Reading Over and Over and Over.....

One young man that I visit (26 months old) shares my passion for books and reading! I bring in the same book for a month at a time, as well as reviewing the selection from the month before as well. I do this so that the child is re-reading the same book weekly, over a long period of time. This helps children to become confident because they can anticipate what is going to happen, and are familiar enough with the pictures and fun actions that they can "read" the book to us in a similar way that we do for him. It is fun to watch as they develop a love and an attachment to a particular book through re-reading. RH already had a great love of books and reading, and while shy and intimidated the first few times, through a book he becomes so enthusiastic about doing the motions and pointing out his favorite characters. After a few weeks of reading Eric Carle's Head to Toe, he began doing the animal "CAN DO's" (as we call them) when he sees any of the animals featured in the books. For example, we were using play dough and he found a giraffe cookie cutter, he got very excited and began "bending his neck", just as the giraffe "CAN DO"! Mom was so excited that he was remembering the details from the book, and associating the actions with each particular animal, and remarked that he does this OFTEN! Just this week he noticed a book that I had sitting next to me as we were finishing up an activity and immediately recognized it as the one that we had started reading the week before. He suddenly got very excited and said "FLY, FLY??", and started sticking his tongue out. His Mom and I were kind of confused until he reached over and pointed to the book The Mixed Up Chameleon. We were so excited because we had only read a few times that one day a week earlier, and he immediately recognized the cover and remembered how the chameleon had eaten the fly with his tongue! Mom has commented that she has really enjoyed seeing how much he enjoys book reading, and feels so encouraged to re-read the same books over and over, even when she herself is so tired of them, because she sees the impact that it makes and its true value! I really look forward to reading to him, and sharing with him brand new books to enjoy!
JT