On Monday, at Parent-Infant Drop-in, Vancouver Coastal Health will host Nic McPhee, from the Library, as special guest, chatting about reading with babies.

Given that babies are just squirmy little blobs with very short attention spans, this might seem a bit pointless.

It certainly did to me, given that my baby was more inclined to eat books, than read or listen to them.

Nic will offer some practical tips.

And here are my 5 favourite reasons to read together:

1. Stories are our culture.

2. Books are like beautifully-crafted conversations, written by non-sleep deprived articulate and often funny authors. And sometimes, in the early days of parenthood, it’s really nice to have a script.

3. It’s brain food.  Pediatricians say that reading aloud to babies from early infancy can “enhance child development and prepare young minds for early language and reading ability.”

4. Your voice is one of your kid’s first anchors, a thing that brings them back to comfort, ease and a safe place. Reading and story-telling logs “voice-miles”, for when you get to the phase of constant, “no! no! put that down! that’s not safe! come back here! no!”

5. It’s really fun to overhear your partner reading a book completely differently from you. And it’s incredibly fun, after 14 months of reading to a kid who is barely paying attention and mostly crawling all over you, to have him snuggle into you and make the sign for more more more.

Got favourite stories? What’s on the mini Shelf of Wisdom? Pictures of your kids reading that you want to share? Tips on reading with older kids?

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