When my kids were toddlers we spent a lot of time reading rhyming books together because as a teacher I knew it would help them to become fluent readers!
You want to read rhyming books together, because they are an excellent way to help your child develop what is called phonological awareness. And wouldn’t you know that top reading experts have learned that phonological awareness is the number one indicator to a child’s reading success!
I have seen this to be true in my classroom and with my own children! It literally is the most essential part to raising a reader!
What exactly is phonological awareness?
Phonological awareness simply refers to a person’s ability to listen to language and manipulate it. And guess what? The first step to phonological awareness is rhyming, hence why reading rhyming books with your children is super important!
As a reading teacher I encourage you to make time to read rhyming books to your baby, toddler, preschooler, Kindergartener and even beyond! The fact that many of our favorite children’s books include rhymes makes this easy!
However, what if you are raising a busy toddler like I did? Chances are your child doesn’t really care about sitting next to you and reading. Guess what, that’s perfectly ok!
Reading Rhyming Books With Your Busy Toddler
Like I said, I hear you! I get you! I’ve been you! And that’s why I wanted to share a few tips and tricks for how to read to your busy child, so you can still enjoy books together.
Do you think your child needs to sit right next to you nicely while you read? Actually that is not the only effective way to read to your child. It’s okay if your child’s doing somersaults off the couch or jumping off the nugget as long as it’s okay with you of course. If they’re rolling around on the floor while you’re reading, they are still taking in more things than you think.
Yet there are a few little things you can do as you read, to get them to pay more attention to the book and to make it just a little more interesting to them. So let’s dive into a few of my favorite rhyming books and how I like to engage a busy toddler while reading rhyming books with them.
Top 10 favorite rhyming books
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Good Night Moon
This one is a favorite that most families already have. When I used to read “Good Night Moon” with my kids, because these days they read it themselves, we really enjoyed acting things out together. We would pretend to be the cow that jumps over the moon. We would count the bears, “Oh how many are there?”.
I would also reread the book often so they could really hear the flow of the language and the flow of the rhymes. You can get creative with this! As you repeatedly read the same book your child can anticipate the rhyme and you can have her fill in the rhyme.
Producing a rhyme is one of the beginning building blocks to phonological awareness, and it’s an easy way to make your child part of reading a book!
Practicing phonological awareness skills is what sets your child up to become a great reader, so that’s why you will always hear me talk about this whenever I talk about reading!
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is another one of the books that most families own. Why is it a good one to read? Well the most obvious reason is that it is a fun book that includes all letters of the alphabet. What makes it a great phonological awareness builder is that it also is a rhyming book.
This is another book kids love to act out! There will be lots of giggles as you pretend to be the letters climbing up the coconut tree only to be falling off and rolling all over. Have fun checking for boo-boos together and kissing them as you ask your child which letter they are.
Acting the book out will help to grab the attention of your busy toddler and get them to be more curious about what mom or dad is reading about.
Brown Bear Brown Bear
Eric Carle is a favorite children’s book author with books translated into many languages! Why do I like to read “Brown Bear Brown Bear” with little kids?
The two main reasons are that it uses rhymes and it also gives young children the opportunity to practice their color words. Another great thing about this book is that the text is very predictive which makes it a great book to engage your child into the reading of the text.
While your kids aren’t decoding words when they read along this way, you are still practicing skills like reading from left to right as you read, or using intonation when you read text. Your littles will be listening to the melody of your voice and using the colors and pictures as they read along with you and fill in the color words and rhymes.
This is also a fantastic book to expand on with free coloring or activity pages that you can find all over the web! Pre-K Pages has a wonderful compilation of activities for you.
The Foot Book
One of my favorite Dr. Seuss books for littles is “The Foot Book”. There are a few reasons why this is a great rhyming book to read together. Number one, it is short; a lot of Dr Seuss books are kind of lengthy, so you need to be mindful when you sit down with a young child to read them.
For many of the lengthy books you can find adapted board book versions and those are much shorter. I recommend the short versions, over trying to read any lengthy Dr. Seuss rhyming books together with your busy toddler.
Now let’s get back to “The Foot Book”. Another reason I love reading this rhyming book together is its very predictive text. Remember, predictive text makes it easy to have your child help with reading. Now, is your toddler truly decoding the words? No, but giving your toddler a part in the reading is a simple strategy to engage your young child into reading.
With some of the longer Dr. Seuss books you’ll probably struggle to have a toddler sit and read with you. It is to be expected and so your easy solution is to simply adjust your expectations. If you really love one of the more complex books and have your heart set on reading this rhyming book to your busy toddler, go ahead and start by reading a few pages together and then setting the book aside.
Llama Llama Red Pajama
I absolutely love the Llama Llama series! It is a newer rhyming series. I’m saying newer because you know, they’re not 50 years old. One thing in particular that makes this one a favorite is that it is very relatable for kids
Llama Llama Red Pajama, if you’ve never read the book, is about a little llama’s bedtime struggles. Mama’s putting him to bed and as he’s all by himself and he wants his mom and mom’s not there. Mom’s doing dishes while she’s on the phone. Meanwhile the little llamma keeps calling for his mom but she’s just not coming.
My kids still love when I read this book to them and they’re eight and six now. They both read it on their own too, but they love when I read it because they like how mom acts it out. I get excited with this book!
When I read the portion where the little llama is starting to fret, you better believe it’s going down! You can get excited too, and your kiddo is going to love it, which will help them to be more interested to sit with you. In my experience, the sillier I am when I read rhyming books, the more my kids love reading together!
Llama Llama Time To Share another fantastic book in the llama llama series. And yet again, as the title already tells, it is super relatable for young kids because let’s be honest, sharing is not their favorite. It in fact takes kids quite a while to learn the social concept of sharing. That we’re supposed to share with others does not come natural. So, when Nelly Gnu and the llama are tugging on the toy, your toddler can relate and it gets them interested because this is their life!
That along with you reading in an engaging way, by mimmiking different voices and showing the storie’s excitement in your voice, will help your busy toddler to listento you reading this rhyming book. Again they don’t have to sit right next to you. It’s okay when they’re rolling around, but maybe go ahead and hold the book out and say things like, “Which one of these things that Nelly Gnu and the llama are playing with would you want to play with? Would you join them?”. Take time to pause and ask them questions. Help them to get more involved in the story, because becoming part of the story is what makes fiction stories more enjoyable.
If a book is completely unrelatable to you my guess is that as an adult, you may not even finish it. But if an author finds a way for us to relate to the characters, we’re hooked and we’re going to continue reading. So as you read to your children, you are the bridge to engage them into a story.
Good Night Good Night Construction Site
What a fun rhyming read aloud book to read together, and no it’s not just for boys!
Little ones tend to love all things big and strong that move. That is why the Good Night, Good Night Construction Site series is so popular. We read the original book almost every day for a long time.
This book fits perfect for all those who love Blippie. He is a much loved youtube sensation among youngsters and it’s partly because his channel includes many videos with big vehicles and little kids love them.
When these cement mixers and crane trucks come alive in “Good Night Good Night Construction Site”, make them come alive as you read and make it interesting. Maybe talk about what they see in the pictures. Talk about why they’re tired. Talk about, “Do they really sleep?” all these things. There are so many questions you can ask.
And again, use the rhymes as an opportunity. As you repeatedly read the story, have your child help with the reading of the rhyming words. This is definitely a favorite. If you’ve never checked these out, you may want to look at them now.
Goldilocks Has Chickenpox
This is a lesser known book, but it is certainly one of our family favorites! We love it for a few different reasons.
As the title “Goldilocks Has Chickenpox” suggests, it is based on fairy tale characters. Although it doesn’t really have anything to do with the fairytale Goldilocks itself, besides having her as one of the characters in this story. Some of the other fairy tale characters included are Henny Penny, Mama Bear, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack.
Beyond the characters, kids love this book because it is relatable as it includes quite a bit of sibling rivalry. Anyone with a sibling will feel understood while reading this book.
With a funny storyline, beautiful illustrations, and limited text on each page, this is definitely a great rhyming book to read together with your busy toddler. I mean who wouldn’t want to know how Goldilocks suddenly ended up with funny spots all over her face?
Cordelia
This is definitely a book you’ll want to own for a number of reasons.
First off, it is a lovely rhyming book, but secondly this book has a really great message.
You see, in the beginning of the book Cordelia is able to fly, but then people question her on that and nobody believes that she can fly so she stops being able to until the day she decides that it’s not about what other people think and that she cannot only do things because of other people. She realizes that she shouldn’t let other people change her mind about herself.
For me that is certainly a message I want my kids to get and understand. Because let’s be honest, the world isn’t always kind to us and being our authentic selves can be scary!
I personally can relate to this book so very well! Hiding behind following other people’s expectations for me, was easier for so many years before I learned to actually be me!
Beyond the great message, Cordelia is a short and sweet rhyming book to read with your busy toddler.
I Wished For A Unicorn
If you have a child who loves imaginative play they will adore “I Wished For A Unicorn”. In this story the heroine is a young child with a vivid imagination. We join in as she spends her day imagining her “pet” unicorn.
It truly is a wondrous book filled with lovely rhymes, beautiful illustrations, and a wonderful imaginative story.
Moms Who Read Rhyming Books Raise Readers
Remember, you want to read rhyming books with your child no matter if he or she sits next to you or is rolling around on the floor. But hearing the rhyming, learning the sound of the language, learning that there are different words in a sentence and that they have meaning, and noticing the rhymes and then learning to predict the rhymes or even join into the rhymes, that’s your first step to raising a reader.
Honestly, practicing the letters with your child is fun and nice. However, reading rhyming books with your busy toddler is from my personal and professional viewpoint and experience actually more important.
This is why I really want to encourage you to get those rhyming books out! Hit up the library if you have not. Most libraries are open by now. Call your local library and find out!
Trust me, I understand that your budget for books may be quite limited at the moment. Truly, you don’t need to purchase a slew of books! Instead, take advantage of all that your local library offers and have your librarian help you locate the best rhyming books to read with your busy toddler.
Reading Together Can Be So Much More
Reading together cannot be replaced by using educational apps. Don’t get me wrong, there are many amazing apps for beginning readers out there and they absolutely have their place.
However, they do not replace you and they do not replace you reading to your child! Spending time reading rhyming books to your busy toddler is not only helpful for their language development and reading readiness, but it is a great parenting tool!
Spending time reading, being silly, rolling around the floor with them and acting out stories, is a fantastic way to connect with your child a few minutes a day. Remember, making that time to connect with your child is the key to a happy family with healthy relationships.
Having fun connecting with our kids while building their phonological awareness, is a total win-win in my book. It puts my teacher-mom heart in its happy place! I can’t wait for you to experience it!