Make your baby his very own book.

 

• cardboard
• pictures from catalogs or magazines
• glue
• markers
• clear contact paper

• supports language development

Try a different kind of finger painting.

 

• shaving cream
• newspaper
• powdered tempera paint or watercolor (optional)
• washable surface such as plastic table or high chair tray

Seat your child at a table (or in her high chair) and spread newspaper on the floor — this is messy! You might want to have your child wear old clothes or only a diaper. Squirt shaving cream on the table and encourage your child to touch it. While many children are eager to start playing, some toddlers are reluctant to touch unfamiliar textures or things that look too messy.  As your child spreads around the shaving cream, talk about what she is doing. Can you draw any shapes? Are there big swirls? Little dots? How does the shaving cream feel?   If you have some, sprinkle powdered tempera paint or watercolor onto the shaving cream. Observe with your child how the color gets spreads through the white shaving cream. If you use more than one color, watch how they mix together.  Finally, ask your child to help you use a damp washcloth or paper towels to clean up.

• develops motor skills
• provides sensory stimulation
• supports vocabulary development
• encourages observation

 

A new way to teach “hot” and “cold.”

 
• several smooth stones
• old crayons
• ice cubes
• newspaper
• box

Take your child outside and find a few rocks. Point out their various shapes and sizes. Help your child select 7 or 8 smooth rocks about the size of your fist and bring them into the house. Set aside three of the rocks. Put the remainder on a cookie sheet and heat at 250 degrees for about 10 minutes. The rocks should be noticeably warm, but not hot enough to burn your child. Spread newspaper on the floor or on a table and place the heated rocks on top. Discuss why the rocks feel warm as your child touches them. Select one warm rock and let your child rub an ice cube over it. Talk about what happens as the ice melts. Ask your child to tell you where the water is coming from. Rub an ice cube over an unheated rock and observe what happens. Discuss the differences between the rocks with your child. Choose another warm rock and ask your child to scribble on it with some old crayons. Your child will enjoy watching the crayons drip onto the paper as she draws. Look at the crayon drippings on the paper and talk about the shapes they make. Point out how new colors are created when several crayons melt together. Then your child can draw on an unheated rock and see how the crayon remains solid. Place several rocks in a box. Have your child reach in and identify the heated ones just by touching them.

• builds observation skills
• teaches science concept of changing states of matter 
• builds awareness of cause and effect

Do you always have to use a brush to make great paintings?

• construction paper
• tempera paints
• clean plastic-foam vegetable or fruit trays
• child’s paintbrush
• assorted items: pine needles, feathers, twists of paper towels, yarn, plastic flowers, pipe cleaners, and so on

Have your child put on a smock. Cover the table with newspaper. Pour some tempera paint on the plastic-foam trays. Set out construction paper and a brush. Encourage your preschooler to use the paintbrush to paint on the paper. Talk about the brush strokes. Are they wide? thin? drippy? big lines? huge circles? Offer items chosen from the assortment listed above. Ask your child to demonstrate how he thinks he could use these items to paint instead of using a brush. Do they paint as well as the brush? Brainstorm other items from indoors or outdoors to use for brushless paintings. Test them out. Discuss how they work. Which ones were most fun to use? Why? When the paintings have dried, play a guessing game. See if you can match the paint marks to the tools with which they were painted.

• creative thinking
• matching skills
• fine-motor skills
• learning about how tools function

 

Take a big bite of math, science, language arts, and more on your next trip to the grocery store.

 

Add it up. Take a look at your shopping list. As you place items in your cart, ask your child to add up the prices to see how much of the list you can purchase with $20 (or another amount). See if he can find the combination of products that gets closest to the set amount.

 

 

Estimate weight. Challenge your child to pick out the number of apples she thinks will make up a pound without going over. Use the scale in the produce section to check her guess.

 

 

Find out if size matters. When picking out cereal, ask your child to compare the price of a smaller box to the larger, “economy size” version. See if he can calculate how much you’d save with the bigger size.

 

 

Analyze savings. Introduce percentages. For example, if a certain brand of cookies is 25% off, and a box of those cookies costs $3.99, how much will the cookies cost after the discount?

 

 

Where do they go? Explain why there are different sections in the store: frozen, refrigerated, and pantry. Tell your child to take note of where the food in your cart came from, and see if she can put it in the appropriate place when you unpack at home.

 

 

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Take note of the packaging your food comes in. Discuss how recycling plastic and paper helps the environment. Together, look for labels that indicate a recyclable container.

 

 

Who can find it first? Hold a scavenger hunt by asking your child to find all the products you will need to bake a cake (or casserole or other favorite recipe). This helps him learn what goes into his favorite food — and where he can find it in the store.

 

 

 

Read the aisles. As you stroll around the market, have your beginning reader decipher the identifying signs on the aisles. Ask a question like, “We’re looking for cucumbers now. Does that sign say we’re in the vegetable section?”

 

 

Make a cultural connection. Match cuisine with its country of origin, from Italian pastas to cheeses from France. Identifying a food with a country allows her to become more aware of how people around the world eat — which is a great starting point to pique interest in another culture.

 

 

Learn the food pyramid. Look at the food in your cart and ask him to match certain products with their home on the food pyramid. Encourage him to take interest in nutrition values and how your purchases add up to a balanced meal.

 

Babies learn by listening – here’s what to say. No textbooks required!

 

Most likely, you are teaching your baby language without even knowing it, just by talking to her and responding to the sounds she makes. Taking turns is a cardinal feature of language. When your baby coos or gurgles, be sure to listen. Then respond. Even playing peekaboo games is now considered by language scientists to be a way parents teach some fundamentals of communication.

 

Some infants are obviously enchanted with speech early on. They delight in spoken language as well as the diverse uses of language, such as in songs, rhymes, and games. Others may appear to have less initial interest in language, especially in becoming adept speakers themselves. This may be due to a greater temporary focus on other aspects of their world and development.

 

One Step at a Time
Children sometimes learn words, but then stop using them or even seem to forget them. This often coincides with mastery of a new skill in another area that captures the baby’s attention. For example, a child who has just learned a new motor skill may babble or talk less while he practices that new skill.

 

Conversely, new words may cause an active walker to slow down or stay seated while he practices new words or phrases. We don’t know the reason for this developmental fickleness. But it’s common, generally transitory, and often charming. As an attentive parent, you will have continuing cause to marvel as your child masters one new skill after another. Don’t worry about temporary pauses or “backward steps” in development.

 

Should You Teach?
As a parent, should you actively help shape your child’s language development? The answer is yes and no.

 

Yes, because when your baby shows she’s ready, she’ll enjoy being taught in appropriate ways. If talking, songs, rhymes, and word games are relaxed and enjoyable, your child will want to learn more because she’s having fun and she’s playing with you.

 

No, because there is no evidence that structured teaching is the best way to have children learn language. And focusing too much on one aspect of development may have negative consequences for other areas of development.

 

Remember, you’re a natural teacher. Share what you know, instead of following a prescribed lesson.

For both you and your toddler, better communication means smoother sailing.

 

Once your toddler starts to use even a little language, everyone benefits. There is more accurate and pleasurable communication between the two of you, for one. More important, though is the feeling of mastery and control your child begins to have over his own impulsive life.

 

How It Works
At 21 months, Genny started saying “bye-bye?” with an upturned tone as she saw her parents preparing to leave for work. Before this skill, her face wrinkled up into a scowl just before tears melted her eyes; she ended the sequence with a piercing wail.

Now, with her words, she takes her parents’ departure more peacefully. Her questioning statement begs an answer and she usually gets one. Before speech, it was mostly guesswork about what she was thinking or feeling. Now, it’s as though she has become the boss of separations and departures – not her parents.

 

Impulse Control
Another place a child’s language is a huge help to parents is in helping children check some of their own impulses.

 

George loves to watch the wood-burning stove and listen to the crackling bark inside. The first time he said the word “hotuh!” was the morning after his father had stopped him on the way to touch the stove with an emphatic “Don’t touch, George! Hot!”

 

For three weeks after he had said his first “hotuh,” George played this game: in the mornings, when the stove was cool, he would reach out his hand walk toward it, sometimes looking to see who was watching. Then he’d say “hotuh!” and stop about two feet from the stove. He was controlling the frightening burning stove and his impulse to explore it. He learned how to do it, and he said the right word in the right way at the right time for it all to come together. George is using words – both their meaning and the act of speaking them – as a tool to control his behavior. He uses his words and his repeated approaches to the stove to drill home his father’s message that he must not touch. And he succeeds in stopping himself. This is how words are central to judgment and inhibiting behavior.

 

Understanding the World

Such rich processes are how children increasingly use language to make sense of their world and their experiences. Just think of all the social, cognitive, emotional, and cultural factors that went into George’s first “hotuh!” Never again is so large a portion of the brain’s resources devoted to the accumulation of language.

Schools may not offer your child an art program, but there are many ways you can build art interest and appreciation at home:

Talk about art. Your enthusiasm will be contagious, whether you’re discussing a painting at a local museum or a family quilt you are making. Tour your town’s architecture, too, comparing structures and decorations.

Make art supplies available. Offering your child an array of materials — including paints, scraps of fabric, clay, and natural materials — and a comfortable space to work in will stimulate his interest and teach him that art is important.

Encourage creativity. Prompt your child to color “outside the lines.” Be accepting and enthusiastic about her work, asking her questions and pointing out unique details.

Stimulate interest. Visit local museums and cultural centers. Enroll your child in a youth art program and attend art fairs together. Before your visit, discuss what you’re about to see. Find things that relate to something he already likes, such as paintings or sculptures of favorite animals, foods, or hobbies.

Support art education in your community. If art is not a part of the school curriculum, discuss implementing a program, perhaps even after-school, or suggest field-trips, participation in national art programs, or opportunities to display children’s art throughout the community.