I'm 2½ years old! What should I be reading?

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Heath

Heath

Puritan Board Freshman
My oldest son is 2½ years old and he loves books. In an effort to balance his "reading" between the normal fair and Christian books I am trying to make some key purchases but I am having trouble. There is almost nothing in the local stores that seems even remotely worth picking up and there are so many opinions in Amazon reviews I have no idea what to trust. The last one I bought, "Dangerous Journey," seems great but after a few chapters we decided it was to much and we are putting it up for another year or two. We have a ~18 month old boy right behind him and another boy due in September so I am willing to make a good investment because I know we will be using them for many years. My wife and I went to a few Children Desiring God conferences (all before we had children funny enough) and I wish now I had bought everything they had in the conference bookstore.

What we already have that we really like:
  • Jesus Storybook Bible
  • ESV Childrens Bible (Not quite there but he will look at the many pictures while you read the captions)
  • Read-Aloud Bible Stories (Volumes 1 throuh 4) He loves these.

Books we already have that we're on the fence about:
  • Bernstein Bears Bible Storybook (It came from Sams and the content seems solid but the people being bears is what makes me uncertain. That being said, he loves the Berinstein Bears and so it keeps his attention.)
  • Thoughts to make your heart sing (From the Storybook Bible People. I haven't read through it completely so I am not 100% yet. He hasn't read much of it yet)

We have a few more I can't remember but a lot of them are standard bookstore fare that we have been given and aren't in love with.

I don't know that there are many things that warm my heart more than hearing him ask us to read him a certain bible story by name. They are mostly the obvious ones, "Read Jonah Daddy" or "Read Noah" or "Read about the Tomb," and we want there to be more of that.
 
I recommend the children's Bible Story books by Catherine MacKenzie and Carine MacKenzie from Christian Focus Publishing. They aren't fluff, nor are they cheesy (i.e. bears as people), and most importantly, the illustraions do not contain anything that violates the 2nd commandment (images of God & Jesus).

They are availible online from several Reformed booksellers.

CFP | Welcome to Christian Focus Publications | Books with the Real Message

CFP | Welcome to Christian Focus Publications | Books with the Real Message
 
There are a lot of good book recommendations for children at ambleside online. You may want to check out their year 0 book list. I haven't read all of these books, but I'm often pleased with books that I've read to the children or given them to read from the ambleside reading lists. They are broken down by grade level, so you can continue to use these lists as a guide as your children get older.

Also, children can usually understand words at a higher level than we generally think they can. A child that can read, for example, can usually understand books a level or two higher, if read aloud to them, than what they can read themselves.

We also love the Carine McKenzie books that were recommended above.
 
I read books of all varieties to my children. We read Winnie the Pooh, Little House, and James Herriot's books. When my oldest two were being read to my youngest two just sat or played and listened. My youngest two talked clearly much earlier than the older two. I think it was probably because they were exposed to a much broader vocabulary from hearing me read than my older two were. I read a lot of Curious George to my son. Dr. Seuss books were helpful, because they are somewhat repetitive.

I didn't really buy children's Bibles or any other books offered in the Christian book stores. I just read the Bible to them.
 
I was just sorting through my children's books, deciding which of the ones for younger kids that I really wanted to keep. Top on the list: Karma Wilson's books. They are delightfully written and illustrated and always have a good story about friendship, caring and so forth. The Dr. Seuss books are classic and help to support developing phonics capabilities. "Chika Chika Boom Boom" makes the connection between the sounds of upper and lower case letters and has an infectious rhyme.
 
My three-year-old struggles with anxiety, and he loves Psalms for Young Children: Psalms for Young Children: Marie-Helen Delval, Arno: 9780802853226: Amazon.com: Books

The book has soothing pictures and paraphrases key verses of various Psalms. It's NOT a Bible. But the verses carry a wide variety of emotion absent in most children's books--fear, anger, sadness, joy, worship, peace, loneliness, etc. My son now has God-focused words to describe how he feels thanks to this book.
 
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