How to start with a baby?

[tortoise]

When it's time for math, 2+2 does NOT equal five -- don't worry you'll break her creativity or confidence by correcting mistakes.)

On I totally agree! There are places where a kid can be imaginative? "Why do gorillas like bananas?" for example. or "if you close your bedroom door, is your bed still there?"

But there are places where the answers are clearly defined and there is an absolute right and an absolute wrong - like math. There is a strong case that the popular coddling to avoid breaking creativity or confidence results in a person unprepared for college or a workplace. Obviously, I agree.

There is a place for creativity. But there is an equal place for logic.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree with Pat....just live your life and interact with her like any mother and child. Silly games involving body parts seem to be a big hit at that age and songs and rhymes. My kids really loved nursery rhymes when they were small.

You know what else was a big hit at my house? That annoying thingy with all the farm animal sounds and pictures on it where you point the arrow at a picture and pull the string....MOOOOOO! OINK!

Kids LOVE that silly thing!

And I always gave my kids plenty of quiet time with their toys in which they learned to entertain themselves. This is really important, IMO.

I notice a big trend towards parents constantly trying to stimulate babies and toddlers....or, just the opposite, in which they sit them in front of the boob tube and let something else stimulate them. Even the babies~constantly being vibrated, swung, or jiggled into a stupor.

Quiet time is a time of discovery and learning to manipulate small objects with their hands, listening to their own voice and noticing the colors in their surroundings.

I LOVED my playpens....safe areas where they can see you, hear you, yet play quietly with their own toys or just sing, shout, blow raspberries or explore their toes.

 

[tortoise]

You know what else was a big hit at my house? That annoying thingy with all the farm animal sounds and pictures on it where you point the arrow at a picture and pull the string....MOOOOOO! OINK!

Kids LOVE that silly thing!

Showing your age! LOL They don't have strings anymore - choking hazard.

 

[Beekissed]

Oh, the good ol' days.....<sigh> It's a wonder how my generation ever survived, let alone my children.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Oh, the good ol' days.....<sigh> It's a wonder how my generation ever survived, let alone my children.

yup not only us, and our children, what about our parents. They had lead paint and strings and open fireplaces all around them.

 

[Beekissed]

Please tell me that kids are still allowed to play with Etch~a~Sketch??? HOURS of fun with that simple little game!

 

[lorihadams]

My 5 yr old is a perfectionist and HATES his etch a sketch cause there is no way to correct a mistake without starting over completely.

I never talked down to my children. They have pretty good grammar as a result. People constantly comment on how articulate my children are....their words, not mine.

My 3 yr old is a tv junkie....granny lets her watch it all day long.... I at least try to limit it to stuff that doesn't use horrible language and actually teaches something. My kids love PBS and subsequently PBSkids.org to play games on the computer. We watch a lot of the pbs shows in the morning like Sesame Street, Curious George, Cat in the Hat, and Sid the Science Kid. Then we play and read books or cook or run errands or draw and paint or do stuff with manipulatives like popsicle sticks for math.

With a 9 month olds, let 'em play. Give him/her a stack of tupperware containers and a wooden spoon and stand back. Work on large motor skills and fine motor skills. Wooden blocks are great, anything by Melissa & Doug (they have excellent puzzles and activities all made of wood, imagine that!), chunky legos, balls, sponges (with supervision or in the tub), sorting blocks where you put the right shape in the right hole, stuff like that.

Make sure you have a variety of different sized objects to play with, helps with those motor skills. Give the child time to play on his/her own, alone.

I read to my son a lot but he enjoyed it at that age, my DD would not sit still for a book until she was almost 3.

If you watch tv, the important thing is that you watch it with them and talk about what is going on. Don't let the tv be the babysitter.....although I think all of us have done it from time to time, me included. We watch Discovery channel and the history channel and watch a lot of stuff that is geared to adults but we always talk about it and use it as a jump off point to study things afterwards. We use our library a lot...see if they have story time and take your child. We have lots of babies at ours and they seem to enjoy hearing someone else's voice besides mommy or daddy.

 

[patandchickens]

Yeah, what is it with kids and electronically-generated animal noises? I always thought that was so dumb before I had kids... how is it important that preschoolers learn the noises our culture deems to represent what animals 'say' and which usually bear only a vague resemblance to ACTUAL animal noises anyhow?... but then of course I had kids of my own and found out how FASCINATED they are.

Mind you I don't know if it's because it's allegedly-animal noises, or if they would be equally fascinated by toys making an array of, say, cellphone ringtone noises, or various car malfunction noises, or whatever.

But still, electronically generated implausible animal noises are definitely a big hit, especially the thing Bee describes (which you can still find at some garage sales btw )

They do still make and sell Etch-a-sketch, and my kids love it, except that either I have unusually careless kids or they don't make 'em like they useta because we are now on our third (oldest child is only 6 1/2) and frankly when that one gets broken I do not think we'll be replacing it, except if I can find an intact one at a garage sale.

Personally I think it's FINE for kids to chew on books as long as they are books designed to be chewed on. Once they graduate to real books they do have to learn to take care of them, but I mean, their mouths is how kids learn about the world for a good long while, like dogs learning about the world with their noses

Pat

 

[patandchickens]

We watch a lot of the pbs shows in the morning like Sesame Street, Curious George, Cat in the Hat, and Sid the Science Kid.

Sid the Science Kid is great. My kids love it and have learned a lot from it, not just sciencey stuff (even my 3 year old now talks about friction and antibodies and stuff, in a contextually-appropriate and useful way, LOL) but also getting further inspired to ask questions and try to figure things out themselves and think about how the world might work.

And from a parent perspective I think it offers a kind of useful demonstration of encouraging kids' learning while not stepping on the toes of their imagination at the same time.

Not that I'm in favor of lotsa tv time, especially for the youngest kids, but, you know. Selected shows in limited amounts inserted into an otherwise kid-getting-to-enjoy-experiencing-life day I think are at worst harmless and probably sometimes mildly useful in some ways.

Pat

 

[ninny]

Wow thanks for all the ideas! Today i made a fourt out of blankets and chairs and she loved it. She has been very clingy last couple of days. She goes nuts when you shut a door and she can't see you anymore. If you shut the bathroom door even if your not it she starts crying. Werid baby. Try to get her to play by herself again she was doing good with it but now is glued 2 me. We talk to her all the time. I get looks at the store to because i narrtive everything. She loves it though. I try to not let her watch tv at all. But she loves music she dances to everything.