nospam99 Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 (edited) - Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny - The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, The Lorax - any other Dr Seuss And playing with the anklebiters: rattles, balls, soft blocks, peekaboo, this little piggie, flying baby (you don't want to know ) Walking them back to sleep in a sling at 1am singing One Hundred Bottles of Milk ... Where Are You Going My Little One (tearing up - I'd better stop) Edited September 21, 2019 by a LoveShack.org Moderator Link to post Share on other sites
Veronica73 Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Horton Hears a Who! Link to post Share on other sites
alphamale Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Horton Hears a Who is a good one by Dr. Seuss Link to post Share on other sites
CautiouslyOptimistic Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 The Very Hungry Caterpillar The Day the Babies Crawled Away Anything by Sandra Boynton Link to post Share on other sites
Happy Lemming Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 "Fox in Socks" by Dr. Seuss I remember many, many years ago reading this to my little nephew and he would roar with laughter as I got tongue tied trying to read it. And "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" also by Dr. Seuss Link to post Share on other sites
major_merrick Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 I read things to my kids that are very different from the norm, I guess. But I'm not surprised. I never really understood reading the Dr. Seuss "nonsense literature." And so many books for little kids are really odd and absurdly happy. You know the style, "The Super-Positive Little Gopher" or whatever. (Yeah, I just made that up, but you get the point.) For my babies, I tend to read adult material. They don't understand much anyways, so they are just getting used to my presence, adult words, and the sound of my voice. So even something advanced like Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America is a decent choice. Since my older child is a year old now and starting to talk, I use history books meant for younger children. My mother-in-law has a massive collection of stuff meant for kindergarten and elementary ages. I figure that if I'm reading, I should be educating. My mother didn't read to me at all and barely paid attention to me, so I'd like to get my kids a head start in learning what the world is all about instead of being behind when they get to school. I'm also not just reading to my kids but to my husband's other kids as well, so having something that's a bit ahead of where my kids are means that the others are getting something too. My husband doesn't get much chance to read to his kids. But he tells stories! When I've looked up the origins of some of his stories, I found that a lot of them are from Aesop's Fables or The Book of Virtues. I guess he heard them often enough as a child that he can tell them by memory. Lots of his stories have a moral point, which I think is good. He usually tells stories to all the kids at night sitting with them on the living room floor. Or sometimes he'll tell stories of his childhood, or "slightly embellished" tales of his ancestors. I know there are books of fairy tales, but I never really understood where to get them or how to get kids to relate to them (and some fairy tales are just plain odd, really.) My husband again has lots of those stories memorized, but I guess he must have heard them or read them somewhere. Anybody got sources? Link to post Share on other sites
Artdeco Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 M_M, The Fairy Tales from The Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen are magnificent, and I agree, Dr. Seuss is completely overrated. I have no idea how these books got so popular. Everything is completely made up, and even though I don’t mind fantasy and make-believe, ugh - the language is just so messed up and it makes no sense, it’s just a grammar and vocabulary disaster ........ I would be worried about my kids if I read that to them. Link to post Share on other sites
BaileyB Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Brown Bear brown Bear by Eric Carle Boo Hoo Bird and Grumpy bird by Jeremy Tankard Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell The very Itchy Bear by Nick Bland Mortimer, paper bag princess, I have to go, Thomas snowsuit, anything by Robert Muncsh There are so many wonderful children’s books, but these are my favourites. Link to post Share on other sites
amaysngrace Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Corduroy was always a hit with my kids and you can’t go wrong with Little Golden Books. Link to post Share on other sites
BaileyB Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Dr. Seuss is completely overrated. I have no idea how these books got so popular. I think dr Seuss books were a novelty for the time. And as such, they are nostalgic for many people. These days, there are so many other and much better options. Although, Green Eggs and Ham and Oh the Places You Will Go are among my favourite. Link to post Share on other sites
BaileyB Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Another option are books that have no words - Hug and Higher being two of my favourite. The parent looks at the pictures with the child and tells their own story... Link to post Share on other sites
amaysngrace Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 The Cat In The Hat was always my favorite Link to post Share on other sites
Author nospam99 Posted September 22, 2019 Author Share Posted September 22, 2019 What I observed by reading 'nonsense' children's books to 'my three sons' when they were toddlers was that they seemed to be stimulated by the rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration. It wasn't that the books made a lot of sense, but that they encouraged the boys to speak and grow their vocabulary. I also think that the reading encouraged parent-child bonding. Maybe All the President's Men would have sufficed. Parents can argue about whether speech and bonding are appropriate developmental milestones for the 1 to 3 y/os. I think they were. I held off on discussions (no books met my criteria) about how crappy the real world is and how disingenuous many adults are until my sons were 7 and 8. Now that they're grown, it's almost scary the extent to which they have assimilated my values. But for the 'little ones' who can't read themselves, obviously I vote to maintain innocence for as long as possible. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Art_Critic Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Pete the Cat was always good... Link to post Share on other sites
BaileyB Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 If I may, the books I listed above were recommended by early childhood educators and speech language pathologists. These books are beloved because they teach concepts that are age appropriate and the repetitive, rhythmical way that the books are written promotes language learning. That’s what I mean when I say - books have come a long way... At one, you better believe that your child is learning language. They are developing cognitive and language skills and while it’s wonderful that you are reading to them, because having parents who read to their child is a HUGE predictor if future academic success, WHAT you are reading is also very important. If these books seem “happy” and “nonsense” to you, please consider the fact that they are all written that way for a very good reason... 1 Link to post Share on other sites
BaileyB Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Pete the Cat was always good... Pete the Cat is the best!! Especially if you get a chance to listen to the audio version of the book with the singing rhymes... the kids love it! (as do I, it stays in your head all day). Link to post Share on other sites
spiderowl Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 I liked Five Minutes' Peace about the elephant family of Mr and Mrs Large. The pictures in there are wonderful and the stories are so telling of family life. Postman Pat of course. Alright so he might be a stereotype but the stories are nice and the pictures of the Yorkshire Dales countryside remind me of home. The Laura Ingalls Wilder books, like Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie. I found them fascinating. The Allen and Ahlberg Books, such lovely poems and beautiful pics. Peepo is a favourite. Link to post Share on other sites
mrs rubble Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 I recently bought my husbands nieces "I think my bum is broken" so funny!! Link to post Share on other sites
BlindsidedTwice Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 My son's current favorite is The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. He also thinks The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak is hilarious. Link to post Share on other sites
GorillaTheater Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 My kids' favorites when very young: "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown Absolutely anything by Sandra Boynton "Spooky Old Tree" by the Berenstains "Green Eggs and Ham" When they got a little older, they loved the "Hank the Cow Dog" books. Link to post Share on other sites
alphamale Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume (1972) Link to post Share on other sites
Tamfana Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. Link to post Share on other sites
CautiouslyOptimistic Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 I recently bought my husbands nieces "I think my bum is broken" so funny!! That reminded me of another one....Parts by Tedd Arnold. Silly and cute . 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Art_Critic Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 My son loved the series Dog Man, Dav Pilkey.. he also wrote the Captain Underpants books.. These weren't books we read him but books he read himself when he was younger...easy to read and funny... Link to post Share on other sites
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