From babies to puberty, creative books help with body talk for children

In the months before my younger daughter was born, we made sure that my elder daughter would be prepared for this big change. In addition to "There's going to be a new baby" kinds of books, I also read with her Jean Marzollo's How Kids Grow.

With photographs of real children accomplishing age-appropriate tasks, this well-written non-fiction book is a good resource to help children understand developmental milestones from birth to seven years of age.

My daughter learned that a three-day-old baby mostly sleeps and enjoys being cuddled, while a nine-month-old baby can clap and use her fingers to eat. It gave her a good grasp of her baby sister's capabilities (or lack thereof) in those early months.

At the time, my elder daughter was two and was delighted to see that she could drink from a cup and walk up stairs like the two-year-old girl in the book. She was also excited to see what she had to look forward to from the photos and descriptions of older children.

I also shared How Kids Grow with my younger daughter when she turned two, and had just figured out that she was a girl. Before that, she thought she was a boy because everyone talked about how her bald head made her look like one. Going through the book, she was able to point and name each child in the book as a boy or a girl.

This made me curious as to how children identify gender, which then led me to consider how to talk to my daughters about what they can and cannot do in the company of boys.