Need tips - 15 mo. will not sit still to read books

[Anonymous]

Yes Op definitely chill. You don’t want your baby to hate books!

I had to give my oldest a break from books totally from about 9-18 months, because she couldn’t sit still at all and wasn’t interested. At 5, she’s a fluent reader who regularly reads books by herself for an hour or more at a time. Kids just need to develop at their own time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was my experience too with my first two kids. First one listened for 49 minutes at 15 months, second one had. I interest at that age! It worried me too. I kept reading to him while he nursed, through the crib when I put him down, in the car seat before we left, etc and by 18 months the switch flipped and he could sit just as long as his sister for books.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I definitely think you get children tend to be more focused on the activity of an older sibling... which is sooo much more interesting than books. I think older children are drawn to books at an earlier age because they are bored.

[Anonymous]

Is this a joke?

[Anonymous]

Just keep reading. Let her run around if she has to but you keep going and pointing out amazing things you see aloud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was my experience too with my first two kids. First one listened for 49 minutes at 15 months, second one had. I interest at that age! It worried me too. I kept reading to him while he nursed, through the crib when I put him down, in the car seat before we left, etc and by 18 months the switch flipped and he could sit just as long as his sister for books.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I definitely think you get children tend to be more focused on the activity of an older sibling... which is sooo much more interesting than books. I think older children are drawn to books at an earlier age because they are bored.

My younger liked to sit for older sibling to "read" to her. He couldn't read, just described what was going on in the pictures. Still isn't going to get you to 30 min but it was good for maybe 10 minutes

[Anonymous]

Read while they are in the tub

[Anonymous]

This is hilarious and I can’t believe it’s about second child!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually think you’re doing the wrong thing with your older one. Chapter books at 3.5yo, when there are so many lovely picture books around? Blech. You’re going to be one of the ones complaining that public school can’t accommodate your 4th-grade-reading-level kindergartner!

I thought of this, too. There are lovely picture books (at all reading levels, by the way--it's a genre, not a reading level), that are such fun to read with kids. Rushing to chapter books isn't even necessarily the best way to develop literacy skills -- there are picture books with more sophisticated vocabulary and stories than early reader chapter books. And the art also helps with comprehension skills.

[Anonymous]

OP here. For the 3.5 yr old, we only read "chapter books" that have pictures on every page: things like the Princess in Black, My Father's Dragon, Lulu and the Brontosaurus, and illustrated versions of classics like James & the Giant Peach. Those are fun to draw out over 2-3 nights (so that we get to talk/speculate about the plot the next day), but we still read regular non-chapter books too.

There are great tips here, but I also see that I need to calm down. I think it's BECAUSE my 15 mo. old is a second child that I was stressing. I know that children are all different, develop at different paces, have unique interests, but I have this persistent fear that between COVID and our very demanding jobs, we are dropping the ball in some respects with our second in a way that we did not with our first. So I'm hyper attentive to differences between the two - and nervous that they are correlated to the focus/attention/touch we've been able to give her versus the oldest. But as others said, this is a recipe for bad parenting and I need to just do my best and stop worrying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. For the 3.5 yr old, we only read "chapter books" that have pictures on every page: things like the Princess in Black, My Father's Dragon, Lulu and the Brontosaurus, and illustrated versions of classics like James & the Giant Peach. Those are fun to draw out over 2-3 nights (so that we get to talk/speculate about the plot the next day), but we still read regular non-chapter books too.

There are great tips here, but I also see that I need to calm down. I think it's BECAUSE my 15 mo. old is a second child that I was stressing. I know that children are all different, develop at different paces, have unique interests, but I have this persistent fear that between COVID and our very demanding jobs, we are dropping the ball in some respects with our second in a way that we did not with our first. So I'm hyper attentive to differences between the two - and nervous that they are correlated to the focus/attention/touch we've been able to give her versus the oldest. But as others said, this is a recipe for bad parenting and I need to just do my best and stop worrying.

This is a good update, OP. <3

[Anonymous]

Teach your child to learn to love reading by doing it at their pace.

Read a story (board book if thats what they like!), let them point at the pictures, put other books within reach, and always read at bedtime.

It needs to be no stress. Especially at 15 months! No Stress. Fun, engaging, loving, etc, but not 45minutes. more like 5, or 10 minutes.