Are you looking for ways to get your toddler more interested in reading? Do you see other moms on social media and compare your children’s development to theirs?
If either of these questions comes to you … you are at the right place! I’m a mom and teacher with a LOVE of teaching reading to babies, toddlers, and children. I’m excited to help you learn new ways to introduce books to your toddler. That’s why today I’m writing all about reading tips for toddler moms.
When I talk about “reading tips for toddlers”, I am not talking about your toddler sitting down with a brand new book and reading it word for word. I’m talking about your child sitting on your lap and listening to new stories, your child sitting and talking about a book independently, or even telling you about a story they have memorized.
Both of my children love books, they are apart of our household and daily routine. This has allowed both of them to “read” (memorize) books before the age of 2. It has expanded their vocabulary, supported language comprehension, helped teach them their letters, and letter sounds.
If you would like to learn how we taught our children their letters before age 2, please check out the post below:
The first thing I would encourage you is to stop comparing yourself to other children on social media, friends, or even children that are at childcare. Your child (just like every other child) are on their own developmental path.
As a teacher I can assure you that children come into kindergarten with a variety of different skills and abilities. What a teacher will notice the most is how your child interacts with other children and follows along with classroom expectations.
As always, if you are concerned about your child’s development whether its socially, emotionally, mentally, verbally, or physically be sure to talk to your child’s pediatrician.
In this post, you’ll learn 10 tips for getting your toddler more engaged in books and reading!
1. Put Books at Their Eye Level
The bookshelves on the wall (like the one pictured below) are beautiful and make great home decor. I especially love it in a nursery or toddler’s room. This promotes that reading and books are important.
However it’s just as important to keep books at your child’s eye level. To do this throughout our home we have a book box in our living room, and in my youngest son’s room. In the front or family room we keep their books in the TV stand. In my older son’s room I keep his book in a horizontal 8-cube shelve along with other toys.
The boys know where the books are in each room and regularly refer back to them. This helps to provide “something” to do and keeps it in eyesight for them.
2. Make it Part of Your Routine
If you are struggling to get reading into your daily routine, find a time to do it everyday with your kids. We don’t do books at bedtime in our home. Instead we read books throughout the day like after childcare, right after bath time, and on the weekend first thing in the morning.
Let me know when you read with your kids in the comment below, I’d love to hear!
3. Play with Books
Are you making books part of playtime?! I love this idea for toddlers! My toddler loves his first-word books and I love using them for pretend. I will say “yum!” and talk about the different tastes, textures, and colors of the food. I like to pretend I’m “eating” it.
My son is very into cars, trains, trucks, and anything with wheels. So I love using his books with transportation to pretend they are driving.
4. Provide Engaging Books for Them
There are so many amazing books on the market for kids to get them engaged in reading. Including books with lift-the-flaps, sensory engagement, and sound buttons to push! If you are looking for more engaging books for toddlers, don’t forget to check out my list below:
5. Leave Out the Same Books for Months at a Time
I purposely leave out the same books for months at a time. Children love and thrive on repetition (in fact as a teacher sometimes I would get bored with the routine- but my students always thrived on it). However, this repetition is no different when it comes to their books and stories. My kids love me to read to them again and again (until they have memorized every page).
This is wonderful for their memory, listening comprehension (ability to understand spoken words), and routine. As your child gets older around 10-12 months you should be able to ask them about the book “where are the cookies?” and they will be able to point to them. That’s a great benefit of hearing the same story repeated.
6. Read with Inflection in Your Voice
You want your children to actually sit and listen to you read a book? Then make the book come alive!
Let me tell you a quick story:
My mom and I went out for a day of shopping with my then 18 month old. We were in Target and he was playing with a plastic dump truck from Bullseye’s Playground. It was close to the end of our shopping and he was starting to act like well, a tired, overstimulated, and probably hungry toddler.
Have no fear- the truck was there! I made up a whole scene about how the driver was driving the truck around the site and picking up dirt, boulders, and rocks to take to another site. I had a “deep” voice for the truck driver, and a “rumble rumble” voice for the truck moving along the road.
My toddler completely forgot that we were even in Target. He was emmersed into another world of a construction site! He wasn’t whining, crying, or asking for snacks. Instead he was engaged and playing in an imaginative world that we had created.
I love books because they can show your toddler how that can happen. They can allow them to learn, explore, and create a new world to make up imaginative play later.
My toddler hadn’t been to a construction site- I don’t think he’s ever even seen a dump truck in action. But we had read about it and he knew enough about how the truck was working to make the story continue on his own.
So read to your toddler in a way that shows the story coming to life if you are reading about a frog and a princess, change your voice to say the princess’s lines and again to read the frog’s lines.
Even if you are a “bad actor” your toddler won’t care (or know the difference) but they will love that you are helping them imagine and create!
7. Provide Books about Their Interests
My oldest son’s favorite books as a baby through the first about a year-and-a-half were pretty similar to my youngest son’s. They both loved Peekaboo Baby lift-the-flap books, ABC books, first word books, and other chunky board books that they could hold.
However, around the 15-18 month range, my boys started picking up on their own interests. Some of them overlap but not everything. I find that the best way to keep them engaged in books is to use their interests as the catapult to the books I buy and keep out around our home.
8. Let Your Toddler Pick the Book to Read
Toddlers …. they have a mind of their own! At least mine does! He knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to ask for it!
So you provide good, quality books, place them around your home in areas where they see them and interact. Then, let them decide what book to read today. If there is a book you want to read, suggest it.
If they deny it you can try reading it anyway (sometimes this works) or just place it in with their favorite books. We have a rule in our home that we won’t read the same book twice in a row which seems to help and allows us to get to more/different books.
9. Talk About the Pictures
Talk about the pictures with your child. In fact, talking about the pictures is one of the most important things you can do as a toddler mom. This is a great way for toddlers to learn language and vocabulary as they are just beginning to learn how to talk.
As your child gets older you’ll be able to ask them “point to the sandwich” and they will be able to find it on the page. This is because you showed them and talked about the pictures with them from an early age.
If you are looking for more benefits of picture books for older children the “Reading Partners” has a blog post all about it you can find, here.
10. Look at & Discuss Text Everywhere!
In the early years of literacy children are trying to figure out what the symbols in their world mean like; numbers, letters, road signs, food labels, restaurant and store signs. The more you point out text within their world the more connections they’ll make about it.
My one-year-old knows that the Kroger sign is blue and can spot it out of a shopping center because of the swirl of the logo design. However, in the next year I hope he’ll begin to recognize the exact letters within the word that it starts with a “K”.
The point is the more text exposure and the more ways you can bring “reading” into your day the more your child is going to pick up on letters, sounds, and how words work.
There you have 10 reading tips for toddler moms! I hope you found these tips helpful and hopefully you’ll have a “reader” on your hands soon.
Love, Ashley E
One Response
Thank-you for ways I can incorporate books with my grandchildren. I certainly want to help increase their vocabulary and we enjoy books. Thank you for helping children learn the value of books as they learn about their world.