[blparent] tips for reading to small children

[dawn stumpner]

 All the tips so far sound great and are things I did with my 
kids when they were little.  It sounded to me from your original 
post like you may not be a braille reader, and I thought of 
another kind of book that was fun when the kids were small.  
There were some print books and some print-braille books (with 
pictures like kids enjoy) that came with a cassette and that 
would have a sound like a bell or a beep when it was time to turn 
the page.  When they were under 5, they really enjoyed being in 
charge of when each page was turned, and it was great for me too, 
particularly for the books that didn't have braille like ones 
from the library.  Unfortunately, it has been quite some time 
since my kids were small, so I haven't looked for those kinds of 
books in a long time, so you'd have to ask at different places to 
see if they had them.  I think they must still exist.  I think I 
got most of them from my local library (the ones with no 
braille), and from a place in my city that does braille and 
recording as a volunteer service and keeps a lending library.  I 
used to also sometimes get these books called "Books for Tots" or 
something like that from a place in California.  I can't remember 
the name, but I'll try to think of it.  Maybe someone on this 
list remembers them too...  they're the place that used to send 
out those EXPECTATIONS books each year with 4 raised pictures, a 
scratch-and-sniff page, and an anthology of stories and books 
free to blind children each year.  They have all-braille books, 
but they (at least used to, and hopefully still do) produce books 
with pictures in them that comes with a set of toys or figures 
related to the story and a sound recording.  Blind kids could 
pick out a certain number of books free each year, but they also 
at the time my kids were little gave books to blind parents of 
sighted children, and you could always purchase books, too.
    You might also get some of those fun "sound books" that have 
very little text (you could probably even memorize it or just 
wing it), and then you push a button to hear the sound.  For 
example, one page will have a truck, and the child pushes the 
button corresponding to the truck to hear a truck sound, and then 
the next page will have a train, a boat, a plane, and so forth 
with those sounds.  There are also books where you can touch 
things on each page (I remember one with animals, and each page 
had a place you could touch the cat's sandpapery tongue, the 
sheep's woolly fleece, etc.
     The part where I can't be very helpful is remembering where 
I got each of these kinds of books, but if you ask around at 
Seedlings, your local library, and even bookstores for the little 
books with the audio recordings, you should find some.  You could 
also contact a place that volunteers to braille and record books.  
It wouldn't be very expensive to give them some Dr.  Seus, 
Curious George, Mercer Mayer's Critter Books, or whatever you 
find at garage sales, and they could record them on tape, putting 
a sound like a bell, a clap, or whatever to indicate it's time to 
turn the page for the next picture and text.  You could also ask 
them to indicate which page you start on with a tactile clue like 
a dot in the corner of the page.  The place that does brailling 
and recording a lot in Madison Wisconsin is BLTS (Braille Library 
and Transcription Services), and they might be able to do 
something like that for you even if you don't live in Wisconsin.  
I know they lend their books and materials to people all over the 
country, too.
    Sorry this response was so long.  I wish you luck! I'm sure 
you'll find a way! And if I think of the name of the place in CA 
or any other ideas, I'll most again.  There are a TON of good old 
plain audio books too that you can listen to together at any age, 
but I know when kids are 3, they really like having pictures with 
stories.
    Dawn