Crossroads

Many people have been asking me why I am so obsessed with having Melody exposed to books.

Well, to be honest I am not a big reader as an adult, for personal reasons that aren’t important but ever since I got pregnant with Melody I made it my mission to make sure that she loved books at least as a child.

I wanted her to be a well rounded little person that didn’t exactly need screen time to have a great day and not throw a tantrum.

When I used to teach the children at the school where I worked, they would turn into speechless moveless zombies once the TV was ever turned on, which to be honest drove me crazy and I swore that wouldn’t be my child.

I could be shooting for stars because let us be honest screens are basically everywhere you look: We have TVs, phones, tablets, computers and so on and they are unfortunately unmissable.

But to try and get her to have little interest in this was going to be my challenge as a mom.

I started my mission by having a request for my baby-shower to just gift Melody books so that I could expand her book collection with all kinds of different books.

Then, from the day she was born I started reading to her.

I even packed her the simplest book in my hospital bag, although I had no energy to read to her nor was she ever awake for more than a small amount of time to care, I really wanted to try.

It actually became part of my daily routine with her.

We would wake up have breakfast or just milk at the beginning and read some books.

Then before every nap it was our way of calming down and get into the mood of sleep. But most importantly it was vital to read at least two books before night time sleep.

Funnily enough, if ever we forgot the routine or had to skip it, she would get a bit agitated and feel as though something was off.

I know you might think that this is a bit much, but it was and still is great!

She enjoyed the colors and drawings and the fact that we were spending time together cuddling and reading everyday.

Now after all this time, Melody is fourteen months old and she loves books more than anyone can imagine.

Books are as important to her as sleep — and no, I am not exaggerating.

She has a stack of books in every room in the house that she spends time in: the kitchen, the living room, her bedroom, my bedroom, and most importantly we cannot go on a road trip even as short as a five minute drive to the grocery store or supermarket without having a few books for her to read on the way.

We definitely still have our daily reading routine, but she is so independent that she tends to not allow me to read the books word for word. She loves to flip through the pages with her two little fingers.

She also points at the pages in the places I used to point to her, for example when there are animals or shapes on the pages I would point and tell her “Dog, cat, horse,” and she now mimics my every move with tone and expressions.

Taking her to the book store is like taking a child to Disney World: her eyes glow with joy and the purest of happiness.

She sits in her section on the floor and looks through the books that aren’t sealed shut and just enjoys every second.

I usually buy her a few new books a month just to keep her collection growing and it really makes her happy.

I truly couldn’t be more happy with this. Her interest in books and learning is fantastic and will help her so much later on in life and that in itself is the best thing I could ever ask for.

Books are truly so important for kids, not books on a screen but real life paper books. They help them in so many ways to develop in the best possible ways.

Mama Shugar OUT!