After serving as excellent readers for Ben and Becks who can almost say them out by heart, these bear books are now keeping Nat company whenever Ben and Becks are in school when he has nothing to do.

Nat and I are reading the classic Bear Series from Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. They are:

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
• Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
• Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?
• Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?

As well as this book titled From Head to Toe which we both enjoy as it invites both of us to imitate animal movements, like stomping our foot like an elephant and thumping our chest like a gorilla.

All these books have got a good rhythm to keep even a two-year-old engaged and gives Nat the wonderful opportunity to imitate sounds and actions of animals. Besides attending playgroup for 1.5 hours twice a week, these reading sessions with Mama during pockets of time on a weekday is all he’s got. I take for granted that he would know how to flip the pages of a book, hold it properly and start reading from front to back; after all, the older kids had learned them somewhat. But I forgot that the older kids were in infantcare and childcare since they were four months old, and that now that I’m staying home, I have to be the one teaching Nat these skills.

This boy is enjoying the bear stories and doing well flipping the pages properly now.

Thank God, no more torn pages! Looks like I now need to teach him to sit cross-legged every time he reads!