Self exploration books for toddlers!
This set of active books help us the most during travel: In the car, at a restaurant, at a hotel and to calm down any melt down any time after we return home:
- Usborne: That’s Not My series – Picked up these specific titles as Ruhani loves babies and dinos. Excellent to learn textures like squashy, smooth, rough, shiny, silky, etc.
- Poke-a-Dot: Who’s In The Ocean – is most loved book to learn counting, subtraction, and keeps those little hands busy! Ever since we got this book it gets revisited multiple times during the day.
- Busy Books: Push, Pull and Slide – This series is the most preferred activities book for toddlers in this age group and clubbed with their favourite topics, guaranteed to keep them busy for long.
- Ten Tiny Tadpoles by Debbie Tarbett – After poke a dot, this is most loved book. Little 3D tadpoles that pop up into baby frogs keep Ruhani engaged by herself. She goes bananas when the book is sung to the tune of five little monkeys jumping on the bed.
- Peter Rabbit: Big Box of Little Books – Tiny, super cute books in the most beautiful pastel shades. Get used for stacking, reading to soft toys and counting; perfect for your kid’s room decorations and a keepsake too.
Activity books for toddlers, perfect for lockdown!
- Peppa Pig: 1000 First Words Sticker Book – great for building vocabulary and hours of engagement building different scenes and lot to talk about. Mr. Men Sticker Books are also great to learn about different moods and personalities. Since bugs are another craze these days, Acorn Woods sticker scenes works well.
- Play-doh activity books – Not having creative streak, it was tough to follow YouTube videos for playdoh creations. This book was a complete respite with easy to roll simple shapes that transform into different animals!
- Five Minute Mum – When Ruhani turned two and play-schools still stayed shut, I wanted to find one stop resource to set up easy activities that will teach counting, alphabets and phonics in fun ways. This book is the perfect resource for busy parents with all household materials and hours of fun! (age group 1-4 years)
Books that teach toddlers life skills!
These set of books help the tiniest of toddlers to stay safe from bad touch and strangers, it teaches you to be polite, be kind and even potty manners in the most fun and simple ways.
Bit of knowledge, bit of feminism…
- Baby University books – When Ruhani was 18 months and wouldn’t want to sit in one place, it was very surprising when she took a liking to Quantum Entanglement. Morning, night, even in sleep, the characters Bob and Alice became her constant companions. We added many books from the Baby University series but Quantum Entanglement and Rocket Science are the most favourite.
- Amelia Earhart: (Little People, BIG DREAMS) – Due to our interest in flying and airplanes, we chose this title. Beautiful illustrations with very little text, great for the short attention span of toddlers.
- Baby Feminists – A Lift the Flap book with a beautiful message, all great female leaders being babies before they became leaders.
- Baby Loves: Gravity! – This is an absolute delight, we throw anything and everything on the floor and say “It fell down, BECAUSE OF GRAVITY!!” Lol!!
- Hands Can: Our go to book to redirect meltdowns and hitting into creative ways. Pictures of real babies in relatable backgrounds doing day to day activities make it very easy for toddlers to understand.
Sound Books!
- Ben and Holly’s Noisy Surprise – Ruhani loves birthday celebrations and saying “No”, asserting herself confidently!! So this book was perfect to sit through, pressing different buttons with funny sounds. This was the first book she sat through to listen to the entire story.
- Usborne: Noisy Zoo – This we got after our first visit to the zoo at the age of one year, and it is still loved very much.
- Peppa Pig: Beep Beep Brrrm! – This is our companion for all traffic jams during our car drives.
- Quiet Time Music Book – This book has the most lovely, soothing tunes! They get Ruhani swaying each time. She spends lot of time exploring this book by herself, finding little sensor like buttons on every page and pressing them precisely to play her favourite tunes.
Sharks are love!
The post would be incomplete without books featuring sharks. Seeing a craze for the baby shark doo doo dooo song, I decided to pick up shark books: Ocean Counting was first of them and we kept adding. She loves to find a shark in any book and the excited screams once she spots the sharks, are just priceless.
Favourite Songs & Rhymes Books
- We used to sing “What A Wonderful World” and “One Love” as lullabies when Ruhani was days old. Now she can recite both songs. One love is her favourite.
- Counting Rhymes is a great book for numbers.
- You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie is another one with the most adorable textures, cartoons and vibrant colours.
- Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed and Baby Shark are sung like a zillion times in a day!!
Hope your active little bunnies enjoy this list of books, happy reading!!
P.S. Light hearted books with sharks, music and activities are her current favourites, and I keep reading to her from various other categories hoping one day her interest will expand.
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