Take a look, It's in a book...

Even though the classic show "Reading Rainbow" has been off the air now for more than 4 years, Holden has found inspiration outside of LeVar Burton to begin a love of reading at an early age. Over the past few weeks, he's been gaining more of an independent interest in books and reading. In fact, a couple times this past week, after I get home from picking Holden up from daycare, he'd immediately head over to the cabinet where we keep his stash of books, grab a favorite book, and then walk up to me and want to be read to. This is an exciting development, since it confirms that Holden actually likes books (his current favorites are "Maisy Drives" and "Busy Bear Cubs").


To further support early reading with Holden, we added some reading time to his bedtime routine--and Holden seems to enjoy that, too. He gets to pick between "Goodnight Moon" and "The Going to Bed Book" each night (who wouldn't love that?). And even though this bedtime reading can get Holden slightly revved-up before he goes to sleep (esp. as he points at the two little kittens and a pair of mittens), he never has any trouble going to sleep after the book is done.

While it can sometimes be difficult or seemingly silly to read to Holden at age 1 (because sometimes he'll have no interest, or grab the book and throw it on the ground, or he'll start chewing on the pages), I know that it is so important to get him in the habit of reading and enjoying books. He's learning the basics of how to read a book, and doing a lot of "pretend reading" these days--when he'll sit down with a book and just flip through the pages in no particular order.

Not to go on a rant here, but I recently saw a government study which reported that less than 50% of parents read to their toddlers on a daily basis (and it starts to drop off after the age of 2, which is such a crucial time for a child's cognitive development). I would wager a bet that the main culprit is television, but I'm sure computers are not far behind. Anyway, I'm super excited that Holden's starting to choose reading as an activity ... and Bryna and I are anxious for the day when we can read Harry Potter to him ; )

the big read...

so, we've decided to start reading to our future baby while he's still in the womb. Research clearly indicates that babies can hear sounds from inside the womb by 20 weeks or earlier, and they can begin to recognize their parents voices. What better way to connect (or "bond") with our 'babe' than by reading to it each night before we go to bed. We're starting with some classics, and we'll see if we get any kicks of approval.

Maybe by the time Short Stranger is born, reading these same books will have a calming effect -- some research does suggest that newborn babies can sometimes recognize an actual story read to it repeatedly while in the womb. I figured that reading a book would be more calming for all involved than listening repeatedly to Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" (certainly to have a shorter shelf-life than MJ's greatest hits).