“A book can change a child’s life. A book can change the world. Every book a child reads creates new neurons in that child’s brain. If you want intelligent children, give them books. If you want more intelligent children, give them more books!”

Jackie French, Senior Australian of the year 2015

Toddlers love books! During these long cold winter days, we spend a lot of time reading books in the toddler community. Toddlers have absorbent minds. They absorb everything. They use the information/environment around them to make sense of the world. They become the things they see. This is one of the reasons why we keep to real themes in our choice of books here at school. Photographic, faces, animals, vehicles, realistic books. We also look for many types of books – big, small, board, soft covered, poetry, rhyming. Books like wheels on the bus, and head, shoulders, knees, and toes. At home it’s nice to have available a small amount of books freely accessible to your child at all times. This could be as simple as a basket near their bed holding three or so books. They can easily be rotated one or two at a time. Some other types of books that are popular with our toddlers are lift the flap books, books with beautiful illustrations and counting or alphabet books.
For children, reading is so much more that a book, it’s about human connections, relationships, voices, and rhythm. It’s also a wonderful thing when siblings can share books with each other. So next time you are looking for something to do with your toddler, maybe cuddle up on the couch and read a book!

Conferences are coming up soon. Please visit our website to sign up for one. Also the weather should be warming up soon and we should be heading outside more often. Please continue to send all outdoor gear with your child as the playground will still be wet and messy.

erin