Look At Me!

This post features a new home made book I created as a "make and take" activity at parent support groups. This book has many features that are appealing to young children:

Mirrors - Babies love looking at pictures of other babies, but they enjoy looking at themselves even more! Mirrors are a great way of helping children become self-aware.

Shapes - Children will learn about a variety of shapes by looking at their relection in the shapes. Learning the names of shapes will help you child take their first steps to becoming a math wiz!

Repetition - We all know that children learn best though repetition. This book was written with simple text to help children understand the relationship between what we say and print.

"Look at me! I'm in a square."
"Look at me! I'm in a circle."

TIP: You can buy mirror paper at your local art supply store on a large roll.

Storytelling for Babies and Toddlers

"Children need lots of experience listening to many kinds of stories such as stories about people's real life experiences, and stories that are made up. Stories that are never written down as just as valuable as stories told from books. Experience with stories helps children understand how words go together, both in sound and in print, to help build meaning".

Source: Macaulay Child Development Centre, From Lullabies to Literacy

We all know that younger children have smaller attention spans. Expecting an infant or toddler to sit through a long fairy tale is setting oneself up for failure. Instead, try developmentally appropriate stories to HELP THEM develop their attention span.

Stories for babies can be as simple as nursery rhymes such as "Hickory Dickory Dock" or "Jack and Jill". You can also tell your baby what you are doing while you do it, "First we'll get the diaper, and then we'll put it on".

Stories for toddlers can be repetitive songs or stories such as "Eensy Weensy Spider" or "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" Alternatively, you can tell stories about when your child was born and how you felt, something you did or liked when you were very young, or when you learned to do something such as tie your shoelaces.

Don't throw out the box!!!

What can you do with an old box? Well, it depends on the size really. The idea shown below is for smaller cube-like boxes. Below you'll see an example of a baby toy I made with some young moms.



First, we put some bells inside the boxes with some paper (to keep it from sounding too hollow). Then, we taped up the boxes really well using packing tape to keep the bell from coming out. Next, we chose what to put on the sides of our cube. There was:

- mirror paper (what baby doesn't love admiring their cuteness in a mirror?)
- a picture of baby
- baby's first name initial
- a picture of mommy and daddy
- a nursery rhyme
- a handprint



Once we got all the sides on, we used packing tape to secure all the sides. It also helped to "laminate" the cube, making it easier to clean when baby chews on it. Babies learn through their senses and this toy is a great way to engage almost all of them!

Taste - Mmm...
Touch - you can roll the cube to your baby, they will touch it!
Hear - hear the bell as the toy rolls
Sight - we chose vibrant (primary colours - blue, red, yellow) and contrasting colours (black and white)

For more information on the 5 senses, click here and you'll link to an older posting.



What are some other things you can do with an old box? It can be of any size.

Starting the day they're born...

This past weekend, I was invited to a baby shower for some close friends. Naturally, as an Early Literacy Specialist, I found it most appropriate to give books. In the words of Mem Fox,



















"The best time to start reading aloud to a baby is the day it is born. The lilting rhythm of a simple bedtime book on that first thrilling, exhausting day is soothing for the tremulous parents and the new child and adds to the bonding between them. It gives them something to "talk about" together. And much to the surprise of most adults, babies love books. They respond to the brightness of the pictures, to the rhythm of the words, and to the presence of a loving adult."

- Reading Magic

I highly recommend reading the book cover to cover if you're got the time. It talks about early literacy in plain and simple language and explains how you can change your child's life by reading to them everyday.

Reading problems are difficult to fix but very easy to prevent. According to Mem Fox, "Children's brains are only 25 percent developed at birth. From that moment, whenever a baby is fed, cuddled, played with, talked to, sung to, or read to, the other 75 percent of its brain begins to develop. And the more stimulation the baby has through its senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing, the more rapidly that development will occur. Reading aloud to children early in life also rapidly develops their speaking skills. Children can not learn to speak unless they are spoken to."

Leave a comnment if you've read the book.

"B" Book for Babies

Looking for a great book for baby?






Characteristics of Great Books for Babies

• Thick sturdy cover and pages
• Small size, for little hands
• Bright colourful pictures (high contrast)
• Simple geometric shapes
• Clear pictures
• Pictures of human faces
• Few words
• Nursery rhymes

The book shown above models the Tana Hoban book White on Black.





Using a die cutter, I cut out several objects, using white construction paper, that begin with the letter B or the sound "buh". This is one of the first sounds that emerge in children. Then, I glued the objects onto black construction paper that was cut into the shape of a house. Then, I laminated the book, punched holes into the left-hand side, and used rings from Staples to bind it together.

Does it have to be black and white?
It is true that objects with patterns having 100% contrast (that is, black-on-white) are the easiest for newborns and young infants to see. However, it is now known that they can distinguish much subtler shades of gray. For example, in the first month babies can distinguish two shades of gray that differ by only 5% in gray level (5% contrast). As good as that is, by 9 weeks of age, infants' contrast sensitivity becomes 10 times better, so that they can see large patterns or objects that have less than 0.5% contrast. This is nearly as good as adult contrast sensitivity (0.2%). This means is that by about 2 months of age your baby is capable of perceiving almost all of the subtle shadings that make our visual world so rich, textured and interesting: shadings in clouds, shadows that are unique to your face; even see a white teddy bear on a white couch!

Source: The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute
http://www.ski.org/Vision/babyvision.html#are_black