Being able to spend all day every day with Annie is such an incredible blessing! She is my partner in crime and we do absolutely everything together. I am beginning to see different interests of hers start to bloom and I can’t wait to find out what she is truly passionate about. If she is anything like her mom, I’m thinking she too will have a deep love for getting lost in a good book.
I hear all the time how important it is to read to your children every single day. With an on-the-go toddler, let’s be honest, it is easier said than done. But we certainly do try, even if we only get a couple of pages in each night. Today, I’m teaming up with IncrediBundles, the home of extraordinary baby gifts, & chatting about how we find the time to read each day. I’m also rounding up a few of our favorite books at the moment!
Before Annie was born, we had zero children’s books in our little library. Why would we? But I knew growing our collection and having shelves bursting with books was important to me. One of the best things my friend did for my baby shower was ask that each guest include a book instead of a card with their gift. So we ended up with 20 new books that day to add to Annie’s collection! Books make the greatest gift for baby showers, birthdays and every occasion in between!
I love that IncrediBundlesmakes gift giving fun, easy & adds a little bit of something extra-special to each gift. They offer shoppers an assortment of award-winning children’s books, toys & more – all shipped in stylish reusable containers that are honestly just as fun as the books themselves! (Just ask any toddler!)
With many different bundles of books & baby gifts to choose from, gift giving is made easy with IncrediBundles. You can choose themed bundles for sleep, bath, diapers, reading & learning + growing. You can even create your own if you’re feeling up to it! That’s what I ended up doing – building a bundle.
I scoured through the collection of books and picked a few that I absolutely adored as a child and some new ones that were too tempting not to try. Hello, Dragons Love Tacos!? This one simply had to be part of our library! And The Mitten was always one of my favorites as a kid. I love the pictures within a picture hidden in each of the pages.
my dress is from Sonnet James & Annie’s floral dress is from Smockingbird
Even if it’s just a handful of pages before bedtime, reading to toddlers sets the foundation for independent reading later. It also helps with language, growing vocabulary, alphabet recognition and phonetic awareness. Basicalllllly all things that are good for a growing human kiddo!
We’ve found that reading books together on the floor, surrounded by pillows & stuffed animals, of course, holds Annie’s attention just a little bit longer than when we’re in the glider. Right now, she’s also really into smaller board books as opposed to the big picture-filled ones. She will even pick up the smaller books and flip through the pages herself – which is truly magical to see!
A few tips I’ve picked up along the way that help to encourage toddlers to sit still with a good book are:
- Talk about and point to the illustrations
- Ask open-ended questions about the plot
- Read more expressively, the high & low pitches of your voice will captivate them even more!
- But also ready slowly
- And encourage play: clapping, singing & finger playing with props or just your hands
What are your favorite books to read to your little one? Or does he or she have a personal favorite that you read over and over and over? To help grow your child’s library, I’m thrilled to be teaming up with IncrediBundles to share a $50 gift card to shop the site! I’ll be posting the giveaway on instagram later this afternoon, so stay tuned!
And big thanks to IncrediBundles for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own. Thanks to you guys for supporting the brands that make Lone Star Looking Glass possible.
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xo, alice
