As we've mentioned before, we believe strongly in reading to children as young as possible. Reading simple books to infants not only helps to develop their speech comprehension and visual acuity, but is also a great bonding experience.
We began reading to our daughter shortly after she was born. In a naive and failed attempt at establishing some sort of sequence of events that would result in sleeping at night, we came up with a bedtime routine that included a nightly bath and storytime before bed. While this certainly didn't result in anything near what could be considered sleeping through the night, it did give us a guaranteed part of the day that we all looked forward to. A variety of daily tasks have obviously changed as our daughter has grown, but after two and half years, we are still reading together every night without fail.
Our daughter is a creature of habit and is also very particular in how she wants things to happen (what two year old isn't!) and our family storytime is no different. For quite a long stretch, her pattern was to want Kate to read a story or two to her, then Drew could read a couple. then back to Kate. She has simplified this recently however as it is now Drew who kicks things off with two or three stories followed by Kate for the rest. Whatever the particular pattern is at the time, it is a part of the day that we all love and look forward to. Just the other night Drew messed up a bit of a tongue twister resulting in fits of laughter for all involved. No matter how hard the day has been, everyone's worries and cares are forgotten and we lose ourselves in the magical stories and simply enjoy each other's company.
Now, we would like to hear from you - what are some of your routines or traditions when it comes to reading together or buying/borrowing books?
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