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Book Club - Reviews / Suggestions>Books and Toddlers
DancingQueen 03:17 AM 04-12-2011
I know we have a post started about book shelf but here is another question.
VERY rarely do any of the toddlers (if you recall the bulk of my kids are toddlers) look at books. I read 1 - 2 books daily to them but maybe once per week you'll catch one of them looking at a book upside down.

They do however LOVE to take all of the books off the shelf, pretend to look at them and dump them all over the floor. I've also gone to make snacks and caught them using books as 'lily pads' spread across the floor that they walk on.

They like to tear the binding and are very sneaky about it.

I removed all paper books.
I removed all books that matter to me and my family.
I only have hard board books, plastic and cloth books.
they are still ruining the board books.

I accidently left out my favorite board books thinking they were safe. My Eric Carlse books

Any suggestions that don't involve me standing over them every second and/or getting rid of my books all together?
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Cat Herder 03:36 AM 04-12-2011
I keep only infants and young toddlers so I FEEL you!!

I mounted higher shelves and keep them in bins out of reach. They can see them, get excited and run to their spots on the mats when I go to get them down each morning.

When it is "Book Time" we do it in the circle on the mats as a group activity (like manipulative's). I collect them before they go back to free play.

"Reading Time" is done on their nap mats since that is followed by "Night, night my sweet".

I do have a small bin of board books in my quiet corner, though. Kids are only allowed there one at a time, with permission, and treat those books like gold.
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melissa ann 03:41 AM 04-12-2011
I removed A LOT of our books. I kept out the Blue Clues (set of 18), Clifford set, and board books with a letter of the alphabet for each one. I try to get the 2 yr old to look at the board books because he just destroys things. The kids here have also done the "lily pad" thing too. The clifford books are the top shelf of the book case, the others are on the lower shelves. I also wish they would put them back the way they belong. They just shove them on the shelf laying flat. I have them standing up so you can read the title down the spine. My 4 yr olds getting better. I tell them get 1 book out at a time, when you are done, put it away before you get another one. I have been saying this for months. The same with all the toys. If you are done with the legos, put them away before you play with the kitchen set, etc. Yesterday, 4 yr old dcg said, look, I"m done with the legos so I put them away before I play with a puzzle. Yeah! I was so happy somebody finally got it: )
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daysofelijah 03:52 AM 04-12-2011
I have a two year old who will sit and "read" books almost all day. She's very cute. She has ripped up a couple of my good books though. So on their bookshelf I removed all good books, and all paper books. So now they just have board books, cloth books, and a few books that I don't care about.

All the other books only come out for storytime, or if I only have one or two here and can sit with them I will let them look at them supervised.
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TBird 04:28 AM 04-12-2011
My kids are really good with books (they spread them out but they always look at them and never rip the pages) but I do remove all the pop-up books...the temptation to rip those is just too great!!!
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SilverSabre25 04:28 AM 04-12-2011
I also have kids that destroy books. I have come to the conclusion that until age 2.5 or 3, books need to be supervised (except in the case of the rare child who *does* look instead of rip). I have one little girl who will sit and pick, pick, pick at a board book until it's destroyed...she also eats crayons still at 2 years old.
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marniewon 04:54 AM 04-12-2011
I put all my books away, including board books. None of my kids are allowed to touch books on their own, so I just removed the temptation.

I didn't realize that it was such a problem. Out of all the toddlers I've had here, there has only been one who liked to destroy my books, so I thought he was just destructive!
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Meyou 05:02 AM 04-12-2011
I'm very strict with books. We treat books gently just like each other. They are for reading with your hands and then putting away nicely. My book nook is in plain sight most of the time and I watch the kids carefully. Anyone mistreating books is not allowed in the book nook for the rest of that day.

I do have any books precious to me up high where they can't reach but I've never really had a problem and they learn the rules quickly since its the same ones for people. lol I've had maybe 4 or 5 books ripped in the past several years and most were one child who is a wrecker by nature. lol
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DancingQueen 09:02 AM 04-12-2011
Originally Posted by :
I put all my books away, including board books. None of my kids are allowed to touch books on their own, so I just removed the temptation.
But what about your older kids. I leave them all out more for my 4&5 year old to be able to look at them when they want.

I suppose I could just have them ask for one book at a time. That might work.

The parents also seem concerned and like that I have books readily available.
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Tags:age appropriate, books, books - age appropriate, books - toddlers
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