Whoo Hoo! At 8:08 pm, May 23, 2016 Elijah joined us in this world. I have seen a picture or two. He is so beautiful! He is health baby boy weighing in at 8 lbs. 5 oz. and 21 inches in length! I am so happy for my niece and nephew. Take a look! That is the bookshelf that is waiting for him!
In case you are late in joining me on this adventure, I started this blog because of this baby. I bought too many books for his baby shower present. I needed to tell his Mama and Daddy about why I bought each and every one of them so I wrote him a book. It was so much fun writing the book, I decided to blog! Sounds a bit like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie doesn’t it? Interesting how one thing leads you to another.
Here’s a question for you? How young is too young to be read to? In my opinion, no age is too young. I have a memory of my husband, Jim reading to our daughter, Sarah. She is newly home from the hospital. He liked to be efficient. In my memory they are snuggled up in our big recliner. He is reading to her from his current book, Ringworld by Larry Niven. It was a 2-fer, as we say in Texas. It was an efficient combination of reading to the baby and working in his own reading time.
I loved snuggling up with both my girls, reading things I liked and reading things I thought they might like. We read to them right from the beginning.
Guess what? The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees with me (not that I was worried)! I came across an article on NPR titled “Never to Young: Pediatricians Say Parents Should Read to Infants”. Check it out: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/06/24/325177669/never-too-young-pediatricians-say-parents-should-read-to-infants. Here’s a key point from this article:
“Children whose parents read to them get a head start on language skills and literacy, as well as lovely cuddle time with Mom or Dad. But many children miss out on that experience, with one-third of children starting kindergarten without the language skills they need to learn to read.”
A piece of advice I would give my niece and nephew and any new parent is read to your baby early and often. Not only is it good for your child, but it creates lovely memories!
Here’s something I wrote to Elijah. I hope that he has all these wonderful reading memories.
“We want you to remember the way it feels to snuggle with your Mama or your Daddy, while you listen to one of their sweet voices reading you to sleep. The way it feels to laugh, when you read a silly story for yourself. The secret joy it is to read covertly under the covers with a flashlight when you are supposed to be asleep. The guilty pleasure you feel when you look up from finishing a thrilling novel and realize that it is 2 am and you have to get up and go to work the next day.”
Welcome to the world, Baby Elijah and Happy Reading!
withagoodbook 
Elijah your Aunt Rene’ also agrees whole heartedly! A house can never have too many books, and you can never start reading too early! In Kindergarten it is easy to see who the students are whose parents read to them. They tend to have earlier and larger verbal skills and read and write ahead of their peers. READREAD
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