When Can Baby Hear Me?

Lately I have been really anticipating for the time when my fetus can hear in-utero so I can start reading aloud to him or her. I love reading and I have hopes that my children will all love to read as much as I do. I have three very full and overloaded bookshelves of children's books, thanks to my lovely friend Annie, and this amazing collection will help tremendously to build strong readers in my classroom and in my house.

I was looking through my books the other day and thought about what I should read first to my baby. I have about five books that are collections of children's classics and those I am saving for when I can have baby sitting next to me, but for while baby is still inside of me I decided to start with Harry Potter. My beautiful Jamaican brother Yohan told me to tell the little one that Harry Potter is Uncle Yohan's favorite.

Here's some data I found about when baby starts to hear:

How Your Baby's Ears Develop

Your baby's ears begin to form around eight weeks and become structurally complete at about 24 weeks. Thanks to the magic of ultrasound and other high-tech tools, researchers have discovered that your baby is living in an auditory playground, responding to voices and other sounds they hear outside of the womb. Studies have found that a fetus can hear sounds, though muffled, at as early as 20 weeks and by the third trimester their hearing is intact. Sonograms show that your baby may turn their head in response to a noise.

So maybe I should wait six more weeks to start reading aloud,

or what the heck, maybe I should start now!