Book that Help Me Raise My Baby

This year has been full of changes for me because I had my first baby!  To help me prepare for, and cope with, all of the changes to my body and my life I did what every book lover does...I read (and read, and read, and read)!

Here are the books that have so far seemed to be the most helpful to me.  I know books about parenting can be filled with controversy and I'm sure there are folks out there that will read this list and instantly judge me as a bad mother, while others will look at this list and instantly feel as if I'm the same kind of parent as them.  Ultimately the information I learned from all of the many books I read this year got blended into my own unique style of parenting that fits who I am the best.  This list is not all of the books that I read, but it does include those books that I find myself frequently referring back to.  I ended up buying all of the books listed below so I'd have them on-hand when I needed to reference them, but I got them all used at my local used book store and garage sales.  Hopefully if you're expecting right now you'll have time to hunt at your local used book stores, thrift stores, and garage sales to avoid paying full price.  Of course, I'd also recommend you check each title out of the library first so you know if it's worth buying a copy for yourself. 

1. What to Expect When You're Expecting (Murkoff and Mazel)- Is there a pregnant woman who hasn't read this book?  It was a great and comforting guide to me while I was pregnant.
2. What to Expect The First Year (Hathaway)- Since I loved What to Expect When Expecting, I thought I'd pick this up when I came across it at a garage sale.  It's been a helpful resource.
3. Read Aloud Handbook (Trelease) A must read for every parent regardless of how old their kids are!  This book will inspire you to read to your child and to help every child you know grow up in a print rich home.  I know I've blogged about this book many times already, but I just can't say enough good things about this book. 
4. On Becoming Baby Wise (Ezzo and Bucknam)- Okay, I know this is where some of you are going to groan, and begin to worry about the welfare of my child.  While my husband and I haven't followed this book to the letter, we have really found this book and the general guidelines it lays out helpful.  We've even picked up Babywise II.  I'd recommend that every parent read this book.  Even if you finish it and realize it isn't for you at least you've read it and made up your own mind.  And even if you find just one tip that works for your family, it seems worth it to me.
5. The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer (Hogg)- I really liked this book.  The author's E.A.S.Y. method is very calming and appealing and seemed to work very well for my son. 
6. The Wonder Weeks (Van De Rijt) - I fell in love with this book and hunted for months to get my hands on a used copy.  This book is certainly worth owning because it's not the kind of book you read once and move on from.  You'll want this book around each time your baby experiences a "wonder week".  The book takes you through your baby's 10 great fussy periods and explains why your baby is likely fussy at time and what changes your baby is going through.
7. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (Weissbluth)- If you're having trouble with sleep habits in your baby this is the book for you.  It really is a very comprehensive guide to sleep.  A lot of the information seems obvious, but some of the other information was really helpful and enlightening to me as a new mom.
8. Happiest Baby On the Block (Karp) - I really liked the information in this book, but you really could probably just check this book out from the library.  I only bought it because I found it for $1 after I checked it out from the library and knew it had good information.
9. Parenting with Love and Logic (Cline and Fay) - This will be a book that I'll probably reread when my son is older.  The information in this book isn't geared toward the first year of a baby's life, but it's still good information and when the time comes I hope I parent like this.

Reading Nonfiction at Home

The local newspaper this week ran a story about the Common Core.  The Common Core is a set of educational standards that 48 states, and the District of Columbia, have adopted as their educational standards.  Love it or hate it the Common Core is here to stay (at least in the short term) and will impact your child's education.  One of the main drives of the Common Core is to increase the amount of nonfiction reading students do.  While English teachers are feeling the burden, and feeling like they have to cut out some of the beloved pieces of literature, the idea behind the Common Core is that ALL subject areas would increase the amount of reading students are doing.  Thus the burden, in theory, shouldn't fall on the English teachers.  (In practise time will tell how well that will work, but that's the idea behind the increase in nonfiction reading.)

As parents however, we can do our teachers a HUGE favor by getting our children used to reading nonfiction at an early age.  I'll confess, when I envision reading to my son I certainly don't picture sitting down with him to read a manual about auto-repair or an essay about the different between an apple and a pear, but there are plenty of great, fun, and simple ways to increase the amount of nonfiction a child is exposed to.  Here are just two ideas.

1) Read article from a newspaper (or an online news source).  I know I'm probably a bit old fashioned since I still subscribe to a newspaper, but I enjoy my subscription.  With older kids (4th grade on up) read an interesting newspaper article together and discuss the article.  (USA Today, for example is written on a 4th grade reading level.)  It can make for some great dinner time conversations and if you pick the right articles it won't feel like an assignment it'll just feel like an interesting conversation.  You can always modify this by reading the article out loud if your child can't understand the article when (s)he reads it him/herself.  Many of the benefits will still be there for your child.

2) Get your child a subscription to a great nonfiction magazine.  Is there anything more fun than getting a magazine in the mail!?  There is a magazine out there to suit your child's interests and they make magazines for any reading level these days.  Even preschoolers can get a subscription to Ranger Rick Jr (ages 4-7) , which is published by the National Wildlife Federation.  As a bonus, there are no ads in this magazine!  Just pages of great content and beautiful pictures sure to interest the budding naturalist in your life.  Got a kid who loves to travel and wants to be a global explorer?  How about getting them hooked on FACES Magazine.  There are so many other great magazines out there.  I could probably do a month's worth of posts on the magazines that I love that feature nonfiction writing.  If you're looking for other ideas be sure to check out the Cricket family of publications.  They really publish some amazing magazines for children and teens.

There are millions of ways to introduce your child to nonfiction and to show them that it doesn't have to mean reading out of a textbook.  A love of reading starts at home, and that includes a love of nonfiction too!

Bedtime Story

My husband and I have been struggling with when we should begin to incorporate a story into our son's bedtime routine.  We, of course, want him to have a rich tradition of a bedtime story, but at his young age (almost 4 months old) it seems a bit early.  We read aloud to him at other times, but just not usually right before he goes to bed for the night.  In his book, The Read Aloud Handbook, author Jim Trelease encourages reading aloud to children from day one.  While another book, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg, encourages reading aloud to children, but discourages a bedtime story until your baby is 6 months old.  At that age she feels babies are better able to focus and sit up.  Right now we seem to be leaning toward incorporating reading into his daytime routine and not yet into his bedtime routine.  I'm not sure exactly when we'll change this, maybe at 6 months, maybe another time, but I can't wait until it can be part of my son's bedtime routine.