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Original poster

When did you start reading to your children?

66 replies

MooseBreath · 21/05/2020 23:32

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!

OP posts:

megletthesecond · 22/05/2020 00:09

About six weeks old.

Cheeseycheeseycheesecheese · 22/05/2020 00:13

DD we didn't read to her until her bedtime routine allowed it (she was a bath, bottle sleep baby) so between 1 and 1.5 years.

DS from birth because DH insisted he be part of dd bedtime routine 😂 his theory was if ds experienced it from birth he'd go to bed the same way as her...

Although I used to read my books with them on my lap when they were small, I'd read out loud to them both as the silence was killing me. Obvious with ds it was more child orientated books as dd is around haha. But dd heard alsorts including Mills and Boon

stellabelle · 22/05/2020 00:14

I read to them from birth, really. I'd cuddle and read every day - it didn't have to be bedtime. I just wanted to make books and reading an every day occurrence. They are both in their 30's now, and both avid readers.

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Grapesoda7 · 22/05/2020 00:17

From a really tiny baby with my first, I remember reading him my old Mr Men books!

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 22/05/2020 00:20

Start from newborn - then you can read books you want to read, just out loud. The baby won't give a shit about the plot they will just love the closeness and your voice.

You can always move onto baby stories after 3 months or so.

Cattenberg · 22/05/2020 00:21

I do remember reading to my bump once or twice, and singing to it regularly. Poor DD!

I read baby books to DD when she was a very young baby - I can’t remember her exact age. She started with a black and white book from Bookstart that the Health Visitor gave me. It had various patterns and DD’s favourite page had simple drawings of faces.

DD soon began to enjoy baby books with words as well as pictures. She loved books with rhymes, textures and mirrors, but she couldn’t follow the simplest of storylines for months and months. Her eyes would glaze over and she’d look away.

So we stuck to books which looked at different animals, colours, or everyday objects, or the “where’s so-and-so” type books where you find someone different hiding on each page.

DD is two now and still loves books, but she’s now into Topsy and Tim and anything by Judith Kerr.

eyesbiggerthanstomach · 22/05/2020 00:23

Not as young as the previous posters as I had PND but maybe 6 months old but not consistently.

Toddler now 2 and a half and is obsessed with books and we read every night and sometimes during the day as well so I don't think that slight delay has affected him (hopefully!)

MabelX · 22/05/2020 00:27

From day one

PhilODox · 22/05/2020 00:28

Moose- you will find that he loves your voice. When he is born, he will already know it, and turn towards you when he hears it!

Valkadin · 22/05/2020 00:30

I was a librarian I remember reading Cranford out loud to DS when he was at around eight weeks old so I could actually get to read.

scrivette · 22/05/2020 00:34

Probably about 12 weeks and they love books now.

Queenest · 22/05/2020 00:35

From day one

Me too. Ten years old now and she is always reading.

And she still loves me to read to her at bedtime. As do I.

ProseccoBubbleFantasies · 22/05/2020 00:43

Straight away. But just whatever adult book I was reading done out loud in a child friendly voice.

Dh still laughs that he walked into the bedroom to hear something along the lines of
mixamatosis was rife that year, and the air was full of the stench of dying rabbits
Read in a singsong voice
Bad blood by lorna sage, I think

TyneTeas · 22/05/2020 00:51

DH read a short story to my bump from about 17 weeks pregnant (or whatever number of weeks it says ears grow) as a being able to recognise voice PFB bonding thing

Made reading/looking at a book (even if just a baby shapes book in the first few months) part of the bed time routine every night since birth

TrickyWords · 22/05/2020 00:54

Before she was born. It is mainly about brain development at that point! She loves books though - 20 years in.

TyneTeas · 22/05/2020 00:55

Really though no one is going to come on the thread and say I never read my kid a book until they were 7, just do what work for you!

TimeWastingButFun · 22/05/2020 01:01

From newborn, it is soothing to hear your voice and have a cuddle, and gets into a good routine with the bath, low lights, etc. The 12 year old doesn't want stories now but the 9 year old still does.

ineedaholidaynow · 22/05/2020 01:09

We did from pretty much the beginning, but not always baby books. When DS was going off to sleep when he was days old we would just read out loud the book we were currently reading ourselves, but then felt some of the subject matter didn’t seem right to be reading to a baby!! So we dug out all our old books from childhood and read them eg Famous Five, Swallows and Amazons, Railway Children. Then when he was older and could actually understand them we reread them again.

ChaBishkoot · 22/05/2020 01:15

In hospital.
DS2 was born desperately prematurely at 26 weeks. We sat by his incubator for weeks while he fought for his life on a ventilator reading to him constantly. DH read a book about war journalism to him (honestly) and I read Harry Potter to him. He was to us, the boy who lived. When he moved to the special care unit (to feed and grow) we had a little library under his cot and the nurses would borrow our books to read to the babies there.
DS1 was ready from a few days after he came home. Just simple stories. Both kids love reading and being read to now that they are much older.

ChaBishkoot · 22/05/2020 01:17

In our NICU there was a nurse who would read Beatrix Potter and Winnie the Pooh to all the babies at night. It was very touching.
Interestingly, DS2 would be very still and his vitals would be excellent when we read to him. But if we sang to him (DH and I have terrible voices) he would get really quite cross and it show up on the machines. We thought it was fairly hilarious at a dark moment in our lives!

Fenlandmountainrescue · 22/05/2020 01:31

I got into reading as soon as I worked out its okay to ignore official advice. Cat-hat-ball books are all very useful but mind numbing! I used to read articles from the Financial Times to my dd and she used to join in from c. 3 months trying to make the sounds.

EugenesAxe · 22/05/2020 01:32

Similar to @PhilODox! It does no harm; they hear your voice, they are learning language, they experience expressions vocally and facially.

I read things like The Bunney-Fluffs Moving Day. Don’t know if it helped but DS (firstborn) was always very clear-spoken and loves books... DD does not have so much of an affinity with them - she probably didn’t get the same level of early book interaction my DS did, but it might be as much about nature than nurture.

Chachang · 22/05/2020 01:42

They do fabric books in black and white which is great for newborns as they don't see colours as we do, the story in them isn't great, just a few words though. We started reading as a newborn, more to keep me awake and they weren't children's books, but around about 12-14 months he just kept taking them and ripping the pages, so we had a hiatus where I would make up stories and use toys for the characters .

1forAll74 · 22/05/2020 02:00

A few months old,when I started to read to my son .When he started walking at about 11 months, he was very keen to look at all the books, so upped the reading more,. I mainly had the Ladybird books. I was a bit shocked when he was about two years old, because he started to read really well., and a little later.he began to write well too.

VashtaNerada · 22/05/2020 02:19

During pregnancy! Started a bedtime routine of sorts, including a bedtime story, pretty much from birth.

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