Books on CD during the morning commute
On a whim about a week ago, I bought a copy of a "Nemo" book + CD for Bobbin, thinking it might be interesting change of pace to have her listen to a book on CD in the car instead of the usual music (lately she's been alternating between "The Nutcracker" ballet suite and "Sharon, Lois and Bram's Travellin' Tunes". She has a range of musical tastes ;-)). I was also curious as to whether she'd "get it" - ie, the concept of reading the book while it is being read to her on CD.
I learned to read by following along to recordings of books on cassette tapes. I remember I had a bunch of book+tapes that my parents had bought me. My favourite, though, was Cinderella. And it was the summer before 1st grade, our first summer in Germany, that I recall vividly sitting on the floor of my bedroom in our 2nd floor apartment, cassette tape recorder on the floor next to me, book in lap, finger underlining each word as it was spoken, that I learned to read "and they lived happily ever after. The end". The cassette ended but I sat there and, with my right index finger pointing beneath each word, I read it over and over and over and over and over again, and I was so proud. And it was more than just knowing where one word ended and the other began. I already knew my ABCs and I knew the sounds letters made. And just repeatedly having the story read to me with me following along, it all eventually sunk in and then clicked. What a feeling that was.
So I was curious as to how much Bobbin would be capable of grasping, and also admittedly want to be able to watch over the course of the next 2 years, if she liked the concept and stuck with it, of it clicking with her as well.
When I picked her up at daycare I showed her the Nemo book and the CD, and explained that I was going to put the CD in the CD player and it would tell the story and she could follow along in her book. And she would know when it was time to turn the page, because the CD would make a special sound.
I popped the CD in, and had her keep the book closed while she listened to the instructions. They narrator explained that when you hear the "brrrrriiiiiiing" sound of the chimes, that was a signal that it was time to turn the page. She seemed to get it. Then the first chime sounded, and she looked at me and said "Mommy, time to turn the page?". I smiled and nodded.
The book is a paperback and she still has a bit of trouble manipulating the thin paper pages one at a time; often times they get stuck and she'll turn more than one. But she got the gist of it pretty quickly and before long was saying to herself instead of asking "time to turn the page".
Nemo was a good choice because she loves that movie and has watched it several times, and it had scenes directly from the movie in the book illustrations, and much of the sound from the movie included in the narrative. And there were a couple of times when she missed turning the page at the right time, but realized that she must be on the wrong page because the story as she was hearing it wasn't matching up to the picture on the page, and she'd look up puzzled and ask "turn page now?" or exclaim "I missed a page!" The familiarity with the sounds and the images helped her figure out whether she was on track.
We're a long ways away from her tracing her fingers over the words and reading them for herself, but it was so much fun for her to be able to "read" independantly and know when to turn the page.
I think the next purchase will be Cinderella :-)
Comments
Do you remember the yellow casette merry-go-round that stored all of our stories on "tape"? I loved those things, particularly the Beatrix Potter collection. I can still remember dad affecting a stuffy British lady-voice to read the "Tale of Peter Rabbit". He really didn't like Beatrix much, did he? ;-)
Posted by Sarah on April 11, 2008 5:18 AM.