The Reading Babysitter

You're not the only person who feeds your baby, or puts her down for her nap--you shouldn't be the only person who reads to her, either. When everyone who cares for your baby reads with her every day, she learns something else about the books she loves. Part of the magic of a book is that the words and the pictures are the same every time, no matter who's reading it. Mommy may make a different sound for the barking dog than Daddy, and Grandma may be the only one who always points out the stripy ball, but for the most part, a book is the same again and again.

That's hugely comforting for your baby, and can help with transitions. If you sit down and read a book just before you leave, and then hand the same book to your caregiver, your baby gets to keep a little piece of something you do together as you go. Making books part of the changeover routine is also one of the ways you can encourage everyone who looks after her to make reading a part of their time together. A few other easy changes can make books such a part of your baby's day that no one will be able to resist picking one up to share.

Suggest it.

Especially if you have a younger babysitter, she may not have thought of reading with your baby. Caregivers without kids of their own may relegate books to bedtime, or think of them as being for older children. Just telling her that your baby likes to hear a book while she sits in her highchair, or can never resist laughing at the babies in Faces, may be enough to get her started.

Choose babysitter books.

Not everyone is comfortable reading out loud, even to the least discriminating audience.  If English isn't her first language, your sitter might be more apt to read Hi or One Two, with few words, or books like Play Colors/Colores del Juego that describe things like colors or objects in both languages. Books with only pictures also allow your babysitter to express herself in her own words. By the time your baby is one, she probably has favorite books--maybe even one or two that, in your opinion, have really lost their allure. If your baby can push the button to make the cat meow 45 times in a five minute period, then Meow is the book to leave out for the sitter. If you read Moo, Moo What Are You seventeen times between dinner and bedtime last night, leave it where your child can find it and practice "Again, again" on a fresh audience.

Make it easy.

Make the books you share with your baby easily accessible to everyone. Keep some out everywhere you read, or everywhere you want your babysitter to read-on the table, next to the rocking chair, in the play area. Make sure it's clear that the books are part of everything your baby is used to doing.