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It’s never too soon to instill in your children a love of books and reading. Of course, when they are infants, that love begins with the sound of your voice! Reading aloud is important to the development of your child’s hearing and recognition of basic phonetic sounds which will later assist in language development.

As your child gets older, reading aloud assists them in learning new words as well as understanding different situations and characters. Hearing new stories also helps them make the connection between their experiences and the experiences of the characters in the book, which in turn helps the child to develop feelings of empathy for others. Knowing all this, take the time read aloud to your child every day.

Here are some recommendations for books for infants and younger toddlers. I’ve read many of these books to my children and still do!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Author: Bill Martin Jr, Illustrator: Eric Carle

This is a wonderful book! The repetitive text, vibrant full page illustrations and the element of “surprise” makes this book a classic for infants and toddlers alike. It is also helpful for learning colors and animals.

Golden Bear

Author: Ruth Young, Illustrator: Rachel Isadora

A lovely story about a boy and his adored stuffed teddy bear will help children to recognize that everyone has a favorite toy or doll. The large illustrations are perfect for the little ones and all children will love the depiction of familiar situations.

Goodnight Moon

Author: Margaret Wise Brown, Illustrator: Clement Hurd

Now who doesn’t love Goodnight Moon? I’ve read it so much to my children that not only can they recite it along with me, but I’ve nearly memorized the entire story. This is a great story to help reluctant little ones say “goodnight”.

Moo, Baa, La La La

Author/Illustrator: Sandra Boynton

My children love Sandra Boynton. We have most of her books, and apparently many of her books have been set to music. This is a simple book with funny rhymes and even funnier pictures. I do have this one memorized and I used to recite it to my daughter to calm her when she was around 9-10 months old.

Peekaboo Morning

Author/Illustrator: Rachel Isadora

What a cute, simple book! A little boy plays “peekaboo” with various toys and people around his house. This is a book to read aloud for sure and the illustrations are lovely.

Most of these books are available either from a local bookstore or of course can be ordered online at major book retailers. My recommendation as a frugal mom is to check out www.alibris.com or www.half.com to find these books at a discounted rate.

Happy reading!

Christine Lowe Woolard is an at-home mom of three, a former educator and current natural bath and body maker. Check out her site at www.sheaproducts.info.

Growing up, what was one thing that had a huge impact on your learning experience? For me, hands down it was the Math Blaster computer game by Knowledge Adventure. I loved that game as a kid. I look back on my days in elementary school when the class would visit the library, and we’d all get on the computers (those really old Macs with the black background and green letters; remember those?) and play Math Blaster. Once I got started, I never wanted to stop! Math Blaster made learning math so much fun, and I owe my love of mathematics all to that game!

Knowledge Adventure, the company that created Math Blaster, has an array of Educational Software for children of all ages. Through various formats including computer games, CDs, DVDs, and workbooks, children can learn the basics and advanced teachings of many subjects including Reading, Math, Social Studies, Languages, and Art/Music. Although I haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy any games or products by Knowledge Adventure other than Math Blaster, the learning experience that Math Blaster has given me and the impact that it has made on my life even today shows me that Knowledge Adventure truly excels in teaching children and making learning enjoyable.

As Jayden grows older, the question arises of what methods Mommy and I should use to introduce him to learning. Throughout the various ways of teaching him the fundamentals of subjects such as reading and writing, we aren’t quite sure which ones are ineffective as he is our first child. Thinking back to what methods were ultimately effective for us when we were younger is something we could try. I can definitely see him in the future telling his son what an impact Math Blaster has had on him also!