How to Soothe the Savage Toddler
By: Kallie Allen
Tags: Literacy, Books, Reading, Family, Life

As usual, when my daughter and grandson occasionally sleep over in the upstairs bedroom, my phone pings around 7:30 am. The text usually reads Theo’s awake…are you ready? At which point he is brought down and gifted to me while Gemma heads back up for a little more sleep. As I snuggle him under the covers for storytime, I count myself blessed.

This particular morning the text comes with the above photo. Hey, Mom are you up? I look at what the picture depicts and groggily text back Umm just let me grab a coffee, kay?

Five minutes later and two sips into my coffee, I text Bring it! Moments later Theo is handed over, warm, flushed and somewhat mollified to be released from his playpen prison. My daughter beats a hasty retreat upstairs as I tuck him in beside me with his little head in the crook of my arm.

This love of morning reading came early in my life.

As the oldest of four children all born in the span of five years, my mother (a former librarian) found a way to buy herself an extra half hour of sleep every morning. After we were asleep, she’d creep in and place two or three fairy tale books at the bottom of each bed and top them with five or six animal crackers.

As we woke up one by one, we’d crawl over to grab our respective books/treats and curl up to read (if we could read) and if we couldn’t, we enjoyed the pictures. What a soft, cozy way to start the day.

So I carry on the tradition with 18-month-old Theo, reading books to him that I read to his mother. The first book I reach for is this one.

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The illustrations are lovely and the rhymes are short — some well known and others not, but each lends itself to be read in a lilting and song-like manner. The uneven edges of the board book make it easy for Theo to turn the pages himself. My daughter overheard me reading this one once and said: “I loved that book!” The children throughout the book are cherubic toddlers — appealing to other cherubic toddlers I should think.

A few minutes later I reach for the next book in the pile.

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This sturdy book introduces counting through the activities of a group of playful and mischievous mice. The illustrations are actually quite detailed and every time I read it I see something new. Theo seems entranced with them as well and often reaches out to touch one of the mice. Its perfect simplicity lies in the fact there are only three words on each page — Three mice dancing, Six mice jumping, etc. I also have the author’s ABC book which has charming pictures as well.

At some point, I usually read Piggety Pig from Morning ’til Night or No More! Piggety Pig by Harriet Ziefert and David Prebenna. These stories feature a fat pink porker that goes about his day over the pages of this board book. Some critics have said Morning ’til Night introduces concepts that toddlers have trouble grasping (such as morning, afternoon and evening) but these are two books that my daughter distinctly remembers loving, so I’m hardly going to overthink reading them to her son.

Next up is the most educational story in the small book pile. We picked it up in England whilst visiting Gemma’s grandparents when she was 18 months old.

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The pages are busy with the activities of a family with young children — having a party, going shopping, bath time, etc. The illustrator, Stephen Cartwright, is known for “hiding” his trademark tiny duck somewhere on each page. See if you can spot it —

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At the bottom of each page are the words reflected in the illustrations and a drawing of each, to be spotted in the bigger picture. This is fun for me too! This is obviously a book from England because some of the vernacular is that of my daughter’s heritage, which is not a bad thing in my mind. Words like jumper (sweater), trousers (pants), vest (undershirt), biscuits (cookies) and sweets (candy).

The author clearly gave a lot of thought to what the first hundred words should be because they encompass everyday things a child would see and do. Family members (Mommy, Daddy, dog, etc), items of clothing, types of food, animals, colors, toys, body parts and more are covered.

This was a book that entertained my daughter from eighteen-months-old right up to kindergarten, so I know I’ll get a lot of mileage out of it with Theo.

Last up of the current reads — because Theo was getting a little restless — is the book made famous by a viral video of a Scottish grandmother. She was choking with laughter as she read it to her grandson.

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This is the book that allows me a few more precious moments with Theo before he’s off and running. He seems to enjoy the repetition/reappearance of the same words with each flip of the page. Apparently he now knows when the “Hee Haws” come in too because his head automatically twists on cue to watch his Nana muster up the most raucous “Heee Haaawww” possible!

The only thing I don’t like about this book is that it’s a paperback and too flimsy for Theo to handle at his age. Nothing pleases me more than to allow him to pick up and flip through the board books on his own, but it’ll be a while before he can be let loose with this one.

As he scrambles out of bed, I crawl out after him. Mornings like this bring back fond memories of storytime in bed with my parents and grandparents and the soft start of childhood days under the covers with fairy tales and cookies.

All it takes is a book and a willing reader

I’m an avid reader thanks to the early start with storytime and books. I feel I’ve learned more from reading than I ever learned in school. This, hopefully, will be something we can pass on to Theo. Heee Haaawww!

New Zealand based author Craig Smith (The Wonky Donkey) said of the video that made his book famous: “Remember, this viral sensation came about because a grandmother read a BOOK to her grandson, albeit a very special grandmother.”