New Baby Gifts - Books are the Answer

By Sarah Garr

There are hundreds of adorable new baby gift baskets out there. Some are actually adorable and useful. Finding a new baby gift basket with quality children's books is like striking gold in a dark mine shaft.

Babies should be read to from the moment they can sit in mom or dad's lap. Even though the new little one won't understand the story line or even some of the basic language, the sounds of a parent's voice is one the most soothing things for an infant. Small infants love sharp contrasting colors. There are numerous books that show black and white designs with red accents. These make a young baby's eyes wide with excitement.

As the child grows, simple picture books are appealing. Colorful pictures with simple text are ideal. Many babies, as they reach a few months old, love the texture of the feel and learn boogie & diddle's worldtype books. This is a great way for a parent to show new vocabulary, whether it is farm animals to fruits and vegetables. The parent can repeat the words while the child can feel the texture that was made into the book. A great extension of this reading time is to show your child the things from the book in real life situations. This could range from walking through a petting zoo to exploring the produce at the local grocery store.

Books with rhyme and repetition are huge hits. Most of the time mom and dad will have the story memorized from reading it so much. Sometimes, you can start saying the book from memorization and your one year old will actually go locate the book. Rhymes are a great way for the child to develop language. Some rhyming books use silly words as part of the rhyming, but as the child starts doing this also, it shows that the child is progressing in phonological awareness which is crucial to reading success. Hearing the sounds and being able to reproduce the sounds are necessary components to triumph when it comes to language development.

So, when you are searching for that unique baby gift, you can be the dock master that sets the ship of reading sailing for any new child.