When did you start reading to your children?

[MooseBreath]

Just that, really. At what age did you start reading to your children either during the day or for a bedtime story?

DH and I are both avid readers and I want to get into the habit of reading every night before bed, but is there any point with a baby? FTM here, due in less than 2 weeks!

At about two weeks

But I am an absolute book addict.
One child is, one child isn't.

Ds was about 8 weeks
Dd was 3 days - I would have her in my arms while reading to ds

Pretty tiny I think. Maybe once he was out of the squealy newborn fog of no discernable bedtime. I love bedtime stories, such a special cuddle time, still going strong at 5.

I also started reading to dd when she was only 2 or 3 months. But she was a very needy baby and didn’t like being left alone - i think she just liked the sound of my voice!

Mid to later on in pregnancy. Singing too. How my DCs have suffered! They love books and music though, so it might have worked.

Started reading a couple of days in during night feeds to stop me falling asleep but that wasn’t baby stories. We started reading baby stories with him when we introduced a bedtime routine at 8 weeks. But he didn’t really show much of an interest until about 5 months- now he loves looking at the pictures (nearly 7 months old now). I loved reading to him. I’m not sure what the research actually shows about the benefits at a young age but it wouldn’t do any harm so if you’ll enjoy it go ahead when you want to.

Good luck

Black and white board books from a couple weeks old. We read stories lots from a few weeks, attended bookbug classes. When in to a bed time routine from 5 or so months it was stories before bed every night and this is still going strong at 5 years. It's one of the most important things you can do with your baby, i love it.

I can't remember a when - think it was from around 3 months? Definitely pre-verbal.

With the eldest she got her first book from her uncle at a week old so that would have been the latest. The others first night they were home from hospital. Very bookish family though.

Great for bonding.

Black and white books from a couple of months now at four and a half months we have moved on to a couple of 'that's not my...' and DS loves turning the pages and touching them although he loses interest relatively quickly!
I'm hoping to introduce it as part of his bedtime routine before his final bottle of the day next week and am stupidly excited about bedtime stories

1-2 weeks. Honestly I was running out of things to do with him, newborns don’t do much! I wanted to interact with him, and I found it easier to read to an unreceptive audience than to try to do one-sided playing.

I had books in my hospital bag! I've got pictures of a 2 day old DC1 looking at a book. They must've thought I was bonkers. She loves books now though.
With DC2 I used to read the same book to DC1 each night and he would kick at the same bit. Aww. He was less keen on books but we kept at it and he LOVES then now. Never too early to start.

This is great, thank you! I don't feel quite so silly for wanting to start reading when he's so tiny and uninterested!

I had books around from when Lo was a few months old. We did bedtimes stories every night from around 7 months. Lo is 4 now and we read about 3 books before bed usually. He enjoys it but very much sees it as a bedtime activity. He's not overly interested if I offer to read to him in the day. I don't push it because I want it to be something he enjoys.

At 6 weeks, when I started to implement the bedtime routine (how naive). However, even though the rest was a shambles, the bedtime reading together stuck until approx age 10.

Yes definitely pre verbal; they could point to things in the pictures when asked. Later they would look at the pictures and say the word for whatever you pointed to. Then came memorising the little stories I read: saying the word at the end of each line, then saying them all. They knew long stories by heart.

Mine had books in the day and spoken stories and songs in the cot. Books at bedtime didn’t happen until they were in beds and we could snuggle together so 2 and a half or so.

I don't remember exactly, my DC are grown now, but it was early. I introduced it as part of the bedtime routine at a few months, and kept it up until well after they were good independent readers. I think DS1 was still enjoying a bedtime story at 11 or 12 and he has great memories of the books we shared.

Probably about 2 months with my first.

From about 8 months pregnant. I honestly can't recall many times I've not read DS at least 3 books before he goes to sleep

Like most others on this thread, very early with my dd. I love reading, always have done and could read at 3. I anticipated the same for dd. She wasn’t very interested unfortunately and even when she started reception she had the ability, could decode etc but just wasn’t interested and I was devastated

Something clicked at around 6 and she was obsessed with reading. She’s now 9 and is still the same. Every Friday she gets a new book and can spend hours reading. She is loving Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers which I loved at her age too. Its a joy to see.

It’s never too early to start reading. It took a while with us but we got there in the end.

The day they came home as part of bedtime routine. Bath bottle book and bed. Don’t know if it was a fluke but great sleepers from 3 months old too

A couple of weeks old. Babies just love to hear your voice. Babies dad usually just reads them the economist at that age!

From a month I think.