Hellobee Boards

Reading them or eating them? Mine thinks they're delicious

My LO has been interested in them because she is obsessed with turning the pages and opening the flaps (not so much the stories!). She used to sit for a few stories (probably around 10-12 months), and then she wouldn't (probably around 13-14 months--she just wanted me to turn the pages), and now she will bring hubs/myself the book(s) she wants us to read to her (she is 16 months). She also loves to sit close to her books and try to open them/flip through the pages all by herself.

The book Open the Barn Door (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679809015/) TOTALLY got Xander interested in books. He LOVES listening to Hubs or I make the animal noises and be able to open the flaps himself to reveal the animal. Do you have anything like this book? I think this and Peek-a-Boo Forest (www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043D28B4/) are the reason he's not interested in books. The Barn Door book, he'll make us read multiple times in a row. I can tell he's interested because he'll crawl over to it and pick it up and then look at me expectantly. Then I'll put him in my lap and read it and he'll flip open the flaps as we go. Then when we get to the end, he just looks at me until I start reading again.

But other times, he'll pick up a book and I'll take it to start reading it to him, and he just crawls away, so I know he's not really interested. And often when I'm reading something, he just likes flipping the pages and will open and close the book over and over again and I'm not really sure he's interested. But he definitely enjoys turning the pages (I'll get it started for him by separating the next page from the rest and then he'll grab it and turn it himself).

Xander is 10 months and probably started showing an interest (especially in the Barn Door book) around 9 months.

I would say by 12-14 months for LO. We added reading to our bedtime routine when we sleep trained at 6 months old, so he's always had exposure to them. He gets it more and more as he gets older.

@Smurfette: Let me know how it goes!! I should say that most of the time Xander just tries to turn the pages on me and probably isn't actually interested in the story. And he also tries to eat books - that's mainly what he does. But I think having the Barn Book and the Forest book out with his toys has helped him be interested because he can just play with them whenever he pleases.

@Smurfette: One of LO's early favorites was one with real babies "Global Babies" . . . she still loves that book!

http://www.amazon.com/Global-Babies-The-Fund-Children/dp/1580891748

@MsLipGloss: Lorelei LOVES that, even still! We also have "Carry Me" which is sort of similar. And "Hands Can." We just found one called, "Happy Bird Day," by the author of, "Stranger in the Woods," that is a board book with photographs. We put up a bird feeder this fall, and she had fun seeing many of the birds we see visit our feeder in the photographs. I think that books with photographs really appeal to babies.

Also, have you considered making a book for her with pictures you have taken? Lorelei has really liked hers! We just used small picture albums and glued photographs on to sheets of paper with text on them. We would write about things like, "Lorelei's Day," or silly things about the dogs... or if you want to get really fancy you could get something printed by Pinhole Press or somewhere like that. Ellie has a few "books" like that about her, and she still likes to read them (to herself now) at age 6.

C likes eating books and slamming covers shut mostly. He's almost 9 months. He does pay attention to his bedtime book, and he's starting to get really into any "touch and feel" book with textures he can pat.