Early Readers and Spring Fun with Pat-A-Cake

Children are never too young to start enjoying books - I've brought up two little bookworms with a love of story books and picture books that has set them off perfectly in life.  A Pat-A-Cake board book makes a perfect introduction to books for even the tiniest babies; with red, black and white contrast for helping to perfect early vision and robust interactive board pages that your baby and toddler can watch you use, and then learn to use themselves, Pat-A-Cake have mastered the art of baby's first books.

As with reading, there are several other life skills that you needn't be afraid to introduce your baby to from a very young age and build into your daily routine.  This spring my girls couldn't wait to get out into the garden with us to start planting fruit and vegetables - watching a seed grow into a plant is a great way of getting little people involved in gardening and it's a fun family activity in the spring sunshine.

Over the last few weekends we've also done a lot of baking; Lara and Holly both started helping me to cook as soon as they were able to sit up unaided in their highchair. We've baked Easter cupcakes, hot cross buns and marble cakes together over the last few weekends and last night Lara even helped me make satay chicken.

Pat a Cake's First Baby Days On the Move Book inspired this blog post looking back on the habits we started early with Lara and Holly and which I'm so glad we did.  You can find out more about Pat A Cake Books' range of books for  new babies, pre-school and early years on Facebook, twitter and Instagram.

 

Little Learners Baby Book Review

Holly loves a good book. Quite often, when I pick her up from nursery in the evening she is sitting quietly in the corner with a book on her lap! At home she is a monster when it comes to paperback books so we've had to hide all of Lara's books out of sight but Holly has a box of board books in the corner that she will often help herself to. Holly's current favourite book is Peek-a-Boo Rainbow which is a Little Learners board book.

Holly loves this book because the rainbow acts as a carrying handle and she can walk around the living room with it easily until she finds the right spot to sit and read. Each page features a colour of the rainbow with some plants and animals of that colour and a little hole through which you can get a sneak peek of the next page...peek-a-boo.

I love the gentle yet bright colours which are perfect for Holly's age. I love the page backgrounds which are prints of textured material so they look like you can touch them and I too think that the layered rainbow carrying handle is a stroke of genius, it means that Holly can get in and open the pages even with her tiny fingers.

Holly loves the peek-a-boo holes and giggles when she turns a page. I also think that she really notices the relationship between the colours on the page and the colours in the rainbow at the top. I think that Peek-a-Boo Rainbow is a great board book for babies and toddlers from birth upwards.

Holly also has another Little Learners board book - Touch and Feel Let's Play. Holly seems to enjoy me reading this to her more than the other; she rarely takes it away to read alone and prefers to plonk herself down on my knees and then place the book in my hand. Let's Play features pages with well known toys such as dolls, building blocks, musical instruments and soft toys. Each page clearly labels the items and throughout the book there are textured areas for your baby to touch and explore. Rough, glittery, soft, bumpy and leathery. The colours of this book are once again bright yet subtle. I would say that the textured areas aren't immediately obvious to Holly and quite often she will miss them altogether and move on so I have to take her hand and help her find them.

The complete Little Learners range of books for babies and preschoolers is available at major retailers such as WH Smith, Early Learning Centre, Tesco and Sainsburys as well as online at Amazon. The range features some brilliant looking finger puppet books.

Hello Baby Mirror Board Book Review

Priddy books have just launched a new range of books designed specifically for very young babies from newborn upwards - they asked me and Holly to review the Hello Baby high contrast mirror book which is a board book.

I was fascinated to find out what a book for newborns would be like and I was really impressed - to me it is really important to get books in front of babies from a young age even if they can't read or don't even want to know what the story is about. Books are tactile things, engaging things, things of beauty and fun.

Hello Baby is a range of really high contrast books. The Mirror board book features lots of black, white, red, yellow and blue abstract images on pages with a die-cut hole cut right through the middle of the book. No words. I found the lack of words ever so slightly disappointing actually and have found myself playing with the book with Holly and saying things like "stripes", "spots", "cross cross", "triangles" to try and communicate with her as we play. I think the book would benefit from some words to encourage adults to engage with their children too.

Holly is certainly very interested in the book. She doesn't smile when she is using it but she concentrates REALLY hard as if it is a puzzle that needs solving. The hole through the middle allows her to grab the book and shake it about a bit herself and on the very last page there is a mirror that she can see throughout the book - this occasionally brings a smile!

I would say that now at nearly 5 months old, Holly is getting to the point where the entertainment value in a purely abstract image book won't last long - she tends to now get more excited about books with animals or people in them but for a very young baby this would be perfect.

The Hello Baby Mirror Board Book costs £4.99.