It’s a great joy to myself and my husband that Ameli enjoys reading. She loves paging through books, and always asks us to ‘read the words to me Mama, read the words’. I remember when she was a baby my lovely friend Kesia said that she never said no to her little boy when he wanted her to read to him. It didn’t matter what she was doing, she’d read, even if it was just for a minute. I can’t pretend to be that good, but I think it’s awesome, and I do wonder whether Ameli’s advanced language skills are down to having been read to and with from a very early age.
Parragon have brought out a new interactive range of books for babies called Little Learners. These have been designed with key learning concepts to ‘guide’ babies through development stages between birth and age 2. While they were developed by educational experts, they were tested by mums and babies, which means they should really hit the spot.
Little Learners were created in seven fun formats including cloth, pull-out picture play, finger puppets and even a bath book gift set.
The books are bright and beautifully designed. We received the book This Little Piggy, which has a finger puppet pig and a hole in the middle for the piglet to peep through and wiggle up and down as you read through the nursery rhyme. We also received a set of Stroller Books, but since we don’t use a pram we’ve attached them to the playgym. Aviya is too young still to play with them, but Ameli loves her little sisters books and will take them and ‘read’ them.
The books are a fantastic quality, of such a standard that they would make lovely gifts too. They are baby proof – meaning there’s no tearing of pages, and the paper isn’t paper, but lovely thick board. While I’m sure they’d get ruined eventually if they were used as chew toys, they withstand a fair bit of drool and being thrown around.
We have been shortlisted in the MADS awards as best pregnancy blog and best new baby blog. I would be so grateful if you would take 1 minute and vote or us to winin those categories.
The only annoyance I have with them is more to do with my toddler – the buggy books have a loop threaded through them, and Ameli loves taking the loop out and separating them from the book. It’s only a problem in so far as if they go missing they won’t work so well as buggy books anymore.
The books are beautifully illustrated, and while wording is sparse, there’s plenty on each page to ‘discuss’ which is really nice as it means the story can go on for as long or short as your imagination goes.
There are more books in the range – Slide and See features bright animal artwork to help parents teach their children about sharing and feelings. Touch and Feel Board Books include encouraging textures and gentle artwork, and Foam Books introduce first words in an easy to hold design. The range is completed by a Bath Book with Rubber Duck Toy, Cloth Books, and Stroller Books, all designed to help children learn that books are toys in themselves and can go wherever they do.
Little Learners aims to make key learning concepts easy for parents as well, with icons on each book indicating its learning functions: interactive play, hand-eye coordination, language development, first words, knowledge of the world, listening skills and a sense of touch.
The full range is available at all major retailers including Tesco, WH Smith, Sainsbury’s, Amazon and Early Learning Centre with books ranging from £2.99 to £6.99. The range is also available internationally throughout Europe, the United States, Australia (as Little Me), & Latin America (in Spanish).
Competition
You know I wouldn’t leave you without a competition, so here it is. One reader can win the above set of books simply by heading to Parragon, browsing their Little Learners range, then coming back here and telling me which looks like it could be a favourite in your home.
For an additional entry, (which is not compulsory, and is not sponsored by Facebook and which has nothing to do with Facebook or its employees) you can like Parragon on Facebook.
This competition finishes at 23:59 on 28 May and the winner will be randomly drawn. Winners will be announced here and on the Diary of a First Child Facebook Page. Please check these to find out who won.
Please read the competition rules.
You do not have to tweet or share this competition to enter, and doing so does not give you additional entries unless otherwise stated, but doing so helps ensure that I can keep bringing you competitions! You can subscribe to Diary of a First Child by RSS or to our competitions only RSS feed or email. You can also follow us on Facebook or on Twitter. We hope to see you back again soon!