Reading with Little Miss Muffet and Little Bo Peep, May 2017

It's hard to believe it is already Memorial Day. May has been a busy month for the Read-at-Home Kids. Here's the latest reading-related news.

Miss Muffet, Three-Year-Old Reader

Over the past month or so, Miss Muffet has suddenly become a beginning reader. My husband learned to read at age 3, and I read at 4, so I think we always knew we might have an early reader, but it's amazing to me that at three-and-a-half, Miss Muffet, can suddenly sit down and read a book to me (or, even better, to her sister!) So far, these books are all Hooked on Phonics readers we picked up at a book sale and the first volume of Rime to Read which we borrowed from the library, but they are actual books and she could not be more proud of herself. My husband has been taking a video of her each time she masters a new book, and in just a few weeks, she has breezed through five Hooked on Phonics titles: Rag, Dad and Sam, Pig Wig, Pig Wig Can Hit, and Tag. She is currently practicing with her sixth book,  Ann's Hat. I also notice her sounding out familiar words in every book she picks up, including many favorite picture books. It's so rewarding to see her enjoying reading so much and wanting to learn to read on her own just for the fun of it.

Bo Peep on Repeat 

Little Bo Peep's language has really blossomed this month. At just about 20 months old, she is suddenly putting together three- and four-word sentences, and repeating absolutely everything we say whether she understands it or not. She is also imitating her sister sounding out words and demanding to hear the same books over and over and over again. Her current favorite is a library book, Here is the Baby, which Miss Muffet also enjoyed around this age, though not nearly as much as Bo Peep. It's still not really a book I feel we need to own, but I definitely recommend it for families with young toddlers, as it goes through a typical day from their point of view. I also like that the baby and his daddy visit the library for story time. My kids relate to that from coming to my weekly story times.

Rocket Science for Babies?

We received review copies of four titles in the Baby University series by Chris Ferrie: Rocket Science for Babies, General Relativity for Babies, Quantum Physics for Babies, and Newtonian Physics for Babies. Though the titles suggest they are for babies, I was hoping for basic science titles for Miss Muffet, who tends to enjoy nonfiction and scientific principles.  The images from the books that I saw prior to receiving the books looked so promising, but I have to admit to being disappointed by the titles themselves. While they work fine for introducing unfamiliar vocabulary to babies (something Every Child Ready to Read is all about), neither of my kids understood a word of any of the books. When I asked Miss Muffet what the books were about, she said, "Circles?" (Dots are used throughout the books to illustrate different concepts. Miss Muffet did not pick this up.)  I think the only concept she grasped was gravity, and that was because we'd just read a Let's Read and Find Out About Science book called Gravity is a Mystery.

I so wanted these to be more than novelty books, even if they weren't exactly suitable for babies, but the concepts are really just too complicated for early childhood, at least in the way they are presented here. These would be fun gag gifts for new parents who work in science fields, but otherwise, despite being visually very appealing, they're not worth buying for little kids.