Darius has been showing a strong liking towards books, even more so than towards his toys. Often, we will spot him in front of his bookshelf alone, taking out books from it and sitting down to flip through them and ‘read’ them. Unfortunately, he will litter them all over the place after reading them and require us to put them back for him. We are still in the midst of teaching him how to put the books back to the shelf himself.

Darius has been flipping through the pages of board books (i.e. hard pages) himself shortly after he had learnt to walk, which was when he was around one year old. Also, he has recently begun to learn how to flip the soft pages of books too without tearing or damaging them.

According to Baby Center’s Milestone Chart, most kids would learn to turn the pages of a book at 16 months and start ‘reading’ board books on their own at 18 months. So in this aspect, it appears that Darius is progressing pretty well. This should be due to his frequent exposure to the books in our home.

Nowadays, when we are reading the books with him, he will sit quietly on our laps and listen attentatively. In fact, when I sit down near the bookshelf with him, he will consciously pick up a book from it and sit down on my lap with the book, waiting for me to read to him. ^^

While listening, Darius will also help to flip to the next page, either by knowing I’ve finished reading the page, or by cues that I have made to him (verbally or briefly loosening the next page to be flipped). We have also noticed that with one of his favourite books, Dr. Seuss’s Mr. Brown can MOO! Can You?, Darius will even anticipate his favourite page (where Mr. Brown makes the BOOM BOOM BOOM sound) and make similar BOOM sounds.

Lately, we have also noticed that he will rotate the books he is holding to the right direction before he will start ‘reading’ them, instead of reading it upside down. My guess is that he probably remembers the orientation of the pictures on the books when we were reading the books to him. ^^

From here, we hope he will continue to enjoy reading even as he grows up, since it will be a good habit which will help expand his knowledge and widen his horizon. On the other hand though, let’s hope he won’t get short-sighted as a result of reading too many books.

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