When I first found out I was pregnant with Kaylee, one of the first things I started to do was build up a collection of children's books, I wanted to share the ones I remember as a kid and remember reading to my two younger sisters when they we're little. Among these were 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', 'The Cat in The Hat' and 'Funnybones', all classics I'm sure you'll agree. So I started to read to the bump from pretty early on! It was fantastic and gave me a real chance to bond with my little bug.
Kaylee is now two and adores her books, she'll read several books over the course of one day and has at least two stories before bedtime each night. Yes, she is a little bookworm!! Now she's 2 I've been busy trying to change her room from the nursery into a little girls room and one of the recent things I've done for her is to create a 'reading' corner. We purchased some paper mache letters from Hobbycraft and decoupaged them with tissue paper to spell out the work READ amounted it on the wall as a piece of art. We also got one of the inflatable Ladybirds from Ikea, but instead of using the air element we've filled it with bean bag beans making it a comfy place for Kaylee to sit with her books while she enjoys reading to herself and her toys! Her bookshelf was made by her Grumps (Grandad) and is filled with all her favourites!
I thought I'd share a couple of those favourites with you! First of all is 'The Gruffalo' by Julia Donaldson. This has been a favourite since she was very little and nowadays she joins in with the story describing the Gruffalo as we go along; with his terrible teeth and terrible claws, his knobbly knees and turned out toes and even his purple prickles!! As a parent I just love Julia Donaldson's stories. They are so imaginative and have a lovely rhyming style to them that makes them so very easy to read! I must confess that we actually have all of her books to date, many in not only hardback/paperback but also in board book format and some even in their 'sound book' format too!!
One of my other favourites by Julia Donaldson is 'Night Monkey, Day Monkey'. As a parent who often works night shift we use this one to help explain that I'm sleeping during the day and quite often when I come home from a shift in the morning I'll be greeted with 'Hello Night Monkey'!
We discovered 'Owl Babies' when we were in holiday in Spain in an english newsagents and it has become a firm favourite with Kaylee ever since. Again its another good story to help explain that I'm off to work at night but just like the Owl Mother will be back in the morning!!!
For reading by herself she can't get enough of the 'That's Not My...' books. She loves all the touchy feely bits and the simple style of them means she's picked up the basic story really easily.
I'm very happy my love of books has rubbed off onto my little girl... she has a whole world of adventures open to her now!!
