Hello, hello!
It's been terribly long since I wrote my last post. A lot has happened between then and now, the most significant developments being giving birth to my son (BaSha- pseudonym and short for baby Shah) and getting really close to finishing my PhD.
This post is the first one that I am writing sort of on-demand. Recently, I shared with my friends and family over Facebook about signing up BaSha, PaSha and myself for a program at our library that involves reading 1000 books before sonny boy reaches Kindergarten. This generated interest among them, a lot of whom asked me to share a list of books we have in our personal library* for BaSha. I couldn't think of a better way of doing this other than through my very own blog.
Here you go-
1. Beginner Books series
2. Books by Eric Carle
3. Books from Indian publishers
4. Books by Sandra Boynton
5. Miscellaneous
*Thrifty ideas for expanding your book collection- become a member at a library, exchange books with your friends, requesting friends/family with older children to share books they have outgrown, shop for used books for less than $1 at thrift stores and goodwill stores, buy books at book exhibitions and annual sales at libraries.
The post doesn't end here....
This list is by no means representative or exhaustive of the wealth of children's literature that is out there. Additionally, the books mentioned in the list like any other technology will not automatically get your child to read/like reading. At this point, PaSha thinks that my educator-self has taken over me, which is true and unavoidable. So, I'd like to share some big ideas we hold important as a family to foster BaSha's interest in reading-
1. Reading, like any interest matures over time. At 14-months, BaSha still reads books we read to him as a 3-month old. We keep going back to some books. We outgrew some books.
2. Be genuinely interested in reading a book yourself. Your child will pick up on your interest. PaSha and I both not only enjoy reading with BaSha, but are also quite fascinated ourselves with the profound ideas that good children's literature offers for adults as well.
3. Develop your own routine and style of reading. We often read a book bilingually. We read whenever we feel like it- while driving to some place, while feeding BaSha his meals, while changing diapers, or before bedtime. Nonetheless, we try to read with him for about twenty minutes daily. Of course, he also has his phases when he wants to only flip pages, toss books, or do nothing related to reading books. Around such times for instance, we'll probably just use a story BaSha is familiar with as a starting point to create our own stories by mixing characters and events from our lives and different books (for instance, Hooper Humperdink meets BaSha and friends).
4. Offer variety and give choice. We try to select books for BaSha based on a variety of genres, textures, illustrations, authors, events, themes, and concepts. Although we haven't tried different formats yet, we will eventually venture into options such as audiobooks and interactive books. We even gently push his capacity for books beyond his comfort zone to constantly gauge his readiness for newer types of books. BaSha already has his favorites. We always ask him if he would like us to read specific books from the ones he loves, but also keep adding to his repertoire by introducing newer books.
I guess the final thought I'll leave you all with is that it's never too late to start reading. And if you are looking for inspiration, my favorite go-to place is quotes from Dr. Seuss's books. Before you set out out to do a Google search for that, drop in a line to share the children's books you like that were not on this list and ideas that you practice when reading with a child.
I hope I don't take another four years to write my next post :)
It's been terribly long since I wrote my last post. A lot has happened between then and now, the most significant developments being giving birth to my son (BaSha- pseudonym and short for baby Shah) and getting really close to finishing my PhD.
This post is the first one that I am writing sort of on-demand. Recently, I shared with my friends and family over Facebook about signing up BaSha, PaSha and myself for a program at our library that involves reading 1000 books before sonny boy reaches Kindergarten. This generated interest among them, a lot of whom asked me to share a list of books we have in our personal library* for BaSha. I couldn't think of a better way of doing this other than through my very own blog.
Here you go-
1. Beginner Books series
- The big red book of beginner books
- Fox in socks
- The cat in the hat
- The cat in the hat comes back
- The Lorax
- The A book
- The B book
- C is for clown
- Oh the thinks you can think
- Oh say can you say
- There's a wocket in my pocket
- Please try to remember the first of octember
- Wings of things
- Dr. Seuss's ABC
- Hooper Humperdink..not him!
- A fish out of water
- In a people's house
- The eye book
- The foot book
- The nose book
- The tooth book
- The hair book
- The ear book
- Old hat new hat
- And to think that I saw it on Mulberry street
- Green eggs and ham
- Monster munchies
- I can read with my eyes shut
- Hop on pop
- The shape of me and other stuff
- Mr. Brown can moo. Can you?
- The missing dinosaur bone
- Hand hand fingers thumb
- Would you rather be a bullfrog?
2. Books by Eric Carle
- The very hungry caterpillar
- Polar bear, polar bear, what do you hear
- Brown bear, brown bear what do you see
- Aesop's Fables
- The grouchy lady bug
- The tiny seed
- Does a kangaroo have a mother, too?
3. Books from Indian publishers
- Thakitta tharakitta bouncing ball
- I can climb
- To market! To market!
- Rooster Raga
- Where's that cat?
- Let's go!
- Carry me mama
- My house
- Pchak! Pchak!
4. Books by Sandra Boynton
- Opposites
- Are you a cow?
- Dinos to go
- Consider love
- Yay, you!
- Blue hat, green hat
- How do I love you
- I love you through and through
- Froggy gets dressed
- Incredible Inchworm
- The zoo
- One yellow lion
- Jungle colors
- Rabbit's nap
- Where is baby's pumpkin?
- Noisy farm
- That's not my piglet
- Dinner time
- See and spy shapes
- Rupert and the blackberries
- Clifford, the big red dog boardbook
- Good night moon
- Mickey Mouse clubhouse
- Puppy goes searching
- So many places
- Jungle king
- Baby woof woof!
- Show me the honey
- Boy's potty time
- I can go potty
- Farm- touch, feel, and listen
- Words-Lift the tab
- Dear Zoo
- Thomas the tank engine's big blue treasury
- My first abacus book
- Blue ribbon dad
- What the ladybird heard
- Peek-a-boo little roar!
- Bedtime peek-a-boo
- Maisy's pirate treasure hunt
- My big world book
- My big truck book
- Yes- It's bedtime for Bobo
- Look inside truck
- Silly 1 2 3
- My first words
- Bambi
- Wake up
- Five little monkeys
*Thrifty ideas for expanding your book collection- become a member at a library, exchange books with your friends, requesting friends/family with older children to share books they have outgrown, shop for used books for less than $1 at thrift stores and goodwill stores, buy books at book exhibitions and annual sales at libraries.
The post doesn't end here....
This list is by no means representative or exhaustive of the wealth of children's literature that is out there. Additionally, the books mentioned in the list like any other technology will not automatically get your child to read/like reading. At this point, PaSha thinks that my educator-self has taken over me, which is true and unavoidable. So, I'd like to share some big ideas we hold important as a family to foster BaSha's interest in reading-
1. Reading, like any interest matures over time. At 14-months, BaSha still reads books we read to him as a 3-month old. We keep going back to some books. We outgrew some books.
2. Be genuinely interested in reading a book yourself. Your child will pick up on your interest. PaSha and I both not only enjoy reading with BaSha, but are also quite fascinated ourselves with the profound ideas that good children's literature offers for adults as well.
3. Develop your own routine and style of reading. We often read a book bilingually. We read whenever we feel like it- while driving to some place, while feeding BaSha his meals, while changing diapers, or before bedtime. Nonetheless, we try to read with him for about twenty minutes daily. Of course, he also has his phases when he wants to only flip pages, toss books, or do nothing related to reading books. Around such times for instance, we'll probably just use a story BaSha is familiar with as a starting point to create our own stories by mixing characters and events from our lives and different books (for instance, Hooper Humperdink meets BaSha and friends).
4. Offer variety and give choice. We try to select books for BaSha based on a variety of genres, textures, illustrations, authors, events, themes, and concepts. Although we haven't tried different formats yet, we will eventually venture into options such as audiobooks and interactive books. We even gently push his capacity for books beyond his comfort zone to constantly gauge his readiness for newer types of books. BaSha already has his favorites. We always ask him if he would like us to read specific books from the ones he loves, but also keep adding to his repertoire by introducing newer books.
I guess the final thought I'll leave you all with is that it's never too late to start reading. And if you are looking for inspiration, my favorite go-to place is quotes from Dr. Seuss's books. Before you set out out to do a Google search for that, drop in a line to share the children's books you like that were not on this list and ideas that you practice when reading with a child.
I hope I don't take another four years to write my next post :)
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| BaSha, during one of our recent library visits. Just so that you don't judge a book by its cover (pun intended), this photo was taken just before he brought down a sea of books on the floor only to toss them around! |
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