At 16 months old, it’s fairly easy for Finley to get excited about pretty much anything. She’s
excited to see us when we come get her in the morning. She’s excited when we head out the door for daycare. She loves waking through the door to the toddler room and plopping down for breakfast. And, when we pick her up at the end of the day, she literally drops everything to come running over to us.
The excitement continues when we reach home and she wriggles out of our grasp to get to the stairs that lead to our condo. With our help she scales the fourteen steps and impatiently waits for us to unlock the door so she can burst into her toy box we call home.
But before she runs over to the bins packed to the brim with stuffed animals and all the battery-operated noise makers you could ever want, she stops at her bookshelf and pulls down every book available. Books are her favorite things, right now. There’s no doubt that we spend more time reading to her than playing with any of her toys, and that is more than fine with me.
The really good thing about her voracious reading habit is that she doesn’t have just one favorite that we read over and over again. She has four or five that she clings to, but changes favorites every few days or so. This makes every book seem new to her and, therefore, exciting.
The best part is how she goes about her business. She’s got quite the routine when it comes to reading. The first thing she does is dump out all the books from the shelf and on to the floor. She then spots the book she’s looking for and for the last week or so, it’s one of two books; both of which are nearly as heavy as she is. It takes quite the effort for her to drag it over and drop it in front of us.
If you’re sitting on the ground, she’ll turn around and back herself into place and plop her little tush onto your lap. If you’re on the couch, she’ll reach up with both hands, pleading for a lift up. Once in place, she makes sure to help you lift the book into position. And that’s the last time you’ll have control of the book and the pages.
She loves turning the pages and pointing at the pictures. Most of the time she has something – in her own language – to say about everything. But she also wants us to either tell us what it is she’s pointing at or make the sound that animal makes. Most of the time, we’ll make it through each book. On other occasions, she may be in the mood for volume rather than quality.
There are two things I really like about her approach to reading. The first is how much she enjoys it. She’s having fun reading. It’s not a chore. Hopefully, this will help her transition into reading words and sentences.
The other thing I like is how important it is to her to sit with us and read together. She’s very good at going through the books and “reading” on her own, but she’d rather sit with one of us and read together. I hope that never stops.
It’s encouraging to see her get excited every time she grabs a book.
I’m hoping that she takes this excitement for books to the next level as letters turn into words and words turn into sentences. Then, maybe she’ll learn how to see new worlds and visit far away times and places. Maybe she’ll find out all about the past and discover futures yet to be. Just by opening a book. That gets ME excited.
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