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Building Your Child's Library

Building Your Child's Library

Hi, Moms! NuMama here from NuAngel, Inc. If you have an elementary or preschool-aged child, you may have experienced Read Across America Day! According to the NEA (National Education Association), Read Across America Day is a “Nationwide reading celebration that takes place annually on March 20th, Dr. Seuss’s birthday”. My preschooler enjoyed three fun days of themed dress-up, special snacks, and even a visit from the Cat in the Hat!

Having a professional background in language acquisition and education, building language and early literacy are topics that are very special and important to me. In celebration of Read Across America, I'd like to share several blog posts this Spring related to building language and literacy in your little ones! I'll share some professional resources, along with practical and fun tips for home. 

So today, let's start with the books themselves! It’s never too early to start stocking a children’s library at home. Here are some simple and easy tips for starting and building your child’s library early:

 

Baby Shower

Are you expecting a baby, or planning a baby shower soon? On the shower or sprinkle invitation, add in “please send a book instead of a card.” Cards themselves can be $5-$6--just as much or more than a book! Instead of receiving a card, guests choose a book (as nice or as inexpensive as they wish) and sign their name and a special message inside the cover. This is an easy and special way to begin your baby’s library, and the books and special messages will be read year after year!

 

Books as Gifts

In my opinion, children can have too many toys (and mine do!), but they can never have enough books! Books open up a whole new world of adventures, literacy skills, language development, and promote life-long learning.

In our family, books are gifts, and we started this tradition even before our children were born. Our children receive books for each special occasion, holiday, birthday, and even sometimes vacation! We always write the date and write a “to and from” or a special message inside. As the years have passed, we've built quite the library! The neat part is that they aren’t “just books”, but reminders of special times that we’ve had in the past.

My oldest child is also to the age where she is getting invited to a lot of birthday parties! Books with a message from your child to another child makes a great gift, and I’m sure the parents appreciate a book rather than one more toy.

For our children and others, I’ve discovered the Kohl’s Cares Foundation! If you visit your local Kohl’s, or Kohl’s.com, you’ll see some of the most popular children’s books for $5 along with a matching $5 stuffed animal! They are such high quality books and stuffed animals, so a $5 price tag is a steal!

Kohl’s changes the books and animals frequently, so you can build quite the library. These are also great teacher gifts! The best part? These are 100% income tax deductible, and 100% of the net profit goes to the Kohl’s Cares Foundation to “support happier and healthier communities”.

 

Book Subscriptions

Did you know that there are many options for book subscriptions for little ones? This would be a simple and easy way to build your child’s library!

Have you heard of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library? If you qualify, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library will send your child a high-quality book once a month from birth to age 5! Check out  https://imaginationlibrary.com to see if your child lives in an area that qualifies for this neat and free book subscription!

There are many paid subscriptions as well that have a wide range of price-tags, including: Amazon Prime Book Box, Reading Bug Box, My Book Box, OwlCrate, Jr. The Story Box, Kid Curated Books, and Tribe of Little Readers.

 

Second-Hand

If you visit your local consignment and thrift stores, you’re likely to find tons of children’s books! Most books that I have found are still in excellent condition and they are a fraction of the cost of buying them new.  I imagine that these are simply books that are donated by families who have outgrown them and teachers who are clearing out their shelves.

Check out your local yard sales, too. Many families are so happy to see the faces of the children who are going home with their books! 

 

Local Library

It’s always a treat for my children to visit the library! In our county, we have several libraries to choose from and they all have wonderful children’s sections. Our libraries have no limit to how many books that we can check out, but my general rule is 10. It’s an easy number to remember and I know that we can’t really dive into to more than that in two weeks!

I show my daughter the sections of the library that are appropriate for her, and then the choices are totally up to her. When we get home, I keep some of the books downstairs for her to thumb through herself, and the rest upstairs to read at bedtime. Checking out books from the library is a fun and free way to “mix-it-up” and promote a love of reading!

 

These  are just a few fun ways that you can build your child's library at home! Check back soon for more posts related to early language and literacy building!

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