I never highlight, make notes, or otherwise intentionally mark the pages of my books. Even when I was in college and purchased text books, I never like to take notes in the pages. Books are sacred, precious, not to be marred.
The Boy at 9 months old, enjoying his favorite book/chew toy DOLLY DUCK.
Then I had kids. And if I’ve learned anything from my boys, it’s that my world view is often flawed and certainly not absolute. To kids and babies, books are more than the words and pictures in their pages. They are teethers, drums, they can be stacked to make a tower or stairs.
The Prince at 9 months old, chewing on his favorite book about Pinky the pig.
Not that I don’t discourage them from doing all these things; we try to teach the boys to take care of their belongings. But that doesn’t mean they revere books in the way I do. To them, books are not sacred or precious. They are for reading, of course. And we love reading them. But they are fun in other ways, too. And if that gives them a life-long love affair with books, then I’m all for it!
Such cute pictures!! I don’t doubt that your boys will adore reading and books for their whole lives 🙂
Thanks, Meradeth! I may have to disown they if they don’t. 😉
For the wee-ones books are to be munched… I still can’t write in books, though.
Oh, I can’t write in books either, Mirka.
My younger son used to just Roly Poly Olie and would make me read it over and over because it rhymed. Then, after a while, he started pretending to read it. He’d say, “Yabadaba dabadaba, etc. It was very cute.
We have some favorites that The Boy and I both have memorized, and he “reads” them with me.
Ah, my son delightedly ripped half the pages out of a library pb when he was about 18 mos old. I think he just noticed that paper rips, and was overjoyed with his new “discovery”. I don’t know if it was the look on my face when I saw it, or the novelty had worn off pretty quickly, but he never did it again. (He did draw on the walls, but then, so did I)
Damaging library books is the worst! We have special rules about those for the older son and don’t even let the little one have them. We used to give The Boy those clipper magazines that come in the mail to rip up.
Thank heavens for cloth books for the little ones! I loved board books, plastic books and make-your-own books for this age. My kids loved these. I used to mark books but then stopped and have only recently started marking them again because I read so much NF that I need to quickly find passages and stickies eventually lose the glue.
Cloth books are the best for little ones…mine still at the mouthing stage, so even board books need close supervision.