Ideas For You and Your Baby

You are already helping your baby learn every day! Here some more ideas and tips to enhance your time together.

Talk

Watch your child to see what they find interesting. Respond to where they are looking by describing what they are looking at or what caught their attention.

Respond to what they say to keep the conversation going.

When you go to the grocery store with your baby, talk about the apples you will buy and what you will do with them. Describe the apples using words like “large, round, red, yellow” etc.

Sing

Write

When your child is ready, give your child opportunities to pick up Cheerios or other small cereal. It will help your child’s muscles get ready to later hold a crayon or pencil.
Try finger painting after a bath on a fogged up mirror, in sand or with non-toxic finger paints when your child is ready.

Play

Watch to see what interests your baby and join them. Copy what your baby is doing, then add something new.
Talk about what both of you are doing when you play together. Give your baby new words and ask them simple questions (even if you have to answer for them).

Read

Make story time part of every day.
Read the same story over and over. Your baby will love the repetition. It will help them learn about the sounds and rhythm of the language they’re learning.
Make a trip to the library. Your local library as lots of books to borrow.

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/reading-babies.html

https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/157-literacy-skills-the-roots-of-reading-start-at-birth

More ideas at these sites:

http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/