How can I help my baby crawling

Learning to crawl is a key milestone in your baby's life.

Your baby will have already learnt to sit without support and roll; crawling is the next step. If you look at most formal developmental milestone and learning scales, you may find that crawling is left off of them. This is due to the wide range of times and methods babies may use to learn to crawl.

At about six to eight months most babies will learn to balance on their hands and knees. Babies work out how to move forwards and backwards from this position by pushing off with the knees. However some children never crawl because they get comfortable with some other method of locomotion. Instead they bottom shuffle, slither on their tummies or go straight to walking. It does not matter how your baby gets around, it is getting mobile that is important.

Crawling is your baby's first way of getting around by himself, it strengthens the muscles in preparation for walking, ensuring arm, leg, and back muscles are strong enough to keep him from falling on the floor.

However if you notice that your baby is not crawling, you really don’t need to worry about it so much, because remember every child is different, some of them will crawl before the 9th month, some after, some will skip that step and will start walking, however when that happens at some point they will crawl.

There’s nothing you can really do to make your baby crawl, but there’re some exercises you can do encourage and help the baby to crawl.

Putting your baby on the floor, face down, once the baby is able to keep his head up or sit, is an exercise you can do, also you can put yourself in front of the baby with some toys that he or she likes and encourage the baby to move forward.

It’s only a matter of time and patience, but is not the big deal, since learning to crawl or problems with crawling is not listed on the doctor’s chart as a problem in the development.

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.