This year The Children’s Book Council of Australia celebrates its 70th anniversary.
When should we start reading to our children?
Some say since day one, I would say even earlier. I can still remember how the sound of my voice was soothing for my children inside my womb. Even if I felt silly at times reading out loud books on economics! They were listening to me, my voice, the rhythm of the words.
Education starts at home and we offer a variety of resources that might inspire you, such as DVDs with tales, CDs with rhymes, audiobooks, and of course books.
Children should be shown books every day. It does not matter if they are not interested today, they will be fascinated tomorrow.
Introduce books with different colours, shapes, textures. Make it more interesting. Start by describing what you both see with few words, for example ‘look! it is a cat’. Then later expand, ‘it is a grey cat playing with a white ball’. Not only children will increase their vocabulary but they will be great observers too.
If you speak a language other than English at home, as I do, do not let this hinder the above process. The skills your child will gain in your home language will be easily transferable in English. He will go to school here so no matter what, he will learn English. Focus on your home language, if he is good at describing in Spanish, he will be good at it in English too.
And finally enjoy the quality time with your little one and happy reading!
A few suggestions:
Get the children to manipulate and play with the books. For example, let them draw, erase and draw again and again with ‘Dibujame las caras de la Caperucita‘ and ‘Libro de plastico de los piratas‘. The latter book is made of plastic and can be taken to the beach or in the bath.
Offer a variety of colours and graphics with ‘Cual es este animal de bosque?‘
Tales to watch ‘La ratita presumida cuento DVD‘ or tales and rhymes to listen ‘30 comptines & conte de legende: Le Petit Prince‘.
Rhymes to sing and read ‘Row, row, row your boat‘ (Chinese and Italian editions).
Books that play music ‘Os instrumentos musicais‘.
Let their little fingers follow the shapes and lift up flaps ‘Chemin de doigt, les bebes animaux’.
Children are naturally curious, let’s encourage them with ‘Cherche et trouve a la ferme’, ‘Pequeno Buba busca su elefante‘, ‘Espreita o Mundo dos Dinossauros‘, ‘Montagna con alette da sollevare‘.
Let them play with words ‘Jeux de lettres garçon‘.
Book for the pram ‘Mein erstes buggybuch: Meine liebsten spielsachen‘
Books to learn ‘Wehr macht was auf dem Bauernhof?’
Pop up books ‘Os pinguins e as cores‘ or with different colours and shapes ‘Vermelho como….‘, ‘Clack clack Ape‘, ‘En route pour l’ecole‘.
We have many more in different languages, email us for more information.
