Reading with Little Miss Muffet: March 2015

New Book Behaviors

• Finishing sentences. Little Miss Muffet has a few favorite words in her vocabulary now, and when we read to her, my husband and I will occasionally pause and prompt her to fill in a missing word by pointing to its picture. Sometimes she gets distracted by something more interesting and leaves us hanging, but most of the time, she happily says the right word, then laughs to show how pleased she is to participate.
• Interacting with lift-the-flap books. Lots of Little Miss Muffet's lift-the-flap books are simple hide-and-seek stories which pose yes or no questions, such as "Is Mommy behind the chair?" In the past couple of weeks, Miss Muffet has started shaking her head and saying "No," as she lifts each flap. (She doesn't quite know what to do yet when the answer is not no, but we'll get there!) 

Three Current Favorites 

Miss Muffet's basket was overflowing with way too many books this past month, so it was hard to tell which ones were her true favorites. Only three really stand out as memorable, as they are the ones she consistently brings to me and demands to hear.

• Richard Scarry's Best Word Book EverWe've only owned this book for a few days, but it is an endless source of entertainment. We got the original 1963 edition from a used book store, and Miss Muffet can't get enough of pointing out the objects she knows and asking to know the names of unfamiliar ones. So far, we've spent a lot of time naming zoo animals, kitchen gadgets, clothing, and vehicles, and there are still entire pages we haven't even touched.
• Little Lions by Jim Arnosky Another used book, this one was a story time favorite when I was working. It's a very simple story about two baby mountain lions cuddling and playing with their mother on a ledge. The illustrations are all pretty similar, but Miss Muffet gets the biggest kick out of pointing to the cubs and to the butterflies that fly above them in some of the illustrations.
• Bugs by Andrews McMeel PublishingThis board book came from the library, and it is the book which first prompted Miss Muffet to pretend to fly like a butterfly, a motion which she now also does with her little stuffed butterfly. Having this book in the house for three weeks was a nice change of pace from identifying and making the sounds of farm animals, and it was a great way to introduce insect vocabulary into Little Miss Muffet's repertoire. 

One Tip from Mom 

• Don't just read board books. Many parents feel that they have to limit their babies and toddlers to board books because otherwise, their kids will destroy books and rack up library fines. I have not found this to be the case. Miss Muffet has only ripped one library book so far, and it was a book that was already severely tattered and missing pages - she basically just continued a tear that was well underway. I regularly check out picture books for her, and she flips through picture books on her own almost every day. I don't leave her alone with them for long periods, because boredom does tend to lead to destruction, but she will sit quite nicely beside me on the couch and flip through book after book without leaving behind even a smudge. Some kids might be more prone to ruining books than others, but my advice is to give them the opportunity to treat books properly before deciding they can't be trusted to do so.