Thursday's Thing: Alphabooks

Thank you, Baby Einstein, for Alphabooks. We love ours so.

We found a set of these books at Sam's Club when Ariel was just a few months old. I thought they looked kinda neat and Mom really liked them, so she bought the set.

What are they? It's a set of 26 little board books that come in a box with an attached lid and two string handles. Each book has a different letter of the alphabet on the cover; upper and lower case. All of the books fit easily in the box and this lid always closes even if they are just tossed in. Each book has three words that start with the letter and a matching picture. Some pictures are cartoons, some are pieces of artwork, some are photos. The books are really colorful too - each has a different colored spine so they look cute lined up on a shelf.

What do we with them? We read them. A lot. But we do much more too. Before she was picking things up, I would read them to her and we would look at the pictures. They were the first books she really liked - I think because of the size. The are about 2.5 in x 2.5 in and .75 in thick. When she started crawling, she often had one of these books in her hands. She loves to walk around with them now...either the box or the books. The box design is neat because it allows Ariel to carry them anywhere she goes. She likes to take them from room to room. Sometimes I "hide" them around the room (Easter egg hunt style) and she finds them and puts them back in the box. Today, I arranged them in alphabetical order and we listened to the alphabet song while I pointed out each letter. Then she picked a book for me to read, I read it to her, and she put it back in the box...practicing cleaning up. We couldn't read the next book until she put each one away. Sometimes we just build with them like blocks or sort them by color or arrange them in straight lines. The options are endless.

Ariel really likes to read these with her Daddy in their corner. Through out the day she will occasionally hide a few books at a time under the animals in the corner by her crib until almost all of them are there. Then when he gets home from work she will go to their corner and wait for him to find her (and the books). They lay their together and read the books and have tickle fights and what not. It's sweet.

We probably take these books out and do something with them every day. Usually initiated by Ariel. We still have all 26 books! The letter G looks rough (but it's still useable) cause Ariel really liked it when she was in the habit of puttting everything in her mouth, but most of the others are in pretty good shape...considering the things they have been put through.

I think this set of books would be an awesome gift for any baby.

Age: Box says 9 months and up. We started earlier.

Pros: Early literacy (letter recognition, site words, etc) great bonding activity with baby, stackable, stimulating colors and pictures, sturdy, well designed, clear text, perfect size for little hands, reasonably priced, gender neutral, etc.

Cons: Cardboard isn't the most durable material for little mouths, but since only one book shows the wear even this isn't much of a con.

Our set isn't like the one shown at the link above. Same box, but our books are little and think rather than big and flat.

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