Most experts agree that the first few years of your child’s life are the most important in terms of stimulating their learning. If you are looking for some fun, creative ways to get your baby started with learning, these ideas may help you to get the process going.
Be Chatty and SillyMake funny faces at your baby, tell him jokes, and tickle his toes on a regular basis to stimulate his developing sense of humor. All of these activities will teach your child to anticipate events and how to respond to your silly antics.
Talking to babies is a great way to teach them the art of conversation. Sure, your baby will only respond with a blank stare at first, but if you talk to your baby as though you are having a conversation with him, he will eventually catch on to the nuances of conversation in general. Over time, your baby will realize the different parts of the conversation where he should be speaking and he will start talking back to you.
You should also try singing to your baby (even if you don’t have the greatest singing voice). Research has shown that learning the rhythms of music can help babies to learn math later on.
Vision StimulationStimulating your baby’s vision is a great way to engage your child’s learning abilities before he ever starts going to school. One way to do this is to make eye contact with your baby whenever he opens his eyes. You will not have many opportunities with your infant, but each time you make eye contact with him it helps him to build his memory.
You should also let your baby stare at himself in the mirror. Even if he doesn’t realize that he’s staring at himself, he will still have fun waving his arms around and laughing at his own antics. This type of activity helps to stimulate your baby’s recognition skills, which will help him with other activities throughout school.
Vocabulary BuildingTo lay the foundation for building your baby’s vocabulary, change his scenery from time to time. You can do this by taking him to a park to play and look at the surroundings, or by taking him on a shopping trip to the mall or a grocery store. The sounds, colors, and different faces will all help to stimulate your baby’s learning processes.
It is a very good idea to become actively involved in the teaching process so that you can give your baby a head start on the types of learning he will encounter once he starts going to school. Count everything for him to help him learn about numbers, and choose a different letter of the alphabet every day to focus on to help him learn about letters.
Babies as young as eight months old can start to learn language if you read to them regularly. It is particularly helpful if you read the same story to them two or three times in a row.
Source: Ezine