Busy Babies Go To The Gym - Clare Walters, Jane Kemp

Busy Babies go to the Gym

Collins book of Practical Parenting

Jane Kemp and Clare Walters

A number of people laughed at me when my daughter was only a few weeks old and I would sit and read a book to her though now at two years old, my daughter adores books. Among her collection of books are some paper-backed books which cover life experiences from the view of the child. This particular book comes from the Practical Parenting selection of books which all have ages upon them though personally I don't think these need to be kept to. This book is in the section for age one to two years, yet as a baby my daughter loved looking at the pictures and I am sure when she reaches three, she will still love looking at it and perhaps start learning to read through it.

Practical Parenting produce not only some great child and parent books but also a monthly magazine full of advice and information for parents and parents-to-be. The books themselves are designed to be fun, stimulate the childs imagination, help the child develop an understanding through both words and pictures and encourage the love of books and learning from a young age.

With all that said, let me introduce you to 'Busy Babies go to the Gym'.

********************
BUSY BABIES
********************

The first aspect which appealed to me about this book was the bright and colourful pictures from cover to cover which fill practically the whole page. They are easily recognisable images to the child in which they are able to relate to and also stimulate their senses with the bold and bright images.

The story itself is very simple with very few words and written as if from the young childs point of view. The bold text and layout and the simple format is also a great tool for helping slightly older children learn to read. It follows the parent taking the children to the play gym where they play on climbing frames and slides etc. To any child who has been to a play centre like this, they will see the similarities and if like my daughter, they will relate to it and get excited.

As part of the story there are also three songs which stand out with the musical notes either side of the small lyrics. Each song goes alongside a specific play item as well as being a song in which the child and parent can sing and do actions to which my daughter loves doing.

The book is very small with only 12 pages for the story yet this size is perfect for younger children with their low attention spans!

The RRP of the book is £3.99 though my daughter was lucky enough to be given a selection of these books from her friend which is an even better bargain.

*******************
FINAL WORDS
*******************

This is a lovely little book for babies to even some early readers due to the easy text within the story. It is aged for 1-2 year olds though my daughter loved the bold and colourful pictures even as a young baby. Now, with all the easily recognisable pictures, my daughter loves it. I think the addition of the three small songs within the book are also great and my daughter loves putting the actions together with singing the songs.

Children's books are so expensive these days especially if you buy a lot so do look out for this book at a bargain price. I have seen this book for as little as £1.00 online from Ebay and at that price you can not go wrong!