What’s In Our Book Bag

Another week, another trip to the library. This week Alfie started grabbing books from the shelves himself, it’s the first time he’s done that and I was so proud! I’m so grateful for our library but sometimes find it frustrating that they display the books spine out and have a very limited selection of Montessori-appropriate books (beautiful, realistic, relevant to real lives) for tiny children.

This selection might seem small but these are just our weekly ‘Repeated Reads’ – the ones that we will read over and over this week. We have our own books scattered about the house and as Alfie doesn’t yet have a favourite we rely a lot on our library. There’s a reason we limit the quantity; repetition helps to build vocabulary, comprehension, fluency and confidence. It sounds counter intuitive but the fewer books a child reads and the more often they read them the better they will master these aspects of literacy. Imagine yourself learning a foreign language, there’s a choice of twenty story books each telling a different story but using mostly the same vocabulary. Would it be easier to learn that vocabulary by reading the same book over and over or twenty different books? It’s the same for children!

Here is our ‘Repeated Reads’ for the week, a selection of Montessori friendly books for babies.

It’s a Little Baby by Julia Donaldson

I am so in love with this book! Few board books are Montessori friendly and few Montessori books rhyme, this one manages both! It’s a unicorn! Normally I avoid flap books for Alfie as they can be confusing and fiddly for him but these flaps are huge and all in the same place making it easy for him to become familiar with.

I’ll Be There by Ann Stott

This charming little book answers a little boy’s question about when his Mommy will be finished being his Mommy now that he doesn’t ‘need’ her so much. It made me slightly weepy but, like the Mom in the story, I’ll always be there. Also, I think the boy might be a Montessori kid! He’s very skilled!

Posy by Linda Newberry

Posy is such a funny little cat – full of mischief and curiosity. I love the creative adjectives too, the teacher in me wants to use this book in a lesson! From an aesthetic perspective how stunning are the illustrations?

ABC A Walk In The Countryside by Rosalind Beardshaw

As a rule I hate ABC books, they seem so pointless but the illustrations here are enough compensation for me. We’re doing more and more walks now that the good weather is here so this ties in nicely with our never ending rounds of Eye Spy.

All books get full marks from me for offering double page spreads, just what you need for sharing across two laps. We’re moving more and more towards paper books as Alfie continues to learn to treat books with respect.

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