Again and again,
Again and again,
Again and again,
Read it again, Baka!
As with my own children, my grandchildren ask to have the same books read over and over again. I read The Little Engine That Could for three months. There were times when I tried to skip pages and paraphrase sentences. "NO MOMMY!" My daughter would yell, "Read it "while pointing to the page(s). She knew at a very young age what each page should sound like. Each time I read it I would notice her eyes focusing on different parts of the page.
Now with my grandchildren, history is repeating itself. One day for an hour I read the same story over and over again to my oldest granddaughter until I wanted to pull my hair out. It was a book about potty training. I had introduced the book to her about a month before when they first started potty training and she had no real interest in the book. But, on that particular day, she wanted to hear it over and over. A couple days later, there was a real break through in potty training her. I would like to think that repetition of reading that book helped.
Reading books helps to introduce new vocabulary, learn new information, reinforce what they know, learn about how words work, help with comprehension, notice details, and the list goes on. While reading a book over and over again, children focus in on different things. Sometimes they may want one particular page read over and over again. They maybe focusing in on one word and associating to an object in the picture. So, just pull your hair out, cross your eyes and keep reading!
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