I love to read books with my grand-kids and yes, it often means reading the same book again and again. I've lost count of the number of times I've read 'Where is the Green Sheep?' or 'Blossom Possum'. What books do you love to read aloud? Which books are you always asked to read again and again?

Over and again, studies highlight the benefits of reading to your kids.For example, a study was made in Rhode Island Hospital to compare two groups of eight months old – one group was read to often as babies, while the other was not.  It was shown that those who were read to have their “receptive” vocabularies (number of words they understand) increased 40 per cent since babyhood, while the non-reading group increased by only 16 per cent. 

Kimdoma is an app that enables you to read aloud with your grandchildren any night of the week, whether they live next door or kilometres away.

The app combines e-books with video calls which means that you can share the book on your individual iPads. You and your grandchild can choose a book together- there are 26 popular stories in the Kindoma library. The screen displays both the book and video of both you and your grandchild.
Either of you can turn the page and an indicator also pops up on-screen when one person is pointing to a particular word or picture. For a better understanding of how this concept works, check out the clip below.

Picture storybooks have appeal for all ages. How often do you find even adults flicking through the pages of a beautifully illustrated storybook and grinning to themselves? I know I could spend many enjoyable hours doing so. A well-crafted picture storybook requires few words, but those chosen are just perfect!

I recently came across a couple of lists of picture storybooks that are worthwhile sharing- especially as one of the lists is for older kids.

The first list comes from Emily Laurel Harris and her DesignGossip blog.She features a list of great picture storybooks published 2012. You can read the entire post here..You'll find 'More', the story of a magpie who collects too much, 'Olivia and the fairy princess' who is sick of princesses, and  a delightful rhyming book called 'Sweet Dreams'.
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The second list highlights more sophisticated picture storybooks and books with 
a large number of illustrations for older readers. You can find the article here...