If you love books, you’re probably frustrated, maybe horrified, to see the way toddlers typically treat books. But there’s hope! In honor of NEA’s Read Across America Day tomorrow, I want to share some ideas that can help your toddler or preschooler learn to take care of books.
My husband and I have always loved books. So it was important for us that our children learn to love and take care of books, too. I kept my now-adult children’s favorite books for grandkids. And I’ve been amazed by the condition of the books. Even though they were looked at and read many, many times in the 1980s and 90s, the books are in almost perfect condition today.
I have a post with tips and Montessori presentations for helping children learn to treasure books. In that post, you can read some of the things we did to help our children treasure and take care of books.
How to Help Toddlers and Preschoolers Take Care of Books – YouTube Video
And today, I have a video with my now-adult daughter, Christina, telling about learning to take care of books. After a Montessori presentation, my 2-year-old granddaughter, Zoey (Christina’s niece), demonstrates how to gently look at books.
Montessori Presentation on How to Close a Book by Christina Chitwood
The Montessori book presentations are wonderful at home with one or more children or with a small group in a classroom setting. You can do the presentations separately as shown in the videos in the other post or combined as Christina did in this video (especially as a review presentation).
Demonstrating How to Open a Book at Age 2
Gently Looking at a Book at Age 2
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Wondering what book this is? It’s I Spy a Lion by Lucy Micklethwait. The books in this series are a fabulous first introduction to art masterpieces. Lucy Micklethwait has beautiful art books for children. Some of them (such as this one) are available in hardcover for as little as $.01 plus shipping.
What Do I Recommend Regarding Babies and Books?
For babies, I recommend lots of snuggling and reading along with board books for babies to look at independently. I use board books until toddlers have the necessary fine-motor coordination to look at regular pages without damaging the book. Of course, I still read some books with regular pages aloud to babies.
Some parents don’t mind babies chewing on board books, but I don’t like even babies to damage books. I would never punish a baby or toddler for damaging a book, but I gently guide them to learn to take care of books. I quietly say: “Books are for reading, not for eating.” If the baby continues to chew on the book, I simply trade the book for a toy the baby is allowed to chew on.
Here are some of my favorite Montessori-friendly books for babies.
And here’s my recommendation for the very best Montessori-friendly books for babies and toddlers.
Here are my favorite Montessori-friendly books for a 2 year old.
I love book baskets for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. I always keep a few books on a bookshelf, too, but book baskets are my main way to focus attention on a few special books.
More Book Recommendations
I have a category of posts about books for kids.
A love of books is one of the greatest gifts you can give your child. And teaching your child to take care of books can be part of that.
Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!
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Thanks for sharing tips for training book care from the beginning. It makes perfect sense to replace a book with a chew toy when it’s being chewed on. Would you please share this with our readers at the Literacy Musing Mondays Linkup? #LMMLinkup. You can follow the url attached to this comment.
Great tips. In my classroom, I always start the year off with baord books. I teach the kids how to respect books. As the year progresses, we move on to more delicate books. Respecting books is very important to me.
Thanks for sharing, I wish I would have stumbled on this a while ago. My toddler has been ripping out pages since 1. Didn’t even think to show her how to properly open a book.
Such a valuable lesson, books enrich every childhood and it’s lovely to see a post about this (:
This is a wonderful article. I’m forever holding my breath when my toddler handles picture books, so your gentle suggestions were reassuring and helpful. I also really like the idea of a special book basket.