Sing Me a Story
When I had my first baby, one of the things I was most excited about buying was a library full of all the books I couldn’t wait to read to her. I stocked up on classics like Good Night Moon and Where the Wild Things Are. I bought silly books I’d fallen in love with during my years of babysitting and working with kids like Moo, Baa, La La La and Pinkalicious. I’m quite sure my child had more books than any other item (besides maybe diapers) before she was born.
When our girl was eight weeks old, we moved her from the bassinet next to our bed into a crib in her own room. That first night, I set about starting a bedtime routine — I read her two books, sang her one song and put her into bed with a kiss. Part of my reasoning for establishing this routine was because of my background in child development and knowledge that children function best with predictable routines. I also wanted my tiny baby to begin to recognize that the routine meant nighttime and time to sleep. And though some people in my life joked about my two month old’s inability to comprehend the simplest of literature, I knew that her spongy brain was absorbing the patterns in language and her basic needs of safety and security were being met through our nightly bonding ritual.
When our baby was about a year and a half, we’d tell her it was bedtime. She’d run over to her cube bookshelf and immediately ask, “I read two books?” “Yes, we’ll read two books,” we’d reply. Eventually it became more like her toddler manifesto: “I READ TWO BOOKS!!!”
As she got older, the books got longer, so we’d read one book or a couple chapters of a book, but it remained the core of our bedtime routine. When she was in first grade, her dad read her the first Harry Potter book. Then the second, the third, etc. Next they went on to the Percy Jackson series and others. She was fully capable of reading at that point, but it was part of the routine. And it’s hard to say who loved that time together more.
A wise and passionate children’s librarian once told me, “It’s really important that families don’t stop reading together just because their children can read!”
I could share with you the research that shows what an impact read-alouds have on comprehension, vocabulary development, fluency and more, but the most impactful parts of shared reading experiences can’t be quantified. It’s the feeling of comfort, the safety of the routine, the joy of being lost together in a story.
Children’s literature is clearly a passion of mine. It fueled my career as an elementary school teacher, my desire to pursue a masters degree in teaching reading, my position on the library board of trustees and the ever-expanding library of children’s books in my own home. And now I’ve used it to inspire the next Tiny Melodies session: Sing Me a Story. I can’t wait to share with participants some classic songs in storybook form, some modern books with singable segments and, of course, our fun Tiny Melodies staples you’ve come to expect and enjoy.