For Christmas, Sean Patrick got some great toys for cognitive and gross motor development. The teacher that I am was excited about everything he received from friends and family because I could picture exactly how I was going to teach to that toy/book.
I know I am a nerd and I am probably sucking all the fun out of Christmas, but I was genuinely excited about the things that he got that would maximize our time spent at home. I was also excited about the gifts that were geared around his current interests (like his dump truck) because dramatic play is such a necessary part of his social development as well.
But one thing that I have incorporated into his “schedule” (that I will share soon!), since Christmas, is INTERACTIVE book time. We have reading time a couple times a day, but now I have a purposed time for books like the following, and I will share some ways I am using them now, and how I plan to use them in the future:
1) A counting book that comes with a writing tool
Before reading this,
I take a little picture walk with Sean Patrick and we talk about all the things on the pages that are familiar to him, and I point out things that I know are not and name them. Then, I trace each number with my finger and say it’s name, then take his finger and do the same, and then write the numbers on the etch-a-sketch. In the future, I would have him draw or write a number story about each number and take a picture of each and make our own book out of the pictures.
2) A musically interactive book with a “legend”:
I love this book because the selection of shapes is the legend that you will use as you turn the pages to identify the shapes and then select the matching shape to play the coordinating song. Sean Patrick and I sing the songs with hand-motions that I make up and then I follow my finger along the words to model reading (even though he doesn’t know that words represent meaning yet).
3.) A personalized book:
My dad gave Sean Patrick this book and it has a place on the inside back cover where you place a photo that is used as the face of the child on every page. Personalized books are so meaningful because children are egocentric (even more than adults haha). So books like this make reading comprehension so realistic and applicable.
There are many other types of interactive books but I wanted to share a few that were a part of our Christmas. Enjoy your interactive reading time with your little ones!
