Building Math sense in your kids

What is math sense and why would you want to build it? Math sense refers to the general understanding of mathematics. Kids who have good number sense see patterns and relationships in numbers easily. Kids who struggle with numbers probably have poor Math sense as well. Is your child stumped over understanding that 2+3 is the same as 3+2? Spending some time just working on building Math sense might just help you!

Math is everywhere: Talk about numbers and their real world contexts. While you might not use your geometry or algebra that your teachers swore you needed, you do use math every day. Recipes, schedules, even decorating your house by hanging pictures in a pattern ALL are mathematical thinking. The more you talk about ideas with your child, the better their number sense will be. The more they see numbers as a natural thing, the more comfortable they will feel working with numbers.

Play: Yes, play with your kids, you can find math games than can help kids understand better some basic equations and not feel afraid of going to the next level or do more difficult problems. t doesn't have to be a formal lesson. . .just allowing your child to play is a good start.

Learning some science

Our society has changed dramatically over the last fifty years, driven by advances in science and technology. Children are getting older younger and adults are staying younger longer. Children’s time is so tightly scheduled with structured activities that there is often no time left to just play! There are so many intrusions on a child’s play life. And yet, play is the way children learn about themselves and the world. It is through play that children learn to get along with others and to sort out conflicts. It is through play that children practice their language skills and develop their small (fine) and large (gross) motor skills. In addition, play encourages independence, self-esteem, creativity, and it gets their energy out! It gives children a much needed “down time” and functions as a stress reliever. One of the concepts that your toddler can learn playing is science, and with this human body cast and paint kit it’s an original way for them to start learning anatomy and have fun either with their friends or with the parents and you can be sure that what they learn through the play is never forgotten.

Keeping the baby active.

The first months of babies are crucial for their correct development, at this age (from 0 to 24 months) is when it’s important to detect any problem that the baby could have, either with the muscles, vision, hearing, etc. and by doing certain activities you can note any problem and take him to the paediatrician for proper treatment on time, a way to know if your baby is developing the sight properly is by having colorful toys around him or her, babies are attracted from toys with the primary colors and with those toys you can do the following exercise:
1. put the baby on his back or sitting if he is big enough and already can sit.
2. put the toy in front of his sight and slowly move the toy from right to left and vice versa, the baby should follow the movement of the toy, if he doesn’t then it’s a sign that maybe you should talk to the paediatrician.
Also having toys with sounds will help you, when you press a horn or a button the baby should stop whatever he is doing and move the head or eyes to the direction of the sound, you can find soft toys that are suitable for babies of any age, that has bright colors and sound, and you can put your baby on the floor or on the bed, or in the crib and do these exercises every day to check his development.

Things your toddler can learn playing

Are you worried about the time that your toddler spend playing? Well, don’t worry that is the way the learn better, here are a few facts that I will share with you, so you can be sure and feel relax the next time that you see your child playing.
Playing with toy trains: playing with toy trains teach him or her basic life lesson, like how to follow road signs like stop and go s well as learning to recognize important buildings like churches, schools, fire stations, among others.
Building blocks and building toys: Playing with building blocks sets help develop a child's mind for logic, structure, math, architecture, and helps a child become process oriented. Playing with building blocks also helps to develop his mind for the slow, tedious, process oriented work, it can also lead to a future in robotics.
Play kitchens: Every preschooler, boys and girls alike, should have access to a play kitchen For safety in play, it would not hurt to have a play kitchen. Some of the things your preschooler can learn in the kitchen are cooperative play (with friends and family), nutrition lessons, and early cooking skills like measuring and mixing ingredients.

For fun and learn

Derek is my 7 years old son, and he is so curious about so many things, but of course, he is in that age that his favorite questions are “why?” and “what is this for?” but is part of the learning process and I’m so happy with him and be able to be with him and live that process with him, he has part of the Alphabet dominated and his teacher told me that he likes to try to spell words and write; he has a small table that it was in first place for him to practice the alphabet since it has several games that teach the alphabet and is themed with the ABC and has figures of animals and the letter, so he could start recognizing some letters; but now it turned out that is the table to do everything, homework, watch TV, etc., but what I’m really amazed is that kids grow so fast, I remember like if it was yesterday when he was born, like my new year’s gift, and now he is adding up, spelling, writing, and thanks to the advices of other moms to try to make every game a learning experience; since he is my first son, I had no idea of what could be good or bad, and 8 years ago it was impossible for me to think that educational toys could be fun, but sometimes I feel afraid that he’s growing really fast.

Bedwetting in toddlers

Bedwetting is an involuntary urination while asleep, urinating on the bed could be uncomfortable and humiliating, specially for older kids, besides that, because of that fear of urinating on the bed some kids avoid sleeping over at friend’s houses or camps, blocking the normal social life development of the child.
Boys has more probabilities of suffering for this problems than girls, and without the proper treatment this can last until puberty.
There could be many reasons why a child urinate on the bed, among them we have:

• Slower development of the nerves that controls the bladder and a bladder with less capacity.
• Also it could be symptom of a serious problem like diabetes or a urinary infection.
• Problems to wake up due to a deep sleep.
• Psychological causes: birth of a new baby, divorce or separation of the parents, a death in the family, physical or sexual abuse.

When the cause is psychological, this is a secondary problem, it means, it happen after the kid was able to stay dry during the night. when this problem is primary, on the contrary, the kid have never been dry for a whole night. Most likely this cause could be due to medical reasons or slower growing or reduced capacity of the bladder.
When is necessary to go to the doctor?
Is the kid drinking an excessive amount of liquids, urinates more than normal during the day or night and also shows other symptoms like fatigue, appetite increase and weight and itching on the genital area? In case that this is affirmative, take the child to the doctor.

The kid has fever, abdominal pain, or burning sensation when urinating? In case that this is affirmative, take him to the doctor.

A nice way to learn to count.

If you have a toddler at home and you want to start the learning of letters and numbers, you should look for toys that can help you, and not do it in a traditional way, toddler’s live to play and by playing the learn in a fast way and whatever they learn playing it’s learned for good, educational toys are the best way to achieve that goal, those toys are fun for the kids, and suitable for each age, with these type of toys you can teach your children many things at home, spend time with them, and keep them busy for many hours, and teaching them things that will be good for them whenever they’re in school, like the alphabet and numbers.
Also kids that are stimulated to learn letters in their early years, tend to start reading with fluency faster and their comprehension levels are higher too since they can read well and understand, so don’t wait until they are at school or day care, start that learning process in the house and the results will be better.

Learning at home

Sometimes we need to start the learning process at home, some psychologist says that the first place where we learn is the house, toddlers imitate what they see in the house, and they learn it and habits are created, that is why we need to show good examples to our kids when they are at home, and whenever he does something that is not correct, we should correct it right away.
Another way to start the learning at home is with games that can promote the developing of some skills, activity toys are good choice here, toys where you kids can grab items, sort objects, hear and touch helps develop the motor skills, also toys with colors, images helps with the vision and eye coordination, and also with the images you can start building the toddler’s vocabulary, and alphabet, and in a way that will be fun for them, so they won’t be bored and they will want to keep with the activities for hours.

Building a city

Toddlers love to play with building blocks, they like to make their own environment in the way that they think it should be, and that’s something good actually, because that is a way that they can develop the imagination and creativity and also motor skills that are so important so they can develop other skills like handwriting, walking or running, that is why is good to choose toys that promote those abilities, building blocks are a good toy that can help in this matter, this one in particular that is a city, will allow them to create their own city, and looks so real because it has images and details of things that you can find in a city and they can have hours of fun building their city, also you can share them in this play, not to build for them, but to encourage them when they build something, you will be a good motivation for the baby to go on.

Your own puppet theatre.

We have talked about the pretend play and the benefits that this type of games gives to your toddler’s creativity and imagination, and the puppets beside being a toy that fit into the pretend play category it also helps to develop motor skills, so, to make that experience even better, you can complete the set with the puppet theatre and you can bring the show to your own house, this one in particular that has a chalkboard, also offer your little one a place where they can draw and leave crayons marks out of your walls, and they can be playing for hours, entertained and developing in a healthy way, also the fact that you can join them in the play, it’s another way to share time with them and strengthen the relationship between you and your kid making those moments unforgettable, it also has a stand that allows you to have the puppets organized in one place, this theatre is perfect for small areas, so you don’t need to worry about if your place is not so big, you can still enjoy the show.

celebrating a baby shower

Your due date is around the corner, so it is time to organize a baby shower, in this way you can have the chance to share moments with your best friends and also receive some gifts for the baby, traditionally baby showers were only attended by women, but with the time that tradition has changed and now you can receive invitation for baby showers with male guests as well, and in that celebration the host do games, baby related to keep her guests entertained, I remember my first baby shower was my sister’s and I had to play “feed the baby” and I was the baby, and they forgot to boil the bottles and the taste was awful, but besides that, the presents are important, that’s the opportunity you have to complete what you need for the baby, a good idea is to go to a store and ask if they’ll let you put a table there with the things that you want, and in your invitations, put the store where they can find this table, in that way you avoid duplicate gifts. Toys are also a good idea, toys that can help develop the skills of the young baby, with bright colors, like for example a set of blocks that will be so good for the baby since it can stimulate the touch and vision of the baby, in this way you will be early stimulating the senses that help to develop motor skills in the future. Toys like this are the gifts that you may want to buy or ask for your newborn.

A space craft in your home

Space craft are so interesting for your kids, you may have heard the kids saying “I want to be an astronaut” the idea of travelling out of the earth and know more places are so exciting for them, now, you know that developing abilities in your kids are important, and there are activities that can help you with that difficult task that as parent you have. Games that help with the coordination of muscles, eyes and also put their brain to work, those are activities that help in the development, when they track the movements of the rollercoaster you make your that the vision is working properly, and having to match colors and beads put their brain to work and in a way that they won’t feel forced or bored, because they are playing, and to play is what the kids like more to do, you can even join them in the play and will be a great way to share important moments of their life.

A pyramid that is not in Egypt

The figure of the pyramid has an attractive power on humans, it is considered one of the world wonders, and some people feel the necessity to know more about the pyramids, however, travelling to see a pyramid could be kind of expensive, but now you can have your own pyramid at home and will help your children to have fun. The pyramid is a great activity center for your kids, no matter what age they are. It has several activities, and all of them more engaging that the other for your kids, it has a rollercoaster and also activities that help with motor, brain and vision skills, skills so important for the right development of your kids, they can be playing with it for hours, you can even play with them, and also it has nice colors and shapes that will be a great decoration for the place where you decide to put it.

Let’s play and learn on a table.

Playing is the way that our kids learn, we should set apart a considerable amount of hours of the day to let them play, also the quality of the toys that we buy for them, is an important factor in that matter, we should try to get educational toys, however, there are other toys that may not look like educational but they are, specially those games that are pretend play games, also an activity table is a great way to help in their development, it must have bright colors to help with the sight, and also items that they can grab or activities in which they have to move their hands, in that way you are developing the motor skills and also is a way of pretend play because they can create situations and imagine that they are at different places, that is a toy that you may want to consider to get for your children, since it is an article that will last for years and will make your kids very happy.

A good way to help with spelling.

Before using this product my 6 years old nephew could only spell a few words and a friend recommended my sister to stimulate him more at home, to play more with him, those moments that you play with your child are like magical in their learning age. The alphabet puzzle set not only helped him recognizing letter, also it helped with the vocabulary, it is great because it does it with the formula of using images with words and letters, and it is a puzzle, so his brain is working too. I feel that is a complete game that if you have kids in ages that they need to start learning to spell or like my case that my nephew wasn’t getting it very well, you must have this product, it is a great investment in your child’s education.

Motor skills

The motor skills are the skills that allow kids to do activities where they need to have coordination and ability to move their bodies like to walk or crawl or jump, those motor skills are called general motor skills, however there are basic motor skills that the baby needs to develop first, those basic are to grab objects, or been able to match items of the same color. An Educational toy that will help you is a toy with cotton reels because beside the bright colors that stimulates the vision, it helps to refine the motor skills by lacing the reels or even you can ask your child to match reels of the same color, also can help you teaching your baby to count, an activity that will keep him entertained for several hours, with you and he will be learning in a very natural way, and will help in the development of these motor skills, so important in their future lives.

Stimulating the baby to walk

Babies will start to give their first steps after the 10th month, and during their first attempts to walk they will support themselves from objects that are around them and that they can reach and then they will release the objects and will go on in longer periods of time each time.

When you see that your baby starts to walk or at least do his or her first attempts, show him your happiness and celebrate each of their advances so, in this way, reinforce his or her conduct and encourage to keep trying.

During this phase is fundamental your help as the parent, for example you can leave the baby standing, grabbing a furniture or something that can give him support and call him from a reasonable distance and each time make that distance farthest and compensate his achievements with word and gestures of support.

Like I said at the beginning, the baby will give his first steps supported on an object, it means on a side, for him to start doing it forward, you can take his hand and make him walk with you. Other options are to put yourself behind or in front, grabbing both of his hands and giving little steps next to the baby.

Don’t forget that before your baby start to walk, is necessary that your baby learn to stand and keep himself straight. Only when the baby is able to walk by himself it is safe to stimulate and exercise his little muscles with toys like walkers always under your supervision and it is important to also keep encouraging him to walk the more that he can and lose the fear of falling that sometimes is an issue when babies are learning to walk, if he falls, applause or make a funny gesture and encourage him to get up and try again.

Is Pinocchio story good or bad?

I’m sure that you have heard the Pinocchio story, the little wooden boy that was fabricated by an old carpenter, but Pinocchio had the bad habit of telling lies and every time that he told a lie, his nose grew more.

Well for many psychologist the Pinocchio story is not good at all, it is true that we need to create good manners in our kids and teach them that telling lies is bad, but Pinocchio story exaggerates, plus it has too much fantasy and could create psychological traumas in a kid with the physical aspect.

There are other methods to use, and overall create conscience in the kid that lying is not good, is not a good manner and usually lies are always discovered and the lie could hurt the feelings of others.

If you read Pinocchio story to your kid, make the remark that the part of the growing nose is all fantasy and explain what other things could happen when you tell lies.

Why my baby should crawl?

It’s very common to hear that some of us didn’t crawl and in a lot of cases it was because the lack of time of our parents, and generally they put us directly in a walker or stroller, causing in later years a lot of motor difficulties that could have been avoided.

Crawling is a process to neurologic level and of coordination that is a great advance for the baby, it prepares the baby for other learning, specially for the reading and writing; it allows to create connections between the brain hemispheres, so, when the baby crawls coordinate the movements in a way that the right arm synchronise with the left foot and the left arm with the right foot, that is possible because the information is passed in a quick way from one hemisphere to the other, as now we know, the right hemisphere controls the left extremities movements of our body and the left hemispheres controls the other side movements. When both hemispheres work in coordination is possible to make simultaneous movements with both sides of the body like for example passing objects from one hand to the other or take notes when we are listening a class.

On the other side when the baby crawls, run on different textures like the floor, the crawl mat, the carpet among others, and that will allow develop the sensibility on the finger and hand, which will benefit to grab the small objects, grab the pencil correctly and start with success the writing process.

Recommendations:

• Put the baby face down (on the floor) since two months old to help to control the head, then, in that position with the time he wont feel fatigued and will start to have strength in the arms and later on the hips.
• Put in front of the baby wooden toys with bright colors, but a little bit far to stimulate them to reach it.
• Also you can put around his chest a towel and you make the exercise of lifting him a little so he stays supported on the four points ( legs and arms). If you do this exercise several times, without fatiguing him, you could be stimulating him to crawl soon.

Our little artists

The children’s imagination has no limits, and developing imagination is good and as a parent we should encourage those abilities on the little ones, have you notice how they can play for hours with other kids and create stories, dialogues, etc. it’s in those moments where their creativity is working.

Another good way to encourage your kid creativity and imagination it’s through painting and drawing, get a easel, there they can draw and paint and not only creativity is working, but also motor skills, by drawing, the movement of the arm and hands release the muscles on that area, and help for the later years when they start to write, and your kids will have a better calligraphy, and it’s something entertaining and they can spend hours painting, it’s important for the children to have a place to draw and paint, like chalkboard and easel because they know that that’s her/his private spot and your walls will be free of drawings and marks.

The Polar Train.

I remember when I was a child during Christmas time it was common to hear the story about the Polar Train, this magic train that was kind of a helper for Santa, and it traveled all over the world during the Christmas season, delivering the toys and happiness to the children.

During Christmas season, stories like the polar train story, are the kind of stories that parents should try to tell their children, and reinforce the Christmas spirit even more, and always trying to teach them that Christmas more than receiving, it’s about giving, it’s a time to share and tell them the reason why Christmas is celebrated, is not only about the presents that Santa is going to bring me, also if you buy a toy for child, buy another one for a kid in shelter or a kid that you know won’t have toys for Christmas and have your child give it to him/her, that is a good way to create the habit of charity that seems to be forgotten nowadays.

Stack, play and learn

For you may be just another toy that the toddler only has to put the rings into it, but that “simple toy” has a lot of benefits for your little one, stacking toys consist of a cone and several different rings with different sizes and colors. The rings can be stacked around the cone according to the size, with the biggest one being at the bottom. stacking toyshas many different play possibilities and can be used at different levels. Basically there are three different skills you can teach with these stacking toys:

Hand-eye coordination: You can start using baby stacking rings as soon as your baby is able to sit upright (usually around 6-7 months). To start with, ask your baby to take the rings off the cone. At this stage, they may not have the hand-eye coordination to put the rings back on, but as they get older (reaching 1 year of age), you can ask them to put the rings back one by one. Because at this age your child does not know the size concept yet, you can give the ring one by one (according to the size) to put back on.

Cognitive skill, color recognition: your child needs repetion before she can understand what the word means. So you need to talk about color although your child is still young. At 2 years When your child reaches two years of age, she may begin to understand the meaning although she may not yet be able to say it. You can test her understanding by: asking her to choose between colors. Show two rings to her and ask her to choose, for instance, the red one, or the blue one, and so forth. Putting all the rings on the table, and ask your child to give you a ring of certain color. Otherwise, you can ask her to put the ring of certain color back on the cone.

Cognitive skill, size recognition: Your child will be ready to learn about size differences using infant stacking rings when she is over two years old or older. Here are the tips on how you can do it:

Introduce the concept by 'accidently' give the wrong size of the ring to your child to put back on the cone. The ring will either not fit the cone (if the ring is too small) or the stack of rings will look weird (if the ring is too big).

Then guide your child to put the rings back to the cone the right way by introducing the concept of big vs small. To start with, show the biggest and the smallest rings since the size difference is obvious.

Once your child appreciates the big vs small concept, then you can go on comparing the two which has less obvious size differences. Continue to compare each ring to the next larger/smaller size and at the same time ask her to put the rings back on the cone.

Children learn through examples

Have you notice when an adult say a word very often at home, kids usually repeat it, even not knowing what it means, when mommy is cooking you can see your little girl wanting to help you and if she cant, then when she is playing most likely she will pretend that she is cooking too, when you need to teach your toddler a chore like combing the hair, button up his shirt or doing the laces of the sneakers there’s no better way than doing it with examples and let them do it themselves, to solve with this chores and other I want to recommend you a book that is really amazing, an educational toy that will help you teaching how to zip, button, snap, tie a shoe, teach the clock and other activities that your toddler must learn, but he will learn playing and will be really easy for him, this an award winner toy, that you can even personalized with your toddler’s name and excellent to travel or those nice trips to the park since it is very easy to carry.

The meaning of Christmas

This month of December, we are being bombed with a lot of advertisement creating or encouraging to buy this or that product and kids are usually an easy target of different kind of stores, but during this celebration of Christmas, there should be a moment that have to take and talk with our kids about the meaning of Christmas, is not only writing a letter to Santa asking for toys if they were good during the year, or buying a big Christmas tree to put their gifts under, we ought to explain also that on Christmas we celebrate the nativity of Jesus Christ that came to this world to save us, and also it’s not only about receiving nice things, it’s also about sharing and giving, like He did for us, that is a good time of the year to share with those that have less than us and time to forgive and be united in family, in that way they can celebrate Christmas like kids but knowing that there’s a meaning, there’s a reason why we do all those nice things for Christmas Eve.

Developing Vocabulary

When you have kids that are learning to speak, maybe they are going to a day care or preschool, there are ways that mom and dad can help to improve vocabulary and also make of reading an easy thing and in a fun way.
Reading to them.
If your toddler its between 12 and 18 months old, one of the best ways for him or her to get familiarized with sounds is by reading, sit them besides you and read them a story or just take a coloring book and point to the object and say the name, for example if what is shown on the page it’s a teddy bear, that’s what you have to say.
Playing
When they are older, maybe 3 to 5 years old, and they only want to play you can find cards games with images and words, some of them are objects others maybe about chores, but they will focus in a game way and will be fun for them.
If you practice this sort of activities with your kids since their early ages it will easy for them to read fluently and acquire more vocabulary

A ride for the doll

The other day Angela that has a 3 years old girl, went out to the park with her and the baby that is only 6 months old, she put the baby in the stroller and her 3 years old wanted to guide the stroller, this would be ok if they were in a safe area with no streets or stairs, but they still were in their apartment, her 3 years old girl then wanted to take the doll with them, but she had to hold the doll all the time and at the end Angela had to guide the stroller and hold the doll; now what is the importance of this situation, children tend to imitate and when they have little brothers or sisters they want to help, which is o.k. but sometimes is better to role play a little, in this case the solution here is to have a doll buggy and they can play with it for hours, developing creativity and imagination that is the biggest benefit of the pretend play in toddlers, and also a way for them to practice before they can help actually with the baby, however in this case, when the girl gets old enough to help, most likely the little baby will be old enough for not to be on a stroller.

When you have too many books and toys and not so much space.

In a household with toddlers and school age kids there is something in common, besides the presence of the kids, of course; is that you may find too many books, toys and other things everywhere except in an organize place, once the children finish playing it’s important to create on them the habit to keep their toys, but how? If they don’t have a place, if you have small place you may want to think on stacking things, those kind of book shelves where you can stack the books, toys and almost any object that is out of place, are convenient for small spaces, and you may find them in bright colors if you need to place it in kids room or even if you want to put it on the living room or another area of your house, it will give a nice touch of happiness and you can create a new and good habit in your kids to keep everything in order.

Kids and their space

Do kids need their own space? That is a very common question and according to pediatric professionals and psychologists says that a private bedroom may help some children develop independent living and autonomous coping skills, parents would be wise to observe their children, talk with their children, and do some informal experimentation to try to address what kind of living circumstances would best match their child’s personality and developmental needs.

A toddler, for example, will not appreciate an older brother’s need to protect the personal nature of some possessions – perhaps a treasured toy or game – that reinforces his sense of who he is and what he likes.

Navigate those waters, though, and children can learn plenty, including “dorm skills” that make the transition to college life easier, says pediatric and family psychologist Peter Goldenthal, author of “Beyond Sibling Rivalry.” Parents should allow children to personalize their part of the room with bulletin boards and posters, and perhaps use decorative curtains, activity tables or portable partitions to create some semblance of privacy.
For some families, the need for a home office is driving the decision. According to a 2005 survey by the American Institute of Architects, nearly half of the 600 architectural firms that were polled said demand for home offices was rising. And where the office goes in, the children often go out.
Kerry Stout’s two boys doubled up in their three-bedroom Long Beach tract house because she wanted a home office. The sharing seemed like it would be easy because Jack, 9, and Luke, 7, have fun together. Too much fun, it turned out.
As you can see even if children have to share a room, it’s important to develop certain skills that will help in the future, to have some privacy or the feeling that certain object belongs only to them and they can share if they want, that will help you raise a better child

Imagination and curiosity

Babies like to imitate, when they are about 18 months they start to imitate conducts, sounds that actually sound like words, girls for example see their mom baking and they want to do the same, or sometimes you can see that a baby boy imitates the gesture of his daddy when watching T.V. and with the pretend play they can develop imagination and also getting toys that looks like the real items, for example with tool box with it the boys will stop looking for daddy’s tools and besides that, since it’s a pretend play you can help to develop baby’s imagination and also encourage your baby to explore new things and another benefit of the pretend play is that if your baby don’t speak very well, he or she will try to imitate sound of the words and help develop speech skills and vocabulary, and of course this kind of games will offer them endless hours of play.

Vision Stimulation

A baby’s vision is stimulated until the 18th month, from 0 to 18 months is very important for parents to take care of it, also by doing activities that stimulates the vision, problems may be noticed early giving parents the chance to consult it with the paediatrician and correct it on time.

How can you stimulate your baby vision? Babies respond to bright colors, primary colors like red, yellow, green and blue, you should try to find baby toys with those colors, also jumping or moving toys is a great way to stimulate vision, you should make sure that when the object is moving, the baby is tracking the object with the eyes, the movement of the object could be complicated and fast, but not as fast that your baby won’t be able to keep track of it.

How you know that? If your baby doesn’t show interest in the toy, is to fast that he can’t capture the fun of it.

Stimulating the vision of your little person could be easy and by doing it at the right time could be the best thing you can do for your baby.

Best baby’s toys for this season

You may be still wondering what to buy for your baby or maybe a gift that you need give, when you buy a toy for a baby quality matters, also the benefit or what this toy will teach or will help to develop in the baby, if it is a safe toy for babies, and of course if the baby will like it. Here are a few suggestions of very good toys for your babies, that meet all the requirements I mentioned above.

Soft books when you need to make long trips either by plane or by car on in the stroller, keeping your baby entertain is one of the most difficult duties you may have, this set of soft books has bright colors to stimulate his vision and a lot of activities to develop brain skills like touch, hand coordination and vocabulary, it’s perfect to travel because of its size and is washable, also it has a handle link to attach it to the car seat or stroller. With this toy your baby will be so pleased and entertained that he won’t even notice that you are travelling.

Activity cube this a great baby shower gift or to your own baby, is an excellent choice because the different activities that it features stimulates eye, touch hearing and hand coordination, it has a mirror for him to start exploring his own face, a cute woolly sheep, a crinkle flower, a dog-in-a-pocket, and definitely is a great value for mom and baby.

Jigsaw puzzle This is a great way to stimulate hand coordination, eye, and motor skills, this jigsaw puzzle contains et of 6 shaped 2 pieces puzzles for very young children, the figures are the farm animals so your baby can start recognizing figures and some vocabulary, it is suitable for baby of 18 months and older, and also is a good way to have them entertained.

This list is really short but I’m sure that this suggestions will please you, not only because of the educational value it has for the babies but also for the mothers since you will be buying a quality product that will help in the development of the baby.

My Favorite Book

It’s a classic Monday night, mommy is finishing washing the dishes and daddy is watching a t.v. show about some handcraft that I really don’t understand, after all I’m only 8 years old; then suddenly my mommy says “ lest go to bed”, when I get in my bed I see that my mom goes right away to that nice bookshelf with bright colors that I like so much because it’s easy for me to reach my books. I tell my mom to please read me my favorite book, I like it so much because it has a language that I can understand the image of the characters look so real and I can imagine immediately been in the jungle and see the Mr. monkey with its looong tail and big eyes and then the kid that can communicate perfectly with the monkey, then I feel like flying, actually I’m, I’m swinging through the trees and I feel so light like a feather, but Oh¡ the kid of the jungle is holding me, but oh oh¡ what’s going on, we’re falling, MOM… Oh¡ thank God it was just a dream, that book made my imagination to make me feel like actually being in the jungle, I can’t wait for tomorrow’s adventure.

Potty training

Potty training it’s an important step into every toddler’s life and for the parent could be really challenging and intimidating, you may follow this steps to help you in that area.

Setting the stage well before you begin toilet training. Few children train themselves. They need to know what's expected of them! They need and deserve your help and guidance. A child who has become familiar with bathroom procedures and equipment is more likely to become trained quickly and easily than one who has not.
• Take your child into the bathroom with you. It's especially helpful if fathers and brothers set the example for boys, and mothers and sisters set the example for girls. Siblings are often pleased to act as role models. If your privacy is important to you, don't forget that there are neighborhood children who would probably be delighted to demonstrate. Today's experience with outside-the-home day-care often lets children "learn" from their peers and often speeds up their learning curve.

• Try to help your child recognize the sensations of "being wet," "wetting now," and "about to be wet." Encourage your child to talk about these sensations -- especially "about to be..." sensations -- without pressing your child to be toilet trained.

Changing a diaper in the bathroom will also associate the process with the place. Children over age 2 should be off the changing table for this reason.
Also teach and make your child to be familiarized with the items he/she can find in the bathroom and putting a potty training chair can also help the toddler to feel more confident and comfortable.

Although much ado has been made about using the proper terminology for body parts and functions, you should use the words that come most easily to you and your child. "Peeing," for example, may be more effective than the term "urinating" if the latter is a forced term. DO use specific terms, though; "going to the bathroom " is too vague. Try not to use words that will make your child think of his or her bodily functions as being dirty or disgusting (for example, "dirty," "stinky," "yucky," etc.).

Talk about the advantages of being trained: no more diaper rash, no more interruptions for diaper changing, the pleasure of being clean and dry. Discuss training as an important stage of growing up.

The learning part of a puzzle

Kids like to play and what make them feel relax and happy is to be playing even by themselves or in company of friends or parents, and as a parent you also want to help in process of learning of your toddler, manipulative toys, toys that open their imagination are those that you can buy them to help in that process, for example, how a puzzle can help in this process? First the puzzle challenge their brain, put their brain to work, however in a way that they don’t really feel the effort, you are helping with the development of motor skills, coordination, vision, among others, and if you have hyperactive toddler that sometimes you would like to rest, this is also a good way to keep them busy for a while and if you help them that experience will be amazing for them, toddlers that play with their parents feel more confident and it helps to stretch the relationship parent-kid, so those are points that you want to consider when buying a toy for your toddler.

Learning the alphabet

If you have a kid that is going to preschool or first grades of elementary, for them to learn the alphabet, may be something tricky, however, remember that playing they can learn, when they are playing they are relax and having fun and most likely kids do remember what they saw or heard when they were playing, this is an effortless way to teach a kid something, they will never say no because they like to play and with the educational toys you can play with them and also share a great time together. Now if you need to start teaching them the the alphabet getting toys that has the letters with bright colors and detailed characters is a great idea, and if they can associate the characters with the letter they will be learning it and develop memory skills, and this school bus is a quality product, soft, so your toddler doesn’t get hurt and a durable toy and easy for you to wash, features that you want to take in consideration when buying a toy for a toddler.

Learning to walk

A baby's first few years are marked by many milestones. But the one you'll probably always remember is when he took his first wobbly steps. Walking is a major developmental leap for babies, and parents are often anxious about when it'll happen. Every baby learns to walk at his own pace, however, so just because your friend's child is already toddling doesn't mean yours should be, too! Read on to find out what signals indicate your child is ready to walk, how you can help, and more.

Most babies take their first steps around their first birthday, but the age range varies from 9 to 18 months. Don't worry if your baby takes a few detours along the way. Some kids never crawl -- they go straight from standing to walking -- and that's perfectly normal. What's important at this stage is that your child is using arms and legs together to become mobile. If your child is doing any of the following, walking is not far behind:
• Rolling around
• Crab walking
• Scooting
• Climbing stairs using his hands

Once your baby can stand, Let her walk in front of you while you hold her hands -- and periodically let go of one hand so she can experiment with balance. Or stand a few feet away from her and cheer her on when she's standing on her own. Offer lots of encouragement and praise.
Once your baby can stand by herslef and cruise or walk it’s important to encourage the baby to walk and exercise her little muscles, for that a push walker or a ride on toy will give hours of joy and will help to build stronger leg muscles in a safety way.

Great things happens when imagination runs wild.

Despite the fact that our world relies heavily on technology, that doesn't mean today's children are losing the ability to use their imaginations. I think it means they are forced to be creative in new and different ways. Some of the greatest theories, inventions and ideas came about because one person dared to imagine.
Just to mention a few examples:

1. Dr. Suess, who was obviously an imaginative child and adult, created vivid characters, catchy rhymes, and inspired generations of children to do one important thing: read! The Cat in the Hat was written specifically for the purpose of encouraging kids to read...and Dr. Seuss was only allowed to use 225 different words to write the book. Not only did he use his own imagination, he inspired children now and far into the future to imagine that Star-bellied Sneeches are no different than regular Sneeches, and that a person's a person, no matter how small.
• Albert Einstein's light theory had humble beginnings. At age 16, Albert started work on this theory by imagining what it would be like to ride alongside a ray of light.
2. • Once people began to understand our moon, they imagined what it would be like to visit the moon. John F. Kennedy's moon speech made the idea of space flight not only possible, but do-able. Pretty soon, what was once only a dream became reality.

There are many things you can do to help with the imagination of your kids, role play games and activity centers, because they are free to use their imagination and they enjoy doing it, besides that the different activities develop other skills like motor skills and colors and word recognition.

Become a main character in the development of your toddler’s imagination and when you buy a toy for him/her choose toys that can help in this important task.

Developing imagination in toddlers

Children today can take part in an endless variety of activities. Imagination helps school-age children solve problems by helping them think through different outcomes to various situations and role playing ways to cope with difficult or new circumstances, Imagination allows children to practice real-life skills. From shopping at a pretend grocery store to assigning roles and dialogue to dolls or puppets, children's pretend play helps them practice and apply new learning and better understand how those skills are used in the real world, Imagination encourages a rich vocabulary. Telling and hearing real or made-up stories, reading books and pretend playhelp children learn and retain new words, Imagination helps children grow up to be adults who are creative thinkers. Adults who were imaginative children often become problem solvers, innovators and creative thinkers.
As you can see, imagination can often be as important as math, science or reading. Despite how it sometimes looks to adults, imaginative and pretend play helps develop many important skills that boost a child's learning and success.

Motor Skill development.

Movement patterns" is the term given to ten basic types of movement the body engages in when participating in physical activity, whether it be walking, climbing trees, skateboarding , pole vaulting or even sitting but manipulating objects with the hands. These movement patterns apply to all levels of motor skill ability regardless of whether the participant is a beginner, intermediate or advanced, recreational or competitive, female or male, younger or older.
Catching, running, climbing, faking, screening, dribbling (with feet, hands, or stick handling), arming and disarming, can stimulate the motor skill development. For example when a child plays at an activity table, the fact that the child is drawing, touching, manipulating objects that can be moved, is a great exercise for their brain as well, an also it helps with the learning part since they can practice recognizing colors, shapes and names.
Movement patterns and performance cues have major implications for teaching physical education:
• They provide a quick assessment tool for determining the starting point for each student -- excellent use of the adaptive dimension!
• They provide a template for selecting and creating activities geared specifically for classes that typically contain students who are working at various levels.
So the next time your child is involved in an activity you can be sure that he is developing and learning.

Math as easy as playing

Mathematics is one of the subjects that parents nowadays struggles more for their children to learn, however there is no need for you to force mathematics, remember that mathematics is a natural thing that we use in our everyday life, and should be teach as that, as something natural, fun and useful.
If you teach your child that mathematics is useful you can create a motivation and if you do it by playing it will be more easy and more natural for the child to learn it.
Educational games can help you with this duty, specially cards game that can be fun, encourage the multiplication skills in a very easy way and almost natural, this child learning game will provide hours of educational play time and it improves the brain skills and since it’s a game that has to be in company of others, you are also developing the social skill or if played in family stretch the boundaries giving you a special time together.

A mobile that can be for fun and useful

A primary objective of your baby's early learning process is to get several senses and skills to work together on one single thing. Typically these are seeing, feeling, tasting, reaching and hearing.
A baby mobile does all of these things… without costing you an arm and a leg.
Perhaps the biggest reason why this mobile so effectively encourages baby development is getting your baby's senses to work together. And at the same time it also teaches what the objects are for and what he can do with them.
The bright colors helps to develop the brain skills and the mobility of the objects helps with the seeing area because it encourage the eye tracking of the objects, with the sound the baby develops more his hearing skills and since babies tend to touch things, by trying to reach the objects hanging you are helping the motor skills of the your baby.
And the baby mobile it’s a great gift idea for baby showers or for your own baby since it’s a toy that can last for many years.

The easiest way to successful baby development

Parents often make the mistake of assuming their baby instinctively develops normally.

And in many cases normal development happens automatically, but unfortunately this is not always the case.

One of the biggest problems is that parents "assume" development is always normal. And all they must do is love and cherish their baby during these first years.

But hardly ever do parents appreciate just how much they can help their child during these first formative years.


What does this mean?

International research has shown that unnecessarily many children under perform at school. And the important part is... most of the learning problems originate from a lack in development experiences during the child's formative years.

Parents must realize that their child can only perform best if *all* learning experiences were given during the first few formative years.

For example, many school children have trouble reading. They find it difficult to recognize the shapes of different letters and words.

These children find it difficult to organize and process the information their eyes see.

One way of helping them is teaching them to do different things with their hands while their eyes watch and learn what their hands are doing. a very good thing you may do is to get an activities toy that stimulates the hearing, eyes and touch coordination

Stated differently… they're learning things they should have learned as babies, but never did. In this case, how to correctly use the information their eyes see.

Parents may therefore be overlooking the importance of ensuring their baby learns the right things at the right time.

What is the easiest way parents can ensure their child develops best?

Here's a two-step process in a nutshell:

Step one, identify the next development experience your baby needs right now.

Children most often have learning and development problems simply because parents don't "know" that the simple, easy-to-do things are really important for complete development.

And since they don't know, their baby is never encouraged to master it.

Step two, make sure your baby gets this learning experience without delay.

Development experiences are most useful when they happen at the right time. Children benefit most when they learn specific skills at certain ages.

Everything in order.

During school season the kid’s room sometimes looks like a disaster zone with toys and books everywhere, keeping everything in order could be something really difficult, most of the times you’re the one that end up cleaning everything. But if you have a girl that has problems keeping her books in order, you may find a bookshelf that will encourage her to keep the books where should be when they’re not using it, sometimes bookshelf can be used to organize toys as well, and since it’s a great decoration for the room, I’m sure she will love to keep everything where it goes, and also it may be used as a doll house, just putting in the doll’s furniture. And also the quality should be an important fact for you, wooden furniture are durable and can offer you years of satisfaction and the child-safe painting is another feature of these furniture for your kid’s room

Handwriting

When it comes the time to start writing it’s a duty that requires dedication, patience and a lot of time, beside the job that teachers can do at school, as a parent we should participate in that process as well, with some kids that job is more difficult because they don’t like to do homework, and when that is your case, you need to get creative, to find a method that will be practical for you and for your kid and in a way that they can find it interesting, usually books with bright and detailed images can help you, books that they can move their hands to start exercising their hand muscles, a handwriting book can help you, because it has different activities, written in such a way that kids will feel curious to start them, to help with the learning process in a fast and easy way and you will be quality time with them, and those are the moments that stay in child’s mind for lifetime.

Bedtime stories for kids

Bedtime stories is one of the most antique tradition in America, there is nothing more relaxing than to hear or read a nice story before going to sleep, when a child reads a book or hear it their imagination can fly, which is also beneficial for their growing and development, but not only when is time to sleep, sometimes those rainy nights or afternoons, you can get hot milk glass or hot chocolate glass and read something nice to your children, nowadays books are not only images and letters, you can find also interactive books or musical books that your toddler will enjoy, they can feel so relaxed hearing the music and seeing the bear moving from one page to another, this particular musical book is made of soft fabric and a nice feature that can be personalized with a nice embroidery to make it more special. If you like to read at night to your kids this book is a must have for you.

The doll house

Every girl dream with one, they can have fun in it, they can talk about “their stuff” with their friends, they feel like a princess in their own castle, it’s a place that is almost sacred for them, plus are very cute and a great piece for the decoration of any house or backyard if it is possible for you to have toys in your backyard, and your daughter, niece, friend, etc… but before buying any doll house, you have to make sure to select one that can offer the quality that your princess deserves, durable, child-safe, make sure it is not painted with toxic paints, a doll house can give endless possibilities to the imagination, it helps developing the creativity and brain motor skills of your little one, kids love to have their own world and in some way feel that they have privacy and they love the pretend plays, they are always pretending to be someone and creating scenes and situations, this wooden doll house is made of quality rubberwood, and will provide a great 3-D experience that your girl will be enchanted; and if you have a boy…what? Well for them there’re other kind of items, like a medieval castle with the royal characters and very detailed design also will be something nice and original for them, they can be for hours playing with it and putting their imagination to work

Keeping the order

Do you have that problem when it’s school time that it’s difficult to have everything in order in your kid’s room? well, to make you feel better you’re not alone, I think that’s the problem of almost a 60% or 65% of the parents worldwide, you can talk to them, you can show them how nice the room is when everything is it’s place but with them none of those strategies works, but remember that kids are motivational almost a 90% of the time, it means that if they see that something is attractive and useful for them they will apply it or use it, what you need is a book shelf but not a regular and simple bookshelf remember that they are motivational, so try to look for something that they can fin useful for them, a bookshelf that is decorative, with a theme that they like and if you’re kid isn’t in scholar age, you may use it a toy storage unit , very original for your kid room and decorative also, and since it’s easy to access they won’t forget where to put their toys when they are done playing.

Reading and Writing

I like to write and read and my mom told me that since I was 1 or 2 years old she was reading to me, newspaper, stories, magazines, everything that could be read she sit next to me and started to read it and she remembered that when she was reading I was there trying to imitate and as a matter of fact I was a good reader at school, now I found some cool magnetic letters very creative and original for your little one, to start awakening that curiosity for the alphabet, in a fun way of course, and this will motivate him to try to form new words, and of course with the parent’s help he can start his vocabulary step by step, each letter board has an associated image and a word at the bottom, with this teaching the alphabet will be something fun and a great way to start developing vocabulary, speech skills and memory skills.

A nice Christmas gift.

Most of us are in a dilemma of what to give children for Christmas, we don’t know if the child is going to like it or not, but is necessary that before going to a store and buy a product that is the last toys of the season, you should consider how that toy is going to help or contribute with the development of a child, sometimes is so difficult since we usually think that educational toys are boring, however educational not necessarily has to be boring, for example, if you get a girl a Cake set is a great idea; Why? Because this product is considered a pretend play. Why? Because the child should create a dialogue or a scenario, she might play by herself or with friends, and the fact that they have to invent a dialogue or a situation helps with the development of brain skills, imagination, creativity and they’re playing, they’re not even aware that through that play they’re developing skills.
So next time you stop by a store consider this point before choosing a toy.