Random ?: When do kids use paper books instead of board books?

[BabyBearsMom]

DD loves books. She wants to be read to, or sit and "read" them herself constantly. Current, we only leave the board books in reach adn i know she is way too destructive for paper books at the moment (I see what happens to my magazines). When do kids become gentle enough to use a regular book?

[rin]

My DD is currently 16 months, and she's been reading paper books for six months or so. She occasionally has a less than perfectly gentle moment, and I believe there have been two or three incidents where pages got torn, but in general she's actually surprisingly good with them. She also loves tearing magazines, but somehow she understands not to do that with her books. (Library books with the plastic coating on the dust jacket, though, are a different story: she gets obsessed with crinkling the plastic and would definitely damage the book if we left her alone with it.)

[mikala]

I think DS became gentle enough to leave paper books out around 16 months. We talked a lot about using gentle touches with books at first and we've only had a few torn pages. Most of those were due to overzealous page turning on the bigger books.

You might want to start with a smaller book or two since it's a little harder to turn pages without tearing on the bigger (larger than a notebook) books.

[BayGirl2]

DS is 26 months and we still keep the paper mostly out of reach. He can read them on his own, but its usually only while we are around. Sometimes he does ok with them (like while sitting on the potty where he's very focused) other times he rushes and bends pages. A lot of our paper books are either hand me downs from our childhood or very nice gift books, so we want to keep them intact. Maybe its a boy thing?

Pop-up books are the worst, those are loved but get destroyed the fastest.

[deborah_r]

For us it was sometime between 2 and 3 years old. Whenever they could be trusted not to rip the book to shreds just for fun.

[BabyBearsMom]

DS is 26 months and we still keep the paper mostly out of reach. He can read them on his own, but its usually only while we are around. Sometimes he does ok with them (like while sitting on the potty where he's very focused) other times he rushes and bends pages. A lot of our paper books are either hand me downs from our childhood or very nice gift books, so we want to keep them intact. Maybe its a boy thing?

Pop-up books are the worst, those are loved but get destroyed the fastest.

I don't think it is a boy thing. DD is 16 months, and I know she isn't ready for paper books. She DESTROYS magazines and has a few cheapy books that are paper and has ripped those to shreds. I tried to take out a nice paper story book the other day to read with her and it was a complete fail.

[SnuggleBuggles]

3yo is a good guideline, ime.

Beth

[WatchingThemGrow]

We like to keep board books around a looong time b/c they're usually a good size/length for a new reader. Especially when they can cuddle up with a younger sibling and read with them.

[blue]

I started having more paperback books around/leaving them out for him to access when DS was about 18 months (I don't remember the exact age, may have been a little earlier or later). When I first started reading them to him and leaving them out, their where a few accidents (pages torn), we talked about being gentle/showed him how. If he didn't listen, the book was put in timeout (that would make him really mad, he loves books, but he would be a lot more careful when the book was returned to him).

DS is now 26 months and consistently does pretty well with paper books. I will say that I don't allow Library books to leave the living room (better to be safe then sorry with those at his age). Magazines can still be tricky for DS. He is getting better, but he still tries to carry the magazines around by the cover which results in them ripping (I am working on showing him how to carry them around)....... OP I found that cheap coloring books were helpful for
DS learning how to turn paper pages (if you break the coloring book in first so that it lays open on the ground nice for page turning)...Also I would only leave one paper back book out when he was first learning, and rotate it with other paperbacks every few days or so.
ETA: sorry that got kind of long... I just love books!

[elephantmeg]

I think at 2 we introduced both and kept the paper ones out of reach. But DD has had them since birth, more or less in reach. We only have 1 board book out now and it's because the kids still love it (very hungry caterpillar!). I love not having board books in the main rotation anymore (kept a bin of them for visitors/future grandkids) and just branched out into chapter books the last couple months!