Reading Is A Skill Worth Learning

Reading aloud to your baby is a wonderful shared activity you can continue for years to come — and it's an important form of stimulation. Reading aloud teaches a baby about communication, introduces concepts such as numbers, letters, colors, and shapes in a fun way, builds listening, memory, and vocabulary skills, gives babies information about the world around them.

Believe it or not, by the time babies reach their first birthday they will have learned all the sounds needed to speak their native language. The more stories you read aloud, the more words your child will be exposed to and the better he or she will be able to talk. Hearing words helps to imprint them on a baby's brain. Kids whose parents frequently talk/read to them know more words by age 2 than children who have not been read to. And kids who are read to during their early years are more likely to learn to read at the right time. But perhaps the most important reason to read aloud is that it makes a connection between the things your baby loves the most — your voice and closeness to you — and books. Spending time reading to your baby shows that reading is a skill worth learning.

Source: http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/all_reading/reading_babies.html

And we read all kinds of books to Aduka, spelling out some words for him. Some books are presents from friends, like 'My First Animal Book', Aduka's current reading book, a present from Charlene (she's an animal lover and can be considered an animal acitivist so she thought it's best if she spread the love to my son) and old books passed down by Mommy of those she read when she was a little girl. Sometimes, he listens, coos and smiles when we read to him, attracted by the colourful pictures and illustrations, other times, he gets upset because he was bored, overstimulated by our reading perhaps. Rarely he falls asleep. But if he does, we will just pat him to sleep. We won't pressure you baby. We shall give you a sense of freedom to explore your own taste and capabilities.

Touched his cheeks in his sleep.

Sidetrack, Mommy loves the dimples on Aduka's hands.

Hand still on his face, but the pacifier has left his lips.

Exhausted little fella.