Wersha Bharadwa is an award-nominated journalist and iVillage.co.uk blogger. She’s expecting her first baby, and wants you to join her on her adventure from pregnancy to parenting with plenty of insights, ideas, inspiration and must-have products. You can also catch Wersha at her personal website Wersha's World.
Get your baby reading on the go
By
No comments
I recently read how a crazy percentage of parents read classic books like Pride and Prejudice to their newborn babies. At first, I was like, 'oh my, what a bunch of nut jobs'. But as I read on and understood how it's supposed to make tots cleverer, I promptly picked up my copy of Oliver Twist and Sense and Sensibility and lay down on the bed with The Boy for storytime. I mean, after reading any information on ideas on making your baby smarter, it brings out the neurotic Asian mother in me which quite frankly isn't on because the poor chap is only four months old, but you can hardly blame me can you?
I have a passion for books and it is one I want to share with The Boy. We read his board books, nursery rhyme books and he teeths on his cloth books, so reading is already a massive part of our lives.
I got sent a Kobo Vox, a seven-inch LCD screeen big E-reader, which is exciting as it's my first E-reader - and it's perfect for parents on the go.
It fits snugly into any changing bag and looks pretty darn stylish too with a range of colours, including ice blue and hot pink.
It has Wi-Fi and is a full colour reader which is important for The Boy's development as he needs to be able to have me read children's books (or look at pictures for the time being!) on the device for him.
Since getting pregnant I've had interrupted sleep patterns, beginning with those frequent loo trips and journeys to the deepest corners of my fridge for 3am snacks and now with The Boy waking up during the night for nursing. I've always been an avid reader, especially at night time when I need to relax. I will often read while feeding the baby. So an E-reader seemed the perfect solution. The Kobo Vox has a dimmer option to make the screen dull and make night reading easier on the eye.
It all comes in a neat box complete with universal plugs, a USB charger for uploading software and charging. It also comes free with pre-installed books and up to 100 free books in the Kobo Library. The Kobo Vox is an audio interactive reader too, so at times when I'm trying to distract The Boy (like getting him into his car seat or pushchair) it's a good transitional tool with a read-along feature that connects highlighted words to instructive audio.
The reader has a touchscreen and up to eight hours battery life and while there are over 2 million books in the Kobo bookstore, I'm mainly using it for children's books, magazines and cookery mags for recipes. The device is nifty in other areas too; because of the Wi-Fi feature, I am able to browse the web, use up to 15,000 other apps including sending out emails, watching music videos and checking out Facebook and Twitter too.
Now I won't be replacing my absolute love and passion for real hard and paperback books with an E-reader. That's never going to happen. And it's also important for me as a parent to instill that love of books in my child too. An E-reader for me is something which I can use in the dark, in our quiet shared room when The Boy is sleeping, when we are out and about and he needs entertaining, or when we are travelling and I don't have lots of space to bring lots of board books with me. For these reasons, the Kobo Vox is a winner for me.
The Kobo Vox is available from W H Smith stores nationwide and is price at £139.00.
See also:
