Although I’d love to create a nursery environment stimulating enough for my son, still I keep all his books and toys visible only within his room. My mind is already too exhausted by the time he take his nap. Mommy does not wish to be stimulated any further by baby-related themed apartment especially when she needs her desperate 5 minutes rest.

How to introduce books to toddlers? It can begin as early as one-week old. Newborn to 6months, can only capture images better with the combination of black-red-white. Get them black-red-white cards and cloth books. Colors only start when they’re 6months and above. For the kia-su (fear of losing) parents, get images that are as complicated as possible. I put them all around him to keep him entertained. Well, if you’re a kia-su, you could try sticking them all over the ceiling too. LoL… Hey, wait a minute, I actually did. Those green half sphere cones hanging, actually do have black-red-white designs beneath them.

Those cards were given to me by my son’s pediatrician. So… you know where to get them

When he’s 3-4months, I switched to small little booklets for his little hands and with one-pic-one-page instead of a distracting page packed with pictures. As of year 2009, those little booklets are charged MYR5.90 each. I don’t spend more than that in introducing alphabets, numbers, shapes, colors and simple words, to my son.

A friend of mine practiced flash cards systems. She sent her son for flash cards classes as early as 4-6months old. Flash the word “DOG” and read to him then go for the next card. Each round should consist of not more than 6cards.

If you are a parent and has been disclaiming to the entire world that you prefer NOT to pressure your kids with too-early-education and prefer to let him learn at his own pace even when he’s grown up, believe me you’ll be surprised that very soon you’ll be contradicting yourself  or perhaps already is. LoL…

Make them love and enjoy books first before starting to cultivate any reading rituals to kids. When he’s 4 months, I started getting him books with different textures to feed his curious mind and his tempting fingers. By 6 months, he’s already enjoying books and started ‘flipping’ the pages himself which was why I only prefer toddlers books with round edges/corners for that age range.

When he’s 8months, they should be enjoying a variety of books already. As of year 2009, most textures books cost around MYR27.50 and I don’t spend more than that coz there are some quite good books that offer a wide variety of textures cost lower.

Remember to point your finger around the picture so he knows what you’re talking about. Stroke your finger slowly on all the sides of the shapes or on the numbers or alphabets.

It wasn’t the Moses’s story in the book that melt him to tears. It’s was poop.