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Basic Baby Education

By David Cummings

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 04Apr2009
Word count: 523
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Baby education is a topic that can be somewhat controversial. Some people park their baby in front of videos allegedly designed to educate the baby, while other moms go so far as to play educational tapes for their bellies before the child is even born! Most of these baby education plans are not only snake oil but may even be detrimental to the baby's development. However, if you keep in mind how human development actually works, you can give your baby education that is appropriate to his or her level of development.

A 2-month-old baby spends most of their time eating or sleeping, and really won't have much interest in rudimentary arithmetic no matter what the people trying to sell you the videos may say. There are things that will engage your baby's interest and help him develop his or her brain and senses, however.

Firstly, young babies love faces. Your mouth moves and makes sounds, your eyes blink, your cheeks can puff out, your head can nod, and shake, and your tongue can move in and out. For baby, this is the best toy ever invented. For you, it is the most affordable educational toy ever invented. The words you speak, their inflection and intonation, all attract the baby's interest as well. In spite of baby being quite a long way from actually learning language, this is still the best education your baby can get at that age. Faces are fundamental to the human social world, and your baby will spend the rest of his or her life trying to interpret facial expressions. Forget all those dopey videos, the best educational entertainment for your baby is to watch your face and watch and hear you speak.

You can't spend every minute of every day talking to your baby and making facial expressions at him or her. Most parents hang a mobile over baby's crib. This kaleidoscope of shapes and colors engages their attention and hones the connections between their eyes and brain. Babies, like anyone else, can get bored. You will want to change the appearance of the mobile, or maybe replace it with another mobile, at intervals. The changes don't have to be massive. For example, of baby's mobile has horses, you can tie bows around their neck one day and bells the next.

Once your baby can sit upright without falling over, you should get your baby a set of blocks. These blocks have to be small enough that your baby can hold them but big enough that they won't try to swallow them. A good game to play with baby is "stack and tumble." You stack the blocks, and your baby is charged with the task of knocking the blocks over. See how many blocks you can stack before baby knocks them over. This may seem rather pointless to you, but baby is learning something absolutely fundamental: cause and effect. This simple experiment says to baby: when I do something, it causes something to happen.

Ultimately, baby education is simple. They don't need elaborate 'educational' videotapes; babies need to develop the basic connection between their senses and their brains.

David Cummings is a devoted parent and author on family topics. He is dedicated to helping parents improve family time together and to ensuring a brighter future for all children via contributions to children organizations. David is the General Manager for Bustling Baby, LLC - a company that knows the hectic parenting lifestyle and offers products to make life with baby easier, such as quality convertible car seats

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