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After discovering you are pregnant, an overwhelming amount of questions pop into your mind. How you will you educate your baby is one of the myriad of questions you will have. Some parents choose to utilize tools such as video tapes and toys to help their babies learn, while others prefer personal interaction. It is important to consider how the human mind develops so you provide your baby an educational experience which is relevant to 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. This is still the best education your baby can get in spite of the fact your baby is still quite a long way away from. 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.
It is impossible to spend all your waking time talking to your baby and entertaining him. 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. It is possible for babies to get bored just like everyone else. You will want to change the appearance of the mobile, or maybe replace it with another mobile, at intervals. The changes can be small or large. For example, of baby's mobile has horses, you can tie bows around their neck one day and bells the next.
When your baby can sit upright for long periods of time without falling over, it's a great time to get 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. How many blocks can be stacked before baby knocks them down. 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.
Baby eduction is quote simple, ultimately. Elaborate 'educational' videotapes are not needed; babies need to develop the basic connection between their senses and their brains.
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