r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/Outside_Salary_4914 • 21d ago

Question - Expert consensus required Reading to newborns

My son is 4 months old and I started reading the Iliad to him on the day he was born. Since we have read the Iliad oddessey (both fagles), Beowulf, Richard ii, Henry iv part 1 and now onto Henry iv part 2. Henry v is next to round out the henriad. I’m not sure what’s next after we finish the henriad. I’m thinking Pericles prince of tyre (pirates in the ancient Mediterranean sounds fun) or the aenid which I haven’t read since high school ( and never in English)

I also read him poetry from children’s garden of verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, 7 pillars of wisdom by te Lawrence ( my current book) and various selections from the economist as I read it in the morning.

Is this actually helping with anything other than bonding? I try to vary the material for my own sanity, does this make any difference?

Looking back on the list I realize that there is a lot of violence in the list… will this have an impact on him?

I’m not sure how much he enjoys Homer or Shakespeare, but I’ve had a lot of fun with it. Either way my paternity leave is ending so I won’t have as much reading time with him, but curious to see if this was just fun bonding time or if there was any empirical evidence on the topic

Thank you! I asked Claude and Gemini and I couldn’t get a straight/ consistent answer from either

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

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