The habits to stimulate reading in children begin from the day of their gestation, since the idea that babies can listen even within the womb, makes it possible and very interesting that we can begin their motivation and their approach to reading since before birth . Also keep in mind that, while the baby is forming in the belly, the only thing he hears is the voice of his mother, and it is not little, since they remain in the gut for nine months.
Thus, once the babies are born, Mom’s reassuring voice will be the one that they will instantly recognize , and will make them feel safe as they felt during all that development time. And this is precisely what makes it interesting that we can read to children from the beginning, something that a mother certainly knows well. But this does not mean that once they are born, you have to abandon the habit, but quite the opposite, stay with it throughout its development and even increase it.
For example, try to always read to your little one before going to sleep at night, and remember that repetition makes habit and later leads to habit . We will take care of helping you by providing you with ideal stories for children between 0 and 1 year old and for children between 1 and 2 years old . You just have to choose the book that you like the most and start reading and developing your children’s imagination every day!
Ideal stories for children between 0 and 2 years old
- Stories for children from 0 to 1 year
In this first stage the books must meet certain characteristics, and one of them is that it must be a short story . Children this age do not pay attention for more than 5 minutes at a time, so you should not overwhelm them with very long stories.
The most recommended stories are calm and soft children’s songs, or sweet poems that highlight the love of their parents, reciting them close to their ear in the form of a whisper. There are specialized titles in this phase, such as:
- From the cradle to the moon (it is a book to count and sing).
- Children’s songbook (it houses popular and lap songs as well as chants).
- “Touch touch” for children over six months (stimulates texture while presenting bright colors in your illustrations).
- Tralalí, let’s go to sleep! (a book for over six months, especially to stimulate the first babbling from the imitation of sounds).
- Stories for children from 1 to 2 years
In the second phase it is necessary to stimulate reading by incorporating books featuring animals , for example. In this way the child can visually identify them and imitate their sounds . At the same time, they can understand that both humans and animals are capable of understanding, speaking and feeling in the same way, stimulating in them sensitivity and many other interesting values, such as empathy . Among the most prominent we name the following:
- El pollo pepe (it is a manipulable book full of color rather than letters, making it ideal to count and manipulate over and over again).
- Dear zoo (where the little ones are given the opportunity to meet all the animals and incorporate adjectives to expand their vocabulary).
- The gluttonous little caterpillar (a classic of any children’s library, where the transformation from the caterpillar to a butterfly is discussed and takes the opportunity to talk about food, numbers, weeks and cycles).
And remember that it does not matter how many times you repeat the same story (sometimes children even insist on it), since the really important thing is that you stimulate the reading habit of your children, grandchildren or nephews from an early age. Have you already visited our main page of the Forest to discover our loads of stories for children and poems ?
We will wait for you!
