Helping your Baby love books

We live in an apartment and I drilled holes in the walls for curtains, a shelf in the kitchen dedicated to hot sauces, and these bookshelves:

Sidenote - Kaladin likes to stand up and slide all the books on the shelves on the ground. So...it definitely does not look put together all the time like the picture shows.

Kaladin went through a phase when he learned to crawl (around 10 months old) where he didn't sit and look at books and didn't want to sit with me for long while I read. I think that he was so excited he could move around that he didn't want to stay still for long. I still kept books available to him but did not force him to sit with me and read. And now at 14 months old, Kaladin is a book lover!

I keep books in just about every room in our home...the bathrooms (right next to his toilets in baskets), our bedroom (we all share a room), our secret reading room (spare closet), and in the living room. Our home isn't too big so it's not a challenge to have books everywhere.

 Books in our bedroom:

Current books in bedroom basket:

Not only does reading books help children develop print awareness and a love for stories, but it helps them develop fine motor skills. Kaladin works hard to turn the pages and open the flaps in his Little Green Frog book.

Some of Kaladin's favorite kinds of books are the touch and feel ones, as pictured below.

And where do we get many of our books from? The LIBRARY! We love love love the library. We go about once a week just to play in the kids area or to attend a class/reading time for children Kaladin's age. We love using the library because it is free and it means we don't have to buy books and use our home space to store them. We do own books of our own, but I keep most of them up in a closet and only have a select few out at a time. I've found great books for Kaladin at Goodwill and at Idaho Youth Ranch. And, Kaladin has received books as gifts from family members, as well.

I have kept books for Kaladin in our living area for a long time - since he was a newborn! I remember Stephen and I showing Kaladin the red, black, and white crunchy book we were given from the hospital while he was a newborn. He was laying on our bed and we turned the pages for him while he looked at all the shapes. Such a sweet experience to see him pay attention to our "story"!

When Kaladin was younger, I kept only a few books out for him to look at. I didn't want him to be overwhelmed with too many options. Now that he is older and spends more time reading, I think the amount of books out is appropriate for him.

I know that exposure to print is so important for his development of print awareness....and a love for stories, as well. He spends quite a bit of his day sitting down and looking through books. He will occasionally "read" his books (with babbling) and it's about the cutest thing ever.

Thanks for reading! Catch ya later. :)