As the founder of Teach My Baby, I was thrilled to come across this article last week; ‘Read To Your Babies, It’s Never Too Soon’  The first line of the article, written by Patty Machelor for the Arizona Daily Star, caught my eye immediately:

Read, read, read to those babies.

According to Machelor, that is the advice of Dr. Michael Cohen, a retired Tucson pediatrician and clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine. Dr. Cohen believes that  reading to children early in life achieves many important goals. The most important goal is to verbally stimulate the brain at a very important time in brain development. By reading and talking to the baby, long-term language and speech development will be enhanced and ultimately allow the child to be better prepared when school starts.

Dr. Cohen is linked to a program called Reach Out and Read. It is a medically-based preschool literacy and language stimulation program. The premise of the program is that reading and language stimulation, starting as early as 6 months, will enhance a child’s language development, create a home environment where reading becomes an enjoyable focus for the entire family and cultivate parent-child relationship in the long term.

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Requiring no batteries, DVDs or TV, Teach My Baby encourages parent-child bonding and reading! No thinking required for tired moms and dads, the award winning Teach My Baby kit has everything necessary for fun, educational play!  The kit is divided into 4 sections; First Words, First Numbers, Self and Sound & Touch. The teaching tools are modern, multicultural and they encourage natural repetition. The kit includes board books, nesting blocks, finger puppets, touch & feel flashcards, mirrored flashcards, a storyboard, one & two piece puzzles, all in a portable and storable carrying kit.

MSRP $49.99 Age 6-18 Months

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Playing with puzzles can help teach your toddler math skills! According to researchers at the University of Chicago, playing with puzzles develops spatial skills that could improve children’s math abilities. The research discovered that 2-4 year olds, who play with puzzles are more likely to improve their spatial reasoning skills. Spatial reasoning skills, the ability to mentally rotate shapes, are essential in subjects such as math, science, and engineering.

Psychologist Susan Levine, a leading expert on mathematics development in young children said, ”The children who played with puzzles performed better than those who did not, on tasks that assessed their ability to rotate and translate shapes.”

Puzzles are a key learning component in Teach My, award winning kits. Teach My Baby, Teach My Toddler and The Solar System by Teach My all contain puzzles. The puzzles in Teach My kits aim to teach first words, alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors and the solar system. Now, thanks to great research, we know the puzzles in Teach My kits provide the added bonus of improving general math skills!

Are you looking for a smart baby shower gift? Think Teach My Baby, the award winning learning kit for babies 6-18 months. Most babies are born in June, July and August, so friends and family gear up for baby shower season in the Spring. Many will go in search of ‘smart’ baby shower gifts. With good reason, according to the National Association of Child Care Resource, research suggests the right kind of experiences in a baby’s early years can actually help their brains to grow! Therefore, giving the gift of learning as a baby shower gift is wonderful and something baby can enjoy now and benefit from years later.

Requiring no batteries, DVDs or TV, Teach My Baby truly encourages one-on-one time and bonding! No thinking required for tired moms and dads, the award winning Teach My Baby kit has everything necessary for fun, educational play!  The kit is divided into 4 sections; First Words, First Numbers, Self and Sound & Touch. Each section contains coordinated teaching tools that encourage natural repetition. The teaching tools are modern and multicultural.  The kit has an assortment of everything educational and fun; nesting blocks, finger puppets, books, touch & feel flashcards, mirrored flashcards, a storyboard, one & two piece puzzles, all in a portable and storable carrying kit.

MSRP $49.99 Age 6-18 Months

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5 simple to tips to teach your toddler the alphabet. Repetition is the key to success! Try to constantly reinforce the alphabet letters throughout your toddler’s day by incorporating these 5 easy tips:

1. Books – Bookstores and libraries are full of alphabet books. Introducing different alphabet books will increase your toddler’s interest, add variety and get your toddler used to seeing alphabet letters in different styles. Apart from the Teach My Toddler Alphabet book, I love the book Eating The Alphabet by Lois Ehlert

2. Arts & Crafts – Cut out bubble letters from construction paper and together, draw items on each letter that begin with that letter. Finger paint alphabet letters or cut out alphabet letters from old magazines and glue them on paper in the correct order. Try any craft that encourages learning letters, the options are endless!

3. Singing – The alphabet song is the easiest way to reinforce alphabet letters and their sequence. You can sing it in the car, in the grocery store check-out line or in the doctor’s office! ABC’s on the go!

4. Bath Time – Use the foam alphabet puzzle pieces from the Teach My Toddler learning kit in the bath. The letters stick to the side of the tub and will keep your toddler distracted during hair washing!  Encourage your toddler to stick the letters in the correct order.

5. Games – Lay the Teach My Toddler Alphabet flashcards (or make your own) letter-side up, randomly on the floor. Start with letter A and have your toddler find each letter in sequence. Alternatively, turn the flashcards picture-side up and have your toddler begin with A for alligator and find the picture that starts with B, C, D and so on.

By including these simple activities in your toddler’s day, alphabet letters and their sequence will become second nature!

 Teach My Toddler The Alphabet introduces toddlers to the 26 letters of the alphabet in a fun and educational way. Just 20 minutes a day with the award winning Teach My Toddler tools and your toddler can master uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet. Use the coordinated book, poster, puzzles and flashcards together to encourage repetition and interaction. The set has everything you need to give your toddler’s literacy skills a head start!