reading to a book vandal

Since I have no experiance raising children, I'm reading alot of books
about babies. Many encourage "reading" to even very little ones. My 11
month old wants to bend, spindle, and mutilate every book he gets near,
and as he gets stronger, he's doing more damage. How does one "read" to
a little one when he drops everything to grab the book and wrench it out
of my hands.
As an aside, are there any videos of kids books, where the pictures show
up and the text goes slowly enough for me to read to him carefully?
blacksalt

Astromum wrote:

blacksalt wrote:
How does one "read" to
a little one when he drops everything to grab the book and wrench it out
of my hands.

I give DS a toy to disintegrate while I read to him,

Throws it down and grabs book. He loves books, just not to read.

but I find that in
general he is more interested in the pictures anyway. Have you tried books
with little flaps that hide things?

Wants to rip them off. Pop-ups are in danger for their lives, as well.

It is a big time favourite with DS.
Here's a few other things you can try:
-find a time when your son is relaxed, like just before going to bed

Just when he's not relaxed. He goesgoesgoes and then heads for the
sheepskin rug and rubs his face on it. We pop him into bed and he goes
to sleep. I think he's what one calls "active" (and a babbler). So were
all of my sibs. In this day and age, with a nervous parent, I'm betting
we'd have been labeled and drugged, but in our age (the 40's and 50's)
my sensible parents just kept us safe and directed....volksmarches,
hunts for hidden objects, outdoors alot. My memory of childhood is very
grubby clothes and constantly skinned knees from plunging down and
climbing back up the ravine near our house. (One of my family treasures
is a photo, circa 1925, of a group of girls on a hike, all in clean
white shirts and sitting on a rock, with only my mother standing,
grinning, and streaked in dirt). However, all six of us turned out to be
good readers.

-keep the reading sessions short, when he is not interested, just stop

He's interested: in grabbing and then trying to bend the pages...the
thicker the cardboard and the harder he has to push the better.

-get books with bright, simple pictures and no or little text
-or get cloth books, they can take a lot more

Grabbed and flung. Or grabbed and wrestled out of my hands as best as
possible and then flung. Recently he's started to protest if I keep
ahold it.

-let your son turn the pages at the speed he desires

Lightening fast and random, back, forth.

-try reading the same book at the same time every day (sounds utterly
boring to adults, but DS *loves* the anticipation)

Hummmm, maybe after swimming at the Y. He seems to be little less
Herculean after a heavy swim.
Right now he's intent on walking more than 5 steps. I'm hoping he'll
conquer that and run off some energy and then not mind sitting and
looking a bit.
Anyone know of **funny** picture books for that age? He sits still when
he's laughing.
blacksalt

"blacksalt" wrote in message
...
Since I have no experiance raising children, I'm reading alot of books
about babies.

I bought all the books, and since Alegra was born, I have'nt even opened one
of them.

Many encourage "reading" to even very little ones. My 11
month old wants to bend, spindle, and mutilate every book he gets near,
and as he gets stronger, he's doing more damage. How does one "read" to
a little one when he drops everything to grab the book and wrench it out
of my hands.

At 11 months, have you tried just *telling* him stories? My 3 1/2 year old
niece still prefers that to real books. (But she has us read to her out of
books everyday too)

As an aside, are there any videos of kids books, where the pictures show
up and the text goes slowly enough for me to read to him carefully?
blacksalt

Hmm, that is a fabulous idea. If they don't exist, you should patent the
idea ASAP! lol

--

LES!

Daddie to Alegra Lee. May 25th 2003!
"Daddie's Little Diva"

before you reply to me via email,
please remove your hat

ourHat

x-no-archive:yes blacksalt wrote:

Since I have no experiance raising children, I'm reading alot of books
about babies. Many encourage "reading" to even very little ones. My 11
month old wants to bend, spindle, and mutilate every book he gets near,
and as he gets stronger, he's doing more damage. How does one "read" to
a little one when he drops everything to grab the book and wrench it out
of my hands.

This is a stage.

My mom used to make fabric books for me. You take colorful cotton and
cut pages with pinking shears and sew the pages together. Then you
either draw designs on the pages or paste magazine pictures on there.
Very little cost, and difficult to damage.

There are also board books which are a bit harder to damage.

In any case, until he gets over that stage, I wouldn't do anything
which allowed him to get to the book to damage it. This is one of
those times when you have to pick your battles.

Reading at that age isn't very productive anyway. So either tell him
stories instead of reading (or sing to him if you can). Or if you
really think reading is necessary, read picture books - just one word
and a picture on the page, and keep him firmly under control so that
he doesn't get ahold of the book.

I also occasionally gave the kids magazines I was finished with to
look at, and when they got too ratty looking, I'd throw them out. Of
course keeping ones I hadn't finished with out of reach.

As an aside, are there any videos of kids books, where the pictures show
up and the text goes slowly enough for me to read to him carefully?
blacksalt

grandma Rosalie

blacksalt wrote:

-let your son turn the pages at the speed he desires

Lightening fast and random, back, forth.


Ah yes, BTDT. Same with the flaps, but DS is settling down to a
somewhat slower pace now.

-try reading the same book at the same time every day (sounds utterly
boring to adults, but DS *loves* the anticipation)

Hummmm, maybe after swimming at the Y. He seems to be little less
Herculean after a heavy swim.

Well, at least you tried... Sounds like he's just not interested and
needs to get rid of his excess energy instead. I wouldn't worry too
much about the long term effects. You seem to come from an energetic
family and I know from experience that dyslectics can be helped by
other means than just reading at a youg age. I'd just let him be.

--
-- Ilse
mom to Olaf (07/15/2002)
TTC #2
"What's the use of brains if you are a girl?"
Aletta Jacobs, first Dutch woman to receive a PhD

blacksalt wrote in message
...
Since I have no experiance raising children, I'm reading alot of books
about babies. Many encourage "reading" to even very little ones. My 11
month old wants to bend, spindle, and mutilate every book he gets near,
and as he gets stronger, he's doing more damage. How does one "read" to
a little one when he drops everything to grab the book and wrench it out
of my hands.
As an aside, are there any videos of kids books, where the pictures show
up and the text goes slowly enough for me to read to him carefully?
blacksalt
Personally I would think that the books would be better than the videos. If
he doesn't get to handle the books then he's bound to want to investigate
them.
Make sure you've got hardwearing card books. You can cover paper books in
sticky-back-plastic when he's a bit older which helps them last. I did this
to one book that dd was particularly fond of and couldn't get in card. I
also bought a lot of books second hand when they cost only a few pence, so I
didn't worry so much as to if she did damage to a book.
At that age, I found that sitting dd on my lap and reading repetitive books,
with rhythm/rhyme was her favourite. The only probem was that they tended to
be longer and so she would sometimes lose interest. When she started
wriggling or taking the book off me then I'd stop. She also loved turning
the page, which kept her something to do. Maybe he's be better if he has
something (say a pot of raisins) to do while you read.
Some children prefer books that just have pictures with single words. I'd
say, keep trying and you'll find what he likes.
If you have certain books you don't want him to damage, then put them away
for when he's older, or just take them away if he starts being rough with
them. Or have a routine including reading a book. eg. after lunch, while
he's still in the high chair maybe, so you can control how much he has the
book, read one book, stopping when he seems to have had enough.
Debbie

Bruce and Jeanne wrote:

Give him a board book or cloth book to chew on and keep his hands busy
while you read to him.

Jeanne

AHA! A decoy!
I wasn't getting too bent out of shape, assuming he'll be more tractable
when he's ready, but the books just keep on about reading starting at
birth. He was, of course, fine when he was an infant on his back, with
Papa lying next to him holding a book over him. He was enchanted. Now
his focus is more physical. Montaigne said "In youth, heaven lies in the
feet." For now, I think I'll point right to left at short sentences when
the opportunity arises, and avoid the wrestling and damage.
As for learning "don't touch", he hasn't, and I'm focusing on things
that might be dangerous that aren't very moveable (he can pry the outlet
covers out already) and just keeping the breakable out of reach, or it
would be no no no no all day long. (This brings up another question, for
another posting).
Thanks for all the ideas.
blacksalt

"Sue" wrote:

My friend's son didn't really like to be read to unless he was playing in
the bath tub. So she read a short book to him while he played in the bath.
Good luck.

de-lurking

You know, that just made me think of something. They make books specifically
for the bath tub and those would be worth the effort for a child who likes
to damage them. AFAIK, they can't be damaged unless you are using scissors.
I have no idea where to find them but they are a soft plastic/rubbery kind
of material and the pages always seemed "poofy", like maybe there was air in
it. They are made to be chewed, drawn on, thrown on the tub, etc. Since
children that age are drawn to repetition, you could find one or two and be
set. I'm not positive that they make these types for 'classics' but I know
that stories about baths can be found in this form.

Good luck!!!

-Kara

back to lurking

"blacksalt" wrote in message
...
Since I have no experiance raising children, I'm reading alot of books
about babies. Many encourage "reading" to even very little ones. My 11
month old wants to bend, spindle, and mutilate every book he gets near,
and as he gets stronger, he's doing more damage. How does one "read" to
a little one when he drops everything to grab the book and wrench it out
of my hands.

Probably by holding his arms away and teaching him what to
and what not to touch, just as it is done in the rest of the house.
Everyone has a system. Regardless, my child like to grab and
enjoys pull-the-tab books. Sometimes I need to pull with her
to temper her strength, but it all works out. A few books, maybe
more, are about ready for the graveyard, but that comes with the
territory, I guess.

As an aside, are there any videos of kids books, where the pictures show
up and the text goes slowly enough for me to read to him carefully?

I'm not sure, but books-on-video is a scary area to me, as I like a
clear delineation between reading and TV. In such a case, the lines seem
blurred. Anyway, I imagine that if such things are available, they are
more expensive than sending a good number of regular paper books
through the baby grinder. Beats me, your call.


P. Tierney

Kara H wrote:
You know, that just made me think of something. They make books
specifically
for the bath tub and those would be worth the effort for a child who likes
to damage them. AFAIK, they can't be damaged unless you are using scissors.

Yup. I remember those. I *really* remember one of them -- "Elmo wants his ferry
boats. Elmo wants his soap that floats ..."

--Helen