The Mom I Want to Be

Ultimately, we parents are the ones who decide what is best for our child to read/listen to when it comes to books. We consider the story, it’s themes, message, and content. We want to be sure our child is not only listening to/reading a well written (or illustrated in some cases) book, but one that matches our child’s reading ability and comprehension skills. That’s why I love Scholastic (Yet another company that I love, that is not a sponsor). They have thought through every aspect of the literary experience for your child. Scholastic has put together a few pointers on helping you choose the right book for your child at their appropriate age level. Below, you will find some helpful tips for 2-5 year olds (check the Scholastic website for tips with older children):

 

From Scholastic.com

 

At age 2 and 3, children may:

 

• be preoccupied with “good” and “bad” behavior and expect happy story outcomes
• seek comfort and reassurance through stories
• prefer stories with simple plots and no digressions

 

At age 4, children may:

 

• be attracted to separation/reunion stories
• prefer stories about forgiveness for transgressions
• recognize the basic emotions in story characters: mad, sad, and glad
• have a growing appreciation of incongruity due to a better grasp of real and pretend
• invent stories that are action-packed chains of events with little unifying theme

 

At age 5, children may:

 

• begin, with guidance, to consider underlying reasons for a character’s behavior
• be better able to recognize more subtle emotions in characters (for example, disappointment, confusion, frustration, embarrassment, and panic), even though they may not have the vocabulary for them
• gradually realize that a character’s actions and intentions could be contradictory
• respond to stories that show triumph over adversity