I am a firm believer in raising kids who love to read. This is an area of life where I think the mantra, “Start ’em young!” is the perfect prescription. I’ve tried my best to encourage reading and model reading, and I am excited to see how it pays off. My boys love books of every kind. They enjoy being read to, they enjoy leafing through books on their own, and my oldest enjoys reading out loud.
A great way to start building the “Bookworm Foundation” early is board books. These durable tomes will hold up to teething babies and curious (read: destructive) toddlers. I have found the best board books to be DK Books. DK is a best-selling and award-winning children’s publisher with a crop of titles for babies and toddlers. These board books are perfect for children ages 0 to 3 and help provide a fun, hands-on playtime experience for babies and toddlers. We love that DK books contain bright pictures, easy-to-read text, novelty features and more to excite and engage little ones. Because of how visual they are, and many are touch-and-feel, they engage all the senses.
I appreciate that these books are also versatile. The big images are perfect for my youngest, who falls in the 0-3 range. But because the words are few and easy to read, my oldest can actually practice his reading by reading DK books to his brother! This is a win-win for literacy!
We had a chance to check out a few of the premiere DK titles recently and had a blast reading them. Here are some to consider on your next trip to the book store:
- Touch and Feel: Sophie la girafe®: Sophie and Friends ($6.99)
- Sophie la girafe® has been a favorite brand among moms all over the world since the high-end rubber baby teether debuted in France in 1961. In this Touch and Feel book, babies can touch soft, shiny and bumpy textures while meeting Sophie and her friends.
- Baby Touch and Feel: Farm ($5.99)
- Baby Touch and Feel books capture the attention of the very youngest children and create an experience they’ll want to repeat. Simple, colorful images and large font labels encourage recognition skills, while padded covers with rounded corners make these books safe for baby.
- Touch and Feel: Dinosaur($6.99)
- Touch and Feel books encourage preschool learning through exploration of various topics such as animals, numbers and letters, and feature novelty textures and colorful images that promote hand-on playtime.
- My First Trucks and Diggers
- My First Tabbed Board Books will keep toddlers interested and enthusiastic about reading with 13 easy-grip picture tabs to help little fingers turn to fun-filled, colorful pages with imaginative photographic designs.
- My First Touch and Feel Picture Cards: Animals($9.99)
- My First Touch and Feel Picture Cards each include 16 colorful picture cards with bright photographs and textures to help toddlers develop early language skills. The included parent guide provides creative learning games to play with children.
- Pop-Up Peekaboo: Bedtime ($9.99)
- Exciting Pop-Up Peekaboo books promote parent and child interaction, memory and imagination, while hands-on play makes learning fun.
Learn more about DK books at http://us.dk.com/.
What are your favorite board books?
