Baby Laptime - SPLASH!

Since I had to work all weekend I wanted to have some special time with my little monkey this morning. So we made the trip to Main Library for Baby Laptime. The theme for today's storytime was SPLASH! and prominantly featured... you guessed it... DUCKS! Talk about creating experiences for your child! As soon as the duck puppet came out Ava started yelling "Duck!" She was in baby story heaven.

She of course loved the duck story and puppet but she relished in the chance to play and explore with the other babies at the end. I am always the proud mama when my child is interacting with others. Ava is such a happy child and it comes through with everything so does. She shares, doesn't throw tantrums, and takes back what is stolen from her.

We will be building our narrative skills as we repeat the fun duck fingerplay that we learned this morning!

Books we added to our duck collection: It's Quacking Time! by Martin Waddell, Do Like a Duck Does by Judy Hindley, and Ducks Like to Swim by Agnes Verboven.

Beach Baby Books

Recently we vacationed to the beach with all the babies - 12 month old Ava and her 9 month old cousins, Nora & Emilia. Along with our sand toys and swimsuits, we took along some of our favorite beach books!

The Smithsonian has recently published My Shell Book and My Beach Book by Ellen Kirk. These books have excellent photographs from the beach and help build Vocabulary skills. Ava was able to see the images in the books and make physical connections to words while we played in the sand and surf.

We also enjoyed Beach Babies Wear Shades by Michelle Sinclair Colman. Another addition to the Urban Babies series that shows the babies loving some beach experiences.

My beach baby refused to wear shades or a hat but she had a great time!

Begin Smart

Begin Smart is an excellent new series of board books amid at our youngest readers (you can find an extensive list at amazon.com - search Keyword: Begin Smart). This series has many great features; the books are compact and easy for the child to handle, they have bold, bright colors, and feature a Ready to Read component. Each book has a note to parents and extension activities that fit perfectly with the 6 Ready to Read skills!

We have been enjoying this series at home and many of my colleagues have started using these books in their storytime line-ups! Our three favorites are Look at Me!, All Gone, and What Does Baby Do?

*Warning: while we encourage babies to chew on books these books tend to damage easily! They are very soft and not as sturdy as traditional board books. In a 10 minute car ride my little monkey ate all the way through to the spine! Her new favorite book, Look at Me!, will now be a permanent part of our at home collection!