Which books to get?

One of the hardest thing to do when buying books for E is to decide whether to get non-fiction or fiction books. it is hard to decide if we want more story oriented books or books that introduce him to a new concept or idea. That's something I always have to think about when we're getting him new books. 

Every month, we would try to get him at least one book. Sometimes I follow a theme or his current interest or something that I have really been wanting to introduce to him. 

Just a few months ago I think, I had the Space theme in mind. So i mostly bought books or even toys based on that. For toys, if I'm following a theme, I would check on Safari Ltd Toobs figurines to see if they have a set that's relevant. I find that it is nice to have these mini figurines to go along with while we go through the books. It's also more opportunities for us to grow his vocabulary. 

For the Space theme books, these are the ones we chose for him.

Before this, we bought him a simpler book about The Solar System and the Moon Landing so he does have an idea of what these things are. We do also tell him about the moon and the stars and the sun so when we introduce these books to him, he was really into it. 

He especially like the book about the solar system. We've looked through it so many times now. I think if he is able to speak well, he will be able to name them. He does know which planet is Earth which is cool. Probably sound like I am gushing about how smart he is which I probably am but sometimes I get this feeling of being so proud of how well he is learning and I just find it so cool. This person who knows nothing but the days go by and he's absorbing every single detail so quickly and it's just amazing! 

Ok now back to books! :) 

E go-to books in the recent weeks are the ones about the moon, the stars and also Space. He have been enjoying listening to me read to him about all things Space and the Solar System. And all the planets. And of course, all the vehicles! But that’s for another blog post. :)

If I don’t have a theme in mind, I’d just get books that is either from an author that we like or something that is his current interest.

For example, we like this author Nicola Davies. She has a lot of books of animals and nature and they are written nicely I think. I first know of this author because O bought me One Tiny Turtle as a gift years ago because I love turtles so it was a nice gift and I’ve always thought it was a nice children’s book so we started reading it to E when he was a tiny baby and we decided to add more to the collection. We’ll definitely add more soon.

Will write soon, hopefully. About more books :)

till next time, take care, m

Languages

We are raising E to be multilingual. Not really so much as a choice but mainly because that’s how it is, we all speak different languages. I’ve chosen to speak to E mainly in English, even though it’s not my mother language, it’s Bahasa Melayu. But I am definitely way more comfortable with speaking and thinking in English at this point because I’ve spent a lot of years speaking English to O. So I speak English, O speaks Hebrew and my mom speaks Bahasa Melayu to E. O has been speaking solely Hebrew to E since he was born. O is a native Hebrew speaker so he is very fluent still even though he has been living in Singapore for six years now.

And at 21 months, it has been amazing how he understands us both so easily, even when we are both together with him and speaking, and we switch languages and we make sure to stick to our languages when we speak to him and he understands us so well.

He is, I guess considered a late speaker because at this point he is only starting to say words but not the full words. The language of the words really depend on him, sometimes he will say car in English instead of in Hebrew when he is speaking to O. But he definitely can say mama, aba and nenek. We are reading to him every day, speaking to him, explaining things as we do and I hope that it will all kind of click for him one day. In the meantime, he is also getting better at using sign language when he needs us to understand him better. He will sign and also say the words.

anyway, all this is to show this book that E has been into for as long as I can remember. And it’s probably the most looked at or read at this point. You can see how used the book is, we had to repair the book a lot 😅 but definitely recommended! They have it in other languages as well and I like the illustrations. There’s so many ways to speak to E about all the little things that the book have. So many chances to add vocabulary! And also one of those books to look at when E is not interested in stories or read to. He loves to look and point at the illustrations and we will tell him what it is, sometimes he will also repeat after us. So yes, a nice book to look at together!

The book is in Hebrew as we wanted a book for O to have when he is introducing vocabulary to E, not that he needs it but it’s nice to have something look at together. And for me, I’ll look at it with him and we will talk about things in English.

Lately we’ve been introducing E to the Hebrew alphabets too. Not to get started on reading or anything like that but just to have some recognition if he is interested in it and so far, it has been a positive experience. He will bring the alphabets to us and points out the one he is familiar with. At this point it’s more of a shape recognition I think, even for the English alphabets but it is still a good sign I guess.

Another good that came out of this is also that hearing so much of Hebrew when O is speaking to E, I am also picking up some of the words, even the alphabets too. So basically I am learning together with E :) I am also recognising the letters more and more since I have to help E with the alphabets during the week when O is working. So many languages going around these days :) Well I hope we are not confusing E in anyway. We’ve been trying to be as consistent as possible with the languages we speak around him so we hope it will all work out in the end :)

till next time- M

Usborne First Thousand Words in Hebrew / illustrated by Stephen Cartwright

Talking more about books

For our first post with books, I'd like to share these two books of Benji Davies.

It's been our favourite to read to E when he was younger and now it's his favourite to bring to us to read to/with him. We bought 'The Storm Whale in Winter' first at the bookstore, not realizing that it was the second book to 'The Storm Whale' and we really liked the story and illustrations so we bought The Storm Whale as soon as we could. Now E would even say the main character's name when we read to him and he will point out the character. That's also something I noticed about E lately is that he is really into learning the name of the characters in the stories. Reading to E sometimes can be hard because it is not all the time that he likes to sit and listen to us read. On days when he let us read to him, we really get in a lot of reading which is fun but on days when he just wants to point at stuff and name them it can get very tiring but also it's good to build up his vocabulary so either way it's actually good 😅 On days when he doesn't want to be read or even look at books, we have books we will look at with him just so we can help with his speech. Will do a post on that soon 😊

till next time -M

The Storm Whale and The Storm Whale in Winter by Benji Davies

Introduction

Starting this blog here to share more of books that we have enjoyed reading or more, really can be about anything but mostly about books.

A little about us- I'm M, I'm currently a stay at home parent, have been doing that for almost 2 years now to E who will be 21 month old soon. And O is my partner. We both love to read and we agreed that we definitely would love to read to E as soon as we can. And we did and it's been a journey. For sure, our book collection is growing 😊 so here we are! Also just to share, we usually buy our books at our local bookstore and also online on BookDepository.com

Till next time, take care-M