Day 312 - Busy Fingers Love to Play with Buttons

Today's first time parenting tip - Anything with a button or something your baby can press should be a big hit

Our son is getting to the age where he can actually start interacting and using his toys for what they were 'meant' to do. This will make them last quite a bit longer than if he kept picking them up and throwing them onto the kitchen floor.

We noticed that his favorite things to do were to press the buttons on our alarm clock, play with our cell phones whenever he could get his hands on them, and play with the volume control on his Leap Pad.

We've added a few more button-having toys to the mix and those are clearly his favorites. The big winner is a LeapFrog Phonics Radio that lets you flip pages AND hit buttons to hear letter songs AND play guess the letter. He's in baby heaven.

Parenting, Toy, Learning, Buttons, Fun

Day 303 - Fun Games to Teach Your Baby About Color

Today's first time parenting tip - Name and call out colors for your baby 24/7

As early on as 1 month old, your infant can tell the difference between colors. And since the world is filled with lots of different hues, its a very easy thing to teach your baby about the world around them.

Here are some fun activities you can try to teach your baby the difference between red and blue:

• Play catch with different colored balls. Call out their colors as you roll them toward your infant


• Play peek-a-boo behind different colored sheets. Say "Peek-a-boo purple!" when you pop out from behind it


• Spend an afternoon watching cars go by and saying the color each time


• Have a coloring session where you only use one color to make a picture


• When you're reading picture books, be sure to say the color of the things you see too. It's not just a duck, its a yellow duck


• At the grocery store, as you put different items in hold them in front of your baby and say the color first

What color games do you play with your baby?

Parenting, Color, Learning, Development

Day 300 - Improve Baby's Right and Left Brain

Today's first time parenting tip - Cross your baby's arms to improve cognitive development

This one comes from my mom, a preschool teacher. As a person responsible for getting young minds ready for school, she's got a whole repertoire of activities designed to help kids socialize, develop, etc.

One easy one she told me last weekend was how she and her teaching partner work in different activities where their kids are touching the right side of their body with their left hand and vice versa. It's supposed to increase the communication between left brain and right brain, which in turn helps reading.

She also said if we play games with out 11 month old son and we cross his arms over, it'll help him out with his early brain development.

Interesting...I wonder if it works on adults too...


Parenting, Brain, Reading, Development, Learning

Day 281 - Correct Pronunciation

Today's first time parenting tip - Pronounce words correctly and praise your baby, even when he gets it wrong.

Our son is starting to learn his first words, between "uh-oh" and "da-da" you'd think there wasn't anything else to say. He can try other words, but he doesn't quite get them right. Things like a ball are "gall" and kitty ends up more like "tee-tee."

As parents and adults, I think the natural instinct is to say something like "No, it's ball." A better way to say it might be "That's right! It's a ball."

Your child's vocal chords and ability to make different noises is still in the early stages right now. By saying "no" to them, you're implying that they got something wrong in saying a ball was a "gall."

But in fact, he got it 100% right! He doesn't call anything else a "gall", and he always says it when he's bouncing it around. He understands the concept of a ball, but he just can't say the right word

By saying "That's right! It's a ball!" You're praising him for correctly identifying something, and at the same time correcting his pronunciation. As he learns how to make different noises, he'll start to make the correct sounds as you keep teaching him the "right" way to say things without confusing him and his ability to correctly identify concepts.

At the same time, you don't want to say "That's right! It's a 'gall'". This merely reinforces the incorrect pronunciation and you're essentially teaching him that the word for a spherical object is "gall".

Parenting, Development, Vocal, Language, Learning

Day 280 - Reading a book at their own pace

Today's first time parenting tip - Let your baby read and explore his books at his own pace

As adults, our tendency is to read a book, left to right, beginning to end, cover to cover. Infants have no such tendencies. In fact, they no nothing about the "proper" way to read books.

But most adults (myself included) want to take over when babies want to skip ahead, close the book, or just merely turn the pages.

And at this point in their lives, that's more than fine. You should be letting them lead the reading if they want to, enthusiastically jumping around with them, discovering the different images and words of the book.

The most important benefits of reading at this age are the bonding that occurs between the two of you, the daily routine, the different words, images and sensations that come along with reading. The actual "reading", i.e. left to right, front page to back, etc. Are probably one of the least important aspects.

As your child gets older and his tastes get more sophisticated, he'll grow to love actual stories, one's that have beginnings, middles and endings. But until then, let your preconceptions go and rediscover books all over again with your baby.

Parenting, Reading, Learning, Development, Fun