literacy - Reading

I served a Mormon mission in Russia.  By the end of my mission I could read and comprehend most non-technical articles written for adults in the Russian language.  I could not read to understand a children's book to save my life.  The variety of words used in children's books is immense.

All of the articles that I linked to in my last post wrote not only about the importance of talking to your baby, but reading to her, as well.  A recent study found that the language in children's books contains, on average, 70% more unique words than child-directed speech.  That's crazy!  And very believable.

Miss.SingSong choosing library books

I don't talk to Miss.SingSong about all of the zoo animals.  I don't talk to her about the beach, or the mountains, or different countries.  I don't talk about farmers or crops or farm equipment.  I don't use words such as: planted, burst, bloom, kingdom, perfume, tended, successor, throne, proclamation, issued, palace, etc... (all of those words were from the first three pages of one book that we have on our shelf!)  I don't talk about these things because they're not in front of us, and they're not things that I'm typically thinking about during the day.  But when we read books, we learn about all of these things!

The only problem is that at 9-months, Miss.SingSong isn't interested in sitting to listen to me read a story.  Before she could really move I could get down with her and read a story and she wouldn't really know what was going on, but now she can move and she's not interested in books other than as she can grab them and put them in her mouth.  So I don't insist on reading the whole book.  I let her play with them.

Miss.SingSong's loves an open book!

I want more than anything for her to know that books bring joy.  And if putting a book in her mouth brings her joy right now, then so be it!  If I put a few books out and open them to various pages she'll crawl over to them.  When she starts looking at one I tell her about the pictures, using the words on the page, and some of my own to talk about other details.  Sometimes it helps if I put all of the other toys away.

I was talking to one of my sisters the other day about my worries of not being able to read whole books to Miss.SingSong.  My sister has a daughter 6 months older than Miss.SingSong.  She is learning to read stories when her daughter is in her crib.  My niece loves it, because her mom is spending more time with her.  My sister loves it, because her little one can't run away from the book, but nor can she grab the book out of my sister's hands.

After that conversation I realized that I can read books to Miss.SingSong just before I put her down for a nap or for the night, because she's so calm at the end of our going-to-bed routine.  I have a harder time reading to her while she's in her crib, because she is serious about her sleep once she's in there!  I might also try reading to Miss.SingSong while she's in her highchair since she's started eating finger-foods, finally!  Perhaps she'll pay attention while she's eating.

My current philosophy is to do what works, and don't make it stressful!