Reading Stories and Singing Songs

Create a world full of stories and songs

  • You can bring books into your child's life even before you think he can see the pictures or understand the words. Create a shelf in his room for books and find a chair that is comfortable for reading to him right from birth.
  • Find books with stories of things that are really likely to happen in your child's life. Stories about families and every day life.
  • Find books that have large, simple pictures or bright illustrations against a contrasting background.
  • Find books that use short repetitive words or phrases or simple sentences to capture his attention.
  • Find books without words or pages with a big picture and a single word.

Connect your baby to stories and songs

  • Read to your baby every day. Studies show that children whose parents read aloud to them, even as little as ten to twenty minutes per day, are more likely to become better readers.
  • Recite rhymes and songs that you can remember by heart. If you can't remember any, buy one of the popular CDs and listen to it. At first you can sing along, but soon you won't need it. The CD cannot substitute for your voice.

Make time to read and sing with your baby

  • Make reading and singing a song part of your child’s sleep routine or simply a moment to sit quietly together.

Example of a song and a rhyme for a baby of this age

Lullaby

Golden slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles await you when you rise.
Sleep,
pretty baby,
Do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.

Cares you know not,
Therefore sleep,
While over you a watch I'll keep.
Sleep,
pretty darling,
Do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.

Rhyme

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake,
Baker's man!
Bake us a cake
As fast as you can,
(Alternate clapping baby's hands and yours)

Mix it and prick it
(Pretend to stir bowl, then prick cake)

And mark it with B,
(Make a 'B' in the air)

And put in the oven
For baby and me.
(Alternate clapping baby's hands and yours)